topic Re: Synchrony Credit Fraud in Credit Cards

Synchrony Credit Fraud

Appleman — Mon, 20 Feb 2017 01:26:03 GMT

I was out to dinner with extended family when one member relayed that he had been victim to CC fraud.

It was his Sam's MasterCard issued through Synchrony. This happened 2 times to his card, once for $300 and another for $400. For the first charge he called and they took care of it no problem. On the second charge they made him pay it because the person had both his CC number and 3 digit security number off of the back and made an online purchase. He called the company that sent the product and they would not help. He tried with no luck to have Synchrony take care of him, despite elevating to a supervisor.

I asked him if he filed a police report and he had not.

Does this sound correct, that the consumer would be liable for charges if the card number and security code are used on-line? That is a tremendous amount of liability for those with $10,000+ credit lines. One trip to the dinner and the waiter steals your numbers by 2 quick photos of your card?

Thoughts, suggestions?

Re: Synchrony Credit Fraud

Creditplz — Mon, 20 Feb 2017 01:44:04 GMT

I was under the impression that as a card holder I would be 100% NOT liable for any fraud on my card (not that I have synchrony anymore). But this could be a HUGE issue for those with $25,000 CL with Synchrony.

I also thought that it was super hard to obtain a CVV code since most skimmers can't see them and only scan the mag strip (from what I was told by BofA when I had fraud) also they usually need to input the billing address or billing zip.

Re: Synchrony Credit Fraud

Appleman — Mon, 20 Feb 2017 01:51:23 GMT

Getting the numbers is as simple as giving the waitress your credit card. Or someone with a cell phone takes a picture and ends up seeing both sides of your card.

Re: Synchrony Credit Fraud

Anonymous — Mon, 20 Feb 2017 01:52:10 GMT

Not that difficult. Take picture of card. You have all numbers and name. Google name or Facebook to figure out city/zip. Most websites only check zip for card and not address. So billing address could be a McDonald's in that zip. Shipping address anything and if you put it as a gift they might overlook it even more.

I don't think that in this situation the cardholder is liable. If he really didn't do it(or any family member etc) than file police report and report back to Syncrony. There might be more to the story. Fraud can happen in many different ways including online with the card number and zip. Might look legit for the bank because technically everything checks out.

Re: Synchrony Credit Fraud

Appleman — Mon, 20 Feb 2017 02:00:44 GMT

I asked him some additional questions.

The first fraud happened in Billing Period 1. He called in and no problem, charge taken care of. He was not sure if they used the 3 number security number.

Second fraud happened the next month, Billing Period 2. Still same credit card but different merchant.

He received a written letter from Synchrony that he is going to send me. The letter explains that he is liable for the charge. In my reading, he is not liable. Even though he has possesion of the card someone stole his numbers and made a fraudulent charge.

Re: Synchrony Credit Fraud

elim — Mon, 20 Feb 2017 02:09:35 GMT

@Appleman wrote:
I asked him some additional questions.
The first fraud happened in Billing Period 1. He called in and no problem, charge taken care of. He was not sure if they used the 3 number security number.
Second fraud happened the next month, Billing Period 2. Still same credit card but different merchant.

He received a written letter from Synchrony that he is going to send me. The letter explains that he is liable for the charge. In my reading, he is not liable. Even though he has possesion of the card someone stole his numbers and made a fraudulent charge.

I'm assuming he had a reissued card for the second charge?

Key loggers, screen capture, etc can still snatch a CC# and CVV. I do know that I am able to set alerts for any charge over a few hundred on both my Synch cards (for anyone else worried). I would wonder what the agreement says but I would think CCC would pay it. Synch is sort of skittish lately so if the cardholder was irresponsible (for lack of a better word) with his account by not checking charges, etc, I would worry about a blue envelope.

Re: Synchrony Credit Fraud

austinguy907 — Mon, 20 Feb 2017 02:16:35 GMT

Synch isn't known to be the best when it comes to dealing with fraud. They've let some members cards get run up to thousands of dollars and being notified by the cardholder instead of the other way around. Simply put any time there's a fraud issue a replacement card should be issued with a new CVV number and/or CC #. The funny thing about these newer cards that aren't embossed with the numbers is that it's all on the sticker on the same side. Nothing complicated with getting both sides anymore.

The only fraud I've had is a couple of instances that were caught immediately and handled by my CU on my debit card. Finally they issued a replacement card out of no where and upgraded it to a chip card in addition to that. Not sure where or who but, they handled it all behind the scenes and that was it.

When I started hitting multiple transactions at the grocery store to meet the 15 debits/mo for the interest their fraud company e-mailed me regarding the series of transactions and it was a simple reply yes/no and done deal. I never saw that from them though on the previous attempts which must have been a mismatch in info since I never saw the pending transactions either.

The MC provisions and benefits should protect him from paying the fraudulent charges though as long as he reported the fraud as soon as he noticed it. Also, they may require the Police Report in order to document it. Typically though if the charges aren't over a certain dollar amount they'll just deal with it in house.

Re: Synchrony Credit Fraud

gdale6 — Mon, 20 Feb 2017 02:27:01 GMT

Its pretty easy for crooks to get the CVV https://www.lifehacker.com.au/2016/04/cvv-hacks-how-thieves-get-the-three-numbers-from-the-back-of-your-credit-card/

If he doesnt care about the card or the issuer a CFPB complaint would be in order and failing that an outright suit of Synchrony Bank.

