I just got a phone call from my credit card company asking it I was aware of thousands of dollars of charges on my card from offshore internet gambling and porn websites. And this is just the reason why I never EVER use my credit card on the web, so no disreputable company gets ahold of it and cleans me out. And now that’s just what they did.
God DAMN fucking scammers! I just spent months agressively paying down this credit card, and just now when I’m considering a major computer purchase, I’m cleaned out. Now I’ll be living off meager cash reserves until this gets straightened out. Shit! And I know where they got my card, someone stole my number at the one place I used my credit card on a recent trip to Chicago.
This hideously sucks. I spent years working to improve my credit rating and now it’s all wrecked by some scumbag porn and gambling syndicate. Well, it just goes to prove the one advantage of being broke, you’ve got nothing to steal. For once I get a little ahead, and someone steals it.
You should only be responsible for $50 of it. And since it was done on the net, they should be able to trace who did it.
Ya’ just can’t trust any of those bastards in Chicago. Thieves, all of them.
The OP specifically said it wasn’t done on the net.
There’re two possibilities and thus two solutions:
- P: Someone at the place of business he patronized in Chicago copied the card number or even used one of those “hand swipe” scamming machines.
S: Contact the police department there and let them know that you suspect this is what happened and that you are more than willing to describe the individual, in detail, to whom you handed your credit card.
- P: You get your credit card statement in the mail and when you’re done with it, you just chuck it out with the trash thereby allowing dumpsterdivers to take the number and run up charges.
S: If you’re going to chuck your personal papers in the garbage: shred shreD shrED shRED sHRED SHRED!!!
Visa/Mastercard Fraud Analyst Hat on
First, V/M policy states in cases of online fraud, the customer is NOT liable for a cent during the investigation.
Second, the ‘investigation’ consists of getting the money back from the merchants. My bank, I can’t speak for all of them, does NOT go after the perps. We don’t have the resources. I wish we did BUT…
Fraud Analyst hat off
Well, just to clarify, I think they got my number when I bought something with a credit card at a bookstore, it was the only time I’d used my card in a month. I barely ever use my card, maybe once a month. Then suddenly charges start coming in from “firepay.com” which the credit card co says is an offshore gambling web operator. The card co says that thousands of bucks of sudden activity from sketchy web companies doesn’t fit my profile. Well of course not. So the card co called me and told me they’d send an affadavit for me to sign that I didn’t make these charges, they’d issue me a “temporary chargeback” (I don’t like the sound of that) until the case was investigated and a “final outcome” was determined. I would suspect that since the charges were suspicious enough to flag the internal fraud review at the card company, that the case is obviously enough fraudulent and I won’t get stuck with any charges. But still, if they’re investigating, it must be possible for them to decide to stick me with the charges in the end. That would suck.
So, what exactly was your card used for? Were they using the money on your card to bet with, or something?
I would think that any investigation they do will go under their CYA policy. (Cover Your Ass) It would seem that your past credit habits would tell them that these are unusual and excessive charges, hence you didn’t make them. But they have to look into it before they release you from responsibility so their asses don’t end up in a sling.
Recently my brother and sister-in-law had some trumped up charges on their sattelite TV bill–a bunch of porno movies back to back on Pay-Per-View. An investigation proved that there was no phone line hooked up to the receiver and that the couple wasn’t home at the time the charges were allegedly incurred, so they didn’t have to pay. So maybe things will turn out in your favor after all. 
Even if the card company does say you owe the money, is that the end? Do you have any further recourse through the courts?
About 6 months ago, I started a thread in MPSIMS about my phone conversation with a “sweepstakes outfit” in Florida that I believe was trolling for credit card numbers. Since then, I’ve received a few more “call this number to see if you’ve won!” letters in the mail from either the same company, or a related one. Whenever I see anything that looks like it’s from one of these trolls, it goes into the shredder right after I make sure it’s not something important. If I had really won anything, the first company already has my phone number and could call.