Fraudulent Bank Card Charges

[Melchiah]

This morning, as I'm making my daily inspection of my online bank statement, I see a charge for $15.07 from Cineplex #8030(No idea where Cineplex theaters are, but there damned sure aren't any in Alabama), and another charge from airindia.com for $548.61. This one dropped me into overdraft charges, so that's another $35.00.

Ok, first off: I haven't been to a movie since Iron Man 2 back in May. Even at that, it was at a Rave Motion Pictures theater, not a Cineplex.

Second, I've no intentions of buying a plane ticket to or from India for myself or anyone else.

And the putrid icing on this poop pie is that I can't get a live person on the phone until Tuesday. I've called Regions and Visa both, no operators available. So at this point, I'm going to have to move enough money from savings into checking to cover the negative value plus whatever I think I might need for the weekend.

I am beyond angry. If anyone knows a trick to getting this type of crap dealt with, please let me know. I'm at a loss right now.

[Heavencloud]

When this has happened to people I know they've just called and had the card canceled and the charges charged back... There's really no 24/7 1-800 number??

[Gethsemane]

Ciniplex operates outside of Canada it seems. So by this we know your thief uses the card there. I suggest calling Air India immediately and tell them what is going on. Canada has great law enforcement and they will curb stomp this fucker really quick. So quit reading my post and get on it. Airports don't close for holidays.

Then try to call your Bank's 24/7 number and Visa's 24/7 number. But call Air India first! Update us when you do this what they do for you. And it also sounds like your computer may be compromised. Do you save your passwords or search bar history? What browser are you using right now? Do you live in a house? Use Wireless? Is it encrypted? Share your internet connection? At college?

[Melchiah]

I'm tempted to believe that the timing of this incident is not arbitrary, given my difficulty in getting it resolved quickly. Most people who work in finance get the same major holidays as most state and federal employees, and this weekend is a big one in America.

[Melchiah]

Regions and Visa both have 24-7 numbers, but you're talking to Robbie the Robot instead of a person, and there is no "halp some fgt is stealing my money" option.

[Cyn]

Is there no option to deactivate the card through the automated service?

[Melchiah]

Deactivating the card doesn't solve my immediate problem. I cannot access my own money because the account has been reduced to below zero dollars. So far, all the information I've been able to get has directed me to file a dispute with the bank. I have to file paperwork to do this, which means no earlier than 9AM Tuesday. I need this dealt with NOW.

Like I said, I suspect the timing is not arbitrary.

[Cyn]

Yes but if your savings account is with the same bank you can transfer the money you need for the weekend to the card, take it out of an ATM, and deactivate the card to prevent more thefts until Tuesday morning when you can deal with it properly.

[Gethsemane]

So did you call Air India yet and explain the situation or do you want to let the guy/people get to India and get away? Your savings account money is probably fine. Only you have the numbers. They jacked your credit card information/expiration date etc. Probably from you ordering stuff online. Which is something else you need to deal with. Press '0' or something for your bank/Visa stuff. Has to be some way to reach an operator.

And what they said above me. Transfer/Withdraw/Deactivate. Though deactivating your card means nothing at this point. They can't use it with a negative balance. Just make sure you don't leave money on it. Keeping it activated may actually be useful if they keep trying to use it in random locations. Many places have cameras now. I would still call Air India. Don't be ignorant.

[Gadritan]

Yes but if your savings account is with the same bank you can transfer the money you need for the weekend to the card, take it out of an ATM, and deactivate the card to prevent more thefts until Tuesday morning when you can deal with it properly.

Yeah. If you do transfer money over, TAKE IT OUT. Otherwise they might take that too.

They should nullify the overdraft fees and anything else that occurs do to the incident as well.

Edit:

They can't use it with a negative balance.

Not true. It depends on the bank and how your account is set up. I know from personal experience with BoA that you can indeed rack up over $500 in overdraft fees on multiple $1-3 charges if you're sitting at zero. (They didn't record my deposit that friday and everytime I used it over the weekend, $35!)