Re: Synchrony Credit Fraud

Anonymous — Mon, 20 Feb 2017 03:12:31 GMT

@Appleman wrote:
I asked him some additional questions.
The first fraud happened in Billing Period 1. He called in and no problem, charge taken care of. He was not sure if they used the 3 number security number.
Second fraud happened the next month, Billing Period 2. Still same credit card but different merchant.

He received a written letter from Synchrony that he is going to send me. The letter explains that he is liable for the charge. In my reading, he is not liable. Even though he has possesion of the card someone stole his numbers and made a fraudulent charge.

My first (and really, only) question is, did Synch cancel and issue a new card after the first instance of fraud? If they did not, then this should be entirely on them. If they did issue a new card, I can understand their concern, but absent proof of fraud on this person, they should not be able to enforce payment. And if they had reason to suspect that, why did they not close the account?

Re: Synchrony Credit Fraud

Anonymous — Mon, 20 Feb 2017 04:03:32 GMT

Synch is a mess they will make security codes easy to hack for instance 123, 468, 789. Mine is a strange sequence counting by 2's it's easy for me to remember but also easy for someone to hack.. Synch also mails your statment with the full account number on it.

Re: Synchrony Credit Fraud

Discover2016 — Mon, 20 Feb 2017 04:55:20 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Synch is a mess they will make security codes easy to hack for instance 123, 468, 789. Mine is a strange sequence counting by 2's it's easy for me to remember but also easy for someone to hack.. Synch also mails your statment with the full account number on it.

Ugh I hate when companies do that, Chase and BofA do as well. That is one reason all my cards are e-statement only.

Re: Synchrony Credit Fraud

Creditplz — Mon, 20 Feb 2017 05:03:08 GMT

Synchrony was sending me like 15 4506-TEZ forums with my full SSN!!! And my address, now that infuriated me

Re: Synchrony Credit Fraud

Discover2016 — Mon, 20 Feb 2017 05:10:33 GMT

@Creditplz wrote:
Synchrony was sending me like 15 4506-TEZ forums with my full SSN!!! And my address, now that infuriated me

Wow that is scary.

Re: Synchrony Credit Fraud

Creditplz — Mon, 20 Feb 2017 05:20:02 GMT

I called just to give them a piece of my mind (and close my accounts) and they told me they had to send them for every account...

Re: Synchrony Credit Fraud

austinguy907 — Mon, 20 Feb 2017 05:28:39 GMT

@Creditplz wrote:
I called just to give them a piece of my mind (and close my accounts) and they told me they had to send them for every account...

Assuming that you had 15 cards? Not sure why the hell they sent a 4506 when you called to close. Not like you're going to provide income information to close an account. That's just stupid. Then again the monkeys at Synch do weird stuff all the time as seen around here. I sign up for paperless everything just for this reason of sending out correspondence with vital info printed on them. I've got a CU account or two that for some odd reason mail out a statement if there's a balance change even with paperless setup on them. All we can do is try to do a lilttle CYA like shredding things to avoid someone picking up on info through the trash.

Re: Synchrony Credit Fraud

rmduhon — Mon, 20 Feb 2017 05:42:16 GMT

Not only do I shred things like this, I also burn it afterwards.

Re: Synchrony Credit Fraud

Creditplz — Mon, 20 Feb 2017 05:51:06 GMT

No I had 6-7 and they didn't recieve a response in 2 weeks so they sent another batch... and I do the same! I have a fire pit in my back yard, so I just throw it in there and turn the gas on

Re: Synchrony Credit Fraud

UncleB — Mon, 20 Feb 2017 08:39:58 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Not that difficult. Take picture of card. You have all numbers and name. Google name or Facebook to figure out city/zip. Most websites only check zip for card and not address. So billing address could be a McDonald's in that zip. Shipping address anything and if you put it as a gift they might overlook it even more.

I don't think that in this situation the cardholder is liable. If he really didn't do it(or any family member etc) than file police report and report back to Syncrony. There might be more to the story. Fraud can happen in many different ways including online with the card number and zip. Might look legit for the bank because technically everything checks out.

I agree... from all the advertisements we see telling us about the safety of using a credit card (usually with even the $50 maximum liability waived) I'm also tempted to believe the cardholder isn't liable in this case, but it might require some legwork/paperwork.

Hopefully @RobertEG will come across this thread and be able to share some wisdom with us... he's really good with the specifics of the law in matters like this.

Re: Synchrony Credit Fraud

AverageJoesCredit — Mon, 20 Feb 2017 12:02:49 GMT

Worse thing about Sams club credit is the minimum for alert is like $300. Really?. On recent thread i braught up a classic Synch fraud case with poster having like 16,000 fraud on his 25k Marvel. Sync is Monkee See, Monkey Do Palace

Re: Synchrony Credit Fraud

Appleman — Mon, 20 Feb 2017 15:20:42 GMT

Sync did not replace the card until the next month when the card was hit again. It gets me because this extended family member is retired and keeps great records. At this point they bullied him into paying the $400 charge with the sending of the letter. Even he knows that trying to get a lawyer involved at this point will at the very best be a wash on $400.

He is in the process of throwing Synchrony and Sam's club to the curb and will be a Costco shopper for life because of this incident. Me, I would take the loss and fight this thing but I respect his action.