Since we are on the case of fraud, I'll share with everyone an ingenious one that happened to me. This one even impressed the fraud people at Amex.

Someone got a hold of my credit card and ordered a laptop computer from overstock.com and had it all shipped to me. The scammer used a text service to call me the day the order was placed, to inform me that there was a package coming to my address that had been inadvertently shipped to the wrong address. He said the package had his name on it but my address and wanted me to just leave the package on my porch and he would send a courier to pick up the package. Since I had never received a text call before, it just seemed to weird, so I decided to check my Amex account (the only card I use on the net) just to see if there was a charge. There was no charge. The package arrived the next day and had his name on it like he said. I decided to check my credit card one more time. What do you know, there was a charge. Well, about two hours later a courier arrives looking for the package. I asked him who sent him and he looked at his paper work and then said it was private. So I told him I was not giving him the package and told him to tell his scumbag customer to call me. I also let him know he was being used to commit a crime. He could care less and just left.

I immediately opened a fraud ticket with Amex. After a week, the scammer calls again on the text service wanting to know why I had not shipped the package. I told him I would ship it to him personally if he provided me his address. He said that he did not want to trouble me and would rather have his courier pick up the package. After some foul words I hung up and have not heard from him again. What is even more stupid, Overstock.com has yet to come and pickup the laptop.

Had I not been home, or had he not called me in the first place, there would have been a very good chance that the package would have been on the porch and I would have never know anything until my bill came. Could you imagine fighting the charge when the UPS driver says he delivered the package. I can assure you if the charge was on a VISA I would be stuck. Its also obvious they were tracking the delivery.

My guess is that they used the text service because they were calling from somewhere in Africa and probably did not speak very good English. While this fraud was crude, its only a matter of time before they perfect it. What they should have done is called and said they were calling from Overstock and that they screwed up in shipping and for me to leave the package out on the porch for them to pick up. Even with an accent (outsourcing) I would have probably gone for it. Scary.

If this happens to anyone again, call the Police/FBI and they will greet the person picking up the package and take care of it. That also gives you a police report for your credit card company.

"I can assure you if the charge was on a VISA I would be stuck."

Luckily, most internet companies are VERY aware of this scam, it happens more often than people realize. I work at a .com site that sells lots of stuff. We've seen cases where customers will legitimately order items and it will never arrive to their home. Turns out either some one at UPS steals it OR (more often) theives 'tail' the UPS trucks and after they drop off the package, they steal it right off your porch. Not so funny if you've ordered a computer - pretty hilarious if you've ordered a box of adult diapers and toothpaste!

"I can assure you if the charge was on a VISA I would be stuck."

Why? I had something fraudulently charged at a local jewelry store to my VISA (Never even been in the place - imagine me buying jewelry while in the middle of selling and moving my house!) I had absolutely no trouble with VISA and the people I dealt with were courteous about the whole thing. The charge was taken off and they did their own investigation.

Shyeah right. The police could care less about this stuff and apparently so to the credit card companies.

Kitchenshock, your honesty really is to be commended. Enjoy your new lap top I guess.

Ive had a lot less trouble with my VISA when my wallet was stolen, than my AMEX card.

amex wanted a copy of the police report... geesh, after 17 years you'd a thought they'd trust a costomer.

My VISA bank has called me when they find transactions they don't think fit my profile. Once it was when I started some home renovations and, being disorganized, when to Home Depot about 10 times in 3 days, but the other time really was fraud. Visa was really helpful - unlike the bank where I have my checking account.

kitchenshock-
Glad you were able to thwart this crook. I don't like UPS to leave packages on my doorstep for the reasons you described. I feel more comfortable having them shipped to a friend's business. He signs for the package(s) and keeps them behind the counter until I can come by and get them.

Not long ago I responded to a pet ad on Craigslist. I got a reply from a sender in Nigeria. They offer pets for free or next to nothing to draw you in, then ask you to do the stuff we have all been warned about.

We have Sirius radio. We got an email telling us to update our info. We wondered how the sender knew so much about our account, so I sent a email to Sirius. They denied that it could have been an inside job. I still don't believe them. Makes me glad I paid for my subscription with a virtual credit card.

