I have become the victim of a not particularly smart criminal

"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
08/03/2018 at 11:40 • Filed to: None

This morning, I checked my phone and saw a text message from Discover that a potentially fraudulent purchase at Walmart had been blocked. I also had two emails from Walmart confirming and then canceling an order for an Apple Watch, to be picked up at the store in Miami Gardens, FL. I live in Rockville, MD.

I checked my Discover account, and best I could tell, this was the only fraudulent charge. I quickly peeked at the emails from Walmart, saw that the order had canceled, and figured I’d call Discover later in the day to follow up. Before I got the chance, they called me.

While I was on the phone with Discover, they asked if I had any additional information about the charge. I looked back at the confirmation email from Walmart to see the exact location of the store pickup attempt. Not only did it say the location this person had attempted to order the Apple Watch for pickup from, they listed their own name as the pickup person.

Once I got off the phone with Discover, I called the Miami Gardens police department and filed a report. With any luck, they’ll pick the person up soon. Maybe I’ll get a free all expenses paid trip to Florida to be a witness.

DISCUSSION (32)

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > Textured Soy Protein
08/03/2018 at 11:51

I had someone book a cruise on my card one time. Are you actually going to show up for that (so you can be easily arrested) ? SMH...

Azrek > Textured Soy Protein
08/03/2018 at 11:51

WITNESS!!!! *Cue Mad Max Fury Road music*

HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles > Textured Soy Protein
08/03/2018 at 11:55

Nice we had a similar experience with our Debit cars someone had tried to order two iPads one Walmart.com for pick up. I don’t think they used a real name tho.

So Shiney. So Chrome! So Frunky > Textured Soy Protein
08/03/2018 at 11:56

My wife once had someone purchase a pair of Air Jordans using her credit card. The credit card refunded the purchase but a week later the shoes showed up on her doorstep. Idiot forgot to change the shipping address. So she tried to just return them, calling the company and explaining the situation, expecting to just send the shoes back and be done. But they insisted even though there was fraud if she returned them she got the return value so she got like $200 in store credit out of the deal. Goo d luck getting that trip!

404 - User No Longer Available > Textured Soy Protein
08/03/2018 at 12:02

I had my card skimmed once, some guy tried to make a transaction with the cloned card out in Montreal.

Unlucky for him, back then I was a poor student and my card was maxed out, so his transaction was declined.

Ash78, voting early and often > Textured Soy Protein
08/03/2018 at 12:07

Discover is pretty aggressive, and usually in a good way.

Once mine was skimmed at a gas station and used within an hour at both Walmart and Target to buy espresso machines and stuff like that. Zero liability, but I had to get a new card issued for the first time in 15 years after I had memorized the old number. I still can’t get the new one right...

BigBlock440 > Textured Soy Protein
08/03/2018 at 12:08

How do you know it was their own name and also not fraudulent ?

For Sweden > Textured Soy Protein
08/03/2018 at 12:12

Why do you hate wealth redistribution

Future Heap Owner > Textured Soy Protein
08/03/2018 at 12:14

Wow, you get drunk one night, and bam!

Textured Soy Protein > BigBlock440
08/03/2018 at 12:22

I don’t, but that’s up to the Miami Gardens police to figure out.

Spanfeller is a twat > For Sweden
08/03/2018 at 12:49

Ah, a suporter of universal applecare. Good man

Arrivederci > HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles
08/03/2018 at 13:07

Don’t use debit cards - that’s a direct link to your checking account. When the money goes out of it, it takes time to get it back. With a credit card, the only thing lost is the bank’s money.

HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles > Arrivederci
08/03/2018 at 13:29

Yeah we made that change after that happened. Plus as long as you stay ahead your payments you make money using the right cards.

HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles > Arrivederci
08/03/2018 at 13:30

Also if I recall corrrectlt they got the card info off Groupon

404 - User No Longer Available > HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles
08/03/2018 at 13:55

This.

Yet there are still a LOT of people out there who treats credit card like the second coming of evil or something, like it will corrupt and bankrupt people.

It’s the user’s discipline, not the tool.

ZHP Sparky, the 5th > Textured Soy Protein
08/03/2018 at 14:16

My coworker recently had his identity stolen by someone renting an apartment in Sacramento. Basically had a fake ID with my coworkers name on it, was using his SSN etc. and filled in application paperwork. Somehow his credit monitoring service picked it up and alerted him.

I have no idea what the guy’s long term plan was. Just totally take on this new identity and live in that apartment??? One day he’ll open the door to the cops and shake his head in disappointment going “What took you so long? This is why I don’t pay my taxes!”

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > Textured Soy Protein
08/03/2018 at 14:35

Wow, that was slow.

Chase will literally call me within moments of a potentially fraudulent charge being attempted. One time I was snowboarding and got a call from them when I was in line for a lift about 20 minutes after I paid for a lift ticket at the booth. They said someone was trying to buy something in some random location on my card (that they had blocked) and they asked if it was me, and I told them it wasn’t (they suspected it wasn’t because of the recent lift ticket purchase nearer to my home, followed by something thousands of miles away that wouldn’t be physically possible ). They canceled my card and sent me a new one right then and there.

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles
08/03/2018 at 14:40

Yeah, it’s safer and it’s like a built in discount.

One of mine has a 7.5% rate on whatever the rotating category is (Freedom + CSR redemption) and nothing is under 2.25%. D ining and travel are 4.5% . All leveled out after the $150 annual fee (which they simply forgot to charge me this year, and I spend a lot on CCs), it’s ~2-7.25% on everything.

