Unauthorized Use of Credit Card

[wfloyd1845]

My question involves criminal law for the state of: Texas

My computer was hacked and some credit card information was obtained to purchase merchandise without my authorization or knowledge. The merchandise was shipped to an address and individual whom i did not know. Over $5000 was charged to my accounts. is there any procedure that I can take to file suit against the individual or company who used my credit cards?

[adjusterjack]

is there any procedure that I can take to file suit against the individual or company who used my credit cards?

Sure. The same procedure anybody uses to sue anybody. But why bother, you'll never see a nickel from criminals.

File a police report.

File a dispute with your credit card company and have them cancel the old card and issue a new one. If you never bothered to read any of the documents that came with your credit card read it now or go on the the credit card website and learn about the fraud protection you most likely got with the card.

[Taxing Matters]

My question involves criminal law for the state of: Texas

My computer was hacked and some credit card information was obtained to purchase merchandise without my authorization or knowledge. The merchandise was shipped to an address and individual whom i did not know. Over $5000 was charged to my accounts. is there any procedure that I can take to file suit against the individual or company who used my credit cards?

Yes, you may sue the person who committed the fraud. However, that just gets you a judgment which you can use to attach the assets of the person to collect what is owed to you — if you can find any. It's up to you to find the assets and then follow the process to attach them to get your money. The problem with a lot of fraud situations like this is that the person you get judgment against often doesn't have assets you can find, at least not easily. That's not to say you shouldn't try. You might get something. Just realize that if you do go down that route you might find instead an empty pot at the end of it.

Federal law gives the right to dispute the credit card bill with the card issuer. You have just 60 days after you receive the first bill that had the fraudulent charges on it to do that to get the protection the law offers. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has a helpful page discussing credit card disputes. The enforcement of those rules now is done by the relatively new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). It too has a page on disputing credit card charges, but its page is far less detailed. If you promptly dispute the charges the credit card issuer should reverse the charges and you won't have to pay them. That would be the easiest solution for you on this.

And, of course, you should report the fraud to law enforcement. If the thieves are prosecuted and convicted, they might be ordered to pay restitution to you for your loss as part of their sentence.

You don't have to pick just one of these remedies. You can do all of them.

[budwad]

My question involves criminal law for the state of: Texas

My computer was hacked and some credit card information was obtained to purchase merchandise without my authorization or knowledge. The merchandise was shipped to an address and individual whom i did not know. Over $5000 was charged to my accounts. is there any procedure that I can take to file suit against the individual or company who used my credit cards?

What CC information is stored on your computer that a hacker would have access to it? How do you know it was your computer that was hacked and not a merchant computer or a server in a restaurant that copied your CC info.?

The simple answer as to what to do is one, ask for a charge back from your CC company. Two, file a police report (You will need it for the CC company). Once the CC company investigates and determines it was fraud they will give you back your money and go after the perpetrators. You don't have to sue anyone.

[Zigner]

Why do you think you know who did this? Just because something is shipped to someone's address does NOT mean that they were (necessarily) the one who committed fraud. It's common for crooks to order stuff and have it delivered to an uninvolved person's address, then "steal" the package from the porch once it arrives.

[pg1067]

is there any procedure that I can take to file suit against the individual or company who used my credit cards?

Ummm...of course there is. Is that really what you intended to ask?

By the way, what "company" are you talking about?

Also, upon discovery of what happened, you immediately called your credit card issuer to report the unauthorized charges and cancel the card, right?

[Harold99]

Yes, you may sue the person who committed the fraud. However, that just gets you a judgment which you can use to attach the assets of the person to collect what is owed to you — if you can find any. It's up to you to find the assets and then follow the process to attach them to get your money. The problem with a lot of fraud situations like this is that the person you get judgment against often doesn't have assets you can find, at least not easily. That's not to say you shouldn't try. You might get something. Just realize that if you do go down that route you might find instead an empty pot at the end of it.

Federal law gives the right to dispute the credit card bill with the card issuer. You have just 60 days after you receive the first bill that had the fraudulent charges on it to do that to get the protection the law offers. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has a helpful page discussing credit card disputes. The enforcement of those rules now is done by the relatively new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). It too has a page on disputing credit card charges, but its page is far less detailed. If you promptly dispute the charges the credit card issuer should reverse the charges and you won't have to pay them. That would be the easiest solution for you on this.

And, of course, you should report the fraud to law enforcement. If the thieves are prosecuted and convicted, they might be ordered to pay restitution to you for your loss as part of their sentence.

You don't have to pick just one of these remedies. You can do all of them.

How does a person sue when he hasn't experienced any loss 99% of the time? And why would a person go through the trouble of filing a police report when the crime/loss was not against them?

