A company processed an order paid for by a stolen credit card despite red flags. Can I sue them?

Question

My credit card was stolen over the weekend and used by a thief to create a Paypal account, which he in turned used to purchase some auto equipment. Interestingly, the auto equipment turned up on my door step today and I called the company listed on the invoice. They verified that the order had been placed and told me that there had been a problem with the order initially, because the thief wanted the items sent to an address other than mine. The company refused to share that particular address with me.

This is not the only fraudulent charge placed on my card by the thief (my credit card company is aware of the situation and the account has been closed), but the auto parts company is the only company that allowed merchandise to be sent out, even though red flags indicating that the card was stolen went up. Can I sue this company for allowing this? Can I report them to their credit card processor? Can I sue them for not giving me the initial delivery address?

Answer 1

As long as the company makes restitution at their own expense, I tend to doubt that you have grounds for a suit. I would certainly report them to PayPal, however. You would probably have to sue them to get the other delivery address, but knowing the way computers work, there's a better-than-even chance that they don't have it on file; they'd really have had no reason to keep it, when you think about it. The scenario was probably something like this: "Hi, I want to order such and such and have it sent to ." "No sir, we can't send it to an address not on the card." After some arguing back and forth, our thief probably "relented" so that he wouldn't look as though he'd stolen the card, and said, "Ok, ship it to the address on the card," at which point, he abandoned the notion that he'd get the stuff at all. He had to play out the game and say, "Ok, ship it to my regular address" so that he wouldn't get caught immediately, and you landed up with a pile of stuff on your doorstep, which he doesn't care about. The company should DEFINITELY have had him verify the address associated with the card, which he almost certainly didn't know unless he knows you.

Depending on what was sent, it might be possible to identify the make and model of the car it was going to go on, but since this gonzo was willing to steal a card to work on it, there's a good chance the car is hot, too.

I know that credit card problems can be a pain in the tuchas, as I have worked for a couple of credit card companies as a programmer. I hope you get things straightened out soon.

Answer 2

All you can do is refuse to pay the bill. Report the matter to your local police or District Attorney as a theft.
Check your credit report in a few months to make sure nothing negative shows up.