CourthouseChris said:

Has anyone else experienced fraudulent charges appearing on their credit cards after dining out in Arlington?  In the past six months I've replaced three cards for fraudulent charges, and each time the charge immediately preceding the fraud charge is for a restaurant in Arlington (not the same restaurant).  I won't post names of the restaurants because obviously this is pretty flimsy evidence, but something is going on and I'm wondering if others are experiencing this.

I think the more likely culprit is that you buy things online with those credit cards.

Are they complete secondary unknown charges at another merchant? Or does it just seem they've added an additional tip? If it is a second charge (or larger charge than you were expecting) at the restaurant, at what point do you notice the fraudulent charges? The restaurant will authorize your card before you write in the tip with an estimate, just to be sure you can actually cover the charge before you leave. Sometimes that'll show up as a second charge if you view your account online, but will drop off after a few days or even a week once it is all cleared. I don't know if that's the situation here, but is that possible for you?

redstang423 said:

Are they complete secondary unknown charges at another merchant? Or does it just seem they've added an additional tip? If it is a second charge (or larger charge than you were expecting) at the restaurant, at what point do you notice the fraudulent charges? The restaurant will authorize your card before you write in the tip with an estimate, just to be sure you can actually cover the charge before you leave. Sometimes that'll show up as a second charge if you view your account online, but will drop off after a few days or even a week once it is all cleared. I don't know if that's the situation here, but is that possible for you?

Hah, that would make me something of an idiot…. but no, that's not the situation here.  These are completely independent charges.  In at least one case I talked to my bank and they confirmed it was an in-person transaction (Ski shop on Lake Tahoe) meaning my card was cloned. 

Remember this story?

http://www.arlnow.com/2011/12/…..arlington/

Sorry to say, but it sounds like a popular pastime in the local service industries…

CW said:

Remember this story?

 

http://www.arlnow.com/2011/12/…..arlington/

 

Sorry to say, but it sounds like a popular pastime in the local service industries…

  That's the very story that got me thinking on this…

Googling a bit, there's lots of cases in DC too.  It's funny, with all this alarmist warnings on cyber threats (see Novasteve, above), theft more often still comes down to physical possession [of the card].

Post edited 12:43 pm – February 17, 2012 by thecharlesriver

CourthouseChris said:

Arlingtonian said:

Have you told APD about this?

No.  The evidence for skimming at any particular restaurant is sufficiently weak as to be meaningless.  The banks always ask "would you be willing to file a police report if asked", but they've never asked, and none of this has ever resulted in any monetary loss to me.

You can do whatever you want, but failing to report these kinds of instances is not wise. It doesn't matter if the evidence is weak. That's up to investigators to collect and determine. While these kinds of crimes are often not within the purview of the local PD, filing a police report gives you documentation that you reported the occurrences. This provides a paper-trail in the event your identity is stolen. It also provides much needed intelligence so that the local police can keep stats of those reports and track other episodes, which may aid investigations aimed at catching the criminals. This becomes especially important where patterns emerge. It amazes me how many people file reports about frivolous things and yet neglect to file reports about actual crimes.

Post edited 12:54 pm – February 17, 2012 by thecharlesriver

CourthouseChris said:

thecharlesriver said:

You can do whatever you want, but failing to report these kinds of instances is not wise. It doesn't matter if the evidence is weak. That's up to investigators to collect and determine. Filing a police report gives you documentation that you reported the occurrences. This provides a paper-trail in the event your identity is stolen. It also provides much needed intelligence so that the local police can keep stats of those reports and track other episodes, which may aid investigations aimed at catching the criminals. It amazes me how many people file reports about frivolous things and neglect to file reports about actual crimes.

Frankly I see this as an issue between me and my bank, and my bank and the police as I've inccurred no monetary loss.  I think you are perhaps overly confident in the investigative resources of the local police.  Frequently when skimming operations are caught, it is by data-mining operations at the financial institutions that detect significant correlation of fraudulent activity on their customer base's cards to a particular merchant all affected customers used.  Or, in the case that CW cited above, when there is a single incident of identifiable fraud linked to a particular individual. 

 

Also – who is filing reports about frivolous things and neglecting to file reports about actual crimes?  For the record, I'm not filing any police reports, frivolous or otherwise.

 

As I mentioned above (it was probably edited in while you were typing your second tart response to someone who was simply responding to your post), these crimes are often not within the purview of the local PD, however the local PD may act as a clearinghouse for information that is reported regarding similar activity, which is turned over to other investigators. And for the record, you came on here with this, I commented on it, and I also never implied that YOU filed frivolous reports but I assure you, they exist. And no, I'm not overly confident in the investigative resources of local PD. I'm quite familiar with their capabilities. But thanks for your generous contribution to the world through this post. LOL.

CourthouseChris said:

thecharlesriver said:

As I mentioned above, these crimes are often not within the purview of the local PD, however the local PD may act as a clearinghouse for information that is reported regarding similar activity, which is turned over to other investigators. And for the record, you came on here with this, I commented on it, and I also never implied that YOU filed frivolous reports but I assure you, they exist. And no, I'm not overly confident in the investigative resources of local PD. I'm quite familiar with their capabilities. But thanks for your generous contribution to the world through this post. LOL.

You seem more frustrated and sarcastic than normal, something wrong?  Care to talk about it?

Is that really the best you can do? What a pity.

redstang423 said:

Out of sheer curiosity – are you positive it is from the restaurants? If it is at a random merchant, it could be the result of your info being stolen anywhere you've used the card – which could be only at those restaurants. Another possibility is that if your card uses the RF chip where you don't have to physically swipe it, someone could have stolen your info via a RFID reader while you were walking along the street with the card in your pocket. Just throwing out possibilities.

No, as I admitted, it is flimsy evidence, and I cannot be positive it is from the restaurants.  So I'm not going to say it was so-and-so restaurant as I'm not interested in unduly damaging the reputation of any restaurant.  As well, my experience is not going to dissuade me form dining at these places again – though I may be paying in cash.  My intent with this post is to see if others have experienced similiar things to establish better evidence.  While I readily acknowledge it could be other merchants, there are few other instances where the card is physically out of my possession – most other merchants are POS terminals.  Granted, POS terminals can be tapped, databases can be hacked…  I think though that the circumstances around my experiences are cause for some concern. 

None of my cards have the rfid chips.

Too pricey for widespread use? They're used almost exclusively in a lot of other first-world countries.

This is what I've seen in Canada, etc.: http://www.ecrater.com/p/59110…..redit-card

About $700.

How many would even a big restaurant need? How many checks are being settled at exactly the same time?