Credit card fraud - Local grocery store

[TimBKK]

FYI - I recently used my USA credit card (Chase Bank) at local store, as I’ve done regularly for several years, but the next day was alerted to 3 fraud charges on the card:  1 from Ikea and 2 from something called “LushCOMUK” - total was roughly 600 USD.  Fortunately, each was flagged as fraudulent and declined.

 

Watch your cc use 

[johng]

USA credit card at local store ?

just use cash...lucky the fraud was detected.

[scubascuba3]

If you'd used your credit card in Google Wallet (that's what i do) they can't commit fraud

[TimBKK]

54 minutes ago, scubascuba3 said:

If you'd used your credit card in Google Wallet (that's what i do) they can't commit fraud

Why cannot commit fraud with Google Wallet?  Have never used it, or anything like it.

[connda]

On 3/5/2025 at 2:51 PM, TimBKK said:

FYI - I recently used my USA credit card (Chase Bank) at local shop, as I’ve done regularly for several years, but the next day was alerted to 3 fraud charges on the card:  1 from Ikea and 2 from something called “LushCOMUK” - total was roughly 600 USD.  Fortunately, each was flagged as fraudulent and declined.

 

Watch your cc use

You fully understand defamation laws here, right?

[KhunBENQ]

On 3/5/2025 at 2:55 PM, johng said:

USA credit card  ?

just use cash...lucky the fraud was detected.

My foreign credit card is locked in the drawer. Use for online purposes.

Last physical use was for car rental in Phuket some years ago.

[johng]

Almost every time I try to use my UK card in Thailand it's flagged as fraudulent and blocked...resulting in long tedious phone calls to try unlocking it again....well at least till I learned my lesson  just use a Thai card or cash when in Thailand.

[bkk6060]

You call Chase?

How were the attempt purchases made?  In store or online?

Did you use the card any place else in the past 30 days? 

Lush is a UK cosmetic company they have a store in Terminal 21.

IKEA has stores in Thailand. 

 

I have had this happen to me a couple of times. Unless you have not used the card for awhile maybe Friendship was not to bame.

 

[Espanol]

 

For Europeans, the rechargeable Revolut and N26 cards are practical. The exchange rate is the official one, rather than the bank rate (10% lower), and since they are rechargeable debit cards, you avoid the problem of having them cloned and having large sums charged to them. 

For online purchases, use virtual single-use cards. 

Never use credit cards, because the risk of high charges is very high.

[scubascuba3]

41 minutes ago, TimBKK said:

Why cannot commit fraud with Google Wallet?  Have never used it, or anything like it.

You would pay using your smartphone, Contactless, no one at Friendship would see the credit card details. It's also quicker than using QR codes, so I use in Lotus, Big C, but available other outlets. Phone needs to have NFC functionality, when i bought a new phone i made sure it had NFC, definitely needed it when visiting UK

[pomchop]

use chase card often...never a problem

[TimBKK]

4 hours ago, bkk6060 said:

You call Chase?

They emailed an alert in the overnight here, asking if the charge was legit.  When I called, I was pleasantly surprised that they were willing to send a new card to Thailand despite my address of record being in the U.S.  Chase did well in this instance.

4 hours ago, bkk6060 said:

How were the attempt purchases made?  In store or online?

In store, always.

4 hours ago, bkk6060 said:

Did you use the card any place else in the past 30

Just Friendship, and once at Villa a few weeks ago.

4 hours ago, bkk6060 said:

I have had this happen to me a couple of times. Unless you have not used the card for awhile maybe Friendship was not to bame.

Maybe….but I doubt it.

4 hours ago, bkk6060 said:

 

 

[TimBKK]

4 hours ago, scubascuba3 said:

You would pay using your smartphone, Contactless, no one at Friendship would see the credit card details. It's also quicker than using QR codes, so I use in Lotus, Big C, but available other outlets. Phone needs to have NFC functionality, when i bought a new phone i made sure it had NFC, definitely needed it when visiting UK

Appreciate that, will have to look into Google Pay and the like.

[Harrisfan]

4 hours ago, scubascuba3 said:

You would pay using your smartphone, Contactless, no one at Friendship would see the credit card details. It's also quicker than using QR codes, so I use in Lotus, Big C, but available other outlets. Phone needs to have NFC functionality, when i bought a new phone i made sure it had NFC, definitely needed it when visiting UK

What if you lose your phone?

