A few days ago my bank pinged their app on my phone about a suspected fraudulent transaction. Sure enough there was a pending transaction from a petrol station in Houston Texas for … 8 cents. I’ve never been there in my life.
I told the bank to not do anything about it, as the inconvenience of having my CC replaced, with a new number I’d have to change in numerous places, wasn’t worth the 8c. But a few minutes later another one came through from the same place, for 5c. I’m now thinking they are doing some kind of trial run on my CC, and the third one will be big and painful, so told the bank to go ahead and can the CC account, and I challenged the 2 transactions.
The results of that just came through; those pending changes never actually completed so I wasn’t charged as such, so not really in danger anyway, I think! But perhaps if the card hadn’t been shut down at that point, it may have gone further.
Assuming this was an attempted scam or fraud, how was it going to go? I guess for those little amounts they didn’t need to give a signature, PIN or CVV number; but surely if they’d tried a larger amount next they would have been required … not that my signature is known there!
When I had a fraud on my CC (admittedly a fair bit more than $0.08) my bank called me and I was not given a choice. CC cancelled, new one sent, change all passwords while on the phone with them.
It is a good bank though and I got the new CC a day or two later.
Definitely a hassle but I had no choice. My sense was this was a default process no matter the amount. Probably a good thing even if a pain to go through.
Maybe they were establishing a transaction history in the area. Too small to raise a red flag but enough for the bank’s anti-fraud systems to think, “Oh, @Askance is clearly in the area so approve future charges.”
Just guessing.
I do not know how this all works but, when I went to Italy last summer, I called my bank to let them know so I could make charges and not be denied. They told me not to worry about it. Somehow, they sussed out that I was really there and the charges were legit. No idea how they knew that.
When we go to the Caribbean, we no longer alert the credit card companies, as they’ve said it’s not required. I guess they know I used the card for airline tickets, so they know we are there.
One year though I had a “possible fraudulent transaction” when I used a card to pay for my checked bag. I paid with cash, but always wondered why, after using the card for two weeks, checking a bag for my return flight was a red flag.
Our credit union lets us sign up to have our VISA monitored and it’s great! I have it set to tell me of any charge over $20 or any charge where the card is not presented. After having our cards compromised 3 times in as many years, this is a life-saver. I’m notified the moment a charge is attempted and I can call and contest it immediately if necessary.
It’s also a double-check when I get an email from “pay pal” thanking me for my purchase of some ridiculously high amount and kindly providing a number if I didn’t make the charge. Take that, scammers!!!
Is tap-to-pay more secure than swiping or reading the chip?
That’s exactly what was going on. They were testing that the card was still good, and also testing how aggressive the card issuer (your bank) and card owner (you) are about sniffing out fraudulent transactions. Had your bank and you done nothing, the next hit would have been big.
Which of course would cost you nothing (other than aggravation), but cost your bank a lot. So I am very surprised your bank gave you any choice about closing out the card once you told them the first transaction was not approved you.
I love my credit union, but I had to abandon the credit card company they were outsourcing their CC services to. Of course they never gave me any choice about canceling the card when there was a fraudulent transaction, but it took 7-10 working days to get the new card. This happened twice. Then they started refusing apparently random transactions in my home town that I was trying to do myself. They would, of course, never discuss why they stopped any particular transaction, but I got tired of the embarrassment and side-eye, along with the inconvenience and lack of security of using my only other card, my debit card. So I went and got a card from a commercial bank, and haven’t had any problem since.
I have never ever had a bank give me any choice once I said that a transaction on my card was not mine. They always cancel the card and send a new card with a new account number. I expect this, but it really is a big help when they can expedite the card delivery.
I did, but it was a long time ago. The bank checked out the transaction, was unable to find evidence that it was legit, and just reversed it without canceling the card. I never had any further problems. A different card with a different bank was cancelled and replaced when I disputed a transaction and they said it was always their policy. For VISA, I understand that banks buy batches of card numbers from VISA Corporation, and they’re not cheap. I guess they still find it cheaper to use them up than to be on the hook for fraud.
Just a nitpick, it would have cost the merchant that accepted the card a lot. The bank would simply refuse to pay out anything.
Swiping is the least secure, because the swipe is just a an easy way for a machine to read the card number. Reading the chip and tapping both involve cryptographic exchanges that are supposed to be secure. Any cryptographic system can have flaws in design or implementation, but swiping doesn’t even have any security to be flawed, it’s the computer equivalent of just letting someone read the number from the front of the card, which is why skimming works.
