Credit Card Fraud - How Does It Happen?

Sunset on Hilton Head Island - MMSikes

Is credit card fraud getting worse? We just had an experience with it that makes me wonder. Although we did not lose our cards, counterfeit cards were made with our information. The credit card company monitors accounts constantly. When they saw charges coming up that did not fit our profile, they immediately contacted us. There were charges for shoes at Finish Line in Columbus, Ohio that we did not make. Attempts were made three days later (after the account was closed) at Finish Line, Wal-Mart, and Shell--all in Columbus.

We haven't been in Ohio for several years. However, we were in Chicago's O'Hare International Airport for a few hours in late August. Was an image of our credit card captured there? Did it happen at a service station gas pump? An associate in the credit card fraud department told me that's a place it's happening a lot now. The crooks place devices to take images of your cards at the pumps. I'd heard of that being done on ATM machines, but not at gas pumps.

He also warned of two people waiting behind you in a line. One will memorize the first half of your credit card number, the other person will remember the second half.

Counterfeit cards first became a problem for credit card companies in California and Arizona. Now the fraud is "getting really big" on the East Coast.

The credit card company is investigating what happened to enable the counterfeit cards in our situation. Still, we are left with changing card numbers for those companies that automatically receive payments through our card.

Did the fraud happen because of use on the Internet? Was it at O'Hare? Was it at some random gas pump? The investigators may discover where it happened.

They may not.

Whatever happens, I'm posting another sunset photograph. Credit card fraud can't take that away.

--Mary Montague Sikes