cambodia to thailand

[Nirish guy]

Likewise Goji re stupid and inconvenient as somehow I've ended up with WAY too many credit cards and literally depending where I am ( office or home etc) or what cards just happen to be in my wallet ( as I do empty it if heading off somewhere so as not to carry / loose too many) the chances of me both remember which card I used to MAKE the booking and then also having that same card in my wallet at some random airport desk maybe 6 months later is usually NIL. As I said thankfully I've only been asked once ( and didn't have it but was able to prove my identity and it was a small local airport so I was allowed to travel. I'm not sure just how much it's actually helping stop crime anyway these days as now the fraudsters can literally print and indent themselves off a basically perfect copy of whatever card they wish within seconds of buying the stolen card details anyway.

[fountainhall]

I consider it to be bloody stupid and inconvenient.

I totally agree. And I wonder what is the point of such requirement. The cost of the ticket is transferred to the airline at the point of sale. A card which has been stolen is normally reported hours later - perhaps a day at most. That is the only window in which a card could be fraudulently used. But my understanding is that there is no way the airline can be asked to repay those funds. The fault is with the thief. Anyone know if this is wrong?

[Nirish guy]

I can tell you that if a business processes and is paid an amount by the credit card company and it transpires that is was a fraudulent transaction then absolutely the credit card company reserve the right and DO reclaim the monies paid to that firm instantly from that firms existing credit card balance account with them. - and that claw back can take place anytime up to I think 12 months from the time of the fraudulent purchase !!

This is achieved as a direct result of the pre agreed terms and conditions that the card company puts on a company when they sign up to become a "merchant" via the card company merchant agreement to enable you to operate their credit card payment processing machines etc - I know this from ( almost sore) personal experience where my company ended up being VERY close to being scammed, but thankfully we simply were able to spot and so avoid the fraud in the first place so it didn't become an issue, but it absolutely could have - and this has now happened on numerous occasions too.

My other amazing discovery from that process was that credit card theft seems to be such a MASSIVE thing now and on such a huge scale that the credit card companies themselves have all but given up ACTUALLY chasing the small amounts of fraud ( and I mean say up and around £5000 - £10000 + or more even there !) and they simply try to block the card mainly to limit their exposure, but aren't interested in ACTUALLY doing anything proactive to CATCH the fraudsters.

I was told this directly from the horses mouth from a guy in their very own fraud department after giving them a sure way of physically catching a guy at an address who was trying to scam my company out of nearly £9000 and in the security fraud guys own words they simply weren't interested as the amounts involved just weren't high enough to bother as they'd much bigger fish to fry every day !

Apparently ( again in his words) if the general public knew the TRUE scale of credit card fraud we would all stop using our cards / such dangerously unsafe things in a heartbeat, meanwhile as we aren't doing that the card companies are happy to just continue playing the numbers game, whilst keeping their losses down to the bare minimum but still making a killing from the rest of us at the same time it seems - or so he claimed anyway and from watching them having written off I'm sure close to £100k of attempted dodgy purchases now in my company alone I am inclined to believe him.

[GWMinUS]

I dunno about ur BF having trouble with the police but a few years ago my BF had problems with Air Asia on a ticket I'd bought him because at check-in he (obviously) could not produce the credit card which was used to buy the ticket.

Bottom line he got denied boarding, and with no refund.

No doubt you've thought of this.

Most airlines in the Philippines and even major ones such as EVA Air state that you must present the Credit Card used to purchase the Ticket when checking in. But they allow you to send a PhotoCopy of the Front and Back of the Credit Card to be shown by the person traveling. So I would definitely contact AirAsia about their requirements.

[fountainhall]

I can tell you that if a business processes and is paid an amount by the credit card company and it transpires that is was a fraudulent transaction then absolutely the credit card company reserve the right and DO reclaim the monies paid to that firm instantly from that firms existing credit card balance account with them. - and that claw back can take place anytime up to I think 12 months from the time of the fraudulent purchase.

I am sure you are correct, and the process may have changed in recent years. But I vividly recall having once to go to court on this issue. An informal client of mine - in that there was no agreement - lived in Australia. Unknown to me and my staff, and as it turned out his friends, he was a con man. He came to stay with one of his friends in Hong Kong and we had a brief meeting. Two days later, his friend, whom I did not know, contacted me. Did I know where he was? I hadn't the faintest idea. Turned out he had stolen the friend's HSBC credit card, purchased a first-class round-the-world ticket, forged the signature and then quickly left.

A day or so later, I received an official notification that HSBC had put a lien on my company account to the amount that had been charged to the card. It only took a few minutes to persuade the Court that we held no funds belonging to that jerk or that we had any responsibility for his actions. The lien was immediately withdrawn. But I believe this guy's friend was not reimbursed by VISA.

I am not surprised that there is so much credit card fraud now. You only have to look at the procedures the banks take before they approve a charge. Over the last couple of years I have to get a PIN sent to my mobile phone to be added to any internet purchase before that purchase is complete. And this covers all my cards - except ironically the one issued by HSBC!

[Nirish guy]

Yes as I'd mentioned I too have nearly found myself on the wrong side of their charging policies on several occasions now, with the most annoying part of each of the situations being me fcalling up their authorisation centre for an authorisation number to "guarantee" the card / sale etc but me then flagging up to them my gut belief ( based on a few facts as to the type of products being ordered which are preferred by con men) that an almost definite fraudulent purchase was being attempted here, only them to be GIVEN the authorisation number and being told I could proceed with the sale as the card checked out etc.