Virtural numbers are great--thru Citibank. We use them often when we orde something we are unsure of.

What is a virtual number?

Actually the Visa fraud people drive me nuts. I really think they could ruin a marriage

DH and I have a joint credit card. He uses it a lot for business. He often has a high balance on there yet they will call us for some 200 nonsense item. So we will often come home to someone with an incompreshensible accent left that morning asking us to call an 800 number.

What is worse is for the first 48 hours they cannot usually tell you exactly what you bought. So I get a call, is DH home? No what is the probem? we are checking on suspicious activity on his card. Ok what is it? He bought luggage yesterday in the next state over 50 miles away (when he was supposed to be in his office 10 miles away). Well it turns out he had ordered a new briefcase a few weeks before at a convention, so actually used his card in person and it was sent by mail and it was ready and had shipped yesterday! Fortunately I trust him but I really get annoyed at Mastercard

I just got an email today from a similar scam to the Nigerian, except they said they were businessmen from Japan. Of course, the contact number was in the UK. Maybe they figured out that alot of people were onto them and tried using a different country as the base for the crime, even though they're probably in Nigeria.

When people mention VISA and MASTERCARD, they really should be referring to the individual banks that issue credits cards bearing those two logos.

Such as Chase or Citibank, each bank has their own way of handling the report and liability or lost/stolen cards as well as watching for patterns or suspect purchases.

With AMEX you are generally talking about AMEX directly, although they are leasing out the AMEX logo so banks can issue AMEX Branded cards.

I agree on the credit card info that heyyou has posted. I have my Visa through my local credit union. If there is ever a problem I can get into my car and actually talk to a human who speaks English and not someone in India.
Also, this credit union doesn't have a late charge if you pay late...they just put on interest. Sometimes I'm traveling and don't see the bill to pay it, so this is nice. Also, this credit union has a flat 11% interest for everyone if you are in the habit of keeping a balance.
I sat on the Board of this CU and so know, when there is fraud, Visa doesn't take the hit, the CU does.

I only keep one credit card active but former card issuers keep sending me new credit cards even though I never activate and use them.

Some years ago I received 3 calls in 2 days from the 3 credit card companies advising me of possible fraud. I confirmed I did not attempt to make the purchases they referenced as those credit cards were in my bank safe deposit box. I also advised the CC companies I never pulled off the sticky tape and activated them by phone.

Obviously an inside job. I called Experian, TransUnion and Equifax and advised them to put out an alert. All my credit cards were cancelled and only one new card was reissued.

All credit card companies need to do is issue a 4 digit pin number that must be keyed in on your touch tone phone or at your local Walmart. If you feel the code was compromised, you can change it at any time.

If any theft does take place, there is a 99% chance that all the credit card companies have to do is investigate their own employees.

How's this one?

Mom goes to her local WaMu branch to make an ATM w/drawal. Notices that there's $10k missing. Goes tearing into the bank, says 'what up, yo?' They say that my dad made 2 cash, in-person w/drawals on subsequent days the prev week. In Jamaica. Queens, not the island, but still--I'm confident he wouldn't know how to get to Jamaica if threatened or bribed.

So, DM puts an alert on the account. So any further transactions shd raise a red flag. Calls the 800 number, yadda. Couple days later, another $10k is gone. Same deal. Same bank, same teller. So she closes the account and opens another one (at the same bank, which I hit the ceiling when I learned, but that's another story.).

Can you guess? Couple days later, another $20k is gone. This time, there are multiple $5k w/drawals on the same day. This should, even absent all the other issues, trigger an alert because of the anti-drug and anti-terror laws. But it doesn't. This time, she empties the account and puts what little remains in a non-joint savings account.

The cops caught the bag man the next time he came to get money. AFAIK, they haven't done anything about the teller. You can't convince me that the teller and probably the branch manager weren't in on this scam. They had my dad's SS#, the account number(s), and they did a decent job of forging his signature. Now tell me how all that happens randomly.

It took a couple weeks, but the bank refunded the money.

