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Nothing is more frustrating, than opening your monthly statement, to discover huge charges that you did not authorize, for goods or services you never received. Quite often, this is the first sign that you are a victim of credit card fraud.
Someone has acquired your card number. Either by stealing your mail, going through your garbage, looking over your shoulder during a purchase, or some other method. They may even have acquired your personal information, including address, and social insurance number, and have now acquired duplicate cards or additional accounts.
A pair of thieves were convicted in Florida, for the computerized theft of 12,000 credit card numbers used in a variety of restaurants. The approximate total of losses incurred, was $7 million dollars. A man in Texas received a 54 month jail term for the $30,000 debt he incurred on two credit cards, which he validated with a single piece of I.D. Another man in Maryland, went to prison for 33 months, after accessing the personal data and credit account numbers of fellow employees and customers of the company he worked for.
If your mail appears to have been tampered with at any time, report it to the Post Office. If you receive unsolicited credit cards, cut them up immediately and report it to the issuing company. If your statement does not arrive as usual, or when it does arrive it includes unauthorized charges, contact the issuing credit card company immediately. Then follow up with a credit report, to make sure that the fraudulent use of your cards does not appear on your credit history. Free credit reports are available from
Free
Credit Report.
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