Because it is possible to skim the mag stripe even on a chip reader, I’d say tapping is generally more secure. When tapping works, it’s faster, too. The big drawback is that tapping still doesn’t always work.
FWIW I tried to reverse charges on a purchase for the second time in my life a few months ago (first time was 30 years ago). I am a very long time customer of my bank and in very good standing with them.
They wanted me to jump through loads and loads of hoops and the process would take literal months and there was absolutely nothing easy about it. I remember the first time I did it 30 years ago being a lot easier.
I’ve had it go both ways. Clearly fraudulent chargers were immediately reversed with no effort beyond reporting. Fraudulent chargers were reversed but I had to to sign some sort of police report. Non-fraudulent charges where the merchant did not uphold their side of the sale reversed with little effort on my part, and similar merchant problems where the bank threatened lots of hoop jumping, but then turned out not to be that bad.
The last case I was told things about “if the merchant can document the sale, then we’ll side with them,” and “are you sure you want to do this, it will have to go to the dispute resolution team?” I mean, what do I care what their internal process is? Anyway, for that one, after a few months I got a letter saying it was resolved in my favor.
Gas stations are a bit unique. They want to authorize your card to make sure it’s valid when you put it in the machine but don’t know how much you’re getting. Are you filling up the large tanks(s) in your pick’emup twuck or do you only need enough to get you over the bridge to fill up in Cheapgasastan (seriously, up to 50¢ / gal cheaper)? I’ve also heard of stories (but no cite) of people getting a stolen card & keeping the pump open for their buddies - I fill up my car, don’t hang up the nozzle but pull out & have you pull in behind me so now multiple cars are filling up on one authorization.
Therefore, they typicallyauthorize $1 which lets them know it’s a valid card. If you only have $1.10 in your acct & put $50 in your tank, well, they lose out but don’t get burned too badly. Restaurants do something similar, since when they run your card, they don’t know what the final charge will be because they don’t know how much you’re going to tip; is it going to be $0 (tip in cash), 1¢ (truly awful service) or a more normal 18%, 20%, or 25% so they don’t know the exact amount when they run your card.
Depending upon your bank, you may never see authorizations & those charges could be an amount other than the typical $1 or it could be a scammer probing to see if it’s a valid card &, as someone said, to establish a history. Though, if I was a scammer, I’d at least fill up my tank rather than get a literal drop in the bucket because if the card gets shutdown after my first txn at least I got a tankful of gas before being declined for that big screen TV.
To be fair, my bank caught fraud on my card and (as mentioned above) they forced me to change everything about my account (login ID, password, secret words…I forget all of it) and they cancelled my card but got me a new one in two days. The charges were immediately stricken from my account. Superb service really.
But, when it was me alleging the merchant didn’t deserve their money it was a whole other world of hassle. Shit service.
It worked better in the days when we actually spoke to customer service rather than doing everything online but some comedian put all of his answers as either “I can’t tell you that” or “Fuck you”. It was like a variant of Abbott & Costello’s Who’s on First
CSR: Sir, for security purposes, what’s your mother’s maiden name caller I can’t tell you that CSR But sir, I need that info to validate your account caller I can’t tell you that CSR Okay, let’s try what was the name of your elementary school in first grade caller Fuck you
At work I had someone dispute a charge. I was shocked/surprised because everything was flawless about the transaction.
I called the client and she was very apologetic. She explained that her husband would be upset about the charge. I told her I was going to send the bill to a collection agency. She begged me not to do that, as her husband could get violent.
I told her that wasn’t my problem. She showed up with cash later that day.
I’m not sure what you mean. When I use my card at the pump, it always asks the maximum I’m going to spend and that’s the maximum for that transaction. The gas attendant knows what the max will be as well.
Really? Is that in Canada? Maybe it’s different there; I have never had that happen at a US gas station. You don’t have to tell the pump how much you plan to spend. You just scan your card, pump your gas, and it charges you.
I’m in Canada also, and you might have misunderstood. The pump asks about the maximum amount you wish to spend, then it checks your credit/funds and authorizes up to the amount you specify. If you don’t spend that amount, you don’t pay that amount. And if you don’t have enough credit/funds in your account, you might not get authorization, though you might for a lower amount.
Example: I have an absurdly large tank. I’ll typically authorize up to $150, but I’ve never spent that much on a fill-up. I have hit $135, but I’ve also hit as little as $97 or $88. Either way, despite authorizing $150, I only pay for what I pump. The authorization makes sure that the gas station will get paid for what I pump, and won’t run into problems later if my credit card is maxed, or if I don’t have enough funds available in my account.
