Text 12013, 129 rader
Skriven 2010-11-13 07:57:00 av TIM RICHARDSON (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av ROSS CASSELL
Ärende: Good music videos
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On 11-12-10, ROSS CASSELL said to WARD DOSSCHE:


RC>So I can use my card as either a debit card or a credit card with the
RC>limit being the available balance in the account.


RC>So in my case, and I suspect it was in a data breach at some retailer,
RC>someone obtained the card number and expiration date of my card and sold
RC>the data to someone in Spain.


About seven years ago I used to write checks for all my bills, put them in the
envelopes and into the mail box for the mailman to pick up.


While on vacation back then, I wrote the checks as usual, put them in the mail
box to be picked up, and went off to play golf.


A couple of days later I was getting ready to go down to the harbor when the
phone rang. It was a friend of mine who asked me if I had just ordered two one
way tickets to St. Louis, Mo, using one of my credit cards. She had a phone
number of a ticket agent up in the San Jose area for me to call and confirm
the transaction.



I called up and asked for the guy by name, and was told that someone using my
Visa card number had phoned in an order for two one way tickets to St. Louis,
and the second he heard my voice he knew I hadn't done it ( the reason is
self-explanitory).


He had already cancelled the transaction, and I would see a $600 charge on my
next Visa statement, followed by an immediate `credit' of that amount back
into my account. But that I should call my credit card company.


When I called the credit card service number, we found out that someone had
phoned in an order for over $1200 worth of materials at a local Home Depot.


The charge got disallowed, my present card was cancelled and a new one issued.


It gets better:


I realized someone had taken the mail I put in the mail box to be picked up,
and had gotten the credit card number from there. So I went online to my
bank's sight and looked at my account. Sure enough, there were two checks of
mine for amounts I had not written. One for $30.00 that had been altered to
read $300.00, and another one that had been written for $38.00, and was
altered to read $380.00


It gets better:


I brought up the images of each check, and the person who got hold of them had
actually put them through a printer to place `his' name above mine on the
check face, so that it looked as though it was a two-person account. Although
the type font used to print his name above mine was much larger than the font
used to print my name and address on it.


Plus........the job he did on altering the amount was so messy, I was amazed
the two stores took the checks. But a clerk at the one store put his drivers
license number on that check, and the manager who approved the second one had
the presence of mind to also include the license number of his pickup.


It gets better:


By the time I saw the images of the altered checks it was past closing time
for the bank, so the next morning I had a printout of both checks and was
first in the door. The teller looked at my printouts, brought the two checks
up on her screen, and immediately cancelled both payouts, meaning both stores
would recieve a notice that the checks were fraudulent and they had to repay
my account the money.


It gets even better:


She told me I should go to the local police and make a report. The guy's
drivers license and plate numbers were there on the checks, and the police
would handle it.


I went to the cops, and was told that, since the checks had been obtained out
of my mail box, it was the postal authorities that should handle it. But the
cop who talked to me had me wait a few minutes while he checked something out.
He goes in the back somewhere, and he's gone about 20 minutes. When he comes
back he told me to go to the postal authorities right away, because they had
the guy in custody down in San Diego on a parole violation, the feds would put
an immediate `hold' on the guy and transfer him to federal custody!


I went right to the post office and got the papers to make out for the Postal
Inspector, turned them in that afternoon, and the guy was transferred to the
federal lockup the following morning, on charges of postal fraud using a
stolen financial instrument from the US mail to commit a felony, etc etc.


A month later I was notified that he'd been convicted and sentenced to 7 years
in federal prison. Not only that, when he finished that sentence, the state of
California still had him on parole violation and he was looking at about 4
more years in a state prison.


Oh.....the reason the ticket agent had immediately tried to contact me? The
person who called to order the two tickets spoke with a heavy Hispanic accent!
The last name `Richardson' didn't go along with the accent!


The name he put on the checks over mine? Hector Garcia (I kid you not)! Which
should have triggered some very close scrutiny by the two stores who took in
the checks, but didn't. I suspect that, in the case of the manager who ok'd
the one check, they weren't a `manager' for very long afterward.




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*Durango b301 #PE* 
 * Origin: Doc's Place BBS Fido Since 1991 docsplace.tzo.com (1:123/140)