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Anyone ever have anything like this happen?

 

Yesterday I was having trouble trying to change an order on Amazon.jp, for some reason the card was giving me hassles, I thought there must have been an issue with refunding cos I'd cancelled a book on an order.

 

Today I get a phone call from DC card in English, asking me if I'd made a bunch of transactions (which I hadn't):

 

Jetsomething (or somethingJet) - apparently a budget UK or eurpean airline,

iTunes music store in the US

And - Apple computer in Japan .

 

They apparently had tried to call me on the 19th Sept or so but never left a message, thought I wouldn't speak nihongo (they were right!), and thought maybe I wasn't around (they were wrong). Well, I wouldn't mind getting a new Macbook or Macbook Pro but thoughts alone don't make card transactions........

 

 

They're sending me out a new card tomorrow. I asked them what made them suspicious, and I think it was the combination of itunes USA, airline in England and the computer in Japan. She said it happens all the time, so if there's a large purchase, like a computer they often phone the card owner to check if the owner had made the purchase and if they say 'yes' then no worries.

 

I'm going to get them to put my credit limit down a lot lower for safety. I'd gotten them to keep it down that low some years ago but it seems that they'd raised it again.

 

Pretty wild, eh, and yes, I know it happens all the time. I wonder where the theives are located or if there's a gang spread across a few different countries or something. Either that or it was a travelling thief, hard to purchase music from itunes US with a J credit card using a J ISP.

 

Needless to say I'm pretty grateful I'm not getting hit for those charges!

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You're lucky sunrise... I just got a bill with 20,000 yen taken from someone I didn't know. Even though it had not been taken from my account at the time, I had to pay it and it took over 3 months and a lot of hassle for me to get my money back.

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there is no cost effective way to go after the thieves. But sometimes get lucky like a tip-off of fake card deliveries and the like. Columbians are having a spree lately, then there were Russians who did it online so easily.

 

The real dumasses are those predominently South Americans or Africans walking around in designer suits that still has the label on the cuff and trying to buy jewelry with their fake cards. Clever.

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both my parents have had their cards stolen and my father had his identity stolen as well. And now, about 6 years down the road, he still has to deal with people opening credit cards in his name. The dude they arrested in the first place, sold my dad's social security number and now it's just in circulation. To him, paying bills online is now safer and he has told all of his creditors to NOT mail anything as his (paper) mail getting stolen in the first place caused it all. That was a fricking nightmare.

 

He played PI himself, tracked the guy down and my mom ended up calling the police to tell them to arrest this guy before my dad got a hold of him. That was some scary stuff. My dad got the other guys' personal data after posing as the regional manager and walking right into this guy's place of work (a Motel chain) on that guy's day off and stole all the employee files. His plan was to go to Vegas and use the identity of the guy who stole my dad's and start up a major gambling debt and let the mafia deal with it.

 

My dad almost lost his house due that guy running amock with his credit. Thankfully his temper has simmered. He was fricking furious and going berzerk at the crap he had to deal with. Thankfully, he was also coniving and saw that beating the guy to a pulp was childs' play. The planning of the vegas trip caused delay enough for the police to arrest this guy... and get my dad off on a warning.

 

Identity theft in the states is all over the news because it's real. Many states actually give you the option of having your social security number be your drivers' license number. Some people don't understand the threat of that and say; "okay, then I don't have to remember it." Then... a stolen license = a stolen identity and new credit cards up the butt.

 

I've learned that people shouldn't steal from hard-working individuals. My dad takes pride in his honesty, but when his identity got stolen, his credit shot caput, his retirement plan placed into jeopardy, he straight up turned into Mr. Thief to get this guy back. Kicking his ass and having him arrested wouldn't have been enough. He was out to actually steal his identity in retaliation and completely ruin this guy's family's life.

 

A similar situation of [samurai's] family-name-law happened about 15 years ago. My sister had a stalker. She reported him to the cops, they said there hasn't been any crimes committed as he was just trying to talk to her in public places. It subsided for about a month, then it started again. My sister told my dad. My dad said, "don't worry, I'll take care of it." She blew it off. Years later, it got brought up at a dinner and my dad became really uncomfortable and told us his story; he said he went to his house and told his wife that if she didn't do something, her family would feel it... not his.

