Niece has used my credit card without permission - Not MS. Thoughts please.

New diagnosis and before diagnosis
1

I received a call from Barclaycard yesterday asking me if I’d used my credit card. I was confused as I’d paid off and closed my barclaycard over a year ago and have the letter confirming this. The advisor explained that transactions totalling approx £600 had been made via Amazon Marketplace and had been approved on my credit card.

I immediately confirmed that it wasn’t me as I thought the account was closed; I don’t even have the card anymore.

I then questioned why Barclaycard had approved the transactions when my account is closed and the advisor said that because of the way Amazon Marketplace process payments, Barclaycard must approve the payment. Apparantly Amazon Marketplace is used by many merchants, not Amazon, and in order for the merchant to be paid they must first confirm the item has been dispatched. This means the item has in essence already been sent before the merchant is paid and therefore Barclaycard must approve the payment.

I must say that I think this is a very poor process.

The advisor then asked me if I have an Amazon account and I said yes but I’ve not used it for ages. He asked me to check that the Amazon account had not been compromised and call the fraud department back, the transactions were being treated as fraud at that point and I would not be liable for them. He also said they would be doing their own investigations by contacting Amazon directly for information.

Immediately after hanging up the phone I checked the Amazon account and there in my order history were several items all showing as having been delivered to my address in the previous 2 days. I couldn’t work out how the fraudster could have the items delivered to my address and intercept them without me finding out. I then thought it was maybe my partner buying xmas pressies and had inadvertently used my old credit card details (the closed Barclaycard was still registered as a previous payment method on Amazon). When I asked him he was as surprised as I was and denied it was him; which I believed as the items were not the sort of things he would buy without running them passed me first.

This is when the realisation hit me and I felt sick; the only other person living in my house is my 17 year old niece (I live closer to her college then her mum so I have been letting her stay with me since the summer). She had already left to visit her boyfriends family by the time I got the call (she is staying with them over Christmas). I called her with the pretence that I was just checking they had arrived safely and casually brought up the phone call I’d received. She immediately burst into tears and began to apologise. Yup, my worst fear had been confirmed - it was her.

I could tell she was genuinely sorry and she tried to explain her reasons (boyfriends family are mega rich/snobby and she wanted to make a good impression by buying them gifts). No excuse but I could see how a young immature girl could feel pressured in this way (my sister and her husband have sheltered her from the real world and she is quite niave).

After attempting to calm her down, whilst at the same time trying to make her see how wrong it was, I called Barclaycard to explain the situation. I didn’t see the point in lying, their investigations would confirm the goods had been delivered to my address.

I have been told that they will no longer take the transactions on as fraud. The only way that I will not be held liable is if I report my niece to the police!!

How can I do that to her?! Yes, she is a stupid 17 year old who has made a mistake but could you imagine what reporting her to the police could do to my family relationships not to mention the black mark it will leave on her name. I mean a charge of ID theft and fraud would jeopardise her college course, career etc.

I don’t think it is fair of Barclaycard to ask me to do that. I mean it is quite clear the transactions were not processed by me. There had been no balance or transactions on the account since I closed it in September 2011. The account was closed and regardless of how Amazon process payments a closed account should not be able to approve transactions. In my opinion Barclaycard should never have allowed the transactions to go through and therefore THEY are liable (I’m in no way excusing what my niece has done).

She has no means of paying it back in any timely fashion and I don’t see why I should have to.

What do you guys think? Is it fair for Barclaycard to ask me to prosecute her?

2

What a difficult situation, goodness me! Personally, I wouldn’t be able to prosecute her so would handle it privately. Can her parents reimburse you? Can you afford to have her work it off or pay back slowly? She shouldn’t have no consequence - it does have to be taken very seriously, she knew exactly what she was doing afterall.

I also don’t think it’s down to Barclaycard/Amazon. It’s just a very difficult, sad situation. I’m so sorry you have this to deal with.

Deb

3

First, fair play to you for not wanting to drop your niece in it.
BUT
Second, some of this is your own fault.

To get into an Amazon account requires either that you have not cleaned out the cookies on your PC in some time, or that you have left your login details lying around.
You thought your Barclaycard account was closed, but why? Just paying it off in full does not close the account. Where is the card that you don’t have anymore? Back to the Amazon account, they store customer details (like credit cards) so that either the details were held by them (and the niece only had to confirm that the Barclaycard was the one that she wanted to pay with, or she had to have entered the details from the card.
Next, how did she get to use your PC? Was it password protected? And, if not, why not?

Think this through - you have made it easy for her to do what she did. Is that the fault of either Amazon or Barclaycard?

Yes, I know that sounds a bit harsh, and it does not excuse her at all. But you can look at it like this:
The husband of one of my wife’s former colleagues, stopped on the way to work to buy a paper and left the car outside with the engine running. When he came out there was no car there. His insurance refused to pay out bcause of contributory negligence. Should he blame the car manufacturer for making it possible for the engine to be running with no-one in the car? No - his fault! The thief still committed a crime, but so did he.

Geoff

4

I completely agree that this is should be a family matter. I think the girl needs to fess up to her parents (or at least be given an opportunity to do so before you do it for her) and they need to reimburse you. That way lessons are learned, but no harm’s done. What a horrible situation for you to have to deal with, though.

Alison

x

5

I agree with Alison. In your shoes I would keep it in the family but make sure that her parents are involved. She must take responsibility for her actions, otherwise she will not learn from them. Confessing to her parents should be the first step! Teresa xx

6

I can only say what happened to me. Family members stole my personal information and were careless with said information-not terribly surprising.The repercussions have been unbelievable, truly. Their actions have created ripple effects I am still dealing with and will probably have to continue to deal with for a long time.

The police were and are still involved. The point being you probably would be best served doing what I DIDNT DO-consider this person stole from you not because they were starving, needed medication or because they needed rent money but for purely selfish reasons. I am still paying a high price for trying to keep the peace, be “nice” and be forgiving.

7

I think none of this cobblers about it being remotely your fault. Your niece is 17. She has a brain? How could she even imagine this would not hit the fan?

Can you talk to her mother/father?

It is a situation you are in, no fault of your own. You are in it but it is not your error. Pass it to her parents.

Mark

8

Hi, yes, this is a truly horrible situation.

I think your neice must face up to her wrong-doings. She is 17, soon to be a responsible adult, who has to act in way that will keep her eligible for uni and life in general.

£600 is a mega amount of money to steal.

She is a thief and has to make amends for her action.

I guess the Barclaycard account cant have been closed, as you thought. Your neice had the nous to work out how to defraud you.

It is your right to decide whether to involve the police or not.

Either way, your neice should repay you. However long it takes.

luv Pollx

9

This sounds a bit suspicious. How did your niece get the security code that’s on the back of the card? They always ask for it.

They also ask passwords - for verification. How did she get those? As someone said you must have left your computer on the Amazon account for her to be able to get onto it. If you left a purse open with lots of money in it lots of people would be tempted to help themselves. Only a few would though.

Think she should pay you back so much per week/month. Her parents need to know.

Jen x

10

Amazon never ask for details once the card is stored to be used. I think it probably should although it’s very useful to be able to just click a couple of buttons!

Deb