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When a person has been a victim of credit card theft, often their first indication of the violation is charges that cannot be explained appearing on their credit card statement.  Without knowing the proper way to dispute these charges, the victim may be held liable for these charges and will end up paying for items that criminals have purchased using their credit card number.  Most credit card companies have policies that state that the victim will not be responsible for charges made on their credit card due to criminal usage, but the charges will only be dismissed if the person knows how to properly dispute the charges.

Review Your Records

If a credit card charge that is not familiar shows up on your credit card statement, the first thing that the person should do is review their records to determine whether they may have forgotten that they have made the charge.  There is nothing more embarrassing than attempting to dispute an unauthorized charge and realizing that you were actually the one that made the purchase.  People that use their credit cards on a regular basis should especially be careful because it is very easy to forget about a charge or miss identifying a charge that shouldn’t be there.

Inform The Credit Card Company Of The Charge

If a charge that cannot be explained does appear on your credit card statement, it is important to inform the credit card company of the unauthorized charge as quickly as possible.  In many cases, the charge that is made on the credit card without your consent will be one with a high dollar value as the thief tries to obtain as much as they can from the account as quickly as they can before their actions are noticed.  If the credit card has only been used for purchases less than $100 in the past and all of a sudden a $600 charge on the credit card appears, this is a good indication to the credit card company that the purchase may have been fraudulent.

The faster the charge is reported to the credit card company, the easier the charge will be to remove from the account and the better chance the company will have of finding the thief and prosecuting them.  If more than a few days has passed since the charge to the account has been made, the credit card company may require that you send them a written statement attesting to the fact that you did not make the charge and that you do not know who charged the purchase to your account.  These written statements often have to include permission for the company to prosecute whichever person is found to have used the credit card or credit card number to make the purchase. 

Keeping Track Of The Issue

After the credit card company has been contacted about the unauthorized charges on the credit card account, it is important for you to continue to monitor the situation to make sure that it is taken care of.  You should save the credit card statement that includes the unauthorized charge until the next credit card statement arrives so that you can make sure that the charge has been taken off of the account and the account balance has been corrected.  If you have online access to your credit card account, you may want to monitor the account online to make sure that the representative at the credit card company has taken care of the problem.