Do you see a transaction on your credit card statement that you don’t recognize? If so, you shouldn’t overlook this. It could well be a fraudulent transaction, or one you did not authorize.
If you investigate and find that indeed the transaction stems from fraud, you have certain protections and can put in for a refund of the fraudulent charge with your card issuer.
Confirm that the transaction is fraudulent
Before you decide a credit card transaction is fraudulent, though, make sure you are right. It seems consumers are prone to mistake a legitimate transaction for a fraudulent one.
For instance, it could be that an authorized user on your account is responsible for the transaction. Check with them to make sure they did not initiate it. Another possibility is that you don’t recognize a legitimate transaction because you can’t recall doing business with the named merchant. That could be a false alarm, too, since some merchants bill under a different identity from the one they conduct business with.
Also note that you shouldn’t report fraud just because you don’t want to deal with a merchant. There is a process for addressing situations such as:
- Not receiving a good or service you paid for
- Being billed for a recurring service that you canceled
- Not getting credit for a product or service you are not satisfied with
- Being charged twice for the same item
- Getting charged a higher amount than is on your receipt
Such incidents don’t qualify as fraud and it would be in…
