Crime does pay (with my card)
Yesterday, my nice afternoon nap was interrupted by a call from Citibank. I hate having my naps interrupted, and I hate getting calls from Citibank. Those people are always trying to sell something.
But this one was worse than the normal telemarketing crap. I was told that my credit card was involved in a suspicious transaction. As soon as I heard those words, I pretty much knew what happened... deja freaking vu.
Flashback to four years ago.... It was a quiet morning at the office--yes, there used to be a time when I didn't sleep till noon everyday. The silence was shattered when someone from Citibank called and asked me if I bought a pricey Timex watch at a mall in another province. I can still remember my panic/rage. "What? No! Who? How?"
I never did find out about the who, but I think I have a pretty good idea as to the how. Days before that happened, I had stopped for gas at an unfamiliar gas station. My card probably got cloned there. Those bastards!
Most credit cards in this country are still of the magnetic stripe variety. All the information stored on these cards can be instantly read and copied with a cheap magnetic card reader. Makes you feel real safe now huh. It's an obvious security flaw in the system (encryption wouldn't have helped here), and credit card companies know that. But instead of spending money to fix the problem, they just shrug and say "shit happens."
And shit happens a little bit too often.
When the Citibank person asked me if I had used my card yesterday, I just sighed knowingly and said, "No. What is it this time?" Well, someone bought 16,231.50 pesos worth of stuff in Ace Hardware SM Manila using a clone of my card. Whoa, that's around $350. I wonder what the guy bought. 10 of these perhaps?
Anyway, Citibank faxed over a dispute form for me to sign. My card has been canceled, and a new one will be sent to me in a few days. The process is still annoying, but it's relatively painless. It seems that Citibank is getting more and more efficient at handling credit card fraud. I guess they've been getting a lot of practice.
Maybe I share part of the blame for not learning my lesson from four years ago. Last Saturday evening, I foolishly filled up at a random gas station in the middle of nowhere. And now this happens. Hmm, is there a syndicate of credit card-stealing gas station attendants? More evidence that oil companies are vortexes of pure evil....
I think I better pay cash next time. The only way to keep a credit card safe is to not use it. That makes sense, right? Yay!
And I used to think that credit cards are convenient.
Switch to a different card
I asked my mom about this, and she says that this seems to happen an awfully lot of time with Citibank credit cards.
Hmm, interesting
I see no reason why cards issued by other banks would be more secure though. All magnetic stripe credit cards follow the same standards and are equivalent from a tech standpoint.
What about BPI?
BPI credit cards have these chips on them, though they still sport magnetic stripes.
Geesh, I just got a Citibank card (unsolicited application, mind you), and I guess I'll never use it at all.
My site is unavailable. I had just paid for domain renewal, and all you can see is a fugly page that says the domain is parked. This always happens during domain renewal. I really should switch providers.
Mmm, chips
I'm hungry :-D
Maybe you should try renewing you domain a bit earlier next time? :-P
But I did!
Three days before deadline! Due date was 16 August!
Oh
So I guess you really need a new host huh :-P
The very reason why
the only places my cash back card goes are Starbucks and anything that says "Pay with PayPal" online
then again, PayPal is even more scary :-/
Where do your gonads want to go today?
PayPal?
Loads of PayPal fraud out there!
Magnetic stripe cards suck
When are we going to move to smart cards?
But wait. OMG SMART CARDZ IZ TEH 666!
Damn.
hmmmm
i'm just wondering, if u stop payments to the shop for ahem, toilet seats, ahem. then who is goin to pay for it?
pfft, mayb cuz citibank sucks? or mayb its their way of adding transaction fees, processing fees and all other fees + taxes. tsk, i wish i am a part of an evil organization bent on squeezing every cent of money out of other ppl. so far i only have been on the other end of the cycle.... tsk! i only get to be part of evil organization bent on world domination, ha,a lot of good dat does to u. if u think about it, its stupid. becuz once u dominated the world, u have to constantly worrying about assasination, rebellion, politics, too much work... damn dope land around here.
Hmm, I don't know
who's gonna pay for those toilet seats. And I don't really care as long as it's not me, heh.
I thought Citibank uses chips
or it differs from country to country? Anyway you should go to gas stations with self service pumps. That way you don't have to hand them your card and it's faster too.
Over here, I think Citibank is one of the best in detecting frauds. But that was a couple of years ago. Maybe now other banks have caught up.
And next time, go get yourself a rolex and when Citibank calls, tell them you didn't buy it.
haha
dats funny, i guess as long as its some thing outrageous and doesn't match ur shopping habits, u might get away with it.
Yay! Free Rolex! >:)
I don't think we have self-service pumps here. Besides, I'd be too lazy to use them, hehe.
So you didn't pay the bill right?
They didn't charge you for that suspicious transaction right?
I have a question though, how do they know that it really wasn't you who committed that suspicious transaction? I mean, you could fake it in a way and get away from paying the huge bill.
Am I making sense or does this exhibit my lack of knowledge about credit cards?
I always pay cash. Thats why i always bring my piggy bank with me when ever I go to the mall or just gas up!
Hmm, good question
I'm not sure about it either.
But I guess you can't carry out evil plans like that more than one or two times. If you do it too often, the credit card company is likely to catch on, and you'll never be able to get another credit card from anywhere for the rest of your life.
jigs man, i think they
check for stacks of toilet seats in your house to make sure u weren't fooling around with them.
u may not care about who's gonna pay for them but somebody has to, if the business keep having their toilet seats, ahem stolen, then they'll go broke. and wat a evil plan!! u make them think they are doing well in business, but ends up not getting paid.