Textured Soy Protein > Eric @ opposite-lock.com
08/03/2018 at 14:55

The Walmart order confirmation email was time stamped 12:31 AM and the text from Discover was at 12:38 AM. Discover blocked the transaction and Walmart canceled the order due to the card being declined.

Dr_Watson > Textured Soy Protein
08/03/2018 at 14:59

Had a similar incident with my Citi card last month. Got a fraud alert text about an $1200 apple purchase. I confirmed it’s fraud, as soon as I got off the phone with citi apple called about the decline. Talked to the Apple person and they said it was a web order for pickup at the Manhattan store.

Side note... I also got the receipt in my email and it's fucking sick that you can get an iPhone price up to 1200 bones.

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > 404 - User No Longer Available
08/03/2018 at 15:01

My parents did so poorly with them that I didn’t get one until I got a really attractive offer that I couldn’t refuse. They are constantly in debt and making minimum payments, juggling balances between cards for many years (every 0% or low-percentage offer they got, they’d get a new one and combine/transfer balances). Ultimately, after I left home, the offers quit coming and they finally did some kind of consolidation thing that basically had them paying off at some fixed rate, but completely destroyed their credit.

I have never paid interest on anything that wasn’t basically extortion (long story, should have sued them, and this is why I don’t have store accounts through GE/Synchrony/whatever name they’ve changed to this week to avoid the hate reviews piling up online under any given name ) , I simply don’t spend money I don’t have. It’s really not that hard. The problem is believing it’s some magic source of money that they never need to pay back, which will bankrupt you.

Another thing I’ve learned is to never seriously date anyone with a FICO score more than about 20 points away from yours (maybe 30 if they’re substantially younger and show solid skills with managing their money ) unless you both have scores over 800 (beyond this, it comes down to time ) . If they have derogatory marks on their report , run for the hills. They can be an awesome person , but this is a sign they can’t handle life and it’s unlikely they’ll ever be able to...

HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles > Eric @ opposite-lock.com
08/03/2018 at 15:40

I had terrible credit when I got merried, but I had lots of history, my wife had great credit but almost history. Together we’ve both worked to get our credit to a good level.

404 - User No Longer Available > Eric @ opposite-lock.com
08/03/2018 at 17:39

Being in Canada I can only envy those cashback rates. The Big 5 was on a cashback cutting galore lately, most cards are cut back to like 0.5%.

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > 404 - User No Longer Available
08/03/2018 at 18:41

I get these rates around the world, too. The 7.5% is basically impossible to obtain outside the US most quarters, but 4.5% on dining and 1.5% is a bare minimum anywhere in the world where I can use my cards...

404 - User No Longer Available > Eric @ opposite-lock.com
08/03/2018 at 18:42

Right... but for foreign transactions you’re probably dinged by about 2.5% for the exchange fees?

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > 404 - User No Longer Available
08/03/2018 at 18:47

No exchange fees. The exchange rates I get on my cards are generally closing exchange rates each day between the currencies (sometimes 1-3 days delayed), so it’s better than exchanging for cash just about anywhere (although I tend to carry a small amount of cash when I’m in a foreign country, mostly in smaller notes and coins, like ~200EUR, ~300GBP, ~2500MXN, ~300CAD, etc). I obviously use my cards preferentially outside the US as well.

404 - User No Longer Available > Eric @ opposite-lock.com
08/03/2018 at 18:50

Yeah then definitely a good deal. Ours again is 2.5% across the board, that is on top of the spread Visa and Mastercard charges. On the rare occasion there are a few no-FX cards, but that’s about it. Hooray for lack of competition.

I know a trick you can probably try, is to overpay the card, then go to a foreign ATM to do a cash advance, then you can get cash for cheaper than over the counter at a bank, especially if your card is no-FX.

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > 404 - User No Longer Available
08/03/2018 at 19:01

I believe cash advances are always charged at the advance rate, which is far from free. It’s hard to overpay my cards by more than a certain percentage, which usually amounts to ~$ 200-300USD, which I only really use to ensure they report $ 0 to the credit bureaus. I’ll look into whether anyone has done this without a fee.

ATMs usually give me pretty good rates, aside from their fees. Usually where I have to worry about fees, they’re comically small. Like in Mexico you might get a 25-35 peso fee, which is like $1-2, totally worth the convenience . When I encounter that I just get whatever the ATM maximum is (usually ~5000MXN). Interestingly, there are some ATMs on my bank’s preferred network down there that will give me money without a fee, which is pretty handy.

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > 404 - User No Longer Available
08/03/2018 at 19:22

Why are Canadian cards so crappy on cash/points? You’d think everyone would be racing to the bottom in FX fees considering most Canadians cross at least into the US very frequently, while people in the US get these sweet deals in spite of most of us r arely leaving the country...

404 - User No Longer Available > Eric @ opposite-lock.com
08/03/2018 at 20:03

Well like I was saying... lack of competition in general. A new competitor shows up, quickly gets bought by the Big 5. Happened with MBNA, ING Direct/Tangerine... every single time.

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > 404 - User No Longer Available
08/03/2018 at 20:26

ING was a sad story here. I have CapitalOne for my bank because we/they were sold off to them.

They still have some things from ING that are never seen in other banks in the US, like a low-interest line of credit for overdrafts.

404 - User No Longer Available > Eric @ opposite-lock.com
08/03/2018 at 20:28

Scotiabank bought them up here. They’re still a free bank, but lots of restrictions (can’t receive wire transfers, for instance), and have been stripping them of the good stuff bit by bit. Worst is our interest rates, they send out random “new money” interest offers to people, having us moving our money here and there to avoid them “snapshotting” our balance and give us a bad rate.