A Fraud-Filled Friday

A friend who is away this week asked me to make a major purchase for him, to take advantage of Apple.com's Black Friday Sale. So first thing Friday morning, I got online (from the comfort of my hotel room in South Jersey - no standing in line at 6am for me!) and completed the transaction using my Visa card. I didn't get an e-mail confirmation note by the time I had to leave, but I didn't think anything of it - other online retailers like Amazon often take a while before confirming my purchase.

It wasn't until I stopped for gas this evening that I found out something had gone wrong - my Visa card was declined at the gas pump. Suspecting it may have been caused by this morning's transaction, I checked my phone messages at home. Sure enough, the Chase Fraud Detector's computerized voice called to tell me some questionable charges had been attempted using my card. I returned to my room and got online, but didn't see a note from Apple reporting any problems. Not until I checked my Spam folder, that is. Apple did send a note to me this morning, but since I'd never gotten a note from this particular Apple e-mail address, my e-mail provider was kind enough to mark it as spam and hide it away from me.

Apple gave me a chance to update the payment information for my order, so I called the Chase Fraud Detector hot line to straighten things out. After confirming that the charges were OK, I was told that I would be able to use the card again in 30 seconds. I patiently waited 3 minutes just to be sure, and then tried to update my Apple order, but I continued to get "declined" errors.

Frustrated, I decided to switch the order to my Discover card. That one went through rather quickly, and within a minute I got an e-mail from Apple telling me the order was accepted. That was followed seconds later by an e-mail from Discover Card's Fraud Prevention service!!! So I'm back on the phone, this time with Discover, to see what happened there. Luckily, Discover had accepted the charge before warning me, so I didn't have to go back to Apple and correct my payment information again.

The whole incident left my very annoyed. I make major electronics purchases on my Visa card all the time. I have absolutely no idea what caused this one to be flagged. I realize these companies are just trying to protect me (and themselves). However, what should have been a simple transaction turned out to be very inconvenient. Between having the initial charge repeatedly declined, then having my Visa card itself disabled, losing the "Order Problem" e-mail in my Spam folder, and having to call two card companies to get everything straightened out, I really feel like smacking the heck out of the thieves and spammers who have helped get us to this point.