Amex Stolen, how do they get away with it!!!

[JonX2C]

So small rant / intresting story, and im sure it has happened to a few people as its so common now but I dont understand how they get away with it.

I work for a big finance house in London, there are over 2,500 people in the London office and I manage to get my American Express stolen from my desk.

Bit silly I know but I bought some goods online at about 10am Thursday, left the card on top of my keyboard, went about some work and then went out to lunch. After queueing for some food, I tried to pay and realised I had left me Amex on my desk, ending up paying for it on debit and going back to the office. I did forget about it when i got back to my desk and didnt realise till 8am the next morning.

So it seems it was stolen off my desk when i was on my lunch, I have security cameras all around me, which most places do, but for some unknown reason there was not a camera pointing at my desk that day!!! which is a little worrying anyway.

So I rang Amex, thinking i had left it at home or missplaced it, the customer service rep went on to tell me dont worry im sure its at home! Not much help, however i asked her to check transactions just in case, and guess what it had been less than 24 hours and allready £7,500 had allready been run up on the card.

What I cant understand is how on earth these people make transactions on the card, they dont no my pin, they can copy my signature as it is pretty obscure, so how do these people get away with charginf 7,500 on it.

How?

What happens with these cases do american express just record them investigate it and then write it off or what? How does it all work, do these people ever get caught? Makes you wonder couldnt you just pick someone elses card up and go nuts.

Bastids

[Compo_Simmonite]

My wife had her purse stolen whilst handbag open to get passport at airport in Spain.
Within an hour there had been transactions all over London !
Police said it was well organised (and very common) and card details would have rung though to accomplices in London who then had "pet" retailers that were less than honest as well.
Final total was around £7000 before cards cancelled despite her acting straight away and before leaving airport.
All covered by insurance but still frightening.

Paul H

Edited by Compo_Simmonite on Sunday 19th December 21:28

[JonX2C]

But do they get away with it?? Is it really that easy to splash the card around??

[oobster]

General Gassing is for car-related threads.

[TheEnd]

Most online places just deal with the card number, home address and security number from the back.

The worst bit is that someone in your office is a thieving scumbag

[JonX2C]

TheEnd said:

The worst bit is that someone in your office is a thieving scumbag

This is what is more annoying, but there are a huge amount of contract staff and cleanera always on the floors.

[Ozzie Osmond]

JonX2C said:

So it seems it was stolen off my desk when i was on my lunch

Sounds horribly like having your car stolen off the petrol station forecourt when you've gone in to pay but left the keys in the ignition....

[terzo]

JonX2C said:

What I cant understand is how on earth these people make transactions on the card, they dont no my pin, they can copy my signature as it is pretty obscure, so how do these people get away with charginf 7,500 on it.

How?

They don't need either to purchase stuff online.

[JonX2C]

terzo said:

JonX2C said:

What I cant understand is how on earth these people make transactions on the card, they dont no my pin, they can copy my signature as it is pretty obscure, so how do these people get away with charginf 7,500 on it.

How?

They don't need either to purchase stuff online.

thats the thing though if you purchased a load of goods online, wouldnt the card company amex etc, then be able to get the delivery address for the goods.

So if you ordered a load of tvs online with john lewis etc, would you be giving away where your living???

Surely they look into this...

[terzo]

JonX2C said:

terzo said:

JonX2C said:

What I cant understand is how on earth these people make transactions on the card, they dont no my pin, they can copy my signature as it is pretty obscure, so how do these people get away with charginf 7,500 on it.

How?

They don't need either to purchase stuff online.

thats the thing though if you purchased a load of goods online, wouldnt the card company amex etc, then be able to get the delivery address for the goods.

So if you ordered a load of tvs online with john lewis etc, would you be giving away where your living???

Surely they look into this...

There are plenty of shops where you can purchase online then collect same day, think Comet/Argos etc, I doubt this is what they've done but its a possibility.

[Deva Link]

I keep one card just for online purchases and it's been cloned twice.

One time it was used for forex in a bank and it was also used to buy plane tickets. I would have thought it would be fairly easy to check who actually used that ticket, but the card company just seemed to be shrugging on the phone. Their whole attitude was that couldn't really give a toss - apparently they just do a charge back so it doesn't cost them anything.

[BeeRoad]

JonX2C said:

Bit silly I know but I bought some goods online at about 10am Thursday, left the card on top of my keyboard, went about some work and then went out to lunch. After queueing for some food, I tried to pay and realised I had left me Amex on my desk, ending up paying for it on debit and going back to the office. I did forget about it when i got back to my desk and didnt realise till 8am the next morning.

I hope they catch them, but you certainly did your best to help them - need to be a bit more aware about where your cards are.

[JonX2C]

BeeRoad said:

JonX2C said:

Bit silly I know but I bought some goods online at about 10am Thursday, left the card on top of my keyboard, went about some work and then went out to lunch. After queueing for some food, I tried to pay and realised I had left me Amex on my desk, ending up paying for it on debit and going back to the office. I did forget about it when i got back to my desk and didnt realise till 8am the next morning.

