[registrars] Credit card hi jinks
Dear Registrars: I just received the following from a former Chinese employee of PSI-Japan. He graduated from his university in Tokyo early in the 90's. He's with a travel firm in Taiwan with connections in Singapore. Nothing unique about these stories, but they interested me enough to pass them along to you. Regards, BobC Use of credit card Scene 1 Friend goes to the local gym and places his belongings in the locker. After workout and a shower, comes out, sees the locker open and thinks to himself "Funny... thought I had locked it...hmmm" dresses and just flips the wallet to make sure all is in check. Everything looks ok, all cards in place. Few weeks later receives his credit card bill...WTF! A whooping bill of $14k! Calls up the credit card company and starts yelling he didn't make the transactions. Customer care personnel verify no mistake in the system and asks if his card had been stolen. "No" he says..takes out wallet and pulls out card...yup! you guessed it...a switch was made. A similar looking expired card was placed in the wallet. The thief broke into his locker at the gym and switched cards. Verdict: Credit card issuer says since he didn't report the card missing earlier, he would still have to pay the amount owed to them. How much does he have to pay for items he did not buy? $9k Why were there no calls to verify the amount swiped? Small amounts rarely trigger a 'warning bell' in credit card companies. It just so happened that the small amounts amounted to big ones! Scene 2 My dad at a local restaurant paid for his meal with his credit card. The bill came, he signed it, the waitress folds the receipt and passes the credit card along. Usually, he would just take it and place it in his wallet or pocket. Funny enough, he actually just took a look at the card and look behold... expired card of another person. He called the waitress and she looked perplexed. She took it back, apologized and hurried back to the counter under the watchful eye of my dad. All the waitress did whilst walking to the counter was she waved the fake card and the counter cashier immediately looked down and took out the real card. No exchange of words...nothing.... Took it and came back to my dad with apologies. Verdict: make sure the credit cards in your wallet are yours! Check the name on the card every time you sign for something and its taken away for a short period of time. |