April 2008 Fraudulent Credit Card
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4/22/2008 1:34 PM
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Jmassman
Join Date: July 2007
Posts: 1
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April 2008 Fraudulent Credit Card
My business has been the victim or attempted victim of credit card fraud on several occasions. In ALL cases I have found reporting the crime or attempted crime an exercise in frustration and a waste of time. I have yet to find a police agency interested if follow-up at any level. The bigger they are the less interested they are. The large agencies seem to put road blocks in your way to even report the crime. Try to report a credit card fraud to the Chicago police from out of state. What a joke.
In one case we actually had a package in route to the destination with UPS tracking information. It had yet to be delivered. All the police had to do was watch the front porch for crying out loud. They couldn't be bothered.
I agree it's a big problem. I agree we all pay for it. People like me don't report it any longer because we've learned even if we try our public servants either don't care or don't have the manpower. For either reason the results are the same. Until the public sees law enforcement taking credit card fraud serious the situation will not change.
John Massman
Logix Inc
Livonia MI 48150
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REPLY 1 - 2 of 2
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4/22/2008 4:21 PM
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#1
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Steve Rothstein
Join Date: May 2007
Posts: 275
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RE: April 2008 Fraudulent Credit Card
John,
There are some real reasons for the problem you are seeing. First, most police departments are not equipped or trained for the type of investigation that is involved in credit card fraud. This is especially true if there is a case involving interstate commerce, such as an out of state order.
Second is the jurisdiction issues that have yet to be settled completely by the courts. If I am sitting in a house in Luling, Texas, and I place a computer order through the internet on a website hosted in Chicago, but from a company based in Philadelphia, then which city has the legal authority to prosecute the crime of credit card fraud? How can a Philadelphia cop, or a Chicago cop, find out who in small town Texas was the actual criminal? And how can the Texas police officer get the statements and evidence needed from both Chicago and Philadelphia to prosecute the crime, even if he does learn about it?
And then there is the separate legal question of what exactly constitutes credit card fraud. Do we apply Texas law, Illinois law, or Pennsylvania law to the case I just described? I don't know what happened to your business specifically, so I cannot say if it was a crime in any of those jurisdictions, but I do know that some things are crimes in one but not anohter of them. Laws do vary by state.
But, I am not all bad news. I have some help to offer. There are three police agencies that might be able to help you. First, for any intrastate crimes, contact your local state police bureau of investigations. This would be if a (as an example) Texas resident tried to defraud a Texas store, they could call our DPS and file the complaint. Many state Attorneys General also have offices handling this type of fraud.
For interstate crimes, you can contact the Federal Bureau of Investigation. They have the primary responsibility for investigating crimes involved in interstate commerce. They are stretched thin these days working on the terrorism cases, but they usually will do their best to help you.
You can also contact the US Secret Service. In addition to doing protection, they have a criminal investigations branch. The Secret Service is the primary agency with responsibility for investigating Identity Theft type crimes, which may include your case (depending on exactly how the credit card fraud occurred).
A third agency that might be able to help you is the US Postal Inspectors. They are now also working on some identity theft cases. But they also work on any case of fraud that involves the US mail. So if the order came in by mail, or you shipped the product by US mail instead of FedEx or UPS, they can get jurisdiction to help you. One unknown reason for using the post office when you can instead of its competitors si that they have their own police force that can help you.
Sorry I can't be of more help, but I hope this can give you some ideas on what to do the next time you get a fraudulent order this way (and unfortunately, I am certain it will happen again in today's society).
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4/22/2008 7:01 PM
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#2
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irishone
Join Date: March 2008
Posts: 511
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RE: April 2008 Fraudulent Credit Card
Steve and John, I just got a case involving ID theft and the police report was made two months ago, and the victim has heard nothing from detectives that "should" be investigating it. In the meanwhile, the suspect has been stopped twice by police, and arrested once for DUI.
LASD has the resources, but they have some lazy bums who either don't want to work, or they do not know how to investigate a crime. As I stated in other forums, LASD pays the price for locking new deputies up for years in the county jail system. I am going to do the footwork on the investigation and if I have to, lead the detectives around by their nose hairs.
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