I hope they catch them, but you certainly did your best to help them - need to be a bit more aware about where your cards are.

I do agree but in the environment im in you dont really expect it.

[JonX2C]

BeeRoad said:

JonX2C said:

Bit silly I know but I bought some goods online at about 10am Thursday, left the card on top of my keyboard, went about some work and then went out to lunch. After queueing for some food, I tried to pay and realised I had left me Amex on my desk, ending up paying for it on debit and going back to the office. I did forget about it when i got back to my desk and didnt realise till 8am the next morning.

I hope they catch them, but you certainly did your best to help them - need to be a bit more aware about where your cards are.

I do agree but in the environment im in you dont really expect it.

[nobodyknows]

Deva Link said:

I keep one card just for online purchases and it's been cloned twice.

One time it was used for forex in a bank and it was also used to buy plane tickets. I would have thought it would be fairly easy to check who actually used that ticket, but the card company just seemed to be shrugging on the phone. Their whole attitude was that couldn't really give a toss - apparently they just do a charge back so it doesn't cost them anything.

One of my cards was used to purchase flight tickets in the States a few years ago, card Co. sent me a claim form & refunded the transaction. Bizarrely the scammers only spent about £150, maybe they though I wouldn't notice small amounts & planned to do it regularly if they got away with it.

[Peter101]

JonX2C said:

BeeRoad said:

JonX2C said:

Bit silly I know but I bought some goods online at about 10am Thursday, left the card on top of my keyboard, went about some work and then went out to lunch. After queueing for some food, I tried to pay and realised I had left me Amex on my desk, ending up paying for it on debit and going back to the office. I did forget about it when i got back to my desk and didnt realise till 8am the next morning.

I hope they catch them, but you certainly did your best to help them - need to be a bit more aware about where your cards are.

I do agree but in the environment im in you dont really expect it.

Would you leave a big bundle of cash on top of your keyboard?

[E31Shrew]

JonX2C said:

terzo said:

JonX2C said:

What I cant understand is how on earth these people make transactions on the card, they dont no my pin, they can copy my signature as it is pretty obscure, so how do these people get away with charginf 7,500 on it.

How?

They don't need either to purchase stuff online.

thats the thing though if you purchased a load of goods online, wouldnt the card company amex etc, then be able to get the delivery address for the goods.

So if you ordered a load of tvs online with john lewis etc, would you be giving away where your living???

Surely they look into this...

As has been said already, the card companies don't give a toss. We had £6000 taken from a debit card a few years ago. Furniture, airline tickets, congestion charge payments and ferry tickets to Ireland, were all purchased. I called all of the recipients of my cash, and managed to find out the address where the goods were sent to. It turned out to be a Nigerian woman in Dublin but none of the authorities had the slightest interest.
She ordered the furniture for delivery to an empty house in Dublin. She waited for the arrival of the lorry and had it put on the pavement for collection by her chun later.
Bank just sent me a statement and asked me to highlight all the transactions that weren't mine. Cash was back in my account within 3 days.

[Vipers]

Interesting about the PIN, if you use a card in a store, legally you dont have to use the PIN reader, you can sign the receipt.

A guy was refused about a year ago in a store, he claimed he had a medical problem which meant he couldnt remember numbers but was happy to sign the receipt, the store refused to sell him the goods, so he took the shop to court, and won his case, so yes you can just sign.

Strange but true. Not that is helps here, just posting.

[Boshly]

Deva Link said:

I keep one card just for online purchases and it's been cloned twice.

One time it was used for forex in a bank and it was also used to buy plane tickets. I would have thought it would be fairly easy to check who actually used that ticket, but the card company just seemed to be shrugging on the phone. Their whole attitude was that couldn't really give a toss - apparently they just do a charge back so it doesn't cost them anything.

Yup, risk is with the retailer. If you accept 'Customer not present' payments, you accept ALL liabilities on fraudulent activities. In the case of customers using the card fraudulently at the premises if they deem you not to have acted reasonably they will also just charge back.

I guess it's just a form of 'insurance' where all retailers take a small hit that hopefully is covered by the additional business it may generate?

All based on when I had a retail (service) business. I refused to accept customer not present payments for the above reason, after I had £300 ish reversed from my account from over 3 months previous, where apparently a stolen card had been used a few times and my staff had not noticed the signature was different (though to be fair the signature was not that different and I know mine varies from day to day slightly). This was just before chip and pin came out.

[g3org3y]

JonX2C said:

TheEnd said:

The worst bit is that someone in your office is a thieving scumbag

This is what is more annoying, but there are a huge amount of contract staff and cleanera always on the floors.

^I had money stolen out of my wallet that I had left in my trousers in the changing room (no lockers!) while I was in theatre. Now we are advised that ALL valuable items should be taken into theatre as well.