NOT VS: Fraudulent Card Use

[Decker]

We've just picked up some Fraudulent Card use on our account, including a flight booking with Aer Lingus. Now the bank statement shows a record locator and Aer Lingus confirm that the flight will take place in a few weeks time and that it is not me flying . I'm just amazed that this can happen - as in how can an innocent person be duped into taking a flight they can be picked up at the airport for? Or won't the Fraud department notify the police?

Wow, I'd be heading to the airport to see who was using your card, and I'd be accompanied by the Boys and Girls in blue.

I had 3 credit cards stolen in the post a few years ago, and the guy was about 60, pretending to be me, I was 28 at the time. When they interviewed him, and he was pretending to be me, they did tell him he was n't wearing well for a man who should be under 30.....
The fraud department should contact the police and they might take action.

[Decker]

It's just the bone headed stupidity that gets me. I can't believe someone would be THAT stupid so I'm casting around for other ideas as to how this might work.

People can be that stupid - as they think they will get away with it. It has to be said that booking a flight with someone elses card does top the list of stupidity, as you can get picked up at either airport by the authorities.

A friend used to work on admissions at Alton Towers & they said you would be amazed how many people tried to make phone bookings using lost / stolen cards. When they found that a card used for an advance booking was lost / stolen after the transaction had been processed, they normally tried to involve the Police so that when the tickets were collected, the offender got a day out of the type they had not planned.

Probably got the flight for someone else and sold them the ticket on Ebay, I bet its not the perpetrator thats actually flying.

[Decker]

But you can't change names on tickets can you - I mean these were < £200 tix...

CC Processing and Fraud Screening are in my line of work. I see flight tickets purchased using fraudulent details now and again, though usually in Asia and never in Europe.

Either your perpetrators are a tad inexperienced at this, arrogant enough to believe it wouldnÕt be picked up or this transaction is part of a larger pattern of fraud and this ticket is but one part of a larger scam (though I canÕt for the life of me think how). I'm assuming this ticket can't be refunded to the holder in any way except a credit back to the original credit card.

So your carders are either deviously clever and are setting new trends in fraudulent card use ... or they are not the sharpest knives in the draw. Unfortunately you don't have to be a genius to perpertrate card fraud these days. You can purchase all the information you need over the web (on IRC) and there are plenty of others out there that will advise you on which merchants are 'cardable' as they term it.

If the transaction is cancelled then they may be informed by email that their ticket is no longer valid which would be a shame as getting the traveller arrested would be a huge help to tracking down the culprit. Your fraud dept may or may not contact the police, hopefully they do and they emphasize the security angle.

[Decker]

Thanks for that Adam! Makes sense. Let's hope they don't cancel the ticket and let whoever turn up!

Went to Orlando late August/early September with the family, informed the card company & the bank. Came back, oldest daughter wants to buy a laptop, as she hasn't got a credit card, I bought it online using my credit card. Couple of weeks later, bought her birthday present from The Link online, a new £100 mobile, with same card. Then washing machine went bang, bought a new one from Comet with same card. About a week or so later had a letter from card company saying my account was restricted due to possible fraud, thought it was due to buying all this high tech,, high value gear. When I rang them, they said, "are you researching your family tree". The account had been picked up for £5 on 1837online, the government backed family history research site!!!

I think the banks / card issuers look for small amounts that the fraudsters charge to cards to "test out" the account. I had First Direct call me last year as I'd spent Û10 in a hotel in France for WiFi access from Orange France. They called me before they would tell who the authorisation was from, they only knew the amount & it had been flagged as it was a very low spend amount.

Fraudsters test account numbers with a small charge; if it goes through, that's when they'll start hitting bigger items. They now know the account hasn't been blocked yet.

People buy tickets and resell them in the papers, online, and even at the airport, with the sob story of choice. Many innocent people fall prey to the scams every year. Even if the 'good people' arrest the holder of the ticket, that person might not be the fraudster.

