08 June 2013 (22:29 UTC-07 Tango 07 June 2013)/29 Rajab 1434/18 Khordad 1391/01 Wu-Wu (5th month) 4711
“…[It’s] like giving someone the keys to your expensive car, letting them drive it around the block in a potentially dangerous neighborhood and saying please don’t get carjacked!”-Kumar McMillan, Mozilla developer on using credit cards on the internet
The Wall Street Journal reporting that it’s not just Verizon turning over phone records, but AT&T and Sprint Nextel. The WSJ also reporting that the government seizure of your phone and internet data includes your credit card purchases.
A Democrat tried to downplay the whole thing, but inadvertently revealed this has been going on for a long time: “Everyone should just calm down and understand this isn’t anything that is brand new.”-Harry Reid, U.S. Senator from Nevada
The WSJ says credit card companies are refusing to comment.
The revelation that credit card transactions are being tracked causes me to question why there have been so many credit card scams, that are not stopped until after hundreds of millions of dollars are stolen.
Here are the most recent cases of massive credit card fraud, just from the past week:
The Too Big to Jail banks (like Bank of America, JP Morgan) have been ‘robo-signing’ credit card collections. In other words just like some mortgage foreclosures made against people who had actually paid off their home loans, some credit card holders with good credit had their accounts falsely frozen or canceled (like me).
Another case involves the alternative money system, Bitcoin. Apparently a credit card scam has managed to run $200 million USD through Bitcoin. So far 11 people have been arrested.
In Ohio, it took two years to bust a credit card fraud ring. At least 19 people have been arrested. Eight suspects on the loose. The investigation involved a federal agency, known as the U. S. Marshals of the Northern Ohio Violent Fugitives Task Force. An investigator said massive credit card fraud is going on now, and involves big construction companies: “This is happening all over, it’s everywhere. Think about just about every retailer it has been occurring at. Primarily at the construction, home-improvement businesses because some of this was being funneled back into construction trades.”-Jim Gross, Perrysburg Township police
In Alabama, two men have been arrested for making $1 million per year by ripping off credit cards. Other people were involved. Investigators say the ringleaders ripped off credit cards by attaching ‘skimmers’ to card machines in stores.
In San Fransisco, California, a bail bonds company discovered people using fraudulent credit card info to post bail for people recently arrested.
If the federales have been tracking credit card transactions, in the name of law enforcement, then why have the numbers of credit card fraud been going up?