I somehow got my first CC when I was 14! It was for a long defunct electronics store, "Burstein-Applebee". They had a lot of nice stuff that was discontinued stereo equipment CHEAP. My first limit was $400, then upped to $1000. I spent a lot of money there in 1970-71. I had a killer stereo. Never any fraud on that card, but later on..
My second one was a Sears card at 16, you never know when you might need a battery, right? That one was somehow used to buy a bunh of stuff in Chicago about 1974. They sent me a new card and all was well.
My first big fraud, first two big fraud incidents came about 1989. I had just received two new cards in the mail. I activated them, and put them in my wallet. I was installing a C-Band satellite dish in my back yard and I had taken my wallet out because it bothered me to lay on it. Helping me was a family friend and a kid he had gone to high school with, who was 6'8". The height would be a key to this later. I had to hit the bathroom and left my wallet sitting there for a few minutes while I was gone. I came back and we finished putting the dish up and soon I was watching all kinds of crazy stuff, the best of it was the first Gulf War. I got little sleep during it, and sadly, all the tapes I had of it were lost about 5 years ago when my basement flooded.
Anyway, a couple of weeks after the dish went up, I got the mail and opened the bill from Mastercard and WHOA, there's $5500 on it. A big TV, VCR, dinners all over the place, boots, and it maxed out at a Windsor, Ontario strip club. I called the bank customer service number and got them going on it. A few days later, the Visa bill shows up and it's got $5000 on it! Same pattern, lots of toys, more boots, and finally maxed out at another Windsor strip club. MC and Visa joined forces on my case, with MC being in charge. A simple phone call proved the 6'8" kid was the guy who took the cards. He bought boots, size 17, at two of the locations where purchases were made, and at the first place I called, they described "Me" perfectly. I called the Visa investigator and as soon as I said something about the size 17 boots, she said, "Robert SXXXX?". She was ready to bust him, but the MC guy claimed that shoe size and description wasn't enough proof (How many people are in prison with much less proof?) that he did it, so after all was said and done, I was out $100, and he got away with it.
The second one was when I bought some computer parts from a place down in FL, of course. I bought a case and some other parts without a problem, then one day, I get a phone call from Visa and they ask if I had spent $1700 on PC parts at the store. I said, no, I had bought about $200 a month or so ago but nothing since then. It turned out the store was one of several who were run by a family of scam artists and they had taken a lot of credit card info after selling some stuff, and then charged the cards for as much as they could. After the above incident, I had my bank call me with anything over $400 to verify I really had bought it. I know a couple of the adult children had been caught, but never was able to find out what happened to them. A long stretch in an FL prison would have been nice. Apparently, the family was also involved with paving and roofing scams in the summer months.
I typically unlock it before buying something and lock it again asap. With the card locked, it's as if the account doesn't exist.
