Thumper
12-05-2022, 05:37 PM
I remember, years ago, P-hole had his fishing gear (and maybe a gun?) ripped off from his truck in his driveway. He later found the stuff listed on eBay … or Craig’s List maybe? He contacted the cops and they could have cared less. I think Cappy offered to get involved, but I don’t remember where it went from there.
Well, in June, Lynn’s brother in California passed away unexpectedly. We immediately threw some clothes in our car and drove to L. A. to be with Lynn’s mom. While there, I ended up with something like 7k-8k of bogus charges to my AmEx card. They seemed to know everywhere I shopped … eBay, Amazon, Walmart, etc. and bought stuff like iPads, iPhones, big screen TV’s, etc. All was ordered on-line. I immediately called AmEx and they asked if I was in physical possession of my card. I told them it’s in my hand as we speak, then they said their fraud dept. would handle the “investigation” and I wouldn’t be charged for anything. When I rechecked the orders, I saw that all had been “cancelled”. We were out of town, so AmEx overnighted a new card.
I checked the orders and saw that whomever made the charges, had changed my saved delivery address. My personal info, including my name, remained the same, but the delivery address was changed to some address in Miami.
A few months later, I received another message alerting me to possible fraudulent charges. Sure enough, someone had made an on-line order, in the middle of the night, to Walmart. They ordered $300-$400 worth of groceries and were scheduled to pick them up at the outside delivery area the next morning, THIS time in Ft. Lauderdale (just north of Miami). I also noticed another $250 or so worth of groceries were in my shopping cart. I guess if they picked up the first load, they would order more with just the push of a button. Again, I called and confirmed I did not order anything and again, the sale was cancelled. AmEx AGAIN sent me a new card. I went through and changed my password at every place I could think of.
A couple days ago, I woke up to take a leak and heard a text message come through on my phone. It was AnEx asking if I’d just placed an on-line order. Ummm, no, it’s 3:00 am, I’m in bed and my card is in my wallet. Again, there were $300-$400 worth of groceries ordered and scheduled for outside pickup at Walmart at 10 AM … this time in Orlando! The same exact M. O. as the previous time, there was another $200-$300 stored in my “shopping cart”. Same deal, their fraud dept. will take care of it and I won’t incur any charges. I later checked and found the order had been cancelled. I now have my THIRD card in 6 months!
Now for my question. WTF does the “fraud dept” do? Wouldn’t it have been easy-peasy to simply have a cop stationed in the outside pickup area and arrest whomever showed up for the delivery? Do these people really give a flying fuck about this stuff, or is it easier to just write it off and move on without ever leaving their desks?
Well, in June, Lynn’s brother in California passed away unexpectedly. We immediately threw some clothes in our car and drove to L. A. to be with Lynn’s mom. While there, I ended up with something like 7k-8k of bogus charges to my AmEx card. They seemed to know everywhere I shopped … eBay, Amazon, Walmart, etc. and bought stuff like iPads, iPhones, big screen TV’s, etc. All was ordered on-line. I immediately called AmEx and they asked if I was in physical possession of my card. I told them it’s in my hand as we speak, then they said their fraud dept. would handle the “investigation” and I wouldn’t be charged for anything. When I rechecked the orders, I saw that all had been “cancelled”. We were out of town, so AmEx overnighted a new card.
I checked the orders and saw that whomever made the charges, had changed my saved delivery address. My personal info, including my name, remained the same, but the delivery address was changed to some address in Miami.
A few months later, I received another message alerting me to possible fraudulent charges. Sure enough, someone had made an on-line order, in the middle of the night, to Walmart. They ordered $300-$400 worth of groceries and were scheduled to pick them up at the outside delivery area the next morning, THIS time in Ft. Lauderdale (just north of Miami). I also noticed another $250 or so worth of groceries were in my shopping cart. I guess if they picked up the first load, they would order more with just the push of a button. Again, I called and confirmed I did not order anything and again, the sale was cancelled. AmEx AGAIN sent me a new card. I went through and changed my password at every place I could think of.
A couple days ago, I woke up to take a leak and heard a text message come through on my phone. It was AnEx asking if I’d just placed an on-line order. Ummm, no, it’s 3:00 am, I’m in bed and my card is in my wallet. Again, there were $300-$400 worth of groceries ordered and scheduled for outside pickup at Walmart at 10 AM … this time in Orlando! The same exact M. O. as the previous time, there was another $200-$300 stored in my “shopping cart”. Same deal, their fraud dept. will take care of it and I won’t incur any charges. I later checked and found the order had been cancelled. I now have my THIRD card in 6 months!
Now for my question. WTF does the “fraud dept” do? Wouldn’t it have been easy-peasy to simply have a cop stationed in the outside pickup area and arrest whomever showed up for the delivery? Do these people really give a flying fuck about this stuff, or is it easier to just write it off and move on without ever leaving their desks?