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Several months ago, my credit card number was stolen and used to buy some airline tickets. My credit card company reacted very quickly to lock my account and alert me to the charges.

However, as I came to learn about this type of scam, the scammer generally buys and immediately refunds the tickets in order to sell them on third party sites to attempt to hide their trail. In our case, we reacted so quickly that we got the charges reversed before those refund transactions hit the account.

At the end of this, I found myself with about $3000 of money that doesn't belong to me credited to my account due to the double credit. I have called the credit card company and they have assured me they are aware and will correct it, but it has been 4 months now.

I know this isn't my money so I don't get to keep it, but how long do I have to wait and what can I do to get it resolved?

Enkiduh
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2 Answers2

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The credit card company isn't the one losing money here. It's the airline. The airline credited you back twice (once with the fraud report, once with the credit from the thief). Maybe you should call them if you want it resolved sooner. In any case, if/when they do come looking for their money, they will have the paperwork to prove that it belongs to them.

You can spend the money now and risk paying it back later, you can watch and wait, or you can be proactive and ask the airline to fix it. They may or may not care about that sum.

NL - SE listen to your users
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As for what you can do, deposit the ~$3000 in an interest bearing account, and collect the interest on their money. When they finally ask for it back, you immediately pay them, but you keep the interest earned. Now it's in your interest for them to take as long as possible to ask for repayment and you've done nothing wrong.

delliottg
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