Wednesday, January 11, 2006

1st shocker of 2006

This afternoon... I found out that I'm a victim of credit card fraud. My bank informed me that they detected "suspicious" transactions on my Mastercard in Norway. NORWAY! Over $2,000 have already been charged to my card.

I informed the bank that I can prove that I was in Singapore when the transactions were made. So right now, my card has been deactivated and there are forms I will have to fill to file for a case of fraud.

I suppose I could be thankful that the amount isn't a more painful one. But, still... it sucks to be cheated... to be robbed.

The good thing is that the bank will give me temporary credit for the amount that was charged to my card in Norway. They will need to conduct a full investigation on this case first. If they can prove this really is a case of fraud, they will give me a proper and full refund.

Now I'm going to dig around for my magnifying glass to study all my past months' bank statements carefully. Who knows what else may have been charged to my already shrunken bank account?

Please go check your own statements too!

~5-Cat Style

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

crikey, did you happen to use your card to pay for purchases on the Internet? that's why i tried hard to not buy anything online but my bf thought as long as the site is safe and reliable. you'll never know 'cos this is not just a simple case of fraud, but sort of identity theft as well.

fingers cross with regards to the refund :)

=^..^= said...

So far, all my online purchases are with companies like Amazon. I've been buying with them for years now with no problems. And then there's the regular Internet booking for GV movie tickets.

Some of my friends think that maybe someone, on my trip in Bintan, may have skimmed my card. This is what BBC says about skmming cards.

"During recent years, the major way that fraud has been carried out has been by card "skimming".

Skimming is a process whereby the data from a card's magnetic strip is electronically copied onto another card.

This fraud is often carried out in restaurants, shops and petrol stations - you hand over your card and a replica card is produced and used, sometimes on the other side of the world."

So online or otherwise, it looks like we can't be too careful.

~5-Cat Style

Anonymous said...

yeah, agree with 5-cat style. major suspect is bintan. online fraud is less of a suspect. i mean, there are like thousands of cards to choose from... i feel safer buying online than paying by credit card in say, malaysia.

i hope you get the money back soon!

ANGEL ABBYGRACE said...

So sorry to hear this...fraud is always a scary thing. Hope this turns out well for you. Good for your credit card company being so on guard!

=^..^= said...

Thanks, Kuro Neko! I'm hoping to get my $$$ back soon too. :)


I'm so thankful that my credit card company was spot-on about the "suspicious transactions", Debra. Otherwise, I may not even have spotted them myself! *shudder*

~5-Cat Style

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