[Emirii]

First thing you should do is create a police report. That is the first step in talking to your bank, and the sooner you make the report, the more accurate it can be, which will most definitely speed things up.

Also, I wouldn't transfer any money at all over. The overdraft fees will be taken care of by the bank if they are anything of a good bank. Although, some banks do only cover 500$ of it, so you might have to owe some anyway (but generally if you do make a police report and the places he spent the money give a refund to your bank, they will do it for the whole amount)

[Gethsemane]

Well I said what I said above out of the assumption that he has a very minimum overdraft limit of maybe $100.00 but you are correct. I had a card with $1,000.00 overdraft allowed and I was very scared about using the card a lot due to what could happen if someone got a hold of the information. Regardless, hopefully you get this sorted out. I would be all over this in all the technical aspects. Well good luck man. Spain versus Germany in the World Cup, dun dun dun.

[Dainslaif]

When this has happened to people I know they've just called and had the card canceled and the charges charged back...

Yeah, this happened to me in college - it's a relatively painless process. I found out my card had $2000 in false charges on it, called my bank as soon as they opened Monday, and it was all reversed by Thursday. I hadn't used the card in 2 weeks though, so that may be why it was so quick.

In my case, my debit card info got stolen from a virus that infected the cash register computers and jacked all the info. I worked there and we had official federal types come in to investigate right after it happened, since all the charges were in France. >_>

Regions and Visa both have 24-7 numbers, but you're talking to Robbie the Robot instead of a person, and there is no "halp some fgt is stealing my money" option.

Usually there's a 0 option for a live operator in phone menus. Just mash 0 over and over and it should eventually give you one.

Not true. It depends on the bank and how your account is set up. I know from personal experience with BoA that you can indeed rack up over $500 in overdraft fees on multiple $1-3 charges if you're sitting at zero. (They didn't record my deposit that friday and everytime I used it over the weekend, $35!)

Yeah, that's how banks make their money. They'll generally process the largest charges first so that when you go below 0 the 13 little charges you made cost you an extra $35 bucks each.

[Cyn]

Not true. It depends on the bank and how your account is set up. I know from personal experience with BoA that you can indeed rack up over $500 in overdraft fees on multiple $1-3 charges if you're sitting at zero. (They didn't record my deposit that friday and everytime I used it over the weekend, $35!)

That can also be an issue with Visa. Some transactions will go through regardless, and Visa always honors a transaction. You can call your bank and have them flag your account to not accept charges with a $0 balance, but certain machines (I think gas pumps are one?) will still accept the transaction anyways.

[Pharaun]

Lucky for you my job is dealing with this exact sort of stuff. Unluckily for you there's nothing you can do to get your money back until your bank is open. Disputing fraudulent activity is not something that can be done as an automated process, so you will have to wait until Tuesday. I can guarantee that the timing wasn't coincidental, the vast majority of fraudulent activity occurs outside of business hours for precisely this reason. PM me if you want to talk about the process in more detail.

[Melchiah]

Update:

Filed a report with Jefferson County Sheriff's Dept.

Removed OD Protection from my checking account.

Reported the card as stolen with my bank through automated services, and had the card nullified and a new one to be issued.

Looks like all I can do until Tuesday, hopefully the bank won't be cocks about this.

[Kaisha]

Looks like all I can do until Tuesday, hopefully the bank won't be cocks about this.

Is there a reason why they would? They want your money just like every other company, I wouldn't put it up to them to lose customers especially in that line of business, particularly if you got a good credit rating.

[Aerides]

Since it's all fraud it will be resolved, eventually. However, please find another bank in the future. Chase, BofA, whatever, they ALL have real live 24 hour service, fuck that it's a holiday, that's a shitty bank.

[Warudo Ecksu]

My bank has 24/7 hour service. I've called at like 3am when I've noticed fraudulent charges. Definitely change banks.

[Melchiah]

Friend of mine tells me she saw airindia charges a lot during her bank employment, so I'm guessing it's a scam where a ticket is purchased through a bank card and then returned for a refund by the scammer. Pretty slick I guess.