[registrars] Credit card hi jinks

[Robert F. Connelly]

Dear Registrars:

I just received the following from a former Chinese employee of 
PSI-Japan.  He graduated from his university in Tokyo early in the 
90's.  He's with a travel firm in Taiwan with connections in Singapore.

Nothing unique about these stories, but they interested me enough to pass 
them along to you.  Regards, BobC

Use of credit card

Scene 1
Friend goes to the local gym and places his belongings in the locker.

After workout and a shower, comes out, sees the locker open and thinks to
himself "Funny... thought I had locked it...hmmm" dresses and just flips the
wallet to make sure all is in check.

Everything looks ok, all cards in place.

Few weeks later receives his credit card bill...WTF! A whooping bill of
$14k! Calls up the credit card company and starts yelling he didn't make the
transactions. Customer care personnel verify no mistake in the system and
asks if his card had been stolen.

"No" he says..takes out wallet and pulls out card...yup! you guessed it...a
switch was made. A similar looking expired card was placed in the wallet.
The thief broke into his locker at the gym and switched cards.

Verdict: Credit card issuer says since he didn't report the card missing
earlier, he would still have to pay the amount owed to them. How much does
he have to pay for items he did not buy? $9k

Why were there no calls to verify the amount swiped? Small amounts rarely
trigger a 'warning bell' in credit card companies. It just so happened that
the small amounts amounted to big ones!

Scene 2
My dad at a local restaurant paid for his meal with his credit card. The
bill came, he signed it, the waitress folds the receipt and passes the
credit card along.

Usually, he would just take it and place it in his wallet or pocket. Funny
enough, he actually just took a look at the card and look behold... expired
card of another person. He called the waitress and she looked perplexed. She
took it back, apologized and hurried back to the counter under the watchful
eye of my dad. All the waitress did whilst walking to the counter was she
waved the fake card and the counter cashier immediately looked down and took
out the real card. No exchange of words...nothing....

Took it and came back to my dad with apologies.

Verdict: make sure the credit cards in your wallet are yours! Check the name
on the card every time you sign for something and its taken away for a short
period of time.