Illinois Subscriber

A

Unfortunately, at present there is not much that your insured can do. Current commercial property and crime coverage forms do not address this kind of loss. Your insured can try to verify any credit card number used; however, the number may be valid, but may have been stolen. Or, what appears to be occurring more and more, especially with high-ticket electronics goods that have high resale value, is that “customers” have learned that a disputed item can be deleted from the credit card bill, and then the item can be sold. The “customer” simply tells the credit card issuer that the item was never ordered, and the merchant is left to reimburse the credit card issuer for the merchandise.

There are some companies that provide a service for their subscribers to help them decide if they want to proceed with the sale. Or, the dealer can attempt to match the shipping address with the address on the credit card, and only use a shipper that requires a signature for delivery. Some of the major credit card issuers are looking at ways to verify that the identity of the person using a credit card is actually the person to whom the card was issued.

But until such time as this technology is available or there are ways to insure against or prevent such loss, your insured should recognize that these theft losses are a growing problem.