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I need her family to stop abusing her and her credit cards.

lizzicide — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 18:09:40 -0800

Jane's mother is racking up enormous charges on credit cards in Jane's name, completely against Jane's consent. How can she stop this? Difficulty: No consequences for Jane's mother. I'll try to phrase this as well as I can. I'm writing this for a friend, who recently moved away from a very unhappy situation at home with her parents. Having come from a bad homelife myself, I feel for her and really want to help her heal and do the best that she can now that she's...well, free. However, her parents are taking advantage of her financially, and while they're not evil people, what they're doing to her is Very Wrong and there has to be a way to stop this.

My understanding is that the credit card fraud started a few years ago, as soon as Jane turned 18, and that her mother has charged thousands of dollars to cards in Jane's name that Jane never opened or even KNEW about. After fighting her on this for a very long time and using miles of emotional blackmail, Jane's mother finally agreed to stop charging to the cards, opening new cards, and so forth. Except she hasn't. In Jane's words, "All I know is that a credit card/checkbook was sent in my name, to my parents' home, and that she got a hold of it, and that she used it to get $450. This is illegal because if checks are involved, she forged my signature somehow." This sounds baaad to me, because checks mean cash advances, and cash advances mean high interest rates (higher than just credit card purchases) on balances that neither Jane nor her parents can afford to pay down.

Jane wants to stop this without credit card companies holding her mother responsible for committing fraud. "Protect the abuser" comes to mind, but at the same time, I understand that legal repercussions will be costly to the family. To give (even more) background, I'll say that her father suffered a heart attack this year, so he, her mother, and her mentally disabled older brother are living at home solely on the mother's income and some public assistance they're receiving.

My suggestions are:
- Close the existing credit accounts (my understanding is that she'll still be able to make payments towards the balances even after closing the accounts)
- Opt out of receiving credit card offers via optoutprescreen.com

My overall question is, how can she protect herself against a woman who knows all of the identifying pieces of information that a creditor would request, WITHOUT reporting fraudulent activity?

In Massachusetts, what are the steps to freeze her credit profile and prevent new lines of credits from being opened? What measures would be in place to keep Jane's mother from simply posing as Jane to lift the freeze? Will this end up biting Jane in the ass if she needs to get student loans in the fall?

Any advice on how to handle the situation would be very much appreciated.

Dumb, drunken credit card problem.

Anonymous — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 08:13:02 -0800

Dumb, horny, out of the country, drunk, paying for strippers with credit card. They ripped me off to the tune of $2600. Stupid, stupid, stupid. It was different from a typical American strip joint, more a 'get a private room' sort of place, not a big stage show, and no sex acts performed. I was offered and have no receipts. I only remember signing one. I have five separate charges from this place on my card. I wasn't there very long, maybe two hours. I'm 99% sure I'm being ripped off. I DO NOT want to do anything illegal, and am willing to pay what I really signed for. How should I proceed? A woman brought a bottle of champagne and I remember signing at least one receipt. I might have signed one more, though I'm pretty sure it was just one. Honestly, I don't remember how much it was for. I wasn't offered a copy and didn't get a copy. Stupid and drunk, I know.

When I got back to the US, I found five separate charges billed to my card... two were for the same amount to the penny, around $500 each. The other three were different, but all together added up to around $2600.

I immediately called the card company and reported this. I told them I was out and probably went to the place (the name listed is foreign and generic, and translates to 'drinking place' or some such), but no way in hell did I make five transactions totaling $2600. They cancelled the card and told me this definitely looks like fraud and to report all the charges to their fraud department.

I called their fraud department Monday morning to report it. They credited the challenged charges to my account, pending investigation. The next step is they send me paperwork via snail-mail for me to review, indicate which charges are false, sign and return. Then they'll investigate the place and the charges.

Should I challenge all the charges and make them come up with signed copies?

Should I selectively challenge certain charges?

What if someone just fakes my signature? Can you challenge a forged signature?

Again, I do not want to do anything illegal. I'm willing to pay for what I got, but $2600 is ludicrous. Yes, this is the single stupidest thing I've ever done financially, and I don't care if you want to flame me for it. I feel terrible about the whole mess.

Any advice? Anyone been in a similar situation? Help, please.

Reply here, or reach me at:

ticplas -at- yahoo.com

Should I call the Secret Service over credit card fraud?

uvaleg — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 06:14:22 -0800

My credit card info was stolen by someone in Nigeria. Should I contact the Secret Service? Two days before New Year's Day, I got a call from my credit card company asking me to verify some recent purchases. Turns out, they weren't mine. After some research, I learned that the purchases had been made by someone with a Nigerian IP address, to be shipped to someone in Nebraska, with a Texas billing address--I live in Virginia. Fraud department types at my credit card company and the online store suggested I file a police report. At first, I thought that was silly--the thief is in Nigeria. But then I decided that these people will never be stopped unless someone tries to do something about it.

So, I called my local police department. They told me to call the FBI, as they have no jurisdiction in this situation. After some hesitation, I called the FBI. They told me to call Secret Service. And then I quit. What does the Secret Service care about little old me, and the $7000 in purchases that I am not responsible for?

My question for you is, should I call the Secret Service? I've seen enough episodes of Dateline NBC to feel like something should be done about this sort of thing, but I feel naive in thinking that this small offense warrants a call to such an elite operation as the Secret Service...

