Credit Card Fraud

[KARL]

As there is no place where this really belongs I post at what seems the next best location.

Fortunately, a day after it was entered, I spotted a fair sized fraudulent transaction on my credit card account. I don't expect to suffer any loss beyond the phone call to report this but I am interested in the aftermath so far as tracing, etc. is concerned. The issuer will not reveal what they and/or others do or what they discover but perhaps someone on AB has an insight into what happens.

The retailer who charged the amount to my account four days before I reported it and the card was cancelled is a Middle Eastern airline, with whom I have never flown or had any dealings, or an agent. I imagine that the fraud investigators will first of all want to reverse the transaction - but presumably the retailer received an acceptance confirmation when they put the thing through so how does this work ? Also, the electronic trail to where it was performed (ISP and such) will exist - presumably there is a cluster of fraudulent transactions to be found behind all of this. Since I have not for quite a while used the card physically, I am assuming that some internet activity of mine which is on file somewhere has been hacked. I have no reason to think my computer links may themselves be compromised at my end.

Given that annually international card fraud, mostly intercepted/stolen data, amounts to sums exceeding the annual GDP of many countries, how much progress is made in tracking down perpetrators and also fully unravel how the fraud is carried out ? Because this is such a large industry, I imagine the fraudsters have a fairly high rate of success and complete escape.

Does anyone here know something revealing about the mechanics, timings, crime detection/solution details ?

[factor-fiction]

I know the card firms will not give you any information about the source or workings of the fraud. It's partly for data protection reasons but i suppose also they don't want to publicise any weaknesses in the system. They see it as their problem and their loss. If they feel you need a new card they will provide it. I had a similar issue and tried to get to the bottom of it, but decided in the end not to worry about it as I'd got my money back plus a new card and was getting no info at all from anyone

[jno]

I once found someone had made their mortgage payment with my card. There was obviously no intent to defraud - in effect, they'd provided their name and address so must have been dead easy to trace - but I was baffled how Churchill had accepted it in the first place. The card was cancelled and replaced at once, which I thought created bother for me when it was clearly Churchill's fault.

Aside from that, I can't actually answer your query, sorry.