is your credit card safe ?

...I mean your credit cards. Are your credit cards safe ? Are you safe from identity theft ? Are your credit cards open to abuse ? It happened to me recently and Mastercard claims that the chip-based credit cards cannot be cloned. Bullshit ! There are 2 simple principles to remember - that money is the root of all evil and that anything that's man-made cen be certainly un-made. Last year (2008), Hari Raya (Eid) was a long weekend break for us working folks. I preferred staying home because I know how well traffic and packed shopping centres can spoil my day. That's exactly what I did. The only time I left home was to drive out to the nearly stalls to ta pau (take away) breakfast. The Monday following the weekend break, I was out with my family having lunch when I received a call from the bank asking me to confirm certain credit card transactions. I have many (too many in fact) credit cards. Some I have retained for sentimental reasons while others are free for life. My wallet used to be really "fat"; not because I had loads of cash but because I had a lot of "plastic" ! I discovered that once your wallet expands (from all the "plastic") that's the size it would remain and stuff tends to fall out of the wallet compartments without realizing it happens. So...I bought myself a leather cardholder and stuffed the less used cards inside and left them at home in a locked drawer. Back to the story.......I was shocked to learn from the bank that I had gone on a spending spree from Tesco, to Carefour until Guardian Pharmacy. In fact, I even had a "party" that cost over RM200 at Kentucky Fried Chicken. "My" weekend spree came up to almost RM2,500 !!! How was that even remotely possible when I had been at home the entire weekend ? Since I did not have the credit card with me, I told the lady on the other end of the line that I would have to get back to her BUT I can confirm that I did not make the purchases. I just had to confirm if my credit card was stolen. As soon as I reached home, I headed for my drawer and it was still locked ! My credit card was still in the leather cardholder ! I called the bank and immediately notified the lady of my discovery. This is when my nightmare began. I was questioned over and over again by the bank and it was implied that I was a liar, an irresponsible person and my colleagues and family members were thieves ! I was downright insulted ! When I received my credit card statement, I picked out charges that I had made and immediately made payment to the bank. I sent letters explaining the situation, stating that whatever charges remaining were fraudulent charges and that I would not accept any penalties. The bank, in their reply insisted that I was liable and I told them that if they thought so, then let's settle it legally. Meanwhile, the bank kept calling me a few times a day, diffrent times, different persons and I thought to myself, "this must be how it feels like to be a loan shark victim". The word "legal" must have rattled them because a few days later, a manager called me for yet another "interview" but this time I told him that my credit card was with me so how could it have been stolen. CCTV footage and copies of the charge slips were given to me by then. The person was definitely not me and the signature certainly not mine ! This manager arranged to visit me to collect my credit card (of course I made him sign for it) so that he could verify my signature and to proof to the vendors that I was NOT that person whom they allowed to pay for the purchases with my credit card. Who knows what informationwas embossed on the faurdulent card. It could have been Ah Meng, Muthu or Ibrahim ! Anyway, there was a total of 4 different signatures so how can the bank justify that their merchants had been diligent in verifying the cardholder ? Are there 4 fraudulent cards out there that supposedly belongs to me ? Shit ! This were my argument points...

• What's the point of asking cardholders to sign the card when the signatures are never verified by the cashiers ? (do you recall how the cashiers will immediately tuck the charge slips into the cash register and return your credit card as soon as its signed ?)
• Are the merchants absolved from any fault in such an instance ? (The cardholder signature and name is there for a reason and if the merchant doesn't check, it's our fault ?)
• Don't the banks train their merchants on what to do ? What their responsibilities are ?
• Why not a photo of the cardholder on the credit card if it's so difficult to verify a signature ?

All these happened at the end of October 2008. I finally received a credit for these fraudulent charges at the and of April 2009 after 6 long months of waiting, corresponding and being harrassed. BUT I am still left with the penalties and here the finger pointing begins. How long more will I have to wait for this problem to be fully resolved is a question.