聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 Credit cards鈥� We need them to build credit and we鈥檙e told that they鈥檙e a part of the way the financial world works these days. Which, it definitely comes in handy when you鈥檙e buying stuff online. The question, however, is: 鈥淚s it safe?鈥�
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 The answer is that it鈥檚 never fully 100 percent safe. I鈥檝e had friends whose cards have been used without their permission, lifted from physical locations including stores and gas stations. Most recently, however, I was hit by fraudulent charges.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Looking over my credit card statement, my initial reaction was, 鈥淗oly, I went overboard on Christmas.鈥� Which, there were charges for Christmas items I ordered and for coaching courses, so I knew it should be high. But, upon further inspection I discovered two charges that I had no idea what they were for.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Calling my credit card company, they helped me get things sorted out, and were really helpful. They did question me multiple times if I had ordered a free sample because the sample is free, but shipping is not, when it comes to a lot of those free samples online. Only, I鈥檝e heard that before. Just this spring my cousin was hit by a similar scheme. My cousin had actually ordered a free sample; I had not.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 I know I hadn鈥檛 because the charge was for diet pills 鈥� I鈥檓 sorry to anyone who believes they work 鈥� personally I鈥檓 just skeptical of them and would never use them. I got looking and there were two charges, to different companies.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 I called the numbers associated with the product, go figure, it was the same customer service answering machine. Unimpressed I then contacted my credit card company and put a block on any further transactions. I had just missed their dispute department鈥檚 hours though, so the next day I called back. They got me sorted out with the company, charges were reversed and everything turned out fine.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 The first lady I talked to at the credit card company had asked me if I ordered a free sample, then explained that a lot of dietary supplement companies are in fact all one. They use the same pills and just slap a different label on the bottle, saying it鈥檚 something else, so that you sign up for this free trial and that free trial鈥� even though they鈥檙e all the same thing, and you鈥檙e stuck footing the bill for all of the shipping that takes place. Seems sketchy regardless, but it was particularly infuriating because I didn鈥檛 sign up for any of them and like a lot of these fraudulent companies just on the take they never actually sent anything in the mail.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 So, how can a company do that? Well, I鈥檓 told that they use a machine to randomly generate numbers or hackers potentially get into things that are verified companies on the internet and steal information. Or someone might nab it from a physical location like a store or gas station.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 When I was talking to my friend about it, they had it happen to them both over the internet and from a physical location, but she wondered, 鈥淚f those people would put that same effort into something constructive, they could probably do something awesome.鈥�
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 I鈥檓 not entirely sure, but I鈥檝e had a Credit Card since I was 18鈥� and this is the first time in, approximately, 10 years that I鈥檝e had an issue with it. For that reason, however, I was a little lax in looking at my statements. Mostly blindly paying whatever they said I owed, but it鈥檚 a good thing I checked it over this time and I鈥檓 going to be way more vigilant in doing so from now on.
