Credit Card Theft redux

Hi all.

Back in November last year, I mentioned that I discovered my credit card
was stolen. There were few limited possibilities... and as of last
week, the police got a confession from the actual thief:

Tiffany Town Cars

I know that many of you use this service and enjoy it (which is why we
selected it in the first place)... but at the same time, the point of
this group is to also alert you when there's stuff going on that's
not-so-good.

So anyways, I don't have the guy's actual name (waiting on that
paperwork). But suffice it to say, the police say that it's probably
not the first time he's done this.

Anyways, I hope no one else has to go through what we've been dealing
with.

~Jeff
TDC Experiment 626 and Guardian of Stitch Kingdom

On Apr 11, 7:26 am, Jeffrey Gordon <j...@jeffreygordon.net> wrote:
> Hi all.
>
> Back in November last year, I mentioned that I discovered my credit card
> was stolen.  There were few limited possibilities... and as of last
> week, the police got a confession from the actual thief:
>
> Tiffany Town Cars

Thank you for posting this!! I've used this service many times in the
past and will probably not do so in the future at this point.

On Apr 11, 7:26 am, Jeffrey Gordon <j...@jeffreygordon.net> wrote:
> Hi all.
>
> Back in November last year, I mentioned that I discovered my credit card
> was stolen.  There were few limited possibilities... and as of last
> week, the police got a confession from the actual thief:
>
> Tiffany Town Cars

Jeff, I can only imagine the headache this has been for you! At least
the culprit was found and, thank goodness, it wasn't a Disney
employee!

The last time we used Tiffany Town Cars I was a little upset with them
because the driver, who was not a regular Tiffany employee and who was
just filling in for a friend, wouldn't take a credit card. We had
enough cash to cover the fare, but it left us a little shorter on cash
for the rest of the trip. Now, I'm thinking that maybe we were lucky!

So, now I'm wondering, did you use your credit card to pay the driver
directly, or did you just use it to confirm your reservation? I hate
to think the worst of Tiffany Town Car, as they are so highly
recommended, and would somehow feel better if the culprit was just a
rogue driver.

~Lei

> I'm not sure I'd go so far as to boycott the company because of one bad
> employee.  Really, this could happen anywhere, anytime.  I doubt it's
> company policy to allow credit card theft.  Of course if it were, or
> even if they had a lax attitude about it, then yes, I would boycott them.

I know but it seems like their quality of service has gone downhill in
the past couple of years from what I've read. <sigh> I'm getting
paranoid in my old age!

On Apr 11, 4:13 pm, Octopus Ride <davk...@bendbroadband.com> wrote:
> Jeffrey Gordon <j...@jeffreygordon.net> wrote:

> Good luck with the lawsuit they can now bring on you for slander.

It's not slander if it's true.

~Lei

> Good luck with the lawsuit they can now bring on you for slander.

Huh?

Last December our family stayed at Saratoga Springs. My parents used
their MasterCard for our room when we checked in. My parents use
their credit cards only when they absolutely have to. The last time
they used that particular credit card was checking in at the hotel
upon arrival.

They haven't used the card since, but when they got their statement in
February, their credit card number was stolen and used elsewhere in
Florida in January. There were 6 or 7 transactions for $99.99 at a
Wal-Mart. Every transaction was done within the same few minutes.

Prior to using the card at Saratoga Springs my parents hadn't used
that card in months. They haven't used it since. It has taken my mom
hours on the phone and several headaches to clear the matter with the
bank.

My mother called WDW & Saratoga Springs to let them know that her card
number was stolen and that there was a possibility the theft happened
there since 1-they never use that card and 2-the fraudulent
transactions were done about 30 minutes from WDW (we live in Ohio.)

The supervisors she spoke to could care less and really didn't seem to
give a damn about her stolen credit card and all the trouble it has
caused. In the past eight years, my wife and I have gone to WDW
about 11 or 12 times. After my mother having her card number taken
(at a deluxe resort) and the management's "we don't give a damn"
attitude, I'm really worried about using our credit cards there
again. We've got a trip at the Poly planned for December, how can we
make sure this doesn't happen again?