[scubascuba3]

6 hours ago, Harrisfan said:

What if you lose your phone?

Same if you lose your wallet

[steven100]

On 3/5/2025 at 2:51 PM, TimBKK said:

FYI - I recently used my USA credit card (Chase Bank) , as I’ve done regularly for several years, but the next day was alerted to 3 fraud charges on the card:  1 from Ikea and 2 from something called “LushCOMUK” - total was roughly 600 USD.  Fortunately, each was flagged as fraudulent and declined.

 

Watch your cc 

 

Don't you get an sms text message every time a purchase or funds transfer has happened.  ?

I do,  and it's piece of mind to know. 

 

check with Chase if that security option is available ...

[gargamon]

Your card details were likely read by someone with a card reader that can scan the RFID info from your card and generate a new one. There are RFID blocking sleeves for your card that prevent this. Or multiple cards stored together apparently blocks it too. 

 

As it's a credit card, and not an ATM, you are protected from fraud so it's really not an issue. Do as someone else suggested and set up notifications for each transaction. I use foreign credit cards as much as I can because it's the cheapest way to access money in that country.

[Presnock]

On 3/5/2025 at 2:51 PM, TimBKK said:

FYI - I recently used my USA credit card (Chase Bank) , as I’ve done regularly for several years, but the next day was alerted to 3 fraud charges on the card:  1 from Ikea and 2 from something called “LushCOMUK” - total was roughly 600 USD.  Fortunately, each was flagged as fraudulent and declined.

 

Watch your cc use 

That is why it is good to have a credit card with a great fraud check always!  

[henryford1958]

Why i never use a credit card anywhere in Thailand. Use cash.

[iLuvThai]

16 hours ago, johng said:

Almost every time I try to use my UK card in Thailand it's flagged as fraudulent and blocked

Does the UK credit card companies not have a system in place the you can either call them or go online when you're in the UK to tell them you will be in Thailand or wherever you go so they can put a travel notice on your card(s)?

If they do and you did, I would find a card that's more customer friendly. I had to stop using my Canadian TD Trust Credit Card because they were the only card I have issues with in Thailand.

 

[Samh]

16 hours ago, bkk6060 said:

You call Chase?

How were the attempt purchases made?  In store or online?

Did you use the card any place else in the past 30 days? 

Lush is a UK cosmetic company they have a store in Terminal 21.

IKEA has stores in Thailand. 

 

I have had this happen to me a couple of times. Unless you have not used the card for awhile maybe Friendship was not to bame.

 

Lush seems a very strange store to be committing fraud in. Buying an iphone on somebody else's card I understand. Buying bath bombs hardly seems worth the risk.

[johng]

9 minutes ago, iLuvThai said:

Does the UK credit card companies not have a system in place the you can either call them or go online when you're in the UK to tell them you will be in Thailand

 

Yes they do  and yes I told them   but it was still blocked,    when I called them to unblock they said a note would be added to my account details so that it wouldn't happen again...but guess what ?  happened again  so it seems you have to regularly tell them that you're  abroad how regularly ?  don't know  

I don't use my UK card here now  just my Thai  cards   but they also have problems when trying to use online ( UK US EU companies)

they get denied arggg !!

[Andrew Dwyer]

15 minutes ago, iLuvThai said:

Does the UK credit card companies not have a system in place the you can either call them or go online when you're in the UK to tell them you will be in Thailand or wherever you go so they can put a travel notice on your card(s)?

If they do and you did, I would find a card that's more customer friendly. I had to stop using my Canadian TD Trust Credit Card because they were the only card I have issues with in Thailand.

 

My U.K. bank has a system in place where you can notify them on the app that you will be in Thailand, it needs refreshing every 90 days.

 

Have only just discovered this feature, as is buried in the app, after suffering from card being blocked in many different countries for many years, resulting in a phone call to the “ fraud squad “ which is the only option to unfreeze.

[scubascuba3]

17 hours ago, johng said:

Almost every time I try to use my UK card in Thailand it's flagged as fraudulent and blocked...resulting in long tedious phone calls to try unlocking it again....well at least till I learned my lesson  just use a Thai card or cash when in Thailand.

