Triumph!

My credit card company sent me a letter that they had concluded the investigation (it only took another month) and the amount was “suspended” and was removed from my account.  

Under absolutely no circumstance do I recommend that anyone use Tracfone Airtime.  They submitted a pile of documentation and tried to get paid for fraudulent charges.

May everyone learn from my sad experience!  Be VERY careful before you give any information to anyone!  Credit card companies already have your info.

To bring anyone who has not been following this blog up to date, I was staying overnight at the Queen Mary Hotel. I received a call in the early morning, shortly before I was leaving to sightsee, claiming that the caller was the hotel’s night auditor and that they had had problems in processing my credit card. The idea was not outrageous since my city had recently had a zip code change. Other vendors were telling me that they could not find my zip code, either.

 
When a similar situation happened two years ago in my rapidly growing city, it took six months before my zip code was recognized. So, I had similar issues previously – which set me up for the slick con artist.

 
A warning, which I will now heed personally – never give your credit information to someone who calls you! As the American Express people told me, they KNOW my information and they do not need to ask it. Instead, they have security questions, which weed out any scammers.

After checking with the Queen Mary Hotel, I later found out that all of their night auditors are women and they would not have called me at the hour I was scammed, since they finished earlier than that every morning. 

A month of aggravation

Whoever scammed me made two major charges within two hours of talking with me. I am still disputing charges from a firm called “TRACFONE.” They submitted documentation claiming I had purchased 1,000 minutes of airtime at $100 plus tax. Funny thing – I never – I repeat never authorized that charge. However, the American Express people initially let their pile of documentation impress them so they were going to close my case, put the charges back on my file and make me pay the money.

 
I complained loud and clear. The documentation (five double-sided pieces of paper) sent from Tracfone to American Express contained some highly dubious charges. My name was spelled wrong, my city was “No City,” my zip code was listed as being in Florida, and other completely WRONG information.

 
Needless to say, I was incensed. I called American Express, pointed out these lies and they have reopened the fraud case.

 
I have spent at least 12 hours on this. Not only has it been necessary so that my credit record is not blackened, but I refuse to just give in and pay for a charge I did not make.

 
So beware! When traveling – or using credit anywhere – as travel requires, be careful! As I saw on a letter from a credit bureau years ago, “Guard your credit like a sacred trust.”

 
I’ll update as this issue, hopefully, is resolved.

 
If my sad tale helps and saves anyone else from this problem, I’ll have performed a major public service.

 
Good luck and happy traveling!

 
Also, I paid the penalty by spending hours talking with my credit card company and the police, giving statements and trying to reconstruct a timeline.

 
Luckily, American Express was the credit card we had used to cover our travel expenses and they picked up on an irregular charge. They alerted me, so I could also look at my account and see that there was another charge, as well, that I had never made.

 
How did someone do this to me? I consider myself knowledgeable, skeptical and savvy. Well, it’s a long story, but it comes down to the fact that my zip code changed and I was vulnerable to people who said my credit information did not go through. This has happened numerous times, as this is the second time in two years that my zip code has been changed.

How to avoid a scam

After hours of phone calls to the credit card company, they reminded me of something very basic —

 
Do not respond to someone who is asking for credit card (or other personal information) unless you have contacted them using a reputable address/phone number/e-mail.

 
If someone calls you, asking for information – “Your credit card was declined. I need to verify information.” DO NOT GIVE THEM ANY INFORMATION.

Instead, call the company yourself (look this number up on a Web site or on a bill – do not use the phone number your caller may offer) and ask if a person is looking for information regarding your account. I was told that a company WILL NEVER ASK FOR YOUR CREDIT CARD INFORMATION. THEY ALREADY HAVE IT!

 
If someone asks you, ask them, instead, “What information do you have?’
Then, you can respond if you determine that the request is legitimate.

 
If you are onsite and the customer service person says your card was declined, that is another matter. You should ask to talk with the credit card company and find out what the issue is.

What can happen if it is not a legitimate charge

If you dispute a charge that is not one you legitimately made, then usually the credit card company will have you do an interview (which they will record) and ask many questions. Answer completely.

 
In my case, American Express picked up on the bad charge – especially since the perpetrator of the fraudulent charge tried to make it five times. (By the way, it was for a long distance cell phone company.) AMEX notified me of the problem. I verified that I had not made the charge. They removed it from my record.

At that point, I pulled up my account and found another charge that I had never made. I spoke with the fraud division of AMEX, they asked (and recorded) my responses.

 
In the next 24 hours, AMEX contacted the company to which the charge was made, got them to reverse the charge and that was reflected on my account as a credit.
This whole process can be time-consuming, not one I would recommend needing to spend your time on.

 
So, to avoid wasting hours in phone calls, here are some tips to protect yourself:

 
1. Always keep your credit card in sight. Try to use machines where you put the card in the reader and immediately have it returned to you. If this is not feasible at, say, a restaurant, make sure you put the card away as soon as it is returned. Make a note of the server’s name on your receipt, if not already there.

 
2. Do not discuss your travel plans with strangers – where you’re staying, where you live, etc.

 
3. Do not give out credit card information over the phone, unless you have initiated the call, such as when you call a company to purchase an item.

 
4. Keep records – of the name of the person you talked with, when you called, how much your purchase totaled. Sometimes it takes a day or more for a charge to be reflected on your account.

 
5. The name of the charging company may not be the same as the company you talked with. Verify any that appear different by calling the number that will probably appear on the bill or finding the firm on the internet.

 
6. Unless you called the company to purchase something from a legitimate Web site, never give out your information to a caller. Verify anything through another source that seems at all “hokey.”

 
In my case, I received a call from a male purporting to be an auditor at the hotel where I was staying. By calling the General Manager (don’t talk to just anyone – they could be part of the scam), I found out that the hotel had no male auditors and none would have called me at that time of day.

I learned the hard way. This information is meant as a cautionary tale so you don’t have the problem I had. It wastes time, can potentially take hours to resolve and results in, at the very least, waiting for new credit card(s) to be issued. If you are traveling, losing your credit card for even one day can be a disaster!