Credit card fraud
 

Someone set up a Telus Pay and Talk account under my name and Vancouver address.

I haven't had a Vancouver credit card in a few years, but they used one of my overseas credit cards. All the account information they used could have been taken from a phone book. There was about $600 charged over a 2 mth period. I reported it to AMEX and they reversed the charges and issued me a new card.

Telus sent me a letter to my Vancouver address stating the phone number of the acct saying my credit card information had expired. I called the phone number and it went to "Jay's" voicemail. I don't know any Jays. I reported it to Telus, and they are investigating since the DOB doesn't match mine - only my residential address matches. I'm not sure why Telus even allows someone to set up an acct using a credit card number that doesn't match the billing address. Telus has not tried to recover any funds from me.

Anyhow, Telus is investigating this fraud, but are there any additional steps I should take? I'm guessing there weren't any other fraudulent charges because he did not have the billing address for my card or the secret number printed on the card.

Just be glad Telus is actually willing to investigate. The same thing just happened to my grandmother (who is pushing 70 and retired in the Okanagan) and Shaw is refusing to investigate because she isn't the "account holder".

I would think that would be all you would need to do though.

Contact equifax etc (and any overseas credit rating companies that might be applicable) to report it.

There was a story some years ago about a similar occurrence - someone in the Lillooet area got a phone in the name of an Abbotsford couple and racked up thousands of dollars of long distance on it, then vanished. Last I'd heard, the couple were still fighting Telus over the bill - they'd never been to Lillooet and no other details on the account matched them except the name, but Telus was still trying to wring money from them.

Count yourself lucky that Telus took your word for it.

Interesting how they could link your overseas CC to your Vancouver address and phone number.

I don't imagine it would be hard. They get the card number and his name... they can look up his phone number from his name... if the card billing goes to his Vancouver address, all they'd need is a copy of that bill. Call up Telus, set up the account, give the CC number and the address associate with it... bing, bang, boom.

Why would they know he's from Vancouver when he's been living overseas for a while now? It's an overseas creditcard.

Well how would I know? I didn't do it, I'm just speculating. Maybe someone lifted his wallet, got all his info, then slipped it back in his pocket. Maybe he has the bills for his CC mailed to his Vancouver address. Maybe he tossed receipts with that CC info into his garbage in front of his house when he was IN Vancouver. There's thousands of possibilities.

Could very well be someone he knows as well.

No, what I'm trying to say is that my credit card bill goes to my overseas address. They somehow got my credit card no, and expiry date (perhaps from a discarded receipt?). They looked my name up in the phone book, and registered the account under my Vancouver addresss. They never got ahold of my overseas address. Somehow Telus allowed them to register a phone card under an address not linked with the card. This is probably also why they could never have any other fraudulent charges placed on my card. They did not have all the info required to do so.

^The prank was funny at the time? Oops!