Suspicious circumstances
Mar. 17th, 2008 11:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cheeniThis is probably a comment on what an exciting city New York is, or I am just having more than my usual share of run-ins with incidents worth writing about.
I was at the Apple Store yesterday, waiting in the checkout line which was being held up by a bunch of people with unusual orders. I saw someone pay cash for two mac book pros - nearly $4000++, someone else paid cash for a $2000+ gift card. While these were unusual, they are not really very surprising. For example the couple buying the macbookpros were from UK and they wanted to use up their spare dollars possibly avoiding their bank's usurious charges.
However what I saw next was something else. There was a kid of 18-21 who was looking to buy $43000 (yes, forty three thousand dollars) worth of Apple store gift cards. Of course, it took for ever for the store clerk to activate the gift cards, but that's not the point.
The kid tried to pay with 3 different credit cards, and each gets rejected. And each card has a different name on it. Everyone around gets really suspicious, and then the kid shows some ID and explains that one has his middle name, and the other card has his last name or some such. Then he says he's got a friend standing outside who has a card that will work, so he goes to fetch him.
A few minutes later, in walks a 30 year old guy, dressed in a leather jacket, turtle neck sweater and baseball cap. He is holding a stack of some 2 dozen credit cards of various colors, held together with a rubber band. He extracts an American Express Gold card which actually works. The ID he produces to validate the sale is a New York State driving license that looks like it has been through the wash cycle more than a few times, it's faded, and bent at the corners. There's really no way to tell if it is fake, but I'll tell you that most bars will not let you in with that kind of ID, but surprisingly the Apple store clerk had no trouble believing the story.
Now there could be a harmless explanation for that kind of thing, in fact I can think of some. However, I am willing to bet money that the credit cards were stolen and the gift cards are already on ebay, like this one...
I was at the Apple Store yesterday, waiting in the checkout line which was being held up by a bunch of people with unusual orders. I saw someone pay cash for two mac book pros - nearly $4000++, someone else paid cash for a $2000+ gift card. While these were unusual, they are not really very surprising. For example the couple buying the macbookpros were from UK and they wanted to use up their spare dollars possibly avoiding their bank's usurious charges.
However what I saw next was something else. There was a kid of 18-21 who was looking to buy $43000 (yes, forty three thousand dollars) worth of Apple store gift cards. Of course, it took for ever for the store clerk to activate the gift cards, but that's not the point.
The kid tried to pay with 3 different credit cards, and each gets rejected. And each card has a different name on it. Everyone around gets really suspicious, and then the kid shows some ID and explains that one has his middle name, and the other card has his last name or some such. Then he says he's got a friend standing outside who has a card that will work, so he goes to fetch him.
A few minutes later, in walks a 30 year old guy, dressed in a leather jacket, turtle neck sweater and baseball cap. He is holding a stack of some 2 dozen credit cards of various colors, held together with a rubber band. He extracts an American Express Gold card which actually works. The ID he produces to validate the sale is a New York State driving license that looks like it has been through the wash cycle more than a few times, it's faded, and bent at the corners. There's really no way to tell if it is fake, but I'll tell you that most bars will not let you in with that kind of ID, but surprisingly the Apple store clerk had no trouble believing the story.
Now there could be a harmless explanation for that kind of thing, in fact I can think of some. However, I am willing to bet money that the credit cards were stolen and the gift cards are already on ebay, like this one...
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no subject
Date: 2008-03-17 04:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-18 09:36 pm (UTC)a) the only people getting screwed out of this process would be the bank issuing the credit card
Wrong! Just because you can't see the impact doesn't mean it isn't there. The bank has an insurance provider, who has a reinsurance provider, who invests the premiums in funds world wide, and cashes them when paying off insurance claims. End result, the $43,000 got added to the global pool of bad debt, and was paid for by the savings of many honest people around the world.
b) All that the holder of the Amex Gold has to do is call Amex and deny charges
Wrong again. The card holder may not be personally liable for the sale, however his credit ratings will go down as a result of the identity theft and it will be a lot of hassle if not many years before he gets a decent credit line.
c) I guess the clerk doesn't care too much about screwing Amex over by a couple grand :-)
Couple? Did you not read the figure? If I were a clerk I'd have at least called the floor manager in.
the old guy
Date: 2008-03-18 03:34 am (UTC)on behalf of his buddies in Moscow.
He is doing that to offset his losses in the options market.
Only in 'America' he says there is opportunity to make money
at every corner!
Its his NY state diver's license and yeah, its been thru many
waterboarding cycles..
If U see him again tell him Sergio said hello
no subject
Date: 2008-03-18 07:33 pm (UTC)I never see any such in my neck of the woods!
no subject
Date: 2008-03-24 01:34 am (UTC)Aura of happenstance
Date: 2008-03-29 09:09 pm (UTC)