Card not Stole but Someone is Using it

[paste_me]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Texas

About 2 months ago my credit was declined at the mall, I rushed home to check my credit card online only to discover that someone else has been using my credit card at various Walmarts, CVS, and Walgreen. Each of the charges were about 100 bucks, totaling over 2,000 in little less than a week. I did not notice this until it was to late and the only thing I could do was cancel my card. I later spoke to my credit card company and filed a dispute for all of the charges that were not mine. My credit card company send me an e-mail saying that :

"Thank you for contacting Customer Service. We have investigated your disputed transaction based on the information that you have provided. Regrettably, after reviewing the available facts, we must deny your claim.

This is a POS, or point of sale, transaction that took place on DATE/TIME. A transaction of this nature requires a card to be present and a magnetic swipe to be completed.

Based on what you have reported, we do not show any evidence of a duplicate/cloned card. After our investigation and in light of the above stated facts, we must deny your dispute at this time."

After speaking to the company, they told me that my claim was decline because the credit card was still in my possession and not stolen.

They then gave me one chance to petition the result, and I did petition but only one of the charges because they told me there was no other avenue after the petition.

What can be done? Am I out of my 2K? Do I need to contact a lawyer? Should I contact to company again?

[JETX]

Originally Posted by paste_me

What can be done?

Get another card with another number.
Is this a DEBIT/CHECK card?? If so, also change your PIN.

Am I out of my 2K?

Unless you can provide some evidence to support that you are NOT the person who made those charges, probably.

Do I need to contact a lawyer?

You can certainly do that and have the attorney contact them on your behalf, but it is unlikely that it would change the outcome.

Should I contact to company again?

You certainly can try. Were you out of town on the date/time of some of the charges? What can you present that would show that you did not make the charges and that you did not give your card to someone else to make the charges?

[Dewey]

It seems like your card was "skimmed" and a counterfeit card was manufactured.

A corrupt employee "skims" a customer's credit card with a small, handheld electronic device that scans and stores the card data from the magnetic strip. The employee usually sells the information through a contact or on the Internet, at which point counterfeit cards are made. The criminals go on a shopping spree with a copy of the credit or debit card, and cardholders are unaware of the fraud until a statement arrives with purchases they did not make.

We know that bank knows all about skimming and counterfeit cards. They're hoping you don't and will just roll over. What a shame to be victimized twice like that.

I'd fight it.

[ecmst12]

Does anyone else have access to your card? Do you live alone? Is it possible that a roommate or family member "borrowed" the card and put it back before you noticed it was missing? Did the stores produce signed receipts and did the signatures match yours?

[paste_me]

The charges were being made on my card while I was in another town. I was about 30 miles away and bought some food on it, several minutes later there was a 100 dollar charge about 30 miles away.

The card was never borrowed by someone I know, it was always in my possession.

How do I go about requesting receipts for signatures?

How would I go about fighting this?

[cosine]

Originally Posted by paste_me

The charges were being made on my card while I was in another town. I was about 30 miles away and bought some food on it, several minutes later there was a 100 dollar charge about 30 miles away.

The card was never borrowed by someone I know, it was always in my possession.

How do I go about requesting receipts for signatures?

How would I go about fighting this?

First, file a police report about all the charges. File it in the jurisdiction you live in, and also in each jurisdiction a skimmed charge was made in. Provide in the police report the details of the invalid charges: name of merchant, date, time, and amount (only those applicable in other jurisdictions, but all of them in your own). Describe the nature of the theft as "skimming" where someone at some merchant you are unable to determine copied the card information, either personally, mechanically, or electronically, and apparently produced a false card from the info.

If you can get the police to investigate, they may be able to get security tapes from the affected merchants at the indicated times that may show the perpetrator charging things on the card.

The police report also has the significance that filing it falsely is a crime. If you are willing to file a police report, it is considered more serious by credit card companies and courts (if it gets that far).

Call the credit card company back and ask them where to send them a copy of all the police reports. On this call, re-iterate that you did not make these charges, and you want to speak to the department that handles fraudulent use of cards. Also tell them you want to speak to someone that understands what "skimming" is and that anyone who does not is unacceptable.

Be sure you pay all undisputed charges. Don't complicate this by falling behind on legitimate charges.

The most common place that this skimming happens is in restaurants where the wait-person takes the card "in the back" to process it. You get the card back and the receipt to sign, but you are unaware that the card has been copied. Have you ever made a restaurant purchase on the card like this within a year of the first false charge? Where this has happened, there is often a pattern and the restaurant, or the police in that jurisdiction, may be aware of other thefts like this, there.

This happened to me with a long distance calling card. Over $3000 of long distance calls were racked up over about 20 long distance companies over a 2 month period (with charges coming in over a 6 month period). Most calls were to Mexico City. It did take getting lawyers involved to clear it up but I eventually did.

If your renewed efforts do not get the matter cleared up, then also file a complaint about the CC company with the FTC and the Texas AG's office (they look for patterns of misbehavior by these companies). And this is when you need to get a lawyer involved. If your CC terms lock you into mandatory binding arbitration, this can make things difficult. CC companies use MBA to evade legal responsibility (that's when you need to get the AG involved).