Credit Card Fraud

Cannot get help

[Chris5]

The various organisations I've contacted to try and help catch the fraudster all keep passing the buck. The fraudster should be easy to catch given the limited and restricted use of my card. My Bank has refunded me, but neither my Bank, the Police or Retailer seem interested in pursuing the fraudster. I don't want to let the fraudster get away with it. Has anyone any idea of my rights to enable me to take out a private prosecution against this fraudster? I live in the UK.

[Corey Bryant]

Where does the fraudster live? How much money was it? What type of card was it (Visa / MasterCard, etc)?

Usually the merchant can report this to their acquiring bank since they are the ones out most of the money.

-Corey

[Fortune Hunter]

I don't want to let the fraudster get away with it.

Good for you! I applaud your desire for justice, but I think you will find that unless this person stole hundreds of thousands of dollars it is unlikely anyone will take much interest in it.

It is typically the merchant that is out the cash, at least it is in the U.S. The bank upon being alerted of the fraud simply takes back the money it gave to the merchant. Therefore, unless the merchant is willing to pursue it, which is unlikely if they are a huge company, it will simply fade away. Large companies just consider it part of the cost of doing business and small companies just get screwed because they want to do something, but typically lack the resources to pursue it.

I had a friend that owns a small computer shop that was ripped off for 3 laptops from someone with a stolen card. Once the fraud was reported the bank issued a charge back to him and he was out the laptops and the money. He wanted to pursue it, but didn't have the manpower or cash to chase the thief down so he took it in the shorts.

FH

[edited by: Fortune_Hunter at 9:53 pm (utc) on Feb. 13, 2007]

[blaketar]

I commend you as well for wanting to apprehend the fraudster and not giving up!

As a merchant that has dealt with numerous stolen CC's being used on our site I can tell I would love nothing more than to catch the criminals! The problem is as merchants we have such a minimal amount of information to use, which is why we often tend to forward on the complaint to the credit card company. Everyone involved only has a tidbit of info and rarely does it ever amount to an address or name of a criminal.

I have preached for years now that the fraud problem is only getting worse and as merchants we need better tools to fight it since WE ARE ON THE FRONT LINES!

What those tools are have not yet been defined but by simply sending you an IP address of the fraudster does you or I little help, especially when the ISP that owns those IP’s will not hand out any information.

I could go on and on but until there are better tools online for us to combat the problem we are all starring at a brick wall!