Current Events > Ever been the victim of credit card fraud? I'm dealing with it right now.

(+) Yeah! (+)

I've actually had it happen to me in the past, but normally my credit card company's good about catching it and alerting me before any damage is done. Not this time, it seems. I just logged on to my account to pay my monthly bill and it turns out that someone's racked up almost $1300 in charges in the past two weeks. The kicker is that these charges are all over the country, from Florida to Washington, and yet somehow my credit card company didn't think it was suspicious enough to alert me. I'm someone who likes to stay at home and rarely spends much, too, and the purchases these bastards made were not at all similar to my normal spending habits.

Luckily it's easy to dispute charges online nowadays, at least, as I've already taken care of all of it and I didn't even have to sit on the phone for an hour with someone I can barely understand. Now I just have to sit tight and wait for it all to go through, but the fact that I'm staring at a bill asking me to pay over $900 right now is a little stressful. Some background info on me is that I have almost $45,000 in college debt, yet I ended up graduating in General Studies after failing at my original major, and to top it all off, I started developing a problem with my neck around two years ago that prevents me from anything physically demanding on a regular basis any more. Not only has this basically helped spiral me into depression over the thought of my body not being capable of doing normal things any more, I've had to quit the jobs I enjoyed because of it, and I've been having a hell of a time finding anything that will pay me a living wage ever since. I currently have roughly $3,000 left in my bank account, so I live with my parents as a result, and now I have to deal with the fact that some selfish bastard somehow stole my credit card information and lived things up at my expense. I hope they rot in hell.

I'm still angry at my credit card company, too, for not alerting me to this. I've cut back tremendously on my spending habits, so this should have raised a huge red flag. Have any of you had to go through this? And of course, I wonder how they grabbed my information in the first place. I'm generally cautious with my card and even use virtual account numbers for a lot of my online purchases, so this is just great. Time to become obsessive and check my credit card statement every day for the rest of my life. Looks like I won't be getting any sleep tonight, either.
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At least the dispute process is simple.

Wow, this is why I'm scared to have a bank account. Glad you got it sorted. D:
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Undying posted...

At least the dispute process is simple.

Thank god, yes, but the stressful part for me is the fact that I still have to wait for them to investigate and make sure that I'm not trying to pull a fast one on them, meaning that all of the fraudulent charges are still posted on my account for the time being. My card's deactivated and luckily I don't have any bills left for this month that I need to pay with it, so I should be fine until I get a new one, but I'm still going to be on pins and needles, worried that they won't actually take off all of the charges, until it actually goes through.

GiantDad posted...

Wow, this is why I'm scared to have a bank account. Glad you got it sorted. D:

Luckily this wasn't a bank account, because I've heard that disputing fraud with those is much, much worse. Credit card companies seem to be a lot easier to deal with when it comes to these things. I don't even have a debit card because I'm especially worried about someone getting access to my checking account.
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GiantDad posted...

Wow, this is why I'm scared to have a bank account. Glad you got it sorted. D:

You will never get anywhere in life if you don't have a bank account, bro.
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If someone wants to steal my identity they can go right ahead I don't want it anymore.
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Someone got access to my debit card and pulled out like $200 in these $20-40 increments before I managed to catch it. Did an online form through my bank and they actually gave me the $200 back in like, 3 days + a new debit card a week later. Basically zero issue, didn't have to provide any proof or anything.

Expected to jump through hoops over that shit.
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It's happened to me before. Worst part was I was deployed at the time so I wasn't keeping up with my account. Luckily they only did one charge at the time but it sucked for sure since I had no access to my money while I was travelling. It was pretty cut and dry it wasn't me doing the charges since it was in Vegas and apparently they have an issue with that there.
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It has happened to me once but I caught it right away because I check my credit card activity at least every other day so when I saw a charge from a different state it wasn't hard to dispute it. It was at a fast food place so I'm guessing the thief probably thought if they start small it won't get noticed. Now I anytime I ever buy online, I use Paypal that way I don't have to give anyone else my card information.
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