Not that I know much about it,
but you're right, merchants do seem to get the raw end of the deal in a lot of these cases.
credit card fraud *sigh*
hi there. I used to work at a call center and the account I was assigned to was the Security Ops division of a US credit-card company, also known to us in the account as Fraud Ops. basically, our job was to analyze credit card accounts to see whether fraud had been perpetrated on an account, or was in the process of being perpetrated.
so, looking at your issue, I can only say that at least Citibank moved quickly to confirm the anomalous transaction with you. the chargeback and fraud investigation process should be at no cost to you at all since your entry says that they were able to confirm both your identity and the fact that the transaction was fraudulent.
to address one of the comments above: banks that issue credit cards can monitor the spending patterns of the cardholders - they keep tabs on the types of items purchased, as well as the frequency and locations of such purchases. this is probably why they checked on whether the transaction was valid in the first place: a hardware store in a different city, with such a huge price being rung up.
anyway, before this becomes too long, I'll likely be talking about this issue on the new blog, so anyone with any questions can drop in and ask away. ^^
good luck on your next credit card and purchases.
~NineMoons [geninemoons.blogspot.com / chezpanda.blogspot.com]
That was very informative
Thanks :-)
Dodge and anyone else with crazy questions that I can't answer, go see NineMoons Family's post on this subject.
Wow
A serious comment. Philos, you have a competitor.
Poop! Yay!
Sorry. Had to balance things out :-D
thanks for the link
hope the comment, however serious, was at least enough to help others. ^^
Yes, it will help our readers...
all five of them :-D
OK, let's count
Neko, Tiffy, me, Dodge, Arbet, Paolo... Not counting the other "contributors" who blog once in three months... Tsk, looks more like ten :-)
Tyranids may look unpleasant, but believe me, you don't want to let them out of your sight
I know
You think I'd be blogging if only five people read what I write? :-P
So ten is enough for you? :-P
Isn't that too... modest for someone who plans world domination?
Tyranids may look unpleasant, but believe me, you don't want to let them out of your sight
World domination
cannot be achieved with a blog. That would require a military solution. Maybe nukes. Yay!
But I do get enough visitors here to keep me happy, even though most of them never leave comments.
What about me?
I have very few readers :-(
That's not true
according to the world visitor map thing you have. You even have visitors from the middle of oceans. Mermaids?
Mermaids!
Wee!~!~!
Yes, mermaids
They steal our Internet connection from the cables on the ocean floor.
I was going to say that!
But I somehow couldn't think of the word 'cable'
-_-"
Cable
C-A-B-L-E. Cable. Yay!
And if you don't worry about talking in slang, then
Wires. W_I_R_E_S. Wah-yuhrz. Yay!
Tyranids may look unpleasant, but believe me, you don't want to let them out of your sight
KBOLZ
K-B-O-L-Z. KBOLZ! LOLZ
I think that's because
They screw up the IP address and they locate it wrong :-(
So basically, it's just for show. Yay! :-(
No mermaids?
Aw :-(
Maybe they're the people
Who got stuck in the bermuda triangle! :-D
Hahaha, yes
Poor people.
They're not really poor
They have wi-fi enabled laptops!
Unlimited internet!
Really? :-/ Hmm
How long before Philos or Carnifex paste the Wikipedia link for Bermuda Triangle? :-D
HAhahahaha!
There are super waves in the Bermuda triangle!
There are?
Yay!
Yes
One of the reasons for disappearing ships
And also the reason
For free internet? :-D
Let's see...
Three hours twenty-three minutes
Tyranids may look unpleasant, but believe me, you don't want to let them out of your sight
:-P
Smart ass.
Haha...
Glad I resisted the temptation :p Anyhow, the Bermuda triangle mystery is a myth.
I knew it
You just couldn't resist hitting people over the head with knowledge huh :-P
So no more triangle? :-(
How about a circle? :-D
You just can't let this one go huh
Why can't you just be like everyone else and accept the truth of mermaids? :-P
Because I wanted to be a mermaid
And since I can't, no one can be mermaids. :-P
You wanted to be a mermaid?
You should watch that mermaid movie.
Does that mean...
when I will become the ruler of the world, I can ban all the women? Yay!
Tyranids may look unpleasant, but believe me, you don't want to let them out of your sight
Channeling the kitty....
You're up to 11% now!
I'm looking forward to the day, ...
... when it reaches 101%. What then? I'll be gay and then some? Wonder, what that could be...
Tyranids may look unpleasant, but believe me, you don't want to let them out of your sight
Supergay?
Yay!
I sincerely hope....
...that word doesn't have any implications I will be licking and sticking in my ass absolutely all dicks, not only those belonging to homo sapiens, puke puke puke and pukity puke :-/
Tyranids may look unpleasant, but believe me, you don't want to let them out of your sight
Thank god
your comment is scrolled so far right that no one will ever read it :-P
Oh yuck!
You're giving people ideas.
I'm just trying to understand...
...what is the definition of supergay :-|
Tyranids may look unpleasant, but believe me, you don't want to let them out of your sight
Supergay?
Are you kidding me? You don't know?
You wear panties outside your super outfit instead of briefs.
Duh. Everybody knows that. :-/
Hahaha
That's actually funny. I'm proud of you.
Hahaha!
Panties! Lacey ones :P Oh yuck.
So you're saying I'm not really funny?
Just this once?
I'm glad that I made you proud though! :-D
Ew.
I puked in my mouth.
Kidding.
I think I got my card swiped
I think I got my card swiped at a petrol station too, I'm sure this is a sydicate going on, I think I saw the website, I'll try find it haha
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