Life lesson - In case you're not aware

FormerBoater wrote:

Tinstar wrote:
FormerBoater, on paper and in a perfect world you are correct. The charges won't be on your account if they are from an unauthorized user. Unauthorized users bad credit won't be reported on your portfolio with the big three. Problem is, we don't live in a perfect world. Under your theory, (and that's what it is), I could go open up several credit card accounts in my own name, using my information and previous credit history, go out and max the cards out. When I got the 10's of thousands of dollars bills in the mail, I could just call V/MC and tell them, "it wasn't me" and they would just forgive the charges. BUT like I said before, "That's not the way it works." We live in a real world with real bad guys and dishonest people. I spent 40 years as a cop, 5 of that supervising the fraud unit in a large metropolitan police department. What looks good on paper and what really happens in the real world are not the same.

With that said, you should continue doing what works for you. For me, I think Visa and MasterCard probably know more than the average Joe on how to protect their assets and my identity from being stolen so I'll go with the law of averages and comply with their guidelines and rules.

You would not prevail in the above described scenario. You would be guilty of fraud and subject to criminal charges.

Although he clearly would be guilty of fraud, this type of thing happens all the time. And I mean all the time. This is exactly why when you become the victim of fraud the credit card company makes you jump through so many hoops to clear it up. They want to make sure you're not really the fraudster.