Is there a such thing as accidental fraud charges?

[Anonymous]

I've had my Walmart card linked to Walmart.com ever since I opened the account, yet to have any issue with fraudulent use.

I have received a couple letters about breaches with their partners though. Since I no longer have a SYNCH card I didn't feel I was at risk anymore, especially with a new account number. So if this happend after their takeover, it must be a Cap1 issue.  

Charge to the old account number would have been declined.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Sync cards seem to have way more fraud issues than most other lenders 

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What is that based on?  If it is on reports here, I suspect that Sync cards are a large part of the population (much greater than in the wider world), but we see fraud reported on all sorts of cards.   So suspicion should only arise if fraud/#cards was particularly large for Sync, and I have no info either way.

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Threads like this one with the Marvel card seem to show that Sync has had some sort of breach activity happen. 

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/Fraud-on-Marvel-accounts/td-p/5334345

It certainly seems more common on Sync majors although of course I don't have proof one way or the other. The Marvel card stuff certainly screams to me that there is something fishy though and there have been a few Sam's and Walmart MasterCard fraud reports too. I just find it interesting that you don't hear about it with Capital One, for example, but someone here has an issue with Sync every few weeks. Now that Capital One has the Walmart card it's starting to look like Capital One has a breach but I bet it's just something that happened with the transfer. It doesn't really help that Sync doesn't have the tools other issuers do though, like instant purchase alerts (they have them for Marvel now but it used to be only for $300 or larger purchases and everything else would be delayed by days) or the ability to freeze transactions but it certainly doesn't take much looking to find Sync accounts being reported with strange fraud, like people who have their cards in their safe and never used them, versus basically any other lender. 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I've had my Walmart card linked to Walmart.com ever since I opened the account, yet to have any issue with fraudulent use.

I have received a couple letters about breaches with their partners though. Since I no longer have a SYNCH card I didn't feel I was at risk anymore, especially with a new account number. So if this happend after their takeover, it must be a Cap1 issue.  

Charge to the old account number would have been declined.

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Charges to the old account numbers were not being declined. In fact people were told to keep using their Sync card until they got their new Capital One card and it wouldn't surprise me if Capital One has both cards active for customer's benefit. I know that when Capital One sends me replacement cards, my old one works even after I have activated the new one. 

[Anonymous]

They didn't even give me a new account number between Synch & CapOne. It appears on both cards to have been the exact same number.

Anyway, does anybody have any more info on these "Approved" Alerts from CapOne?

I have never seen any of my credit cards tell me a purchase has been "approved", but I have had cards with a change in behavior like I SDed them but started using them or forgot to tell them I went traveling get auto-locked, but I never seen a charge that waited for "Approval".

I mean I am glad in this case as it instantly alerted me to take action, but I never seen it before.

[GApeachy]

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@Anonymous 

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My ds had 8 or 9 (most happening within a 9 hour timeframe) fraudulent charges right before the Walmart Synch to CapOne transition.  He was getting emails of the charges going through, we called Synch and they shut the card down at the 4 or 5th? charge but somehow there were still more fraudulent charges incurring. 

We went back and forth with Synch and CapOne.  CapOne issued a new card/new number during week one but we had to call back in to them as CapOne started posting 3 more fraudulent charges from the old card/old number/closed acct....all of this happening the first week of the transition. 

It took a long time to get CapOne to remove those extra charges from DS's acct.  but they finally did.  Because of the slow process and additional charges going through the card is now sd.  DS is just not wanting to use it for a while to see if anything else could happen. 

Anyway, CapOne and Synch did investigate but I don't recall either of them sending ds a letter of the outcome.

I had posted about this when it first happened (a few months ago) as we thought his card had been skimmed while they (he and wife) were in the ER that night.  I took lots of screenshots as his acct. was updating daily with new charges incurring from another state, even after the old card had been closed.  It was weird all the way around with both Synch and CapOne.

[Anonymous]

Wow @GApeachy, I thought I had craziness.

I am really glad that I immediately had CapOne shut it down.

I was actually quite surprised how easily they did it.

Myself and a family member were concerned, what if they ask us to prove it wasn't us. We really had no idea what to say other than we don't even take cruises and hope the charge wasn't even from our state.

Luckily CapOne seemed to realize it was a SDed card and didn't put up some barrier for us to somehow explain it for a fact wasn't me.

So far the charge says Pending still but the CS agent says it will get an auto-refund after it posts.

[GApeachy]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Wow @GApeachy, I thought I had craziness.

I am really glad that I immediately had CapOne shut it down.

I was actually quite surprised how easily they did it.

Myself and a family member were concerned, what if they ask us to prove it wasn't us. We really had no idea what to say other than we don't even take cruises and hope the charge wasn't even from our state.

Luckily CapOne seemed to realize it was a SDed card and didn't put up some barrier for us to somehow explain it for a fact wasn't me.

So far the charge says Pending still but the CS agent says it will get an auto-refund after it posts.

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Take plenty of screenshots and watch it daily.....CapOne removed and then put back 3 of the charges a week or two later and had to investigate those same charges (backdated) again.  But that Transition was the hiccup I'm pretty sure cuz when DH and I had a couple of fraud charges on our own, different cards go through they took care of those immediately.  DS just wasn't as lucky due to the timing I believe.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Charges to the old account numbers were not being declined. In fact people were told to keep using their Sync card until they got their new Capital One card and it wouldn't surprise me if Capital One has both cards active for customer's benefit. I know that when Capital One sends me replacement cards, my old one works even after I have activated the new one. 

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Yes, that part I understand. I used mine right up until the new cards came, then I shredded the old ones. I also though that I read in that letter that the old card would cease to function upon activation of said new ones, but definitely 2-4 weeks after the new ones arrived?

In OP's case though, I don't see how an SD'd card for 2 years could have been used. Especially if he removed it from Walmart.com, although I'm sure the numbers were still stored in a server somewhere. That seems like it would be a Walmart breach issue though, not Cap1 or SYNCH? Or at least the company that Walmart uses to store said information.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the suggestions.

After this charge gets fixed, I am going to try CapOne's lock card feature.

I don't have experience with it as my other cards never offered that type of service but definitely worth a shot.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Thanks for the suggestions.

After this charge gets fixed, I am going to try CapOne's lock card feature.

I don't have experience with it as my other cards never offered that type of service but definitely worth a shot.

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Capital One's card lock works very well. I use it off and on and I've never had a problem with it. In fact both my AU cards I gave to my roommates are permanently locked since it's just to boost their credit. Capital One is one of the few that blocks all charges, including recurring ones.