Amelia, I received my MBNA statement yesterday with 3 charges that weren't mine.
One from an online ticket broker, 2 for plane tickets to Phoenix.
I work 16+ hours 7 days a week, the only travelling I do is to the post office 20 minutes away
MBNA immediately put through a credit for me on the Mastercard, but also cancelled the card due to 'fraudulent transactions' and said it would be a week until I got new ones. I'm not worried, I have a lot of other cards until then. So yes, I'd say this is now standard practice.
I then called the ticket broker and asked who put this on my card. I told MBNA I felt it was a matter of it being charged to the wrong card somehow, not fraud, since every transaction since that time (roughly 50 transactions) were legit, and if someone were going to lift my card number and use it, they'd mostly likely go to a porn site and not buy airline tickets where you have to show identification to pick them up
They agreed but cancelled the card. Ticket agency could not help me without a transaction number and no ticket number was issued on my credit card statement. They didn't seem to care until I causually mentioned that it wasn't me who was out the thousand bucks and 3 separate chargeback fees ... then they sat up and took notice and said I'd get a letter from them and would have to sign something blah blah blah. I'll gladly do that so they can investigate.
Meanwhile, 2 folks have had a free plane trip.
psyko514 claimed:
"for example, if you order something online at Future Shop, they will ask for your credit card billing address. then, they call Visa to confirm the address matches the card number. if someone has taken over the account and changed the address, then visa is going to say "yes, the address matches, go ahead with the transaction". if the transaction gets disputed as fraud, visa will incur the loss because visa said "go for it, it's all good". "
Really? Hm, very odd. I'm always told that when I get approval via terminal or on the phone it is no guarantee the transaction will go through and in fact could be fraudulent, even if they have an exact CVV2 and AVS match.
To go one step further, I've spoken to the 'security' departments and have been given manual authorization but have been clearly told each time that there is no guarantee the transaction will be approved once it goes through the final approval phase.