Sticky situation.

March 21, 2007 9:11 AM

I made a credit card purchase and subsequently realized it was to a scam site.

The charges in question were for an item that, upon closer inspection, is not what I thought I would be getting. I freaked out and called up my credit card company, telling them my card was stolen. Now they want me to fill out a criminal report. What is my best course of action?

posted by anonymous to work & money (21 comments total)

Why would you lie? Just ask them to issue a charge back.
posted by chiababe at 9:18 AM on March 21, 2007 [1 favorite]

You probably know this, but calling and saying your card was stolen was stupid.

You could probably have called them and told them you were tricked/scammed into authorizing a transaction and asked them to revoke it, and they might have done this. Now, however, you might be fucked.
posted by beerbajay at 9:19 AM on March 21, 2007

I imagine the OP purchased something that was of either highly embarrassing and/or "adult" nature.

If you told the company that the charge was fradulent, you're going to have to eat crow and "remember" that you made that purchase. You don't have to say that the card wasn't stolen, but you can't lie and say the charge was fradulent - or any other of the charges for that matter. You need to own up to the costs, and have them issue you a new number.

If you follow that course of action, you won't have any problems and - honestly - won't have embarrassed yourself to anyone except some call-center reps who couldn't give two shits about the situation anyway.
posted by plaidrabbit at 9:24 AM on March 21, 2007

Call your credit card company back and politely explain to them that your card wasn't stolen, but that you fell for a scam and would like a new card. They'll probably be glad too, and it's not illegal, like filing a fake police report would be.
posted by drezdn at 9:25 AM on March 21, 2007

Call them right away and tell them that you made a mistake, that the card wasn't stolen, that you have it in your hot little hands. If you MUST cover the lie you told, you can say that your wallet got stolen and you thought your card was in your wallet, whew, turns out it's not.

As for correcting the fact that you were suckered, I'm sure that others will have good advice; if it involves your credit card company I'd wait a few days to take care of it though, so that the stolen-card story isn't linked to this new, coincidental matter.

Unlless it already is somehow. But I guess we'll never know here, will we?
posted by hermitosis at 9:26 AM on March 21, 2007

If you MUST cover the lie you told, you can say that your wallet got stolen and you thought your card was in your wallet, whew, turns out it's not.

Yes, do this. And then do not try to dispute the charge, or you're just going to make them really suspicious that you're trying to scam them, in which case you will get yourself right back into trouble.

It doesn't sounds like you've really been scammed, though you don't provide enough information for us to make a judgment. (And, BTW, it's really annoying that you won't level with us even after posting anonymously.) It sounds like your penis-enlargement cream didn't work as advertised, and you want your money back. Unless the charge itself was fraudulent, drop this and learn your lesson. And stop lying to cover your ass after making dumb purchases.
posted by Dasein at 9:38 AM on March 21, 2007

how do you know it was a scam site? do you feel they are now using your credit card to buy other stuff, or just that they were selling junk?

if the former, you were right in reporting it. if the latter, it was stupid to report it stolen and also, it's not your card company's problem if you used your card to buy something junky. buyer beware and all that.
posted by misanthropicsarah at 9:41 AM on March 21, 2007

Fighting something like this could be extremely time consuming, particularly since you've started down a bad road.

Start by putting a value on your time, and determine if you are likely to lose less by simply paying the bill than you would by trying to convince the company that:
a) you were lying about the theft
b) but were not lying about the charge being a scam.

We could probably give better advice if you could ask jessamyn or mathowie to post a link to the site in question, and some detail about the real nature of the dispute.
posted by Tacos Are Pretty Great at 9:43 AM on March 21, 2007

(And, BTW, it's really annoying that you won't level with us even after posting anonymously.)

Seconded. Hopefully they will use jessamyn or mathowie to post a follow-up containing the real story, and all relevant details. (site, item, nature of dispute.)
posted by Tacos Are Pretty Great at 9:46 AM on March 21, 2007 [1 favorite]

The credit card company shouldn't be responsible, or have to pay for your mistake. It was an error in judgment, be responsible and accept that. Ring them up, tell them it wasn't stolen, simply misplaced - everything is fine. If the website carried out some sort of fraud or you are worried about further use on your card then have it cancelled and a new one issued (or maybe not!). If it was genuine fraud, rather than a con that you fell for, there are other ways to follow it up - but, with the current information it's very hard to know what the best way is.
posted by Elmore at 10:19 AM on March 21, 2007

"The charges in question were for an item that, upon closer inspection, is not what I thought I would be getting."

