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phantom charges on a phantom piece of plastic
Monday, June 3 2002Today was a business day for me, the first business day in over two weeks. By business, I mean attending to all the boring mundane left-brain-centered routines of adulthood. Envelopes needed to be opened, checks needed to be written, fresh new envelopes needed to be sealed, stamps needed to be affixed, and envelopes needed to find their ways to mailboxes. An additional annoying adult thing I needed to do was dispute a $70 AT&T broadband charge that found its way to my Citibank Platinum card, which I haven't used since summer. Citibank's computers actually flagged that charge the moment it happened and had their fraud department call me, so I knew enough to expect it. To dispute the charge, I had to go sign a form and get it notarized. I thought I'd be able to get off free by having the Citibank notary guy do the notarizing, but he said he couldn't because it would be a conflict of interest.
Since I was in full-bore envelope-opening mode, I immediately opened a bill that arrived from Bank of America's US Airways Dividend Miles Platinum Card when it came. Mind you, I never even signed up for this card and even tried to cancel it back in August, but still the zero dollar bills show up in the mail, always forwarded from my Los Angeles address by the current residents there (since I didn't give them my new information). Today, however, I saw that I was being hit by a $418 bill for a purchase made from a shadowy direct marketing company that doesn't even have a phone number. It seems I was being hit a second time by credit card fraud. This time it seemed the fault rested squarely with the Dividend Miles people, who never canceled my card when I specifically told them to. So I called them up and bitched at them, telling them this wasn't my problem and that I didn't even want to have to pay for postage to mail back a claim dispute to them. Eventually I found my way to a supervisor, but talking to her was like trying to flick an especially wet booger. In the end she wore me out and I agreed to mail back a dispute form just so I wouldn't have to deal with the issue any more today. As for whoever is using my credit card information to defraud these companies, my only sentiment is: credit card fraud is a victimless crime. Sure, it's a hassle to knock these charges off my bill, but the system is set up to do so almost automatically. My heart doesn't bleed for the fortunes of these usurious corporations.
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