I then insisted on speaking to their fraud team, explained the situation and the informed me that I was probably correct but that the card in question hadn't actually been reported stolen or skimmed YET but that they fully expected it to be in the next few hours or days based on their own monitoring of it's use in the last few hours. I then asked "so why the hell authorise the sale to my staff !" and that's where he explained that the authorisation process is basically worthless in these circumstances as they would probably go ahead and authorise until reported stolen as "why wouldn't they as of course THEY weren't liable for the costs of the goods fraudulently ordered as they would simply debit the money from my credit account with them ( or sue me for it) anytime up to a year later IF i decided to proceed with the sale etc". I did point out that I was doing all possible to ensure the card was genuine by calling them AND them going ahead and authorising the sale etc, but that it seems meant and was worth nothing !

Then as I mentioned above I was able to give them a specific time and address where this con man had agreed to physically collect the large volume of goods from us ( our courier) but they simply weren't interested. This same story has now played out well over 10 times with us and now unless WE are 100% happy with a purchase we just don't even attempt put it through.

Accordingly to get to that end point and make that decision we have to "play" the customer and get their card and order details first etc, meaning I actually have around 15-20 sets of full card details, complete with card number, security number and expiry date etc lying around my desk at any given time complete with their preauthorised credit limits that I know I could use / process , meaning that if I was that was inclined I could use to pick up the phone and book a flight to ANYWHERE in the world ( just like your ex-friend did!) - the only difference being that I'm such an unlucky sod I'd probably get stopped in the UAE or somewhere and have my hands cut off for stealing and jailed for life for fraud most probably !!

[fountainhall]

... informed me that I was probably correct but that the card in question hadn't actually been reported stolen or skimmed YET but that they fully expected it to be in the next few hours or days based on their own monitoring of it's use in the last few hours.

I thought I was the only one to suffer this sort of idiocy! 18 months ago the security department of Citibank in Hong Kong called me asking that I change my card because one of their European offices fully "expected" it to be used illegally in the near future. I thought WTF! I hadn't been in Europe for some months. I told them I didn't want to change the card since I had airline tickets and hotels booked using it. But I hadn't actually used it for anything for at least 2 months. I was then informed I could keep it but should check daily for unauthorised transactions. So I ended up agreeing to get a new card. But like Nirish I totally fail to understand how on earth does a card company "expect" a card to be hacked. Do the hackers just take a random set of numbers and then have a computer generate all the following numbers in a matter of seconds until it comes up with a genuine card?

Late last year, I had another card issue with the same bank. I booked a 5-night hotel stay on hotelscombined using the card. I use hotelscombined a lot because it combines at least a dozen search engines into one page. I selected the lowest price from a company named Happy Rooms which I had not used before. After clicking purchase there was an extremely long delay. After about 3 minutes a message came on the screen to say there had been a problem and I should check to make sure I had received an email confirmation. If not, the booking had not gone through and I should make it again. After 20 minutes, no email. So I did as I was told. Once again, the same message and no email. Wondering what to do, Citibank Security phoned. They had noticed two bookings to the same merchant. Had I authorised them? Very slowly and clearly, I told them I had authored just one and should only be billed for one. I then had them reconfirm this. Soon I had two booking confirmations in my email's in box and eventually two transactions on my credit card. I exploded with Citibank who merely waffled and basically told me I had made the bookings and I was responsible for them!

The next day I noticed that the company with which I had made the booking on the hotelscombined site was no longer listed. I searched around and discovered it had been banned from hotelscombined because of dodgy practices whereby it would confirm one hotel but then put the customer into a lesser hotel on arrival. Even after it had repaid one of my bookings, I remained concerned as to whether the hotel I had booked would actually receive the booking. I checked, and it had. Since I had stayed there several times, they agreed to inform me if anything happened to that booking (e,g, Happy Rooms did not pay them by the due date). Nothing did and it all worked out in the end. It just made me decide not to go after the cheapest rate if it was a company I had not used satisfactorily before.

[frequent]

My other amazing discovery from that process was that credit card theft seems to be such a MASSIVE thing now and on such a huge scale that the credit card companies themselves have all but given up ACTUALLY chasing the small amounts of fraud ( and I mean say up and around £5000 - £10000 + or more even there !) and they simply try to block the card mainly to limit their exposure, but aren't interested in ACTUALLY doing anything proactive to CATCH the fraudsters.

Cost-benefit analysis by the banks has shown that any benefits outweigh the costs, however much your own moral outrage might be triggered. The same is true for household burglary insurance claims. Insurance companies generally pay out based on the original receipt plus a police incident number that you quote them. And the police themselves? In at least one major Australian city they run an incident room staffed by cheap civilians whose sole job it is to record burglaries on the computer and hand out incident numbers. No actual police intervention required - apart from the handful of cops who are stressed from beat duty and have been seconded to "supervise". Don't blame the cost of your household insurance on the insurance companies - they're just pushing the cost down to you. It's the way of the world.

[alipatt]

I have twice now purchased Air Asia tickets for a friend in Siem Reap to join us on holiday in Bangkok. The first time he flew alone and it was his first airline trip. He was not asked for the card and arrived without difficulty. We did however take the time to show him how to correctly fill in a Thai arrival card so he would have no problems.
On booking the Air Asia trip I used the Air Asia Big Points rewards and have his name listed on Friends and family listing and deselect "I am travelling" . I then process payment on my card

[cdnmatt]

If it helps anyone, apparently staying more than 6 months in 12 months is no issue for ASEAN citizens at least. Leo just showed up again tonight, and I think I'm sure has reached the 6 month mark by now. He's been here since sometime in July, generally only spends 3 or 4 days in Laso, although one time spent 3 weeks there during the harvest season as he was needed on the family farm.

Nonetheless, that should still put him over the 6 month mark by now, and he was able to cross back into Thailand without issue.