credit card fraud - waht happens now?

nadnad

Hi there - last year my mum asked me to apply for an egg card for her - she doesn't have a computer. She had the car for the 9 months 0% and then transfered the balance in Febrauary of this year to another card - since then I haven't received any emails from them re. statements (as card hadn't ben used). I received an email last month but didn't check it for her as she said she had nothing on it, then got another this month and thought it was a bit strange so I checked the account and lo and behold £1207 had appeared - someone was apparently having a good time in Orlando - buying expesive sunglasses and ging to the Cirque du Soleil - a lot!. Anyway my mum phoned Egg immediately and told them what was happening - and they were very nice although she got the feeling that they were a little suspicious of her - the girl on the phone said that she was taking it very well and was very calm about the whole thing - as if this was a bad thing. She was a little worried that they thought she had spent the money.

The customer services said it would be passed to the fraud department and sorted out within 3 working days. Which is all very good - but I was just wondering does any one know how they do confirm it was fraud ? My mum's a little worried - she definitely hasn't been in the USA - the customer services girl said they would verify that she hasn't been there - how do they do that? And what if she had been there at that time - how would they verify it wasn't her? I just wondered what happens and does anybody else have experience of this.

Also Mum was worried they were suspicious because the purchases were made end of July and she only reported it on Saturday - my fault for not checking the statement, I guess thats the problem with online banking sometimes - its easy to ignore/forget about.

Anyway a bit long winded but any experiences/points of view very welcome.

Niteflyer

When you fly to the USA now, you need to fill in and sign a VISA WAIVER FORM on the plane. When you go through customs your details are enetered from the form onto a computer system that will have records of who has entered and left the country.

They can also do a search by using your mum's name, if they enter her name, it will filter out any dates she has travelled to the states.

This is definitely how it works, I know cos I lived over there for 3 1/2 years and had to keep renewing my visa waiver form (it lasts 90 days).

They use this system to identify anyone that has over-stayed their visa and due to the recent terrorist activities, numerous departments including anti-fraud services have access to this information.

Hope this helps.

Matt

Stonk

I don't think they'll check where she's been. If the fraud had taken place in the UK, she'd still get a refund. Even if it had happened in her home town. OK, they might be a bit more suspicious and do a bit more investigation the closer to home the fraud occurred, but they can't assume you're guilty just because of proximity to the crime.

When it happened to me (not with Egg), I had to get a crime reference number from the Police and sign a legal document stating I hadn't done the transactions. Then the transactions were removed.