How do I get this greedy high street bank to act responsibly?

Mutant — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 04:55:38 -0800

UK Credit Card fraud - HELP!! The first week of August I was notified by BigHighStreetBank that someone had been arrested with a large number of false credit cards, including mine, in his possession. Although we established that no fraud had occurred on my account, they insisted that a new card be issued which was received roughly two days later. Prudent behaviour, and no problem, I thought.

The replacement card was unusable from the outset, being turned away be retailers. All of my regular payments against this card were being declined, and I couldn’t use it on the internet.

On September 16th I’d had enough, and considering the card carried a large annual fee (250 pounds) I asked that it be cancelled however a supervisor talked me out of this decision, arranging for a new card to be sent out, and gave me twenty pounds credit.

On September 23rd at roughly 1:30AM I notified call centre staff that a new card sent wc September 18th had not been received.

The operator I spoke with didn’t provide an acceptable solution to this problem (“all we can do is send another”) so then after speaking with her supervisor who could not advance a practical solution either, I asked that my account be closed and a final invoice issued.

I heard nothing from BigHighStreetBank until October 5th when multiple, somewhat frantic calls were received. Due to the fact I was being contacted during business hours I was unable to take this call until 18:07. After going through a very rigorous authentication processes (seven questions!) I was connected with someone from the Fraud Department.

She informed me that an individual had contacted BigHighStreetBank identified themselves as me, asked that the account be reopened and over the next three days had completed several rather large (about 28 thousand pounds) transactions. Due to the fact that I was still at work I could not discuss further. Also I was puzzled as the account, from my point of view, was long closed.

Once home that same evening at 19:58 I spoke with an operator regarding this matter. He acknowledged the account had been closed however reiterated that someone had been able to use this card.

On October 6th I received a letter noting that “my complaint was being looked into”. I had no idea what complaint this letter refers to, or even why it was sent considering I had closed my account with BigHighStreetBank.

On October 10th I sent a very strongly worded letter, recorded delivery, to BigHighStreetBank detailing this situation. Fortunately, I kept very, very careful notes of dates / times / who I spoke with along with their internal identification numbers. I asked what personal details of mine had been used to activate a closed account, and why BigHighStreetBank hadn’t insisted on a written application to reactivate a closed account after two months of complaints and problems.

I also presented the following questions :

1) If this account was indeed closed by myself – as acknowledged by multiple operators at BigHighStreetBank – how could someone call reopen it? Prudence would dictate that a written application be obtained.
2) If a card is reported missing, why was it allowed to be activated?
3) If a card is reported as missing, why would BigHighStreetBank allow it to be used for transactions? Nobody attempted to contact me at any of the telephone numbers on record until such fraud had already been conducted.
4) If a card was reported missing and the account subsequently closed, after a two month period of complaints from the authorised account holder (i.e., multiple calls to detail how the card in my possessions was unusable – details with identification numbers / dates available upon request) how could a simple telephone call serve to A) reopen the account, and B) activate the card? Surely someone must have been suspicious about the abrupt change, considering the relationship was already over at that point.

They never acknowledged nor replied to this letter, although Royal Mail indicates that it was in fact received.

Just last evening I received a statement indicating this account is now some three thousand pounds in credit! It should have debit of approximately seven thousand pounds, but the fraudsters are apparently crediting payments from other institutions through my card.

I called last evening but the people are hopeless, and claim the problem “is being looked into”. I only kept this card as it carried a rather large credit limit, I travel a great deal on business, and sometimes have to get places fast or stay there a while and not have to worry about spending constraints.

Just this AM I visited Metropolitan Police, presented the statement with fraudulent transactions, filed a written report and received an incident number.

In spite of several attempts to close the account, acknowledged by the institution in question, I still do not have a full and final invoice.

To add injury to insult, last Thursday a direct debit was made against my savings which, I'm reasonably sure, was calculated against the fraudulent balance.

So net/net not only is this taking up hours of my personal time, disrupting by business / professional activities (I should be in Amsterdam today but pushed the trip back so I could file a police report), but they are also charging me interest / etc on a balance that isn't mine, via an account that was closed over one month ago.

So what do you folks recommend as next steps?

to tip or not to tip

ambrosia — Wed, 13 Jul 2005 17:13:53 -0800

Take-out orders: do you tip, and if so, how much? I was short on cash today at lunch and used my debit card to pay for my lunch-to-go at a nearby sandwich place. The bill was $6.75- since it was just a “to go” order from the counter, I put a dash through the “tip” line on the voucher and wrote in $6.75 on the “total” line. I just happened to check my bank account later, and my account has been debited $8.10. My copy of the voucher clearly reads “6.75” but I can see that it wouldn’t be too hard to make the numbers look like “8.10”.

$1.35 isn’t a large amount of money, but I’m irked on principle. I know I can contact the bank and tell them that the dollar amount was changed, and I have my copy of the voucher to prove it. Part of me is bummed that this would happen at my favorite lunch place. But I’m left wondering- should I have tipped? If so, how much? It’s one of those downtown places where you stand in line, place your order, walk to the end of the counter, pay, get your order, and leave. I am happy to tip for good service, but 20% seems like a bit much in this situation. (To be clear, I’m not asking about tipping at this particular place- they’ve lost my business. I’m asking about lunchtime takeout in general.)

In retrospect, I should have paid more attention to the advice in this thread.