As someone who worked on the tills in a supermarket in that period, I was expected to make sure the signature matched with the signature on the card. If it didn't, I asked for more ID - which I did regularly. If they couldn't produce it, then I called a supervisor and left them to make the decision. It's not just about checking for stolen card numbers (although our system did that automatically eventually) it's also about the staff processing the sale be vigilant. Given the tales we hear from the US of unsigned cards and people using other peoples cards (when there isn't chip and pin) that's stuff you just couldn't do here. The culture is different.

Jen, I'm sure you were a youngster at the time, and a very diligent one, but the police told me: "A lot of these shops are staffed by teenagers who don't give a ****"

In my case, the thieves bought a packet of fags and asked for Ł40 , or remainder thereof, cashback. They did that three times in one street. It was early days of CCTV but the cops matched a transaction record to an image. "Did you recognise the thief? " I asked.
"Well, it was a guy with a hoody and a baseball cap" they shrugged.

The bank cancelled the transactions and the ultimate losers, unfortunately, were the small retailers.

This is interesting. If the merchant eats the charge, what exactly motivates the CC issuer to freeze the card? Something in their contract with the merchants? Would there be something in there that could explain the apparent randomness of decisions to freeze/not freeze cards?

You have no way of knowing that for sure.... And most likely you are wrong.

The bank cancelled your part of the transactions, but what they did on the merchants end is rather dependent on the contract they had. That Ł40 was probably something that was in the contract, no CC company expects all merchants to check every transaction. They do so based on generic rules like type of business, volume and average amount of transactions and can adjust that for previous frauds.

Perhaps - but that was what the cops told me. The merchant is supposed to check the signature - they didn't.

Don't be so sure. I had a card compromised that had never been used and sat unactivated in a desk drawer prior to the bank calling one day and asking about suspicious charges. I think the most likely source of compromise was a lucky random guess.

The tickets originated in Nigeria. So between Nigerian names, a ticket that originated in Nigeria, and being a country known for finance scams, so if it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck.....

Watchdog (a consumer programme here in the UK) did an article on card fraud a few years back. All you need is a number and an expiry date. CVV codes, addresses, PINs etc aren't needed to process a transaction.

I had two flight tickets (in business class, on Aeroflot) purchased by Russians on my credit card a few years back. It was a card I very seldom used (and only then with a certain computer components supplier), so I suspect it was the target of a card number generator. It took me Ł1,000 over my credit limit and it took a couple of weeks for them to sort out.

As luck would have it I'd checked my balance online the day after the charges went through - hopefully the fraudsters ended up stuck at an airport somewhere!

Someone used my work amex to pay for two flights from Newcastle to Istanbul.
Probably got it through the airline somehow.

I run a lot of high dollar (well into 4 figure) transactions through a business owners personal's AMEX Plat card and I am surprised at the number of times I do not need to provide a billing address or CVV code. These are done over the phone (heavy equipment rentals, material purchases, etc.) and I have questioned the reps and they say they don't need the info.

In my case, I swiped my card at one of those airport luggage cart rental places. I suspected whoever services those things was selling credit card numbers from the swipes.

I met an actual Nigerian today. As far as I can tell he didn't try to scam me.

Just saying.

Thus, it is racist to assume they were either northern Britishers or Turks?? Real racism does exist (from people of all ethnic groups), but is too often trivialized by accusations when none is intended.

This thread is kind of making me wonder why Chase let me buy concert tickets on ticketmaster.mx without a call last week. Seems like maybe that should have triggered something.

Since this is FT, I reckon the real question is whether one gets the miles for fraud tickets? Afterall, aren't they possibly bought with a CC that might have FQM-affiliation?

A possibility for epic MR without even flying?

Presumably Ticketmaster took your address, and keeps track of what tickets they are sending to whom, so if the credit card turns out to be fraudulent, canceling the purchased tickets is easy. Not too much potential for fraud there.

If fraudsters sold the tickets to an unsuspecting buyer, that person will be left holding the bag, not Chase.