‘Nothing will get done’: Tassie woman takes credit card fraud into her own hands
When Diana Adams discovered credit card scammers had racked up a $3000 bill on her account, it set her on a quest that would lead to her doing much of the detective work to try and catch the culprits. HER STORY >>
Tasmania
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WHEN Diana Adams discovered credit card scammers had racked up a $3000 bill on her account, it set her on a quest that would lead to her doing much of the detective work to try and catch the culprits.
Ms Adams, who lives in Tasmania’s south, cancelled her credit card in late July after someone made seven transactions worth more than $3000.
She got her money back, but when she asked Coles MasterCard to investigate further, she was told “let us handle it”.
Four days later, Ms Adams’ husband’s MasterCard had been used for more than $4400 in purchases from retailers including Kathmandu, Domino’s Pizza and Centre Com.
The card was blocked and the money refunded.
Ms Adams called the retailers, including Domino’s Pizza, to cancel the deliveries.
“The (Domino’s) manager said they lose so much money, they don’t want to send goods to people through fraud,” Ms Adams said.
The manager called the suspected fraudster under the guise of asking for customer feedback and was able to obtain his mobile phone number and home address.
Ms Adams then called Centre Com, where unauthorised transactions had been made on both her and her husband’s accounts.
Ms Adams called in time to stop a second delivery, but was too late to stop the first. She was also able to obtain address and contact details of the scammer.
“That goes to prove they (credit company) didn’t do anything,” she said.
The Australian Payments Network reported credit card fraud cost Australians $447.2m between July 2019 and June 2020.
A Coles MasterCard spokeswoman told the Mercury it took fraud seriously.
“When the customer’s claim is proven to be fraud, we issue them a refund,” she said.
“We ask customers who are victims of fraud to lodge a police complaint.”
But Ms Adams had not been encouraged to report the incident which, she says, taught her an important lesson.
“Don’t just do nothing and leave it in the hands of the credit card company because more often than not, nothing will get done,” she said.
After calls to a few more retailers, Ms Adams was able to provide full names, email addresses and home addresses of two suspected interstate fraudsters to Tasmania Police and cyber.gov.au
Ms Adams said an officer told her perpetrators living overseas often used Australian-based mules to receive, send and sell goods.
“He said in my case I may have revealed a couple of those mules, or it may actually be an Australian perpetrator,” she said.
Tasmania Police has confirmed the matter has been referred to interstate police for investigation.
Ms Adams and her husband are now waiting for the outcome of the police probe.
“I’m left in the dark now but I hope by doing this groundwork, which has taken a considerable amount of my time, I hope I’ve made it easier,” she said.
“They’ve messed with the wrong person. I wish I could be there to see their faces when they get caught.”
Report credit card fraud via cyber.gov.au
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