Month of Fraud

Citibank Premier Miles, Cathay Pacific American Express and HSBC are probably the most prevalent Credit Cards in carried by people in Hong Kong. I challenge you to find somebody in Hong Kong that doesn't own at least one of them, particularly in the expat sample space. This, combined with the fact that merchants in Hong Kong rarely verify that the signature on the receipt matches the signature on the back of the card. Given these two pieces of information it's easy to see how Credit Cards can be misplaced.

It's commonplace to split a bill over multiple cards, the merchant will simple create separate bills for each card. So when the cards returned for signing and my card was nowhere to be found, I looked at the remaining card. It looked like my card, except for one distinguishing factor, the faded name on the card was not mine. I immediately called American Express to cancel the card. "Sure sir, we can cancel your card, can you please let me know when the last time you remember using it?". After explaining that the last time I remember seeing it was at least a day ago, the operator proceeded to read out the most recent transactions "Did you use your card last night at Common Room at 1 am?". Nope. "How about 3 am at Volar?". Nope. "5 am at Bloop?". Nope. "Sorry sir, looks like somebody has used your credit card, you'll need to get a police report".

In total, somebody had racked up approximately 4000 HKD on my card, which in the grand scheme of Credit Card fraud seems quite reasonable. There were no attempted transactions of bottles, or laptops or luxury watches, just the odd round of drinks here and there throughout the course of an evening. The reasonable answer is, the person using my card probably didn't know it wasn't their card they were using. Regardless I still needed to file a police report to claim back the charges. I don't think I've ever felt like I've wasted a public servant's time more effectively than having to sit down for almost 2 hours recounting the last moments I remember using the missing card.

I remember profusely apologising to the detective, she shrugged it off and suggesting that all crimes needed to be reported and that it wasn't a waste of time. The first thing they ask you when you file for a missing/stolen/lost credit card is "Is this the first time you've lost a card?". Strangely enough, after so many years of owning plastic it's the first time I've had somebody else use my card. First run in with the Hong Kong law and I can say they were more than hospitable. 

Update: Two weeks later, I lost my Citibank Card. Turns out somebody had purchased a bottle using my card. Two cases of fraud in one month, his has not been a good month for me...