Help!!! Credit card fraud victim needs advice

skint99

oh-oh i'm getting really confused now ???

westernpromise, this is not what I wanted to hear...

WhoYa

I would go to the police with as much information as you have, the sooner you do this the more likley they will be able to help you.
Working in retail and interacting with the police quite regularley in situations similar to this, in my experiance most retailers only keep footage for a limited period so the sooner you get the police involved the more likely there will be footage of the people involved using the card in a shop.

t_i_g_e_rr

I know someone who was involved in a minor assault. After phoning the police they came round and asked, among other things, if he would like to lodge a complaint, to which he said "no", but even so, they still said they would check the CCTV in case the assailant was involved with anything else during that day. I’m pretty sure that the police have to deal with every reported crime. They wouldn’t have to check hours of CCTV as the precise time of purchase is on every receipt of every major store. Why would police try to charge innocent people? They would have to get the evidence to charge someone either way. I wouldn't like to guess why anyone would suggest that you shouldn’t report this crime. The people who have used your card may have been involved in other crimes, or be involved in more crimes in the future. I’d tell the police ASAP. Let us know how you get on.

skint99

I've decided I will definitely go to the police tomorrow morning. I have now ascertained that Z also has an O2 pre-pay mobile so everything adds up (no pun intended).

PS: Martin, you might want to put a reminder in your weekly email for everyone to sign their cards as soon as received. The worries of maybe being liable for purchases not made by onself are a really awful experience.

westernpromise

Why would police try to charge innocent people?

Aw, sweeeeeeeeeet! LOL!

Because it's often easier to frame the wrong person. It makes their stats look good. They are after convictions, not criminals.

Look at the Trupti Patel case. The police knew perfectly well she hadn't killed her children. They had evidence that said so, which they deliberately withheld from the court in case it acquitted her. Eventually, it did. Why did they withhold that evidence? Laziness. It was easier and less embarrassing to proceed, knowing the mark was innocent, than to admit error.

My gut feel is that the police will assume skint99 committed the fraud himself, and probably arrest him at some point. Look how easy it is to make the case against him / her.

- he's right there in the cop shop. No need to actually find anyone.

- nobody else can vouch for the existence of these two mysterious 'friends'. For all skint99 can prove, they do not exist.

- all the frauds were perpetrated around the corner from him.

- it's only his word that it wasn't him.

- identifying who actually did the transactions involves liasing with the credit card company to find out what was bought exactly when and where, then going round each of those places to see if they've still got the tapes. They're going to have to go through all sorts of hoops to get the name and address of the mobil phone user too. What a hassle, when they've got skint99 right there! Think of all the producers they could be handing out to black motorists in the time!

- even if any of the tapes still exist a month or so later, they then have to sit through the ones they have got and hope they can ID someone from a grainy tape. They may well decide that whoever they see is in fact skint99.

I hope I'm wrong. I really do. But having had a cherished car stolen and been accused by the police of both not having reported it and of having reported it stolen for a laugh, I have no faith in them. If it were me, I wouldn't go into a police station without a lawyer.

deemy2004

I presume your white, if so you'l be ok. If your ethnic, then its off to the gallows I'm afraid.

nh

Westernpromise,

I can totally understand your cynicism and I wouldn't put it past the police to do what you have said, but if skint goes to the police with names and addresses of these people and the O2 details, then I am sure the police will do the decent thing. I know they are rubbish (my partner is a defence lawyer and does police station interviews all the time - they are a joke when it comes to evidence) but I think in this instance going to the police is probably the best option, unless skint wants to lie to Egg about the fraudulent transactions, which won't work because Egg will know the transactions were made with the card.

I always just scribble over the signature strip when I am not going to use a card - then no one else can sign it as has happened here.

I think it was a really nice thing you did skint to let people stay at your house. It is they who have done wrong when they abused the trust you put in them. I just think it is so sad that we live in a society where this sort of thing happens. Why can't people just get jobs and live an honest lifestyle?

Is BounceBackAbility really Robert Shilling? Is he some sort of Aussie Crystal Palace fan (hence the Bouncebackability title, first used by Iain Dowie wasn't it??)

t_i_g_e_rr

Sorry to hear about your bad experience with the police, but any experience I have had with them has been good so far. I also knew a fraud investigator (not me!), and he loved to catch the right person, despite the red tape, which he did hate but it didn't tempt him to catch inocent people. So there are some good ones and a few bad ones. All the best.