Meanwhile, if one of the asst managers at my mom's branch hadn't been a former student, they might have gotten even more money out of them, because the manager wasnt' at all helpful, or even very concerned about the fact that multiple tens of thousands of dollars were walking away from this account.

For the banks, all this fraud is just a line item in the balance sheet, which they can write off on their taxes and pay for by raising fees on everyone. For the victims, it's a nightmare trying to get your life back together.

As far as the Nigerians, here's my favorite website of all time. This man is a genious and a hero.

Here is a link that might be useful: my favorite website

"Would you like to buy a Bridge in Brooklyn" has been replaced with.....

"Would you like to buy some carbon credits?"

Same game....plenty of suckers.

hehe, check out

Here is a link that might be useful: revenge on laptop scams

The only credit card that I know of is Citibank that uses virtual number. It is a one time number they give you to use on line, and no other informaion is given out regarding your account.

housenewbie and heyyouoverthere, thanks for the links! I have gotten some good laughs reading them. It's great that these scammers are getting done unto them as they do unto others.

heyyouoverthere:

Long read but worth it.
Disturbing.. (Jeff was not heard from again)

I know... I thought that was really weird that he just disappeared.

Great stories on the guys busting these Nigerian scum. I've included the link below to one that I read the other night - I laughed so hard I could hardly breath.

It's serious business and these "Lads" as they call them are no longer just sending out stupidly worded letters about some relative who died and left millions - this is serious stuff and they are working huges numbers - with their check scams - volume - no telling how many people selling on Ebay and Craig's List, targeting Bed n' Breakfasts, Vacation Rentals and now FSBO sites.

Worst yet, a vast amount of the money they scam goes to terrorist organizations, targeting not just the U.S. but other countries.

Still the scambuster stories make for really good reading as they are not only funny but they also bring some sense of bad guy getting his comuppence. A little justice one guy at a time.

Here is a link that might be useful: Busted !!

I had a car for sale two years ago on craig's list. I had a scammer of some sort contact me via email. At first they seemed to be making legitimate inquiries about the car. The person said they were representing someone in England, who wanted the car, and they were buying it for them here in the U.S. to be shipped back to England. Then they said they wanted to buy it with a cashier's check but the amount would be over the purchase price and I would need to send the difference before shipping etc, etc.

Since this was April of 2005, the scam was new at the time but I still knew it was a scam of some sort. I researched it online on the FBI's website. Sure enough, there were big warnings about the new scam. I reported this person but never heard anything from the FBI.

However, they didn't use an international address. They actually used the address of a bed and breakfast in michigan. But the phone number they gave me always went straight to voice mail. And when I called the B&B, they had no idea who that person was.

Since the money was to be wired to them instead of sending it to the B&B, I think they just picked an address at random that seemed legitimate. They weren't planning on getting any mail or money at that address. But having a U.S. address made them seem more legitimate, I suppose.

One of the things that made me curious at the very beginning was it made no sense for anyone in England to want to buy a used car in the U.S., especially a gas guzzling Ford Explorer. So big for a country with such narrow streets and sky high gas prices. How much is the equivalent of a gallon of gas there? Isn't it around $6? And plus, the steering wheel would be on the wrong side of the car!

Anyway, I never did tell the guy that I'd busted him. I wanted to see if the FBI would catch him. But they didn't do anything. No one ever contacted me.

I did find an article at the time in the Chicago Sun Times on this then new scam. So I emailed the reporter to give him the details on how they'd tried to scam me. He emailed me back and I forwarded him the emails. I thought at least a reporter could make use of the info to get the news out.

A guy named Steve H. Graham has a book, The Good, The Spam and The Ugly, about his adventures with 419ers.

Want to know what the scammers would consider a great deal? Rent somebody else's money at 1/2% per month. Intermediate between merchants and consumers, guaranteeing payment, for a 3% fee on that money. (You might get multiple turnovers of the money per month). Charge 1 - 1 1/2% per month for any unpaid consumer balances. Betcha already know the name of that scam.

Uh, yeah, I frequently succumb to it.