For those who travel with corporate credit cards, the lag time can be considerable between seeing the statement and the date the fraud was committed. That's what the scammers are hoping for - a high-ticket traveler who might miss one more ticket on a statement until their expense account doesn't match. At that time, it's possible the fraudster has sold the ticket/traveled on the ticket/whatever. On they've gone to the next hundred stolen numbers.

That's why I highly recommend having online access to any charge account - you can watch the charges come in and act immediately, even if you are in Germany and the charge was a computer in Colorado (yep, that happened to me).

Just in case they didn't find a receipt with only this account number on it, give yourself the full identity theft works - check you credit history, tell all your card issuers you have had a fradulent charge on another account and want a watch put on all of your cards (many banks will do this for free), sweep your computer for spyware and viruses, and keep shredding (preferably chip-shredding) your personal info as you toss it.

Good luck! If you travel in the near future, be aware your bank will probably ask you to call them from your home phone to notify them about out-of-country usage on your next trip(s). Also, make sure they have your correct cell number, as they will probably try to call you if you make charges over a certain amount or more than a set number on any one day.

[Decker]

Thanks for that - this is a Debit card so checked frequently! Just checked Amex and all OK there... still trying to work out the most likely place it was taken as the card itself is hardly ever used...

Originally posted by Kraken
I think the banks / card issuers look for small amounts that the fraudsters charge to cards to "test out" the account. I had First Direct call me last year as I'd spent Û10 in a hotel in France for WiFi access from Orange France. They called me before they would tell who the authorisation was from, they only knew the amount & it had been flagged as it was a very low spend amount.

Not been my experience. Hubby's card was cloned (and we still haven't figured out quite how) a couple of years back. Found out when we checked online and there were 3 amounts, all on the same date and in the south of France (never been there!) - totalling around £8,000. No small amounts were tested before that. Someone here mentioned being contacted by fraud to question whether a small transaction was theirs, but why, oh why, didn't any of these fraudulent amounts flag up somewhere as being an unusual spending pattern for Rob (hubby). We did ask this when we spoke to fraud, they just said these checks are random. Random???? For me, it just brought home how much money cc companies are losing to fraud all the time - we had no problem with the amount being frozen and refunded, but nonetheless, it makes you feel violated in some way.

I would never mind it if a cc company called me, to check I was in possession of the card (and my senses) and was actually making a particular purchase. Am sorry about this for you Decker - I guess it also means that card had been frozen and you now await a new one....[n]

[Decker]

Connect card immediately frozen! Reminds me of the last time this happened about 4 years ago... left my Visa in a bar in Liege. Noticed the next day by which time there'd already been a spending spree at a jewellers in Bruge. I asked fraud if they didn't think it a little strange that a corporate card was being used to buy jewellery...

Jewlery is a hot button item the same as electronics, that always merits a look from a fraud analyst. However to answer catsilversword's point about credit card company losses regarding fraud, they dont have any. It is the merchant that provided the good or services that loses the amount of the fraudulent sale. In addition to that Visa charge a fee per chargeback to cover their admin costs. Thats why many card issuers are, well quite lax with their fraud prevention checks as they dont have much motive to improve their services.

Small amounts being tested on cards is a technique that is used, but more commonly with online transactions, its a method used between 'carders' of verifying that card details are legitimate before they are purchased to be used in more profitable fraudulent activity.

Card cloning is becoming less and less in vogue (though it is still wide-spread, it just isnt the most popular method these days, at least not with the transactions we see here). Phishing has rapidly become the popular way to solicit peoples details. Its unbelivable the amount of people that will happily hand over their social security numbers, dates of birth, drivers license details and credit card info becuase they just happened to receive an email from so-and-so bank asking them to 'verify' their account.

The advantage of phishing is that in many countries there are no laws agaisnt it, the Philippines, Thailand and my person favorite Vietnam.

What gets me is the level of technical prowess and sophistication that some of these professional gangs put into 'carding'. With their skills they could easilly make a decent (or better) living in a legitimate way.