Credit card fraud - who cares?

ripped_off_and_fed_up

Last week I got an e-mail from Amazon saying that someone had tried to set up an account using my (already registered) Marbles credit card. I immediately reported it and had it cancelled. After that, I found out it had been used to pay CC London. I assume that this is a congestion charge. I don't live anywhere near London and was not there last weekend. As Amazon had an address and other details and CC London must have a car reg, I wondered what the fraud department were going to do with this information. The answer - nothing. Because it was spotted in time, the amount concerned wasn't worth the bother. Hang on - the police said that the bank had a duty to investigate no matter how small the amount. What's happening? I'm no detective but there is probably more to this than just my credit card. Is fraud still a criminal offence or is it just a minor problem that is no longer worth bothering about.
P.S. I just signed the petition on the Downing Street Web site that wants fraud investigation returned to the police.

ripped_off_and_fed_up

But if they don't look at the minor ones, how will they see trends? Sounds like a gift to fraudsters. If Amazon hadn't been "on the ball" it could have been much more. A crime is a crime.

Optimist

Al_Mac wrote: »

You have to understand it was taken away from the police, for a good reason. The bank can spot trends more easily and can then point the police in the right direction. Which they had to do anyway.

And I can see the point with small amounts not being worthwhile. £10 spend and a minimum of £1000 on investigation, not worth it.

Cynical me says the 2006 fraud act was just to hide the true crime figures.

The BBCs News night program found that some forces have yet to receive their first case since this came into been !

nomoneytoday

ripped_off_and_fed_up wrote: »

But if they don't look at the minor ones, how will they see trends? Sounds like a gift to fraudsters. If Amazon hadn't been "on the ball" it could have been much more. A crime is a crime.

They will probably log it and add it to the stats. However, as stated about its not sending good money after such a small amount.

A department I know for example won't look at items less than $300 or over 60 days old as it costs $35 an hour to investigate, which is better spent looking at larger amounts..

red74

Years ago somebody tried to purchase a laptop on my credit card. I was fortunate because the selling company phoned me to check the sale because the delivery address was different to the cardholders address (yes they'd given them everything, my name, address, telephone number and card details). I reported it to the card company who said I also needed to tell the police - which I did. Despite being able to give the delivery name and address to the police they said there was no point in checking it out as the criminal would only deny it!

I did learn one lesson though. If you pay for something in a shop by card, and they then ask if you want to be signed up to receive their newsletters - DON'T!! I'm pretty sure this is how they got my details as this is exactly what I had done the day before the computer had been ordered.

James

Al_Mac wrote: »

You have to understand it was taken away from the police, for a good reason. The bank can spot trends more easily and can then point the police in the right direction. Which they had to do anyway.

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I totally disagree, fighting fraud and indeed crime should be a concerted effort with the Police taking the lead. There already is a specialialst branch of the Police, The Dedicated Cheque & Plastic Crime Unit which seems to have been overlooked. I would have expected them to have been fed intelligence on a near real time basis from local police and card issuers.

The advantage of reporting card fraud to the police
For example with the huge garage scam fraud (a reported £30 Million loss so far) that was ,and probably still is going on ,it would probably have come to light locally if you'd reported it to the police and your card issuer rather than following the new rules and reporting it only to your bank.

X amount of people use a garage, have their cards cloned and PINs stolen. X amount of people probably have credit or debit cards issued by goodness knows how many different card issuers. When you report a suspect transaction to your card issuer your cards blocked, BUT, many card fraud depts only work Monday through Friday therefore action to investigate and locate the source can often take longer to spot and be delayed.

The same scenario, but X amount of people, a high proportion who will live locally, report the fraud to a their local nick straight away, Where was the unusual transaction your friendly bobby may ask . At this particular garage you and many others may say. That's funny says the copper, your the 4,th, 5th, 20th person that's happened to at this garage in the last 2 days, week etc.

Spotting the fraud earlier just may result in less victims and the chances of catching the culprits increased.

Q. Who Cares.

A. I Care and this is the actions I've taken to reduce the risk of fraud and liability for fraud to myself.

Card Fraud & How to Beat Most of It.

wayoflife

Al_Mac wrote: »

And I can see the point with small amounts not being worthwhile. £10 spend and a minimum of £1000 on investigation, not worth it.

I can see what your saying, but this shouldnt be the case, it should be followed up as a matter of principal to protect identity.

Saying that I have had fraud on my account and the company in question have taken a very slack approach I will have to follow this up. Im not surprised that fraud is escillating fast as companies dont seem to care