Bought yourself a Metafilter membership, did you?

It's difficult to tell from your question whether you told your credit card company that your card was stolen and that it had been used for this particular purchase, or whether you just told them it was stolen.

If it's the latter, call them up and say "Whew, I found that card! Good thing it was only lost and not stolen!" Then you can dispute the charge at a later date, if you still intend to do that.

If it's the former, you're pretty much going to have to admit that you freaked out and lied, I think. Better than filing a false police report, as others have mentioned.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 10:37 AM on March 21, 2007

Are you concerned that you bought the wrong product or concerned that the product was falsely advertised and/or your info would be used again in an illegal manner?

If you accidentally bought the wrong product you may not have any options outside of the company's return policy.

If not, call your CC company, explain that you were scammed and out of concern you thought your CC info would be used for fraudulent purposes.

I could be wrong but just because your CC wasn't physically stolen doesn't mean that your CC info wasn't stolen.

Again, if it's a legit site and you made a mistake it's your doing and no one else's responsibility. If this is the case, chalk it up as a learning experience.
posted by ASM at 10:52 AM on March 21, 2007

I think you meant "lost."
posted by caddis at 11:27 AM on March 21, 2007

Hey, credit card company. Turns out it wasn't stolen. My roommate/neighbor's kid/pet turtle got ahold of it and made a charge. I have the card back, and I've dealt with it with this person I know, so I don't want to pursue any criminal charges. Now, about this pesky charge I didn't authorize...
posted by ferociouskitty at 12:20 PM on March 21, 2007

@ferociouskitty: that's even more fraudulent than the overreaction and calling to say it was stolen. Just tell them you found it, then in a separate phone call tell them about the fishy charge. I am inferring that the OP fears he or she may have submitted a number to a farming (pharming? like phishing) site, and needs to change the number ASAP.
posted by sjuhawk31 at 12:29 PM on March 21, 2007

I half-take it back - it SOUNDS more fraudulent. IANAL.
posted by sjuhawk31 at 1:02 PM on March 21, 2007

Many cards have an option to generate a number that's different from your CC number, but will work for one transaction only, or at one merchant only. Use this feature in the future.
posted by Mr. Gunn at 1:08 PM on March 21, 2007

Hey, credit card company. Turns out it wasn't stolen. My roommate/neighbor's kid/pet turtle got ahold of it and made a charge. I have the card back, and I've dealt with it with this person I know, so I don't want to pursue any criminal charges. Now, about this pesky charge I didn't authorize...

Oh, good God, this is terrible advice on so many levels. Don't do it.
posted by smorange at 2:33 PM on March 21, 2007

Call back, tell them you found the card, and it wasn't stolen after all. But then say that because it was out of your possesion for a while, you'd like a new card with a new number. Then if your dubious site tries to charge anything else, you're covered. Just suck up whatever it was you already paid, especially as you won't even tell us the full story in an anonymous question. Jeez, what did you try to buy? a hitman?
posted by crabintheocean at 2:55 PM on March 21, 2007 [1 favorite]

You won't necessarily be covered if you say that your card was out of your possession for a while. I'm coming at this from a UK perspective (and a specific bank's policies) but they may transfer purchases made on one card to your new card's account, and leave it to you to dispute these purchases. If you are UK, I'd say call them back and let them know exactly what happened. If it's an embarrassing purchase, then you are protected somewhat by the Data Protection Act in the UK - they won't call back and discuss it with your wife or whoever. If a company is advertising something incorrectly, then your credit card company should be able to advise you on your course of action. Certainly, in the UK, credit card companies have certain responsibilities regarding fraud and disputes. You may, however, be asked to contact the company in the first instance, and have to wait until the purchase is shown on your statement.
posted by liquidindian at 5:17 PM on March 21, 2007

This is why lying is so bad. Whatever happens to you, well it will be a lesson well learned. Next time, tell the f**ing truth! Think Nixon, it's the coverup, not the crime which brings you down. If you already said hey my card was stolen and that purchase was not mine, you are effed, big time. Best to just pay, tell them you don't want to make a big deal out of it and be done with it. Well actually that is probably the only scenario which keeps you out of jail. If all you said was gee, my card was stolen, then call them up and say well I could have lost it. Next time don't lie!
posted by caddis at 6:42 PM on March 21, 2007