The concept of “value or worth”, which we presently express as “money” has always been associated with the concept of “fraud and deceit”. As the money changed its form from valuables that can be bartered to precious stones and metal coins, paper money and finally to today’s digital form, fraud kept its pace and the chase.
Every year, the credit card companies or credit card services and their customers are losing billions of dollars because of these incidences, which makes credit card fraud reporting imperative. When it happens to you, credit card fraud reporting is the only way to limit the damage to your credit and investment. Even though, the credit card fraud penalties are steep (20 years maximum) the greed and thought of fast and easy money drives some people to commit the credit card frauds. The following is a brief note on the credit card reporting, which you may find interesting.
Reporting Credit Card Fraud
If you find that your credit card account has been charged with amounts for purchases you haven’t commissioned, or that you have lost or had your credit card stolen, take credit card fraud reporting seriously and be done with it immediately. Inform your credit card company and report the credit card fraud. This may prevent it from happening to you or others again. Your credit card fraud reporting will discharge you of the liability for the deceitful transactions made with your credit card or bank card or an ATM card. If you find yourself in such a situation, take immediate action. Now, the question is how to report credit card fraud and what are the benefits of doing so.
Most credit card companies or credit card merchants provide a toll free telephone number and a round the clock service to help their customers overcome such emergencies. Inform your bank or the credit card company of the fraud, which will enable them to freeze your account. You may choose to change your account number or the credit card number, in order to make them inaccessible.
Once you report the loss of your credit card; lost or stolen, the law says, you are not responsible to repay the fraudulent charges to the credit card company. If you report the loss of you credit card on the same day, second day and third day, your maximum liability in such a case is of $50, $100, $500 per credit card, respectively. If you report the loss after 60 days, you have to pay for every unauthorized transaction amount.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
The FTC exists to prevent fraudulent and unlawful business activities. It provides you with data on how to pinpoint, report, and protect yourselves from such deceitful behaviors. In the USA, FTC is the body you can turn to for credit card fraud reporting. You can also approach local law enforcements for credit card fraud reporting. As a rule, FTC investigates reports of fraud above $2000. However, the local law agencies may help you, if you want report a fraud bellow $2,000 depending on the the amount, type of fraud, and the area in which the fraud was committed. If the credit card fraud exceeds $1,50,000 the credit card fraud reporting is done to the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation).
Fraud: Reporting Bogus Charges
If you are in possession of your credit card and find a bogus charge made to your credit card bill, then what could it mean. It could only mean that someone with malicious intent may be using your credit card number, obviously, without your authorization. You may fall pry to this kind of credit card fraud, which is called identity theft, when someone copies your card number, whilst you are using it for your convenience. This emergency demands credit card fraud reporting on your part to your credit card issuer and the local authorities. Before taking action, authorities may demand a signed statement under oath from you, declaring that you are not involved in the bogus transactions in question, but rather it is someone else who knows your credit card number.
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