"Reginald P. Smithers III" wrote in message
...


I think your legal liability for a stolen credit card is $50, but I don 't
believe any of the major credit card companies actually hold you
responsible for the $50.

I had someone write $2700 of credit card "checks" to pay off another
credit card (which was probably a stolen credit card), and they
immediately wrote off the total amount. I also had a $8000 card appear on
my card, from Turkey. They wrote that off without any questions.

I had Citibank Security call one day because someone in a town close by
had made 7 charges at the exact same gas station during a one hour period.
I told them they were not mine, and they wrote all of them off.

All of these charges occurred in the same month, so somehow someone got my
credit card number and was using it. I immediately purchased a shredder
and shred anything with any personal info on it. Since I started using
the shredder, I have not had any problems. According to the credit card
company, trash hopping is a common way to get credit card numbers and is
much easier than cracking a secure web site.



I had that happen once with a Discover card. We were home in MA and
Discover called me one Saturday morning asking me if I was doing a lot of
shopping somewhere in Florida using the card. They asked to to verify that
I had the card in my possession, which I did. Someone, somehow had made a
counterfeit card with my account number on it and was having a ball to the
tune of $3,400 in one morning before Discover decided to verify the charges.
It's not known how they got my account number, since I very rarely used that
card.

Eisboch