Someone local stole my credit card number...

Yes, file a report.

You can file a report, but just so you know I wouldn't expect a whole lot to be done. From my experience, that stuff isn't a high priority for law enforcement.

Someone stole my credit card once and bought $150 set of skateboard wheels, a $200 pair of sunglasses, and filled up the gas tanks of all their friends. All within the 6 hour window of time between them stealing the card and me noticing it was gone. (Upon which I immediately called and canceled the card.)

This was in a different city, but the police basically told me that the crime was between the credit card company and the thief. Once the charges were removed from my account, I was no longer the victim as I wasn't being held responsible for the charges.

I don't even know what, if anything, happened to the creeps even though there was actual video footage of them using my card! (Because the card company was the "victim," not me in the eyes of the law...I never received any follow up reports.)

Had a similar thing happen to me a year or so ago. I had an unauthorized charge for over $400 for a web hosting company from Perth Australia! Gee, nothing unusual about that eh?
To their credit, my credit union reimbursed me everything. Just a pain having to cancel the card and wait for a new one.
I propose public executions for scum convicted of identity theft and the like.

My brother just had this happen. Someone got his info and spent 600 bucks on a new TV. They usually won't go after these people until the get into the hundreds of thousands of dollars

It's taking every bit of my self-control to keep from going over there or calling. I have their name and address and phone number. I actually picked up the phone to call. I was going to say, "Have you received your face cream from Biologic Solutions yet?" and when they responded say, "YOU STOLE FROM ME YOU FREAKING SOB, AND YOU WILL NOT GET AWAY WITH THIS!"

If the police don't do anything, you can pursue it in small claims court, especially since you have the information from the company about the name and address of the person receiving it.

Also, you can file the police report, get a copy of the report and take it to the municipal court and file charges. You start in the prosecutor's office and they'll review the information and fill out the criminal complaint form which you then take to the clerk's office to swear to. A warrant or summons will be issued requiring the person to appear in court to answer the charges.

Just because a police officer doesn't do this doesn't mean you can't.

Here is the link for small claims court in Toledo: http://www.tmc-clerk.com/civil/smallclaims.asp

I encourage you to call, but FIND A PAYPHONE from which to place the call. There must be at least one left around here.
Remain calm and cool, state only the facts and guilt the sh*t out of them. Mention their parents and grandparents a lot, maybe mention eternity in hell, but STAY CALM. Call a lot and try to develop a relationship with them. Again, do not harass them, call between 9-5, etc.
It won't get you anywhere, but it'll give them something to talk about when they're putting the face cream on.

something to THINK about when putting...

Chances are they sent it to their neighbor’s house to which they know their work schedule…

Ok. So I have zero self-control.

I called the phone number of the person who bought the face cream. I said, "Did someone in your household place an order with Biologic Solutions recently", and this little old woman said, "I did. I love your face cream." I told her that my card was charged for her purchase and asked her how she got my card number.

She sounded very upset and said "Oh my goodness, dear, their ad comes on in the middle of the night, and I couldn't see my card very well. I would NEVER do such a thing! Maybe our card numbers are very close."

Frankly, I believed her. I asked her what her bank is and she told me. Same as my bank.

So I called the face cream company back. Yep, she has ordered from them many times in the past, and our cards have the same expiration date, and are one number apart.

Too bad I have already canceled my debit card. I still have to go through the dispute process to get my $104 back, too. Huntington just sent out new cards within the past couple of months, and I was SO GLAD to have all that behind me.

meh.

Glad it was resolved!

I will let you know that something similar happened to me regarding account numbers being off by a digit, but in that case I was the offending party.

Paid my mortgage bill online. Got a confirmation number. Looked a little more closely at the receipt, and noticed it said "payment has been deducted from your account ending in ADCB."

Proceeded to freak out, because my account number ended in ABCD, not ADCB. Yikes!

First thing in the morning, I made multiple phone calls to my bank, my mortgage company...anyone I could think of to get this resolved. I felt horrible thinking that someone else with an account number close in mine may have had my mortgage payment withdrawn from their bank account!

Fortunately, I was able to get it resolved...hopefully before it caused a problem for the other individual.

If the transposed account number hadn't caught my eye immediately on the payment confirmation receipt, I could have inadvertently caused a really big problem for someone! I'm just glad that I noticed and could be proactive about it, rather than getting calls from the bank later!

Wow! Good catch!

It baffles me somewhat that all of these measures that are supposed to validate payments (type name exactly as it appears on card, enter the 3-digit code from the back, etc.) didn't work!

My debit card has my first, middle, and last name on it. I've had some online transactions declined if I forget to type my middle name.

