I had a mysterious $800 dollar charge appear on one of my cards... I didn't have the slightest clue how my number was used in a store on the other side of the country... Another credit card scam that was going on here in California... some guy had a confederate working in a bank .. the bank employee copied thousands of credit card numbers every day. They then set up a company and used a transaction clearing company... they billed each credit card number 1.25 cents... and the charge appeared as coming from a company called Credit services... or something innocuous like that... anyway.. they did this to millions of people every month... do the math.. before they got shut down.. they had stolen millions from the credit card companies.. lots of people didn't complain about the charges for months.. because they thought it was a one time charge, and the time to clear up a one time charge for 1.25 costs lots more than the charge itself. So it took several months before people began to complain... The guy got greedy and kept doing it rather than pull up stakes and run.. this went on for a couple of years before the feds pulled the plug on this a$$hole.They arrested the guy in a huge home out in Malibu that he had purchase with his gains. Dummy.... he didn't pay taxes on his loot either... so the IRS wanted their "fair" share also..... too funny.

Reed, that is ingenious, most would see the charge as an ATM fee for foreign ATM use (non bank) the best part of this is people get greedy and are caught. The problem is the money is usually spent and you can't get blood from a turnip. If they took the money for drugs and fraud out of the economy we would be a third world country again. I bet it is up-wards of 25% of the economy.

They were doing the same thing at a local Menards. The cashier would swipe the card. She would then make like the card didn't read and swipe it again. This time, it would be through the cash register. The first swipe was through her own card reader where she captured the number. She only got caught when a head cashier noticed the illicit card reader.

Citibank is good for me. I went to Sears 1 night and bought a Beer Meister, about 5 mins later I went to buy a TV my card was rejected and I had to call Citibank just to verify that it was me buying the items. They called me 1 time because I waited a week to pay all my Pay Pal E-bay items at once. they wanted to make sure it was me.

I heard now people are using cell phone cameras while standing behind you to snap a picture of your card numbers ?

I put EVERYTHING on credit cards (AMex first choice, then Visa/MC) and have over the years easily racked up far in excess of seven figures worth of volume across my cards.

The FOUR bogus charges I have incurred over the years were handled by the credit card companies FLAWLESSLY. When I get my statements in, I look over them closely. In those four instances, I have immediately called the CARD COMPANY and told them there was a fraudulent charge, They noted the account but reiterated that I had to take up the matter with the fraud division. I have intentionally SHORTED my payment the amount of the disputed item and filed a paper complaint to the Card company. It always took several months to resolve (always in my favor) but I was never out any money on my end.

No complaints...

Plastic rules.

(I also charge scads of stuff on the Internet, and have had no troubles there yet).

The cell phone alert is real, they take pictures of cards and use them. mc, you are lucky but you still had this happen before. You may want to check your credit report to make sure they are not dunning you for the short payment. Many times if the payment is not in full they will not post it and you get a 30 day late or past due on the report. This may not happen but you should make sure. I have learned my lesson, if I lose any of my "special" pictures and clips Strip Poker sent me I am going Postal. You with me CAP

Get a card with a low limit and do your internet purchase with it. Or have one of your cards that you have now lower the limit to $500 or so, if you need to purchase anthing more expensive call instead of doing it online.

I've heard that Amex is the best for going after any bad charges.

That sucks mitch! short but to the point.

Best to use your credit card over the debit card(comes straight out of your cking acct) for on-line purchases as there is less liability on your end. Mcollin is right as stated above ( or shall I say I agree with him ). One other advice is to ck online your recent and current activities maybe 2-3 times /mo prior to the statement.