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Recently, my mother-in-law discovered that a pretty significant piece of jewelry had gone missing. There had been a number of construction workers in the house for a few weeks and when she went to get her jewelry, it was gone. After searching like a crazy person under/in/on top of everything, she called the police.

When the police arrived they asked a bunch of questions, did an onsite investigation and calmly and collectively stated to her: “You misplaced it. It probably hasn’t been stolen. You will find it in a few days.” … Continue Reading

I think it’s safe to say that all credit card charges are unwanted, but today I’m talking about so-called “grey charges”—those out-of-the-blue credit card charges that sneak up on us and require our time, attention, persistence and aggravation to get rid of. A study by BillGuard shows the average dollar amount lost by grey charges is around $356.00per consumer annually.

Studies show 1 in 4 people to be victims of grey charges, and because 9 out of 10 people don’t even check their billing statements or only skim them lookingfor large purchases, those grey charges end up eclipsing fraud—as much as 95 percent grey charges to only 5 percent actual fraud! … Continue Reading

We all know the adage “if it’s too good to be true, it probably is”. The “free” gift card scams fall right into that category. These scams aren’t new but just keep appearing in slightly different variations.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is very serious about fighting scams aimed at consumers. So it was no surprise, but was most welcome news, to read that the FTC has just filed 8 different complaints against 29 defendants in U.S. District Courts around the country . … Continue Reading

With the holiday shopping season and after holiday season sales over, it’s time to review our credit card statements and make sure that everything that is on there was something you purchased. With most of us using our card a lot more during this time, there’s more chance of fraud or identity theft.

When most of us think of identity theft and being a victim of identity theft, we are really referring to credit card fraud. This form of credit card fraud is called account takeover and it occurs when a thief gains access to your credit or debit card number … Continue Reading

Within the past two months, it has happened to me twice. I’ve received notification that a credit or debit card of mine may have been compromised. In one case, that notification came in the form of an e-mail message. In the other, it came via snail mail. In both cases I contacted the banks involved and what I discovered was that if you don’t ask the right questions when you are speaking to their customer service, … Continue Reading