Maybe it's you, I've never had a problem, mainly used on Shopee and Lazada and Google Wallet instore

[Dan O]

On 3/5/2025 at 9:12 PM, TimBKK said:

I knew there was a reason I had you on ignore, thanks for the reminder.

He is correct about defamation. They could come after you for your claim as you have no idea how your card info got out. They have devices called skimmers or strippers where a person can just stand next to you and pull all your info off your cards. It could be done a couple different ways and may or may not have been at that store. 

[SMIAI]

16 hours ago, Espanol said:

 

For Europeans, the rechargeable Revolut and N26 cards are practical. The exchange rate is the official one, rather than the bank rate (10% lower), and since they are rechargeable debit cards, you avoid the problem of having them cloned and having large sums charged to them. 

For online purchases, use virtual single-use cards. 

Never use credit cards, because the risk of high charges is very high.

 

This is not particularly good advice. Credit cards are safer than the products you mention and your assertion with regard to the bank rate being 10% lower is horribly inaccurate.

 

A simple example. Fraud on your CC, it's either blocked until you confirm or you report it and you don't have to pay that part of the CC bill.

Fraud on Revolut or N26, your money is gone and you have to fight to get it back.

 

Exchange rate. Your assertion that it is the official rate is erroneous. Revolut state: 

Spend with your Revolut card

Use your Revolut debit card abroad and we’ll automatically exchange your money at competitive rates in 150+ local currencies. 

No mention of mid-market/spot/official rate.

 

The N26 card uses the Mastercard exchange rate, which may be perhaps 0.5% off the official mid-market rate.

CC use the same or VISA. So you are looking at 0.5% to 1%, not 10%. Dependent on the CC, they may or may not be extra fees on top. But many CC do not charge anything extra for spending.

 

Credit cards win every time.

 

 

[SMIAI]

12 hours ago, TimBKK said:

They emailed an alert in the overnight here, asking if the charge was legit.  When I called, I was pleasantly surprised that they were willing to send a new card to Thailand despite my address of record being in the U.S.  Chase did well in this instance.

In store, always.

Just Friendship, and once at Villa a few weeks ago.

Maybe….but I doubt it.

 

 

So according to you, it could also be a Villa issue, since you've used it many times at Friendship with no issue, but just once at Villa.

You might want to modify your thread and topic, since you really have no idea as to whether it has anything to do with Friendship at all.

[pomchop]

2 minutes ago, Dan O said:

He is correct about defamation. Friendship could come after you for your claim as you have no idea how your card info got out. They have devices called skimmers or strippers where a person can just stand next to you and pull all your info off your cards. It could be done a couple different ways and may or may not have been at that store. 

I suspect if chase or any big card company got more than a couple of complaints re a particular location that the store would very quickly get a contact from security asking about it....easy to "blame" someone but harder to prove that it was the store or an employee of theirs at fault...too many complaints and the store would get cut off from the card....i do not know but suspect that friendship can very quickly identify which cashier took the card at what time and determine if any pattern of problems?

[Dan O]

1 minute ago, pomchop said:

I suspect if chase or any big card company got more than a couple of complaints re a particular location that the store would very quickly get a contact from security asking about it....easy to "blame" someone but harder to prove that it was the store or an employee of theirs at fault...too many complaints and the store would get cut off from the card....i do not know but suspect that friendship can very quickly identify which cashier took the card at what time and determine if any pattern of problems?

The problem with finding the person is identifying who it is. Yes you can prove who processed the original real transaction at the store but unless the store actually processed other charges there is no way to know thats where the card info theft came from. An employee can skim the card and sell trade or use the card info on a computer somewhere else. CC company isnt gonna waste time chasing small amounts as they have it built into their interest rates and insurance. 

[Notorious22]

On 3/5/2025 at 2:51 PM, TimBKK said:

Watch your cc use 

 

If you tapped your card or used the chip in a POS machine, there is no way your card number could have been stolen there because in both of those cases, your actual card number is never transmitted during the transaction.

 

It's more likely your card was stolen somewhere else possibly weeks or months earlier.  It could have been online or somewhere you gave the number to someone or swiped the card.