Chase bank is REALLY on the ball

[kaitou]

Got a call today from Chase that they thought there was fraudulent activity on my credit card, and they closed my account. I'll get a new card in a few days. What really surprises me is that they were tipped off by 2 purchases, one for a song on iTunes...the rep said it was probably a test to make sure that their stolen info worked...and one for about $150 in tools. I really wouldn't have thought that either of those would have set off alarm bells. I mean...did they think 'hey this was for country music, and we know from our accounts that she doesn't listen to it?' Why that, and not when I spent $1000 on appliances when I moved into this house?

Still, I'm grateful that they were so on top of it, and caught it so quickly. Way to go, Chase.

Comments

[meretia]

Chase is odd. They actually phoned me the other day to be sure that I knew someone had used my card to book a hotel room in Nelsonville, out southeast of Columbus. And when I told them that yes, I knew that since I booked it since I'm going down to Nelsonville and Athens week after next, the lady on the phone was kind of like, "...oh. Well, okay then."

I mean, yeah, I splurged on something nice and wiped out a pretty good chunk of what I have in the bank, but really? They didn't complain when I rented a room in a cabin closer to Athens last time I went. What's the difference here?

[mewsrissicat.livejournal.com]

Interestingly enough, that's how I've seen other people's accounts hacked: it starts with a tiny, easy to overlook item like a $1 i-Tunes purchase.

Then within a couple of days, they hit the account for real.

Good on Chase for watching for that signature "test buy".

[aphelion-orion.livejournal.com]

D: Man, that sucks, but good thing they caught it. *hugs*

I hope they catch the bastard who stole it, but that's probably wishful thinking.

[anthogna (from livejournal.com)]

I think of "Big Brother" as the aggregate tracking information (locations, stores, things I buy regularly) from all my bankcards. Like it helped that my purchases in Arizona on one card fit the pattern created by information from others, so it wasn't tagged.

I think the easiest tagger though (and it shows the fraudster was a total amateur) is that "small followed by large" thing. You just don't do that if you're going to use a stolen card. iTunes is something else that seems extremely amateurish, since Apple cross-checks CC numbers in the payment database. I would think the chances of a stolen CC number being already registered on iTunes would be fairly high, and Apple's system would only allow a number to be used twice as a way of "flagging" possible stolen numbers to the banks, especially if only one song is purchased subsequently...

[velithya]

glad they caught it! :)