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When a person is a victim of theft or robbery they usually take away their wallet and there they go, in addition to their personal identification documents (passport, social security, driver’s license …), their credit and debit card, which can mean a much greater economic loss, especially in the case of credit cards because the offender, knowing some data (for example, the PIN), can use it indiscriminately and in this way would put at risk the financial reputation and credit of the person.
However, there is a positive aspect of all this, and it is that the criminal action by the thief to use the victim’s credit cards to make purchases or pay for services can be used to track him and thus find his capture, and therefore, recover the card.
What are the steps to track a stolen credit card?
The first step is to notify the bank about the theft of the card. Most banking institutions have a telephone or online attention system to report such incidents. Naturally, once notified the issuing institution of the card will proceed to block it temporarily, thus avoiding purchases, inquiries and other operations with it.
The second step will be to report the fact to the police. In this case, two crimes are dealt with: One is the theft of the card, whether it was with violence ( theft ) or without violence (theft) it is an injurious action against the right to property and this is sanctioned in any country of the world.
The other offence occurs when the offender uses or attempts to use credit or debit cards, making this action an identity theft or theft, which is equally serious in many countries, according to its legislation.
Once the police have been notified and the complaint has been taken, the police authorities may contact the bank agency to activate the tracking of the card when the offender tries to use it. Simply, when the authorization of the bank is requested to make a purchase on credit or any other operation, the location data of the commercial establishment where they would be trying to make it will be provided, and with this location, the police officers would be alerted to the detention of the malefactor.
Perhaps if the anyone uses credit cards to make online purchases, its geographical location is more difficult, although due to the IP of the computer plus a series of data that must be provided at the time of the process, obtaining a physical address can be facilitated.
Now it will be a matter of having a little patience to wait for the thief to try to use the stolen credit card. Normally it will be the police who notify you about the arrest of the offender and the recovery of your card, being able to ask you to go to the police headquarters to make the acknowledgement and support the complaint.
Such a request for recognition is subject to the circumstances in which the robbery was carried out, assuming that it was carried out in a place very distant from the victim’s residence (for example, if it is a tourist), obviously, you can skip this procedure.
What would happen if for some reason you could not notify the bank or file a complaint before your stolen credit card was used?
Great advantages that currently exist are the banking systems and the databases where the banking operations are registered, so you can go to your bank or check some of these databases on the Internet to know what the last movements that have been made with credit cards.
Among the databases that provide this type of information is Binbase.
Obviously, once your credit limit has been exceeded, credit cards will no longer be of interest to the criminal who stole it, assuming you have had time or willingness to block your credit card, but the wrongdoer may not know that these last purchases They can serve as a trail to find your whereabouts.
Therefore, in addition to putting these operations carried out under claim before the banking institution, you can provide this information to the police to try to identify the commercial sites where the thief left his mark, whether physical or virtual whether it is online shopping, data that intelligently managed can promptly lead to its capture.