called by VISA after making a DU contribution

[wli]

They were calling to confirm transactions after what they said may have been some pattern indicative of credit card fraud.

I was rather disturbed, as it suggested to me that similar to how left-leaning websites get falsely plugged into widely-deployed spamfilters, left-leaning organizations may be getting similarly be getting falsely plugged into credit card fraud and similar blacklists.

So I'm wondering if anyone else has found their financial transactions under similar scrutiny after making contributions to DU or other web-based left-leaning causes.

Thanks.

[benburch]

1. Actually, you should be grateful...

Realistically, a website like this would be a great way to launder money, and VISA cannot know that DU is a legit site because they cannot possibly be the arbiter of that sort of thing!

Just accept that this was them looking out for you.

[wli]

4. questioning this is part of the post's motive

Basically, I'm holding out to see how many responses say this was the case for other people or not.

I traveled in the days surrounding the DU transaction, which adds more questions to the equation.

Maybe I should have made this a poll, but I suspected that most of the unaffected would not respond so I'd get a skewed picture.

In any event, if few (or no) people say they've been similarly queried after making DU contributions, my fears will be put to rest.

[ChowChowChow]

2. I got called after buying from Asses of Evil site

I really gave it to them about it, and asked why that was the only transaction I made on the internet that they ever questioned.

[NYFlip]

3. No

I made a contribution last fundraising drive and master card didn't call. They did call when I charged plane tickets and I hadn't done that before on this card.

[wli]

5. so far, so good; thanks for chiming in n/t

[AuntPatsy]

6. I had no such problem using mine.

[NAO]

7. I'm a tin-foil hatter, but this is an ordinary event.

Credit card companies are constantly fighting credit card fraud and identity theft.

When I first started making online purchases/contributions, they called me to verify almost every transaction. It was annoying. It was non-specific.

For me, it was worse with the Evil Masters of Usury, Capital One Services, but every credit card company does it, especially when you start using your card online.

[etherealtruth]

13. I think they call if your purchase varies ...

... from whatever is "usual" for you (either locale or type).

[AuntieM1957]

8. I give to liberal causes fairly often and have never had

my credit providers question anything.

[wli]

10. I can't respond to every post, but things are looking good thus far

Thanks, everyone, for helping assuage this fear.

[karlrschneider]

20. No reply needed, but I have never in my life had a call from a CC co/bank

about an expenditure. I usually donate to DU when they run their fundraising by CC - it just goes through normally. I think you just had one of those random things like the security line at the airport. Maybe. :D

[Cleita]

9. I stopped using the credit care option for my internet

transactions with a few exceptions. It wasn't the internet sites but the CC company that tried to make extra money from the transactions.

[seabeyond]

11. i have been donating a lot dem causes for last year on my card.

no problem. i have had company call me on large buys and stuff, ok by me

[wli]

12. also a very useful data point; there was a 1000 USD hotel bill near it too

[Gildor Inglorion]

14. I donate to DU with American Express - no calls, no hassle

in fact, I pay almost all my bills online that way. Same story. It's very convenient and no problems so far.
*knock wood!*

:thumbsup:

[pitohui]

15. it isn't because of left-leaning causes

the programs are weirder than that

i had a friend just tell me he got a call because of a $40 charge to his card

meanwhile i make charges much greater than that on 4 different continents & get no such calls

another friend had actual fraud committed to the tune of thousands of dollars in gift cards -- who buys thousands of dollars in gift cards? -- and no calls, he had to discover the fraud & initiate the chargebacks himself

we are working on this problem of what triggers the fraud sub-programs but we still don't know the answer


the only thing we've determined for sure is that if there are a lot of charges to tennis shoe/athletic shoe places & CD stores in a short period of time...the fraud alert goes out

that seems fairly obvious, they've got a ghetto-fabulous sub-routine

but we haven't yet figured out many other situations where some get calls and some don't get calls

it would be nice to know, twould be a real nuisance to have my card cut off in uganda or something because they couldn't get me on the phone

[wli]

17. I think there are call-ahead methods but am not sure

I may want to call or write in to ask about prior notification of travel to areas where having cards cut off and similar would be very, very painful.

That's actually happened to me before. I had to do something odd to pay for gasoline because several credit cards got cut off simultaneously.

[Divernan]

23. When traveling far away from home, definitely alert your credit card

companies before hand. By "far away", it could be just for an out of state trip, but definitely when you're going to be out of the country. (I get to some very off the beaten track places a couple of times a year to go scuba diving.)
I call and tell them the dates of the trip and what countries I'll be in. I include countries where maybe I'm just changing planes, because I tend to do year round Christmas shopping for native products in airport shops when I travel. However, in the US, once I've established a pattern -(like I fly to Chicago nearly every month), I don't bother with notice, and have no problems

[LibinMo]

19. The only time they ever phoned me for confirmation

Was an online purchase of handicapping sheets and Oaklawn programs from Trackmaster. It was an out of the ordinary buy for me and I rather appreciated that they troubled to call.

[City Lights]

16. I've only been called once to verify a purchase, and it wasn't

a DU contribution.

[wli]

18. I've been getting very reassuring feedback from everyone.

Thanks for chiming in.

[Rainscents]

21. I got a call one time because I was charging car rental on my card.

[nosmokes]

22. i think the card companies have idiots working for 'em.

i rarely use mine except for trips ya know? so here i had purchased some airline tix on the card, hotel reserv in a couple or three different cities and some train tix and reserved a rental car. get to the airport after spending14 hours in transit and the rental car folks are declining my card at the counter. i know there's only a few hundred bucks on the card and the limit is thousands. the woman at the counter runs the card 3 or 4 times, no go. calls the card company, they hand the phone to me and the idjit from the caed company says they froze the account because of unusual activity. so iasked her if she had my account up on the screen in front of her.

>yes
did she see where there were airline tickets purchased about 2 weeks prior?
>yes, she saw that.
did she agree that often when you arrive someplace by plane you might need a a set of wheels to get around?
> she allowed as how she could see that would be a possibility, yes.
so, i said, in fact, in light of transactions made on this account in the last 2 or 3 weeks, there's really nothing unusual at all about the activity is there?
> uh, well, no sir, i guess not.
good. then will you reactivate my fucking account so i can get a car and get out of this miserable airport? jeebus.