However, in this instance, your card went through for payment with an entirely different name!

Bizarre. Apparently there aren't any uniform guidelines or security measures?

mom2, that is EXACTLY what I was thinking! I'm guessing that this face cream company didn't ask for the three digit number. As for matching the name up... Well, I have no idea why that didn't cause alarms to go off or something.

I'm just relieved that my account hasn't been truly compromised. That's the concept with which I'll comfort myself as I change my billing information with a bunch of companies. For the second time in as many months. sigh

3 digit security obviously was not requested by the operators "standing by". But wait if you order now , we'll double your order, just pay shipping and handling.Love the infomercials during the night

Glad to hear it was something other than fraud which happens EVERY day. This has happened to me several times. The most recent (within the last couple of months) was me doing my daily routine check of my bank accounts - learned to do this after the first fraud a couple of years ago - and discovered a charge for $10,088 ! Long story short, turns out some schlub either stole credit card checks from my mail - you know how the banks send out checks tied to your credit card trying to encourage you to go into debt - or they obtained my account number and created their own. The crook actually cashed a check drawn against my credit card for $9,700 (+ 4% cash advance fee thus the $10,088 charge). Fifth Third correctly assumed it was fraud and refused to honor the check when it hit their system. But that didn't stop the SOB from getting away with $9,700. Obviously, I filed all the necessary paperwork and am not on the hook for the dough but some other financial institution (the one who cashed the check) is out $9,700.

With most credit card processing accounts the merchant can meet the minimum standard guidelines for fraud detection by verifying only the first five digits of the zip code, or the first three characters of the billing address on the credit card.

what's really stupid is a gas pump verification at Love's on 280. They want you to put in the last 4 digits of the card!!! wow, good protection there.

I got hit for $115 a couple years ago and got it back, no prob. I was told by Key that someone in one of the sports bars was getting local numbers and selling them online...mine was used to buy porn in Germany. Didn't even need an alibi, lol. Now the card does not leave my hand. I use it for atms and gas and pay cash only for food and other stuff. Credit card only online and very rarely.

I keep one credit card for online purchases only. I also choose not to participate in any online billing/payment options. They can mail me a bill and I will mail them a check (or go pay in person, if local). I appreciate having the extra time to look everything over before I commit any money.

It doesn't change the outcome for you, gamegrrl, but I'm glad it was a sweet little old lady and a mistake instead of some of the worst-case scenarios.

Love's system is at least making sure that the last four of the card match the cc # encoded on the magnetic strip. Certainly not fraud proof but better than nothing.

Ive heard of the minimum wage folks working in stores swiping CC numbers, imagine not a whole lot of incentive for a waiter or waitress making under min wage from doing it.

yah, but Foodie, if you stole the card, you've got the card right there in your hand, of course it's going to match! I like the ones that ask for your zip.

Yeah, I dodged a bullet on this one, and for that I am immensely grateful. I'm filling out the dispute paperwork at the bank today during lunch. I'm fortunate that the $104 isn't a deadly amount for me this year, for which I'm very grateful.

Yup, I understand that nana. The only thing Love's system is going to catch is a fraudulently made card with a valid cc # (stolen). Most of the time, the fraudulently made cards do not have the valid encoding contained in the magnetic strip.

My first encounter with cc fraud was exactly this. My cc # stolen - God knows how or by whom - and a fraudulently made card with my valid cc # and someone else's name on the card was used at an outlet mall in Gilroy, California (garlic capital of the world for you trivia buffs) a couple of years ago - I haven't been to CA since 1988. Four unique purchases were made with the card at four different stores there ($3,000) with only minutes between each transaction. Each transaction was manually entered into the cc processing system thus avoiding the swipe that likely would have revealed it as a fraudulent card. 5th 3rd's fraud department was on top of it in a matter of minutes after the 4th transaction and called me at home to verify that I was not in Gilroy, CA. They had already blocked the card before calling me. The manual entry of the cc# is what alerted their system. Either each store had a fool of a cashier or it was an inside (store employees) job. I suspect the latter.

UPDATE: So I go to my local bank branch today to fill out the dispute form. I told the fellow behind the counter the basic gist of the situation: That it was an honest mistake, that I'd spoken to the person who made the purchase, and that I didn't want anything bad to happen to her. I just want my money back.

The teller gets the form and starts asking me questions. I've already written all the information down on a piece of paper, so I lay that down on the counter, saying "Here's everything, right down to the name, address and phone of the person who made the purchase."

He looks at my notes and says, "I know Miss Smith! She's a mighty fine lady, and I'm a favorite of hers!"

So does the world REALLY get much smaller than that??????????