Found: one faux Visa card
One of myout-of-town guests found it outside Winners at Surrey City Centre. To save worry, time, and expense for the owner, she picked it up, hoping to be able to return it quickly.
As all Visa cards do, it had a phone number on the back and I called. It rang and rang and nobody answered. We went online and got another number for Scotia, and phoned in.
When I explained that someone had dropped a Visa card and we were trying to return it to the owner, the Scotia Bank rep asked for the number, and punched it in.
"Not ours," he said with finality.
I was mystified. "But it has Scotia Bank written right across the front."
"It may be from a foreign country," said the clerk. "Let me do a quick search."
He was soon back on the line.
"That card is definitely not a Scotia card, and it is definitely a compromised card."
"What should we do?"
"You can destroy it," he said, "or you can drop it off at the bank."
The incident had already taken up enough time. "We'll cut it up," I told him.
"Would you do me a favour?" he asked. "Call the TD Bank and tell them. It's their card." He gave me the telephone number and I called.
Before cutting up the card, we examined it closely. Indeed, it did look a little different from a real one, but the differences weren't obvious by any means.
Later my friend told me that years ago, when she worked for British Rail, people who found stolen or phony cards were automatically given rewards. From fifty to a couple of hundred pounds.
That was then; this is now.
Now credit cards are as common as dandelions in the lawn, and fraud seems much more routine.
Sad, isn't it?