June 9, 2011 12:56 p.m.
This is twice in the same year! I found out last night that my Discover Card was counterfeited by a complete stranger and used three times yesterday, in Texas, to purchase gasoline.
It began after dinner when I saw an email on my computer tell me to call Discover immediately about suspicious account activity. Since I didn’t even trust the email (I am usually called by phone from those folks) I didn’t open the email, but instead went to the Discover.com website, only to “discover” that I could not have access to my own account record.
At this point, I telephoned 1 – 800 – DISCOVER (always the easiest phone number to remember) and entered a few facts about my account, which resulted in my being transferred to the Fraud Detection department. The computer had me verify recent activity (“Uh, Self-Reliant Man, did you go to a Shell station today? – pause – you didn’t?”) Well, you get the idea. Long story short, someone in College Station, Texas had used a counterfeit credit card to purchase gas from three different pumps, and was declined when they attempted to purchase from a fourth pump.
No worry, I am guaranteed to not have to pay these charges, and Discover has a terrific system for recognizing and flagging suspicious activity. So, they cancelled my card and are issuing me a new one, which I will receive tomorrow through Fedex at Discover’s expense. I have to hand it to Discover; they see this stuff and take action fast. I have already had my Discover card fail to work while on vacation for the very reason that they are so careful. We knew why, though, and were able to get the matter cleared up by phone from Kentucky (yup, it sure is handy to be able to remember 1 – 800 – DISCOVER while you are on the road).
Lessons learned? I suppose in an indirect way it is my fault that this happened. We do use our Discover card to make many, many online purchases in a year. But shopping online does save us bundles of money and gas, since we live in a somewhat remote area and often buy items that would be difficult to find in a store nearby. However, I am not likely to change my habits. I will just continue to use my Discover card as often as possible, and be alert to communications from them. They were the ones to alert me last December to the unauthorized use of my card by a restaurant waitress. Remember that situation?
The sad thing is that credit card fraud costs credit card companies so much time and money. I am certainly happy to be using a Discover card. (and no, I am not an employee of Discover/Novus, just a satisfied customer).
3 comments:
I do a lot of online shopping for the same reasons you do: huge savings on time and money. Hooray for Discover alerting you to suspicious activity. I've had similar good treatment with my Visa card, so, while I have other cards, the one issued by my bank is the one I always use.
This happened to us last year--three times! One time the thieves used the card to pay for an upscale hotel room in the next town over. After working things out with our card issuer, I called the hotel, told them what had happened, and they got in touch with the police. The people who had used our card were still checked in, and got arrested when they returned to their room.
There's a lesson in that: if you're going to rent a hotel room with a stolen card number, don't stay there multiple nights!
We've never had our card stolen, even though we also do a lot of online shopping. They have called me a couple of times, though, about suspicious activity. They are fast, like you said. Really do love them and will continue to use them as well.