 

The whole table fell silent and I saw my dad in a new light at his admission. When I told him I was actually considering "a blanket party" at the time (I was a highschool student during these stalking days and was also wriling up my friends to go kick this guy's ass... all of whom were for it, btw.) he said he knew and that's why he "went to the source" and threatened his wife. When I asked him how he knew, he said; "you're the brother. Most brothers would've been trying to make their sister feel better. But you were in the corner plotting something, acting as if the reoccuring news in the room didn't bother you. You were the only one in the room who wasn't angry."

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damn samurai, that identity theft thing sounds intense. i'ev seen reports on the news, but never actually heard of it in real life.

i do my best to shred documents and statements, but all someone has to do is raid your mail and nab a few key pieces of info and presto! they could open all sorts of accounts in your name

 

with regards to credit cards, something one of my mates does (i don't do it, but it seems like a good idea) is he doesn't sign any of his credit or bank cards, he just writes CHECK ID in bold letters. whenever he uses these cards he hands over his photo drivers licence.

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Spook, your mate should read the card's terms and conditions. In it or on the card itself, it woulkd say "Authorised Signature - not valid unless signed"

 

If he's been using an invalid card to make his purchases.... well, well, well.

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 Originally Posted By: thursday
Samurai, damn that's scarey. Guns around your house too I presume.


Why do you presume? Because of previous discussions, I hope. As a reminder, our guns (many of which date back to the 1800's) are locked in a safe which is bolted to the floor.

What does that have to do with anything?
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i saw a scary UK doco, when gangs of professional card thieves would attach card skimming devices to the front of ATM card slots. they look just like normal ATMs, except then can skim and store your card details for later duplication. they would also install a small camera above the keypad and film you enetering your PIN.

then they'd go away, make a fake card with your details and use your PIN to leech all your cash.

i just did a quick search and this US story has more details:

 

http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/atm/20021004a.asp

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 Originally Posted By: thursday
If you had weapons, and loose control then that is a differnt matter to having weapons and tight control. Or having no weapons at all.


I still don't understand what guns have to do with anything.
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I think this must happen quite a bit in Japan - by the small minority who laugh at the laws and police (while I laugh at their ridiculous hair) - as apparently Japanese shops rarely check the signature, or even make the person sign, and they often don't use the PIN number with it either!

 

I'm sure this lax naivety must allow those of the criminal class to shop away!

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 Originally Posted By: AK 77
I think this must happen quite a bit in Japan - by the small minority who laugh at the laws and police (while I laugh at their ridiculous hair) - as apparently Japanese shops rarely check the signature, or even make the person sign, and they often don't use the PIN number with it either!

I'm sure this lax naivety must allow those of the criminal class to shop away!


Its true, I used my card quite a bit when I first got here (I'm paying for it now \:\( ) and they didn't ask for my pin once, they only paid a little attention to what i was writing.

In saying that, in the pub I used to frequent back home a lot, because the bar man knew us well he'd never look at the signature so we'd sign stupid names etc, signing myself as a "Sir darren..." or Darren... MBE lol.gif
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samurai, that's tough, I have read stories about ID theft in the US and it's a nightmare for the person who was thieved.

 

My new card arrived today. It's still a mystery, at least one thing was definitely purchased online - at iTunes music store in US. In which case surely the would have had to use the correct name on the card? I'm not sure about the other things, if they were in person or not.

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 Originally Posted By: thursday
Nobody should ask for you PIN duh!!!!


"Please enter your PIN."

Credit cards have been switching to 'chip and PIN' rather than signiature, as it is thought to be more secure - they then have those number key pads with little privacy shields round them by the check out.

Duh.
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The context for my last quote was someone offering to lend me their card to use - who is Japanese!

 

They said most places don't check, so it wouldn't matter that a) it wasn't my car B) the card owner would not be present c) I wouldn't have to sign anything - as it would be a kanji signiature anyway!

 

I was really taken aback by this "Oh, don't worry about it" slackness towards card safety - which could be the result of low levels of VISIBLE crime, and MOSTLY law abiding citizens.

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