Fortunately I keep a close eye on credit card activity and have canceled the card. As the fraudulent charges were made in the last two hours, I have the thin satisfaction of imagining the dirty scum getting declined at the next check-out stand. But that is all that will happen, they will just be declined.
I want ill-tempered German Shepherds to burst out from underneath the till and pin the toad-faced buggers to the ground whilst
onlookers boo and hiss and pummel them with rotten eggs and slimy old produce and then cheer as grouchy policemen with halitosis haul the thieves off to jail, where the heat is off and the food is maggoty. That's what I want.
But what will happen is that the clerk will say, "I'm sorry Mrs. Chandler, your card didn't go through." and the Fake Mrs. Chandler will mutter something about credit limit and so forth and look confused and then find a way to get out of the store. That's all.
One more reason to have low credit limits on one's card. If I hadn't caught it, they could have charged 10 grand before maxing it out. I'm having the new cards set to a very low limit and continuing with my daily balance check.
7 comments:
Suzanne, I'm sorry this happened to you. Glad you caught it fast! If it helps you find peace, from looking at what they are buying they are probably shopping for their kids. Food and toys. Imagine that commercial where the thief talks in someone else's voice - this one's a desperate mom. No excuse, of course, but I feel for her.
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Awwww man! That stinks! I'm not going to be as generous as cloudscome. They very easily could buy some high-end type stuff at ToysRUs...PS2 and wii games come to mind. Praying that the credit card company will be easy to deal with! :)
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Glad you caught it when you did. So did you report it to your card company and will they cover that loss?
We keep a careful eye on the card that we use too. We only have one credit card and usually only use it when ordering something from the Internet. We normally use our debit card for everything else, although we have recently started using the credit card for pumping gas, since we heard that crooks had figured out how to capture PIN numbers at the gas pumps. The other thing we did was send notarized letters to all three of the credit check places (can't remember what they are called) telling them that no one (including us:) is allowed to open anything in our name or even check our credit without our advance permission. I think we have to send another notarized lletter to change it. We think this should help prevent identity theft, hopefully.
When I first saw the grocery store charge I tried to think along those
lines. Then I saw the ToysRUs charge and got all steamed up. That's
a lot of toys.
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So glad you caught it, Suzanne. You are really on top of it! We just got a call from our local credit union saying one of our cards had been compromised by a 3rd party (Heartland). So far, no bogus charges. I like your idea of low limits...
yikes and ridiculous! why can't they detain the thief like they do in the movies?
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You ARE smart to have caught this within two hours! However, I'm thinking that they have different "codes" for those declines... and the clerk will call security -- as this code will come up with some red flag. Just hope the clerk has a poker face and doesn't give it away so the culprit has time to run. I do feel bad about the groceries and the toys r us; just trying to feed the kids. OR, could be some thief that I read about in the WSJ that buys toys and then turns around and sells them on the black market...
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