[ale] OT: I AM paranoid!

[Jim Philips]

All of the stuff that Jeff posted is, of course, the law. But it isn't the 
whole story. If you have an incidence of debit card fraud and you report it 
within the 48 hour time limit, the bank will usually reimburse you on a 
provisional basis right away. They did that for me as soon as they got the 
signed affidavit swearing that the transactions were fraudulent. And because 
I was so quick to notify the merchants, they were already moving to refund my 
money themselves. The rule here is to be quick! I log onto my bank account 
just about every day. That was why I reported the crime so fast. If you log 
on to your credit card account every day, you're a really unusual person.

And there is another side of debit vs. credit. If you have a debit card 
incident, it is really between you and your bank. If you are a victim of 
credit card fraud, your name goes on all sorts of watch lists with credit 
reporting agencies and it isn't easy to know what lists you are on and how to 
get off of them. You will just notice a certain extra chill when you go to 
apply for credit again. They have their own criteria for deciding whether you 
were victim or perpetrator and it's all kind of obscure to the consumer. It's 
kind of obscure to me too, but I know it happens. If you are a victim of 
credit card fraud, you need to be checking with all of the reporting agencies 
to look out for bad information.

On Friday 10 October 2003 02:30 pm, Jeff Hubbs wrote:
> Take away that guy's mallet and button!
>
> From www.ftc.gov:
>
> **********************************************************************
>
> Credit Card Loss or Fraudulent Charges (FCBA). Your maximum liability
> under federal law for unauthorized use of your credit card is $50. If
> you report the loss before your credit cards are used, the FCBA says the
> card issuer cannot hold you responsible for any unauthorized charges. If
> a thief uses your cards before you report them missing, the most you
> will owe for unauthorized charges is $50 per card. Also, if the loss
> involves your credit card number, but not the card itself, you have no
> liability for unauthorized use.