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Comment by tastybites | Hacker News Reader

$400 seems right. Jack someone's wallet and then walk into the nearest big box store to use their credit cards.

I've had my credit card # stolen 3 or 4 times and $400 is about the average amount of fraud that happened each time.

It's usually like a tank of gas and a trip to Best Buy to purchase something like a video game console. One time they bought a plane ticket online for $350.

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One time they bought a plane ticket online for $350.

I assume this one get caught?

Don't assume anything.

I had someone steal my card info and use it to by a bed and mattress, which was delivered to their house.

Sears (ahem) wouldn't tell me who bought it, or where it was delivered, because I wasn't the purchaser, but they were happy to charge me for it. I turned it over to the police, but they said they weren't going to deal with it as it was 'only' ~$1200. This was in 2002 IIRC.

When such a thing happens, initiate a chargeback through your bank. Additionally federal (US) regulations limit your out of pocket expenses of fraud to $50.

I caught it about 2 days after it happened, and got the bank involved and had my money restored in a couple more days - that wasn't a big deal. The frustrating thing was that this was just 100% glossed over by law enforcement. This wasn't a $40 meal splurge by a petty thief - it was a freakin bedroom set.

I'm pretty sure Sears committed a crime in not telling you. But every state/country is different.

They weren't to know - I might have bought a bed and shipped it to someone in another state as a gift. After I told them it wasn't my purchase, however, they should have given me the info, but they didn't. Police didn't seem to care, bank didn't seem to care. Odd...

Depends on where you are, but in a city cops aren't going to bother if the amount's not enough to get felony charges.

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