Credit card scammers are an inventive lot especially the internet based ones. I love seeing the effort they go to make and host authentic looking web pages of banks and credit card companies etc. The Beijing Olympics website scammers selling fraudulent tickets to the 2008 games was my favourite.
A recent little incident however showed me that keeping it simple is still the best method of ripping off your credit card.
At a restaurant recently I asked for the bill (aka check). My credit card was processed and promptly returned with a copy of the account All seemed fine until a little later I was attempting to extradite a little cash for a taxi from an automatic teller machine. I then noticed that my credit card was not ‘my credit card’ and it was well and truly past its use by date. The old switch-a-roo credit card trick. I had two likely culprits, either it was the ATM machine or it was the itinerate seasonal waitress back at the restaurant.
The ATM wasn’t talking but the waitress apologised profusely for mixing up my card with another customer who was settling their dinner bill at the same time. A very plausible excuse except for the expiry date on the card was some nine month earlier.