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You know, I am glad to hear she caught the person. But that cop's statement is horseshit.
My girlfriend's ATM card was skimmed at a local gas station. We always use the same businesses and the one time we went somewhere new her card was cloned within an hour
We contacted the police and BofA and were on top of it. BofA was actually helpfull and gave us times and locations of withdrawls.
We added the times and locations of the withdrawls to the police report and like her, we also called the 7-11s and asked them to retain the tapes from those times. The managers were responsive and hurridley pulled the tapes and set them aside saying they'd be expecting the cops.
We also explained everywhere we took the card the previous day and said they should look at the store we questioned as being the only new varriable.
The police never worked the leads given, and never returned phone calls. AND HER BROTHER IS A COP!
They just really could give two shits about ID and ATM theft. Carry cash people, if you go somewhere that needs to take your card any further than the register screen you're standing at or needs to type in the card because \"the machine's busted\" take your card and walk away.
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@KingPsyz here for HappyFunKingPsyz©: i'm sorry to hear the cops blew you off, but be careful not to paint all cops with the same brush. I had a CC opened in my name, and the police were incredibly active and helpful in tracking the guy down. (Amex, on the other hand...)
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@Coles_Law: really? Amex has been great for me. I lost my card and someone used it to buy $100 in groceries. Called up Amex right away. They took it off my bill and overnighted me a new card immediately. They didn't even need a police report. They didn't call the store, nothing. I didn't report it to the police, because, 1) they suck, and 2) if someone found a CC and the first thing they do with it is buy groceries, they must've really needed them or they just bought a lot of beer. Either way, since I got my money back, no skin off my nose.
[Amex also credited a discount to my account after a retailer (a large and popular one, I might add) refused to honor it after the order had already been processed.]
@say what?!: What happened was Amex sent an application to a residence I hadn't lived at for 7 years. The new tenant filled it out and sent it in. I later got a copy of the application via a subpoena-he left my birthdate, SS#, and mother's maiden name blank and spelled my last name wrong on the signature line. That was good enough for them to give him a card in my name with a $5,000 limit. I found out six months later when I started getting collections calls. To top it off, when the purchase history was subpoenaed from them, they sent it to that same old address. Fortunately they also corrected the spelling of my name and the mailman realized where it was supposed to go.
So yes, AMEX's customer service was friendly, helpful, but mind-numbingly incompetent.
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@Coles_Law: Geez, are you serious? Amex had to verify EVERYTHING including employment (I needed to make a call from work or something) before they'd let me have a card. I jumped through more hoops for that card than for my mortgage.
When did this happen? Maybe your case is one of the reasons why it's hard to get a card now.
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@KingPsyz here for HappyFunKingPsyz©: Within the past year, my fiancée's debit card number was stolen by a thief who made a replica of the card. Even though Bank of America told her that the thieves made purchases in a Wal-Mart in Arlington, TX (~40 mi. from us), the police refused to so much as call that store and request the video tapes. We were even told by the reporting officer that identity theft normally doesn’t generate any activity, even when the thief’s activity is known.
What’s the point of reporting identity theft if situations like the OP’s are the only ones in which justice is served?
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@AstroPig7:
That officer was pointing out a hot tip for our hard economic times!
If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.
Signed,
AstroPig7
@KingPsyz here for HappyFunKingPsyz©: And pre-ATMs, they didn't care about your stolen credit card. And neither did the stores.
I had my wallet stolen out of my desk drawer about 20 years ago. Lost about $60, a brand-new monthly train pass, and all my credit cards. Stopped the cards within an hour. Reported the loss to the police. When the banks told me where my credit cards had been used, I passed that along to the police, and got no response - essentially because my loss was low (at least to them - a $200 train pass and $60 in cash was painful to me).
Then went into the stores where the cards had been used and talked to the managers. Since the credit card companies would pay them for the purchases, even though they'd been taken off my bill, they really didn't care. They hadn't lost anything.
@KingPsyz here for HappyFunKingPsyz©: Truth. Because cops care more about the shooting down the street, or the guy beating his wife. Money is replaceable and cops don't care what happens to yours.
I don't know if I'd go so far as to be in fear of ever using a card again - just realize that if it happens, you're not going to catch anyone and the cops won't actively investigate your case.
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@bornonbord: What you say is true: Actually, you shouldn't claim all cops could care less just as much as you shouldn't claim all cops are hunting down violent killers.
The simply fact of the matter is that there are some officers who are assigned to violent crimes, some who are assigned to parking violations, and some who are assigned to desk jobs, etc.
Have you ever been in a traffic accident and a cop passes you by? or maybe the cop stops for a brief minute but leaves quickly? That's because \"traffic\" isn't that cop's beat. That cop does see the issue, but has to call it in so that an officer assigned to traffic can handle the situation (and that guy usually takes forever to arrive on the scene).
That said, I've had ZERO luck with cops following through with an investigation. I've had my apartment broken into (lost some professional photography equipment that would be easy to identify -- very easy, but they didn't even try), and in one case I bought a brand new sports car and had someone back into it (t-boned the side of the car) right in front of me and 40 other people. The person then decided to drive off (probably drunk). We tried to stop him... but he wouldn't listen. So me and a friend got into my car and we simply followed the guy home. Got his license, vehicle information, address, description, etc. I even had the cops on the phone with me while I was following the guy.
