Mar 30, 2008

Credit card scam requires no credit cardBy Maxine BernsteinOregonLive.com

Before heading out for a weekend trip to Seattle with his wife, Aaron Reed checked his bank account online.

Puzzled by a credit card authorization from the Lloyd Center shop Things Remembered, Reed walked to the bedroom to ask his wife whether she had bought any jewelry or gifts lately. By the time he returned to his computer, more unusual transactions had popped up: a $15 Broadway cab fare and $270 for five nights in an Econo Lodge Motel.

“It weirded me out because I had my card,” said Reed, 35. “It wasn’t like I had lost my card.”

The thief didn’t need Reed’s bank or debit cards, financial records, mail or credit card receipts. She hit on his account number by chance.

Like mathematicians searching for the right formula, such thieves painstakingly try out combinations of 16 digits until they come up with a series that fits someone’s card number.

They grab gift cards found in most grocery stores and craft their own credit card or debit card — shaving numbers off the gift cards with razor blades and gluing the right sequence onto a stolen bank card or a bank-issued gift card.

Police say the scam, called credit card shaving, is taking off in the Portland area. Victims usually are unaware that their accounts have been compromised.

“People don’t understand it. They’re scratching their heads. ‘Nobody stole my mail. There was no burglary.’ Their credit card number is being used, but their card is still in their purse or wallet,” says Portland Officer Barbara Glass. “Most victims are spun-out worried, looking for some conspiracy clue. But it’s just dumb luck they got hit.”

The Identity Theft Assistance Center, based in Washington, D.C., wasn’t aware of the scheme. But Joseph LaRocca, the National Retail Federation’s vice president of loss prevention, says the scam has surfaced before throughout the country.

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