🍁A story about how my credit card was stopped in Canada and I almost got scammed🍁

Hello.
The person I respect most
is Kawa from the Diffie Helman System Solutions Department.

It's April, isn't it? I like spring because new people come in and the environment changes.
In 2024, Beyond will welcome 15 new members, and I'm excited to see what it will be like.
Personally, I'm looking forward to the change in personnel, as some of the members currently dispatched to Canada will return at the end of this month, and another member will be dispatched.

Until the end of October last year, I was on a three-month business trip to the Canadian office, and I had a really fun time there.
(↓Please refer to the blog below for details)

Toronto News Part 4 🍁 [Delicious Toronto 🍔🍺]

However, the reality is that spending three months there is not all fun.

During my stay in Toronto, I wrote 4 blog articles,

actually

The two credit cards I brought with me were both suspended from online use,
and when I booked a flight ticket to go on a trip while on paid leave, I was charged an additional $300 that I hadn't used, so I
contacted Twitter about canceling the ticket. (Currently X) account was a fraudulent account.

That happened.

This article is a record of the futile struggle of a person who came to Japan with only 30 Canadian dollars in cash.

Prologue

At the end of July 2023, the author crossed the ocean alone with a total of 30🍁 dollars in hand.

▼ Author

The author, who started working at the Canadian office in August of the same year, was excited about visiting Toronto for the first time in a while.

The company housing is within walking distance of the station and supermarket, and is conveniently close to the office.

It was supposed to be a fun and fulfilling day.

September 2023 Airline ticket purchase failure incident

Ahead of September 2023, I was looking for a flight ticket to visit the home of the host family I stayed with when I was a student.

▼ Host family dog🐶

Since I had applied for paid leave in advance, I looked for a relatively cheap flight based on the date and proceeded to purchase.
Confirm that there are no mistakes and send the payment information.

However, it cannot be purchased.
I can't make purchases using my VISA card, which has always been my source of joy and sorrow. Why?

As the date was approaching, I had no choice but to complete the purchase using my spare MasterCard.

It turns out that the card cannot be used

A few days after purchasing the plane ticket, ``that moment'' suddenly arrived.

One day, when I was casually trying to install an app from the App Store, I encountered a problem where a message saying `` Confirmation required '' was displayed and I was unable to install it.

If you look closely, you'll see that the credit card information associated with your Apple account is incorrect !

This has never happened before, so I deleted the VISA card I had registered, entered the MasterCard information ⇢ and tapped Done, but after a while of circling.


＿人人人人＿
＞ Rejection ＜
￣Y^Y^Y￣

I went to bed that day, hearing the sound of everything I had built up crumbling down.

Inquiry to credit card company and discovery of 11 double charges

The next day, I went to work as if nothing had happened, and on the way home I bought some gummies at Shoppers (kind of like a pharmacy). (I recommend Maynards Sour Patch)
Huh? Can I use my card normally? why?

Immediately after purchase, re-register your card information at the Apple Store, but


＿人人人人＿
＞ Reject ＜
￣Y^Y^Y￣

It seems that only online payments are being rejected.

At that moment, a bad premonition crossed my hamster-like brain like a flash of light.

- Maybe it was used illegally?
- Was the amount spent too large?
- Could it have been used illegally?

After returning home, I quickly checked the usage status of my VISA card. Then

what is this...

I have received 11 charges for the same amount for the next month's October bill !

At that moment, a thought occurred to me:
＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿
( )
(Oh, I might have clicked the transaction when I bought the plane ticket.)
(＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿))
○
.
゜

I wonder if it's wet

Maybe this, definitely this.
So I contacted customer support via email. The time difference with Japan is 13 hours. I would like a quick reply, but this is the time when all the good girls in Japan are sleeping. It's no good anymore.

I was tired after work that day, so I went to bed early because I had done what I had to do.

Replies from customer support and battles with airlines

The next day, around evening Japan time, I received a reply from customer support.

``Since there was sudden use overseas, it was automatically detected as suspected unauthorized use, so web usage has been temporarily suspended.''

The reply.

<What?

Well, prices are higher than in Japan and people use it a little more than usual, but that's not true.

I had no choice but to reply to the email (gentlemanly) and think about calling when I was able to get up early.
I decided to contact the airline to ask them to cancel the duplicate charges for 10 of the 11 transactions.

to be watching Twitter (currently

Author: ``There are 11 seat charges of $22.60 for this period that have been charged in duplicate, so please cancel 10.''
Airline: ``I checked, but I don't know.What I'm being charged for is the flight ticket.'' It's only $276, including the seat fee. Ask your bank."

By the way,
I ended up running 11 times because of the infinite loading and error when I reserved that seat (#･∀･)

I suppressed my feelings and emailed again to see if it was possible to cancel the charge with the credit card company.

At that time, I received a DM from an airline's customer support account on Twitter (currently known as X). It was the day before the trip.

fight against fraud

When I arrived at my host mother's house on the day of my trip, I felt incredibly happy to be back in business for the first time in about 10 years.

▼ Host family dog🐶

On the second day of my stay, I had the credit card issue stuck in the back of my mind, but while I was taking a walk with 🐶 and resuming work with my host mother, emailing was put on the back burner
. I received a DM from a customer support account (and it was 3am. At first I thought it was due to the time difference).

Airline Twitter: ``What did you do?'
' Author: ``I've been charged multiple times, so please cancel.''
Airline Twitter: ``I checked, but you can only get a refund after 90 days. If you come to the head office (Alberta), I'll give you a refund.''
Author: ``Huh? 90
to wait for another day? Also, I can't go to Alberta.'' Airline Twitter: ``Well, I guess that's not possible. I'll call you, so please answer.''
(Oniden from the airline)
Author: ``No, no, it's 3am here. It's impossible.'
' ( Ignored by the airline.

The debate continued like this.

At this time, I believed that I was really communicating with the official account's customer support, but after that I was told by Oniden, ``Get me a cash transfer app. If you process the transfer to my Kenyan bank account, I'll pay you back in Japanese yen.''
``No, this is strange...'' I realized that I had been fruitlessly communicating with a fraudulent account at 3 a.m. I was able to stop the communication at that point, and as a result, I was able to get away without any harm.

People often say, ``A drowning person grasps at a straw.''

And to the end

The fun times passed quickly, and after returning home to Toronto,
at one point I even thought of running to the Japanese Embassy in Toronto, but I continued to receive kind emails from my credit card company, reassuring me, and it was difficult to contact them by phone. However, thanks to their conscientious response, they managed to lift the restrictions on web usage.
After that, he was able to register the card at the Apple Store, and his delayed Apple Music and iCloud storage capacity was restored. Perhaps it's the fate of living in a digital world, but it was enough for me to feel the weight of the fluent banknotes.

Thanks to everyone at the Toronto office, I was able to live my life without incident during my three-month stay, and was able to return home safely. I would like to express my gratitude to all my colleagues.

After returning to Japan, the 2,500 yen that had been billed for October as a fictitious bill for 1+10 installments was dishonored about two months later and disappeared without incident.

lesson

I thought I would bring some more cash.