So I have just discovered that I had a pair of fraudulent charges on my credit card from a company I've never done with business (nor contacted) and the details says its from Colorado when I live in EST.
Despite it being 3 AM Sunday Morning, I called my banks fraud line to report a stolen or lost CC card and explained to the rep that I had two fraudulent charges, provided my information and identified the two fraud charges. I got a phone # to call if I need to reach my bank's dispute office, informed that the card the illegal charges were on will be cancelled and a new one will be issued to me, a debit will be temporarily placed on my account for the two charges (when you use a credit card, a credit transaction takes place. When you get a refund on a credit card, it's a debit transaction), and that I will be receiving some paperwork to fill out and need to return via mail or at one of my bank's locations. The paperwork will be reporting the fraud, the amount, pretty much akin to filing a police report, or at least, providing enough information so the bank can file the report on my behalf.
I'm wondering how many other members or users have been victims of credit card fraud (This has been my first experience) and what kind of advice or steps do you follow when you discover it and how to deal with it. From my short story above, what I did was:
1) Check my bank account regularly. Review what transactions are recorded to your checking, savings accounts, and credit cards. This means not checking it just once at the end of the month or year. I would advise to check it at least bi-weekly (weekly is better) that way you can quickly react to any fraudulent activity on the account.
2) Know your bank's fraudulent hotline. The bank's regular customer service number is available during normal business hours (M-F, 7AM-7PM typically, slightly different hours for Saturdays, closed Sundays). However, fraudulent or dispute hotlines are usually active 24 hours so you can always reach out to them to report issues.
3) Stay calm. It's definitely an upsetting situation to experience, but don't think it's the end of the world. Banks are required to reverse illegal charges on your account/card. By law, you, the consumer, have a maximum liability of just $50 per credit card once the report loss or theft of a card has been reported to the bank. In this case where you do not lose the card, but still involved your CC number, you have no liability for such unauthorized use so the bank will reverse/refund the charges.
4) File police report. You are a victim of theft. The bank can help and advise you what to do when filing a police report (since they will most likely be doing a similar one as well; they're losing money after all!). You can file a report with your police station, and you will want to get a copy of the police report as well for use with your bank, the credit card bureaus, and with the Federal Trade Commission (depending on how far up you want to go with filing reports)
Despite it being 3 AM Sunday Morning, I called my banks fraud line to report a stolen or lost CC card and explained to the rep that I had two fraudulent charges, provided my information and identified the two fraud charges. I got a phone # to call if I need to reach my bank's dispute office, informed that the card the illegal charges were on will be cancelled and a new one will be issued to me, a debit will be temporarily placed on my account for the two charges (when you use a credit card, a credit transaction takes place. When you get a refund on a credit card, it's a debit transaction), and that I will be receiving some paperwork to fill out and need to return via mail or at one of my bank's locations. The paperwork will be reporting the fraud, the amount, pretty much akin to filing a police report, or at least, providing enough information so the bank can file the report on my behalf.
I'm wondering how many other members or users have been victims of credit card fraud (This has been my first experience) and what kind of advice or steps do you follow when you discover it and how to deal with it. From my short story above, what I did was:
1) Check my bank account regularly. Review what transactions are recorded to your checking, savings accounts, and credit cards. This means not checking it just once at the end of the month or year. I would advise to check it at least bi-weekly (weekly is better) that way you can quickly react to any fraudulent activity on the account.
2) Know your bank's fraudulent hotline. The bank's regular customer service number is available during normal business hours (M-F, 7AM-7PM typically, slightly different hours for Saturdays, closed Sundays). However, fraudulent or dispute hotlines are usually active 24 hours so you can always reach out to them to report issues.
3) Stay calm. It's definitely an upsetting situation to experience, but don't think it's the end of the world. Banks are required to reverse illegal charges on your account/card. By law, you, the consumer, have a maximum liability of just $50 per credit card once the report loss or theft of a card has been reported to the bank. In this case where you do not lose the card, but still involved your CC number, you have no liability for such unauthorized use so the bank will reverse/refund the charges.
4) File police report. You are a victim of theft. The bank can help and advise you what to do when filing a police report (since they will most likely be doing a similar one as well; they're losing money after all!). You can file a report with your police station, and you will want to get a copy of the police report as well for use with your bank, the credit card bureaus, and with the Federal Trade Commission (depending on how far up you want to go with filing reports)