The cops refused to meet me in the guy's apartment complex (where he pulled into, which had only one exit -- and I was across the street watching the exit/entrance). Instead the cops insisted I meet them at a gas station. So I went, waited for the cops, they showed up and followed me to the apartments. By that time the guy was gone. Obviously he realized he was being followed and only went into the apartment complex to keep me from finding out where he lived.
Either way, I filled out a report, talked to several cops, etc. Even had a cop come out and visit me. A week later the cop said that I had no case. Why? Because they looked the guy's address up from the license plate and vehicle information I gave and they paid the guy a visit. They asked him about the accident and he said, \"Nope. That wasn't me.\" and the cops said, \"Okay, sorry to bother you.\" And that was the end of that.
In all cases these cases I'm pretty sure insurance had something to do with it. The cops figure, \"Well... the guy's got insurance\" so they don't put their full weight into the investigation. Yes, I do have insurance... but I also have a deductible and I'm getting tired of forking out $500 every time some jackhole decides to swipe my stuff or bang up my vehicles.
My normal deductible is $250, but if it's claimed as \"uninsured motorist\" or \"hit-and-run\" you pay an additional \"uninsured motorist\" deductible!!! Get that?? These morons don't find it necessary to carry insurance... so not only do I have to pay MY OWN deductible but I have to pay THEIRS as well?
Ultimately, in the end it's just \"stuff\". If you live another day count your blessings -- metal, plastic and paper can always be replaced.
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@sibelius: Really? You have to pay your deductible on an uninsured motorist claim? That sucks. I had someone hit my car in the middle of the night and drive off, probably drunk, but the way I have my insurance set up an uninsured motorist claim means I don't pay my deductible. Of course, I also set up my insurance with a $100 deductible and got reasonable rates from State Farm. Not sure who you have, but I would look into it.
@Red-headed bookworm: State Farm only charged me an additional $50 on my deductible for a hit-and-run on my vehicle.
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Usually, people just file a police report, cancel their accounts, and the cases languish for lack of evidence and resources.
Perhaps that's because it's the police's job to investigate crime, and not the general public.
@Shaggy: When my debit card was stolen out of my dorm room, the police detective I reported it to told me that I should not ask any of the companies for copies of surveillance tapes.
@Shaggy: @BumpinUgglas: I find this particularly funny since i went to college in Northampton and now work right next to the JCPenney where the thief got megabusted.
I was all \"Wait, i know that st...OMFG HAMPSHIRE MALL.\"
@Shaggy: Even if the cops weren't badly understaffed and underfunded, they still wouldn't be omniscient. While you shouldn't put yourself in reckless danger, anything you can reasonably, safely do to help the investigating officers can only be to your benefit.
@Shaggy: Yeah, like they'll do that.
The one time I was the victim of identity theft, my credit card number was stolen by a room service employee at a downtown St. Louis hotel where I was a longtime guest. Typical dumb crook story; the first thing he did with the card was buy airline tickets in his own name, then charged up a bunch of phone sex until the credit card company recognized that something was wrong and shut down the card.
So the hotel management and I knew who did it, and how. You'd think the St. Louis police would be all over that, but they didn't even want to touch it unless I could prove to them that the phone calls the dirtbag made to the airline and the 900 number were made from within their jurisdiction. The fact that the card number itself was clearly stolen within their jurisdiction didn't matter to them at all; from their point of view no crime was committed until he used it, and it was up to me to show them it was their problem.
Fortunately the Adam's Mark hotel management took over at that point, and was somehow able to show the police that at least one of those calls took place from the hotel. The cops asked the hotel to keep the guy there the next time he showed up for his check, but apparently he smelled something was up and split before they could arrive.
The Adam's Mark was really up front about handling it with me, by the way. They took ownership of the problem, made sure my credit card company was notified of everything that was going on, made profuse apologies, gave me a nice discount on the rest of my time there (which alone saved me probably over $1000), and paid for dinner for two at their four-star restaurant. In the end it not only cost me nothing, it worked out to my benefit. If they were still in business in St. Louis I'd recommend them, but they aren't.
@Shaggy: \"it's the police's job to investigate crime, and not the general public.\"
What does that even mean? ID theft is not a crime?
@Shaggy: It's not their job, that's just what they want you to think. It's their job to keep us in line, anything else they decide to do is only for appearances.
@Shaggy: i think it's one of those jurisdictional nightmare crimes. identity theft is a federal crime. the secret service guys I know love working those crimes because they can see the human victims as opposed to the normal treasury enforcement stuff.
@Shaggy: My guess is that most stores would not save the security tape without some sort of subpoena.
@Shaggy: Uggh, yea and the criminals are out their moving on to their next victim. That's why identity theft is the fastest growing crime in the nation for so many years running... criminals are hardly ever caught - and when they are they usually go with a slap in the wrist. Either way, they're back at it in no time. Such a shame.
@Shaggy: Yes, and instead of investigating crimes, we have cops sitting in empty parking lots hoping to catch someone speeding down a nearly empty street.
@Shaggy: Yeah, I was under the impression that the police would contact each of the stores to get a hold of those security tapes.