--Kev

In article
<69f43b4f-722e-458d-a166-01e8e73d33a2@b1g2000hsg..com>,
kimiandritz@ wrote:

> We've got a trip at the Poly planned for December, how can we
> make sure this doesn't happen again?
>
> --Kev

Hi Kev...

Sorry you had this happen to you and your family. I understand
completely.

But the truth is that there's really not much you can do if you want to
continue to use your credit cards. Unless/until someone comes up with a
way to verify your identity when you use the card (without eliminating
the ability to use the card "remotely" over the phone or internet),
we're going to keep having card thefts.

So for now, I do two things (since I'm not willing to give up my card
usage). 1. I have 1 card. I chose a bank that offers fraud
protection. 2. I keep every receipt of every purchase I make and I
validate the purchases against each statement.

This is what allowed us to discover the fraudulent charges (not to
mention that we don't do business with Florida-based utility providers).

As to the specific issue we had, we immediately contacted the police,
they took about 3 months to investigate and found that the person who
stole the number used it to pay off their various utility bills. Not
exactly intelligent when your bills are tied to your name and address.
So when the warrants finally yielded responses from each company, boom.
The detective re-interviewed the initial suspect, presented this new
evidence... and the suspect confessed. Case solved.

I thus am a huge proponent of the Kissimmee Police Department. :)

~Jeff
TDC Experiment 626 and Guardian of Stitch Kingdom

"Patty Winter" <patty1@wintertime.com> wrote in message
news:4801246f$0$36376$742ec2ed@news.sonic.net...
>
> In article <jeff-D43FBC.15110012042008@news.giganews.com>,
> Jeffrey Gordon <jeff@jeffreygordon.net> wrote:
>>
>> Unless/until someone comes up with a
>>way to verify your identity when you use the card (without eliminating
>>the ability to use the card "remotely" over the phone or internet),
>>we're going to keep having card thefts.
>
> I don't know which other card issuers offer this, but CitiCards has
> virtual account numbers you can use for phone and Internet charges.
> If any other merchant tries to use the same VAN, the charge won't
> go through. (At least, that's what the policies say; I haven't
> tried it.) And even the designated merchant can't use it for more
> than a month or so. (That policy I have verified. I've had newsletter
> publishers try to charge me for another year's subscription, and the
> charge hasn't gone through.)
>
> Patty
>
I buy most everything online with CitiCards' virtual account numbers,
including my last DLR vacation. For what isn't available online, I usually
use that same CitiCard account credit card and haven't experienced any
problems. My pocket cash seemingly lasts forever, because I only use cash
for infrequent vending machine purchases. I write just 2 checks each year,
both to the county property tax collector. Pretty much everything else is
paid for using the magic plastic. I prefer credit cards because you get a
complete record of purchases, fraud and business failure protection
(thinking of those airlines that recently went belly-up leaving non-credit
card ticketed passengers in the lurch), frequent flyer miles, convenience,
etc. - Bill

I had a strange incident with Tiffany Town Cars regarding CC a few
years ago. When our driver picked us up, we used our Diners Club Card
to pay him which Tiffany Town Cars did accept. (This was before Diners
Club Cards had a MasterCard logo). For over a month, the charge
didn't show up on the account. Then one day I received a call from
the driver asking for alternate payment. (He was a subcontractor and
his personal CC receiving equipment didn't accept Diners Club.) I
declined to do so at the time and said I would call him back. I called
Tiffany Towncar and they assured me there was no need to give the
driver alternate payment. If he wanted payment, he needed to come
into the office where they would run my card and pay him. I guess
about a month after that, my charge did come through on the card with
the correct amount.

Of course, with DME, I no longer use Towncars, but not because of this
incident. If DME goes away, I'll use Towncars again.

Carol