Credit card ffaud - has anyone heard of Al Mulino in Venice or Tuscany/Umbria??
Feb 21st, 2003, 06:33 AM
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Credit card ffaud - has anyone heard of Al Mulino in Venice or Tuscany/Umbria??
Happily (or not) checking through my Credit card statement today and have discovered a bill for 500 Euro at a restaurant called Al Mulino, dated 13 Jan 03.<BR><BR>Now, I haven't been to Italy this year for starters, but also can't imagine spending 500 euros exactly in a restaurant (i would have remembered that meal!). My Credit card company are investigating, but I wondered if anyone has heard of this place. Last year I went to Tuscany and Umbria (August) and Venice (December), but can't remember all of the places I ate t.
Feb 21st, 2003, 07:14 AM
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On one of the Boston news stations there was a piece about a credit card scam that recently occurred. Citizens Bank visa cards were mentioned.<BR><BR>Although its a hassle to have to defend yourself, you should easily get the credit. But, I suggest that you close out that specific account and get a new credit card, as that credit card number has been tampered with.
Feb 21st, 2003, 07:53 AM
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Thanks sojourn, I've no doubt I'll get the credit back. I've tracked the offending restaurant down to a small town outside of Venice - somewhere I've never been to. My card details must have been passed on from one of the other places I used my card.<BR><BR>As a warning to others, these two places were:<BR><BR>The newsstand in departures at Marco Polo airport, and<BR><BR>Trattoria Antica Carbonera in San Marco.<BR><BR>I travel and use my card abroad a lot, so I guess I've been expecting this to happen sooner or later.
Feb 21st, 2003, 08:10 AM
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It's really hard to tell how they got your credit card information. Two years ago we spent a week in the south of France and a week in Paris. Shortly after returning, we discovered that our card had been fraudulently used in Zaragossa, Spain to the tune of $10,000. Capital One immediately canceled our Visa and issued a new one. We have never been to Spain, so it was very easy to contest the charges - they were all cleared. Charges included several $900 restaurant tabs, $3,000 at a men's clothing store, etc. We were surprised that these charges did not raise a red flag, as some of the charges we had made in France did. We had notified Capital One that we would be in France and gave them the dates. The "fraud squad" had actually called our home to confirm some charges in Paris - fortunately our son was able to deal with it. As a result, our account regularly triggers red flags and we get a lot of calls from the 'fraud squad". I don't mind a bit. I have several ideas about how our credit card information was "captured", but no factual information. Our cards were in our possession at all times.<BR><BR>
Feb 21st, 2003, 08:33 AM
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It's clearly a well known scam for it to happen in restaurants - it's one of the few times the card leaves your possession - even for just a few minutes, but certainly long enough for someone to take your details and copy your signature. I'll still happliy use credit cards abroad in the future - I'd rather have them steal from the credit company than from my debit card, that goes directly out of my current account (ie my OWN money).
Feb 21st, 2003, 08:46 AM
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It happened to me too in France last year. Suddenly when I got home I checked my credit card charges on line and found 3 charges from a crooked internet site in France of exactly $2,000 and one for a little more than $2,000 for a total of over $8,000. How the "security" of First USA authorized all four charges without calling me is beyond me. A phone call or 2 and a letter resolved the matter so it cost me nothing but of course somebody was out more than $8,000.<BR><BR>What can you to prevent your number from being compromised. Next to nothing. It can be as simple as a crooked clerk memorizing the number in the time it takes to bring the card to the imprinter as well as the joke of a "security feature" the 3 digit number on the signature panel. A little moe sophisticated is they have these hand held devices and swipe the card there once for them and once for the merchant. Organized crime rings in the former Soviet Union and Nigeria pay something like $25 a card number so swipe 10 cards a day and you make $250 or something like that. The clerk is in effect the fence. The organized crime ring gets the number.<BR><BR>They are trying...now on many credit card receipts both the merchants and yours, you will notice the whole credit card number is not spelled out...it may say 41483.....612.... (don't worry it's a phony made up number on the spur of the moment typing) so the merchant or clerk can't compromise the number later. California law I believe now requires that or will so in the future on all credit card transactions. The day of imprinting charge slips is almost over anyway. It is so rampant in Britain that the banks there are thinking of requiring a PIN on all credit card transactions which wouldn't be a terrible idea what with the portable wireless credit card machines I see in France all the time.<BR><BR>This has scared people so much that they some recommend not using credit cards especially for small purchases. I wouldn't let that deter me from using my cards. If it happens, it happens. I try to be very watchful when I hand my card to a clerk but sometimes the credit card machines are out of sight. If it happens, it usually is not too difficult to resolve even if it is for $8,000 as I can attest. One phone call and one letter and it was over. Just make sure you bring 2 or 3 different cards just in case.<BR><BR>It is this fraud that some banks use as their excuse to impose the 2% foreign currency conversions fees on their cardholders. Of course the scam happens in the US too but they don't have an answer for that.<BR><BR>My advise...relax. If it happens, it will be resolved. Do try to keep your eye on your card but remember, all the waiter has to do is memorize 16 numbers and there isn't a thing in the world you can do about that.
Feb 21st, 2003, 09:01 AM
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It's true that in the UK they will soon be introducing "PIN at Point-of-Sale", so that every card transaction in any outlet requires a PIN number. Great idea, I can't believe it's taken them this long to realise that a signature is worse than useless.<BR><BR>I have also seen some of these machines popping up in various shops in Europe - in Florence and Salzburg for example. So it can't be long before it's universal.
Feb 21st, 2003, 09:10 AM
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Thank you "xyz123", very informative. I tapped into this thread because after 30 years of credit card use and eternal vigilance when in Europe, it finally happened to me, only right here at home.<BR>In my case the fraud was pretty much amateur hour, with a valid signed chit for a real purchase slip altered to suggest something much larger.
Feb 21st, 2003, 09:27 AM
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Thanks, everyone. This is also a good reminder to me. I pay all my bills online so I often don't pay that much attention to the written statement. <BR><BR>Fraudulent use of my number has occurred many years ago, but I admit I have let my guard down. Your well-informed answers have served as a reminder.
Feb 21st, 2003, 02:29 PM
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My husband was checking our credit card statement on-line a few weeks ago. He found a charge for a hotel in New Orleans, where we have never (unfortunately) set foot. A quick phone call to the hotel chain and the charge was reversed the next day. Sometimes it can be a mistake and not fraud. It was determined that the sale was completed by hand (a card wasn't swiped) and one or more numbers were reversed.
Feb 21st, 2003, 03:00 PM
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A couple of years ago something similar happened to me. We'd been in Orlando at Christmas, a couple weeks after I'd been in Coral Gables on business. Someone got my Diners' Club number and manufactured another card. (That way they don't need to copy your signature). Fast forward to the end of April. There was a $26 charge for gas (on a weekend when I happened to be in NYC) then a couple of days later, a $7000 charge at a restaurant. Diners' Club called me before I even got a statement. I was distressed as it was only a week before we were to leave for 3 weeks in Italy, and I was planning to use my DC card for car rental, etc. They issued me a new card and overnighted it to my office. A couple of additional Florida charges showed up from "May" but obviously, they didn't stay on my bill as the Fraud Dept. already knew their origin. I'd been concerned about internet use of credit card numbers...this was a more "old fashioned" method of obtaining numbers for fraudulent use. I wonder what happens to the restaurants that are "used" in these cases...someone has to know what is going on.
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