01-02-2013, 03:44 PM
All,
Just posting this as a warning as I can't rule out someone on this island is after your credit card info.
I got called this morning by Citibank's "early warning" dept and was told that several charges had been made to one of my credit cards. Several thousands of dollars of charges to be accurate. They also told me, although I found it difficult to understand the person's accent, that Citibank had actually been called by the fraudster because one of the charges hadn't gone through. They had my address correct but did not get my name quite right, which triggered an alert.
Incidentally, just as a word of advice, if something like this happens to you, it's always best to call the credit card company or bank using the number on the back of your card (which I did). This way you'll know you're talking to someone at the bank and not someone trying it on.
In any case, to cut to the chase, it seems Citibank caught this quickly enough that I won't be out any money. My card was canceled but will get a new one in a day or two (free of charge) and in a few days will get a statement in which I need to identify all the fraudulent charges (most of which I have already done on the phone, but they need it on paper).
As I said at the top, I can't rule out someone on this island being behind this although I only use that card in a couple of places here and have done so for many years. Given the fraudulent charges seemed to be mostly for flights on British Airways and Virgin Atlantic, I suspect it's more likely someone managed to get enough details while I was on vacation in the UK a couple of months ago, perhaps the card details were copied while I paid for a meal at a restaurant, I don't know yet.
Fortunately Citibank have a really efficient security system that picks things up pretty quickly (sometimes a little too efficiently!), but other companies may not have as efficient early warning systems, so just thought I'd let people know it's possible someone's after credit card info here.
Tom
http://apacificview.blogspot.com/
Just posting this as a warning as I can't rule out someone on this island is after your credit card info.
I got called this morning by Citibank's "early warning" dept and was told that several charges had been made to one of my credit cards. Several thousands of dollars of charges to be accurate. They also told me, although I found it difficult to understand the person's accent, that Citibank had actually been called by the fraudster because one of the charges hadn't gone through. They had my address correct but did not get my name quite right, which triggered an alert.
Incidentally, just as a word of advice, if something like this happens to you, it's always best to call the credit card company or bank using the number on the back of your card (which I did). This way you'll know you're talking to someone at the bank and not someone trying it on.
In any case, to cut to the chase, it seems Citibank caught this quickly enough that I won't be out any money. My card was canceled but will get a new one in a day or two (free of charge) and in a few days will get a statement in which I need to identify all the fraudulent charges (most of which I have already done on the phone, but they need it on paper).
As I said at the top, I can't rule out someone on this island being behind this although I only use that card in a couple of places here and have done so for many years. Given the fraudulent charges seemed to be mostly for flights on British Airways and Virgin Atlantic, I suspect it's more likely someone managed to get enough details while I was on vacation in the UK a couple of months ago, perhaps the card details were copied while I paid for a meal at a restaurant, I don't know yet.
Fortunately Citibank have a really efficient security system that picks things up pretty quickly (sometimes a little too efficiently!), but other companies may not have as efficient early warning systems, so just thought I'd let people know it's possible someone's after credit card info here.
Tom
http://apacificview.blogspot.com/