10 Heart-Stopping Credit Card Statement Surprises

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Uh-oh! Your credit card bill just arrived, and a familiar dread builds up as you open up the statement. Just before you look to judge the damage, a deep regret swells up as you recollect the purchases of the past month. On reflection, buying those ‘must have’ snakeskin leather shoes probably wasn’t completely justified, and somewhere, in the hazy depths of your mind, you remember stumbling home from the bar a few weeks previously, after leaving your credit card behind. Ouch!

It’s true, we all pay for things we later regret, but it seems that some people get more than they bargained for!

1. The 23 Quadrillion Visa Charge

Josh Muszynski from New Hampshire said he swiped his card at a gas station to buy cigarettes. When he later checked his account online, it showed he had been charged: $23,148,855,308,184,500. Insane, but true – a 17 digit charge, which visa cited as a ‘temporary programming error’.

2. Thirteen Year-Old Boy Pays for Escorts

A 13 year-old boy from Texas was charged with fraud after he used his father’s credit card to have a $30,000 spending spree, including paying for escorts.

He ordered an extra credit card from his father’s credit card company and with his friends in tow, went shopping! They were found with numerous electronic gadgets, playing ‘Halo’ on their new Xbox console with two $1000/night hookers. Later on (after a media storm) it came to light that the whole story was fictitious.

3. Husband Racks Up $60,000 on Wife’s Cards

Vige Barrie’s husband spent $60,000 on more than ten credit cards under his wife’s name. Her husband over the years had made and lost millions of dollars, but yet she allowed him to have access to her cards after he was declared bankrupt. She has negotiated a deal with her credit card companies to pay the loan off herself.

4. Asian Couple On the Run With $10,000,000

A couple in New Zealand who applied for an overdraft limit of $10,000 were accidentally paid $10,000,000 into their account. Westpac confirmed that it was due to human error. They owned a service station, which they closed and went on the run. Police have asked international police liaison organisation Interpol to help track them down. They have not yet been found…

5. Credit Company Chases for $0.00

In 1992, a man living in Massachusetts kept receiving credit card bills on his unused card, stating he owed $0.00. Understandably, he kept throwing them out. He eventually received a letter stating they were going to cancel his card. He called them to sort it out, and was advised it was a computer error, an explanation he accepted. He then received another letter for the outstanding balance of $0.00, stating that if he didn’t pay within 10 days, the company would take moves to recover the so-called debt. So, as any reasonable person would, he sent in a cheque for the $0.00. The story goes that the cheque bounced and the company’s system crashed trying to process the money, but whether the story is true or not, is another matter entirely.

6. Phone Bill Charge of $85,000

A Canadian man was very shocked to receive a mobile phone bill for $85,000!  Piotr Staniaszek bought a new phone to use under his $10/month mobile browser plan. He used the phone as his modem, and downloaded lots of high definition movies and large files, which is what caused the monstrous charges on his account. Luckily, after negotiations with his phone company, Bell Mobility, they reduced the figure to a more payable sum of $3,243.

7. Hairdresser Summonsed for $400,000

A Miss Wilson, from Northampton County, in the UK, received 29 court summonses for racking up huge credit card debts and buying luxury cars. Some of the cars dated back to 1989 when she was only 12 years old. Each letter had her name, followed by the name and address details of a number of other people from across the UK. When Miss Wilson contacted the police they could only advise her to call the court and plead that the strange letters did not in fact belong to her. Once she rang them, they said it must have been a postal error. “They didn’t even apologise”, said Miss Wilson. “And now I know the details and debt history of 29 people”.

8. Teenage Boy Uses Dad’s Credit Card for Flights

A Transportation Security Administrator thought something was amiss when he saw a young boy near the United Airlines counter. He alerted a police officer who ran the boys name through their system, and it was quickly picked up that he was a runaway reported missing out of California. Kenton Weaver, aged just 13, used his father’s credit card to buy a ticket on Southwest Airlines, and not only that, drove his dad’s Ford Explorer to get to the airport. His parents explained that he has had issues with dealing with their recent divorce and wanted to go see his mom, who lives near Fresno.

9. Britain’s Biggest Credit Card Scam

The BBC, in the UK, has uncovered a credit card scam in India. The criminal gang were selling UK credit card details stolen from Indian call centres. Two undercover reporters met the main broker in a Delhi coffee shop, who said he could supply them with hundreds of credit and debit card details each week at $10 a card! On investigation, most of the details given were accurate, and even some of the credit card numbers were valid working cards of people in the UK. After contacting the card holders, three of them had ordered the same computer software package (Symantec) within hours of each other. Their details were then in turn passed on, almost immediately, to the reporters. Symantec has since tightened up their security within the call centres. The Delhi Broker denied all charges.

10. Over 300 Detectives On Wrong Side of Law

Scary but true, even the cops are getting in on the act. In the UK, investigations are underway for suspected corporate credit card abuse among 3,500 Scotland Yard officers. Auditors are examining the American Express accounts of the suspected bent Bobbies and some have already been referred to the internal investigators within the Metropolitan Police! It’s a worry.

Image: Jason Rogers

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