Get Educated
There is no end to the schemes and scams that lazy criminals use to rip off hard-working people everywhere. After witnessing a credit card scam, I couldn’t believe how easy it was for them to get away with it. The criminal stole several credit card numbers…apparently from an electronic database somewhere. They were able to get the card numbers, expiration dates, AND the CVV code on the back. They purchased $15,000 worth of parts over the phone from an auto dealership and had them shipped to some abandoned address in Florida. A few days later, the individuals who had their cards stolen noticed the money was missing and called the dealership. Since the purchases were fraudulent, the dealership was obligated to refund the money…but obviously, by that time, the parts were long gone- presumable resold on the black market.
Luckily, the dealership was protected by insurance and the fraud victims were protected by Visa and/or MC. What blew me away is that the crime was perpetrated against a North Carolina business and cardholders in NY. Presumably the criminals were somewhere near Florida where the parts were shipped, but the only law enforcement involvement was the police reports filed by the victims in their local jurisdictions. It was unbelievable to me that there was no far-reaching law enforcement arm or coordination to actually catch the criminals. Granted, the only one that ended up actually losing money is the insurance company, but the assertion that ID fraud is a victimless crime because insurers pay the claims is erroneous given the fact that we all pay for it in the end via insurance premiums…either directly or in the cost passed on by the credit card companies. Here are a couple of great resources if you would like more information. These are consumer information sites and not sponsored links.
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There certainly aren’t any easy answers, but hopefully by sharing information and creating awareness, we can discourage would be thieves from tampering with our identities.