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Tenpoundbass
2014 Mar 1, 12:09am
I guess Home Depot must be the Swizerland of the stolen identity.
I've had my bank card comprimized a few times as well. They always go to Home Depot to use it.
One time was for over $800 in charges, the bank ended up giving me my money back, and I knew they would. But when I called my friend who is a Detective in my town. He laughed at, and told me,
"What are you expecting, do you think some police resource is going to go to Home Depot and watch the video footage of the people using your card? He said this isn't CSI, the bank will just issue you the credit, and that will be the end of it.
He said the other issue, was I'm in one town but the Home Depot was in another. Home Depot was the one that could legally call Miami Dade police as they live there. I am a Victim in my town, but not in Miami. And since I'm a victim in my town, my local cops has no jurisdiction to even go to the Home Depot to investigate.
I have found in the over 4 times my card has been hijacked since at least 2003. No body is really interested in getting the culprit. It's just a few formatlities like signing a paper, and a few phone calls and the money just goes back in to my account. There is no justice. For these guys that does it, it really must be a nice career crime with out punishment.
FuckTheMainstreamMedia
2014 Mar 1, 1:50am
Its not without punishment(depending on the state). Lots of Armo's locked up in California, for as much as 5-20 years.
I guess the feds are involved in catching this stuff too....
zzyzzx
2014 Mar 1, 4:59am
I don't know that you are a victim of identity theft, I suspect that your American Express prepaid card info has been compromised.
turtledove
2014 Mar 1, 5:16am
That sucks. Sorry you're going through that. Hopefully AMEX will make it right for you, soon. My AMEX card # was stolen and used a few years back and AMEX contacted me before I even noticed the problem (within a day or two of the transaction). They were incredibly quick about identifying the problem, righting the wrong, disabling my old card, and issuing me another. Sounds like their customer service might have gone down a bit over the last few years.
AD
2014 Mar 1, 5:21am
It is easy to find large ticket items at Home Depot like tools or spools of copper wiring which can be easily sold on the black market to shady contractors.
HydroCabron
2014 Mar 1, 5:57am
Does anyone not have this happen on occasion? I get one every 6 years so far.
Ceffer
2014 Mar 1, 5:59am
So far, Wells Fargo has been Jhonnie-on-the-spot with credit cards. They seem to find the slightest uncharacteristic charge and suspend the charge and card and reissue a new one.
I don't mind that at all. It seems somebody manages to purloin the card data about once every year to two years.
Vicente
2014 Mar 1, 6:28am
What kinds of places you use the prepaid card? Gas pumps and other unattended locations seem prime targets for card interceptors to be installed.
Tenpoundbass
2014 Mar 1, 7:33am
So far, Wells Fargo has been Jhonnie-on-the-spot with credit cards. They seem to find the slightest uncharacteristic charge and suspend the charge and card and reissue a new one.
That's uncanny freaky how they do that.
They've saved my ass a few times. Most of times I wonder how they know it's not me. I've used ATMs all over the world, and never once, have been declined. Yet they catch every bad charge, when my card gets jacked. They'll call me and tell me, there's a charge in Texas, or California, while I'm in Florida. But have never stopped me when I travel. It's freaky.
I am now a victim of identity theft. I never dreamed that it would happen to me. Friday was a pleasant day with good accomplishments. I thought that I would begin the weekend relaxed.
Around five in the afternoon I got a low balance alert on my American Express prepaid card. I found this strange as the card had a balance of over $660.00. I opened up the transactions on the card and found a balance of $1.50. Someone had made $660 of unauthorized charges on the card for transactions with Home Depot and Exxon Mobil.
I called the American Express 800 number. Someone in India answered. They said that they could not help me because their computer system was not working. (This was ironic as I could see all of the transactions on my computer.)
I called back 30 minutes alter and got an Indian woman on the phone. She took note of the unauthorized transactions and suspended the card after quite a verbal battle. She then explained to me that I would have to call Home Depot and Exxon Mobil and set up conference calls with the American Express 800 number. Once the companies that had accepted the charges and agreed to reverse them, I could get these taken off the card.
This was either a woman relying on British common law in India (where consumers have far less protection against identity fraud than in the US) or trained to discourage customers from contesting identity fraud charges to save the company money.
I got very angry at this point. I explained to this lady that I had attended law school and worked at law firms as a para legal. I told her that I would file suit on Monday and make sure that the media heard about this situation. I assured her that such an outcome would cause cost American Express far more than the $660 in question. I told her that I was going to stay on the phone all night long. I intended to go all the way up to the managing director of American Express in India to get some resolution.
I was then sent to this woman's supervisor. He was a more rational and knowledgeable man. He agreed to get the charges reversed once final settlement had taken place on Monday afternoon or Tuesday morning.
There is that old saying with two variations as follows:
"It's not a deal until the check clears the bank."
"It's not over until the fat lady sings."
We will see what happens next week. American Express is generally"a class act" and a group of ladies and gentleman. I'm very disappointed in them. But I can imagine what some worst companies would have done in this situation.
My friends the message here is that if you get hit with identity fraud, as the old saying goes: "You're in for the ride of your life." In this situation you are also: "guilty until proven innocent." I strongly urge each of you to buy an identity fraud insurance police from a reputable insurance company like State Farm or one of the major credit bureaus.
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