Fraudulent Credit Card charges

My credit card has not been compromised for 2 years now. It is so aggravating when it happens. Last time it happened it was right before our trip to Zihua. We met friends for dinner at a new restaurant in Chicago. Within one hour of our card being swiped, I had the most ridiculous charges. The first charge was for a guitar and the other a Norwegian cruise for over $5,000.00 dollars. Capital One contacted us immediately and we closed the account. I contacted the restaurant the next day and told them what happened. In my opinion they had an unsecured network. I do not believe it was the staff.

It is unlikely that the fraud originated here. If the card info was actually copied, rather than a computer generated random attack, the info is usually held for some time. The last time this happened to us was with a Mastercard that we had never used in Mexico and had not used for almost three months.

It was for the tiny chance that it was from here that I said: IF others have had a similar problem here I'll post which restaurants and which Pemex

I don't want to unjustly harm any local business. So unless I hear of a specific instance I won't post business names. I think we have only used a CC twice here in restaurants. We prefer to pay cash when dealing with small local businesses. I have no problem paying with a CC at large corporate or international outfits, but I would rather the little guy not have to pay the CC fees.

Last year we had a compromised card. It was cancelled and a new one was issued.

When the new card arrived I activated it. Within ONE DAY without the card ever leaving the house it had charges on it that were fraudulent.

D

Got an e-mail from Capital One this afternoon, asking us to review 5 charges. 4 of them were fraudulent, so I clicked on "Wrong." The screen reminded us that we are NOT responsible for fraudulent charges, and asked us to call in. Did, on our wifi phone. They made it clear that these things just happen, killed the card, and offered to DHL a new one here in 5-8 days. We opted for home for March. Again, they reminded us that the charges would disappear in 72 hours.

Capital one now issues cards with different numbers on the same account. That means that although MY card was hacked, his wasn't! Account is still fine. If the other card is hacked, we will have them send a replacement here.

Credit cards, other things, and life get messed with sometimes. Fortunately, it usually works out in the end, at least with credit cards!!!

Sure, "it usually works out in the end" - the banks are happy, the thieves are happy and, aside from a little inconvenience, the affected customer is happy. The only losers are all the rest of us, who pay the price for all this fraud - even dumb schmucks like me who learned years ago not to use my credit cards in Mexico. The problem clearly is astronomical and will keep getting worse, unless and until regulations prohibit the banks from passing-on the costs of credit card fraud to their customers. Then you'll see some action. Right now, it has all the markings of a "crime without victims."

In recent years, banks have been required to provide some "truth in lending" information: showing real interest rates, etc. Why not require the banks to issue an annual statement to each customer that might say:

"The cost to you this past year to cover credit card fraud was $670.75 These costs could be eliminated if we tightened-up our credit card security, or swallowed those costs ourselves, but in the meantime, it's Don't Worry, Be Happy."