I once had a CC stolen and reported the address to the local police where the new computer was being delivered. They didn't care or write a police report on it, probably because CC companies have far more money than any police station. If the CC company wishes they can pursue these criminals that breach their penetrable security measures. At least that was the feeling I got from the police. However, they don't typically. They just factor the loss into a business expense.

OP, get your acct credited and move on. And welcome to our new cashless system...as if people ever had cash in the first place.

[Taxing Matters]

How does a person sue when he hasn't experienced any loss 99% of the time? And why would a person go through the trouble of filing a police report when the crime/loss was not against them?

If the attempt to get the card issuer to credit the account fails then he will indeed have a loss from the theft because he'll have to pay the bill. You are correct that if he has no loss because the credit card issuer does reverse the charges then he's got nothing for which to sue. Either way, he can still file a police report and it may be worthwhile to do so. Should the police catch the criminals he may cut off further efforts by the criminals to use his stolen information to commit fraud. You make it sound like making that complaint would be some kind of real hassle. At least with the police departments I've dealt with making such a report is not difficult. In any event, it's up to the OP if he thinks it worthwhile to do. And perhaps his police department would be more responsive than yours. They are not all the same, after all.

[Harold99]

If the attempt to get the card issuer to credit the account fails then he will indeed have a loss from the theft because he'll have to pay the bill. You are correct that if he has no loss because the credit card issuer does reverse the charges then he's got nothing for which to sue. Either way, he can still file a police report and it may be worthwhile to do so. Should the police catch the criminals he may cut off further efforts by the criminals to use his stolen information to commit fraud. You make it sound like making that complaint would be some kind of real hassle. At least with the police departments I've dealt with making such a report is not difficult. In any event, it's up to the OP if he thinks it worthwhile to do. And perhaps his police department would be more responsive than yours. They are not all the same, after all.

You seem to somehow know the likeliness of a CC company not crediting a violated account. So what likeliness is that? I, for one, have never heard of a CC holder being financially liable for an obvious criminal act like this. Not to say it is impossible, but how likely is it? Because we do live our lives on likeliness of bad things happening to us. Also, stopping the CC acct and ceasing all transactions on that acct comes far before a police report is issued. It is very likely that the CC information, and other personal information, was not stolen from a personal computer, rather a point of sale like a gas pump where it is very easy. I just had mine stolen two months ago from an ARCO.

Sometimes I think you just try out your arguments on me to see if I can catch the errors in them. Very similar to what lawyers do to each other in a courtroom.

[Taxing Matters]

You seem to somehow know the likeliness of a CC company not crediting a violated account. So what likeliness is that? I, for one, have never heard of a CC holder being financially liable for an obvious criminal act like this. Not to say it is impossible, but how likely is it?

We have just the OP's account of what happened, and it's not very detailed. While of course the credit card issuers do often reverse the charges in this kind of situation, it does not happen all the time. I've seen two such instances where the credit card issuer refused to do so. So my answer accounted for that possibility. As you yourself acknowledged, even you can't say with 100% certainty that the issuer absolutely will reverse the charges. Certainly he should ask the issuer to do that, as I indicated in my first reply. And hopefully it will take care of it. But if it doesn't, then he does have other possible remedies.

Also, stopping the CC acct and ceasing all transactions on that acct comes far before a police report is issued. It is very likely that the CC information, and other personal information, was not stolen from a personal computer, rather a point of sale like a gas pump where it is very easy.

Neither you nor I know exactly what the the thieves did or what information they have. While the CC should be canceled immediately and a new card promptly issued with a different card number, that does not always prevent further fraud against CC holder. I know several people who were unfortunately victims of identity theft and got hit with fraudulent CC transactions. They closed the accounts and got those charges reversed. But that was just the start of their problems as the thieves had enough information to then go out and open new accounts which then ended up causing them all kinds of problems. If a police report, which in my experience making a similar report myself and took just 15 minutes of my time, might head off that kind of trouble, I think it worthwhile do. Thus, when I had that problem I made that police report. It didn't take much time and didn't cost any money. So what's the real downside of doing it?

The difference here is that you apparently would just act on what you think the most likely way to resolve the problem is and leave it at that. I, on the other hand, look at all the possibilities of what might occur and do what I think would be reasonable to deal with all of them. Many years in life and in law practice have taught me that sometimes the less likely outcomes do in fact happen, and when I see that possibility I find that that a little ounce of prevention can be worth a pound of cure, as the old saying goes. You live your life your way, I'll live mine my way. When discussing things with clients or people on this board, I generally will point out all the possibilities and then they can decide from there how to live their lives. But at least that way they make the choice more fully informed about the options.

I just had mine stolen two months ago from an ARCO.

Sorry to hear that. But you must recognize that what happened to you isn't the only way identity theft and fraud occur.