Lee Jen Grondahl - Preventing credit card fraud: a complete guide for everyone from merchants to consumers

Preventing Credit Card Fraud

ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD

Lanham Boulder New York London

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Lee, Jen Grondahl, author. | Scott, Gini Graham, author.

Title: Preventing credit card fraud : a complete guide for everyone from merchants to consumers / Jen Grondahl Lee and Gini Graham Scott.

Description: Lanham : Rowman & Littlefield, [2016] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016039952 (print) | LCCN 2016053755 (ebook) | ISBN 9781442267992 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781442268005 (Electronic)

Subjects: LCSH: Credit Security measures. | Credit card fraudPrevention.

Classification: : LCC HG3755.7 .L44 2016 (print) | LCC HG3755.7 (ebook) | DDC 364.4dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016039952

TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Printed in the United States of America

Jen GrondahlLee is a successful bankruptcy attorney who has her own practice, Jen Lee Law, in San Ramon, California. She also assists clients with debt and credit card issues. Her practice is dedicated to helping small businesses and individuals figure out how to deal with debt issues and develop long-term plans for financial stability.

Jen helps her clients get back on track by exploring their financial problems and coming up with multiple solutions to get out of debt and restore their credit. Her knowledge about finances, business operations, and budgeting has helped many clients get the fresh start they needed to resolve their financial problems and become successful again. Jen is a member of the National Association of Bankruptcy Attorneys, the American Bankruptcy Institute, and local county bar associations. She speaks to various professional organizations on a regular basis.

Prior to law school, Jen worked in the insurance and financial planning industry and held various security licenses from the National Association of Securities Dealers, now known as FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority) and insurance licenses (California Life & Health), along with several industry designations (Chartered Life Underwriter; Fellow, Life Management Institute; Associate, Customer Service; Associate, Insurance Regulatory Compliance; Associate, Reinsurance Administration).

In addition to her JD degree from University of Richmond, T.C. Williams School of Law, Jen has an MBA in global management and a BS in business management.

Gini Graham Scott had her own experience of being defrauded by two clients and published an article on the subject in the Huffington Post, Protect Yourself against Credit Card Fraud by Clients and Customers, which is featured in the foreword.

Scott is a nationally known writer, consultant, speaker, and seminar leader, specializing in business and work relationships, professional and personal development, social trends, popular culture, lifestyles, and criminal justice. She has published over fifty books with major publishers, has published forty books under her own publishing label, Changemakers Publishing, primarily on popular business and self-help topics, and has licensed several dozen books for foreign sales, including the UK, Russia, Korea, Spain, and Japan. As a HuffPost regular columnist, she comments on social trends, new technology, and everyday life at www.huffingtonpost.com/gini-graham-scott. She has previously written several books on criminal justice and fraud topics, including Scammed, The Truth about Lying, and Lies and Liars.

As a ghostwriter, she has written dozens of proposals, books, articles, blogs, and PR materials for clients. She has also been a cowriter on several books, including American Justice with Paul Brakke and At Deaths Door with Sebastian Sepulveda. As a marketing and promotion consultant, she has set up events attracting several hundred participants, many of these programs as an organizer and assistant organizer of six Meetup groups in the business, start-up, film, and social media communities in Los Angeles and San Francisco, with over ten thousand members. Most recently, she has written and developed a series on Make More Money with Your Book (http://www.makemoremoneywithyourbook.com), including four published books on creating workshops and seminars; conducting an online sales campaign; creating videos, podcasts, and audio books; and developing an ad, PR, and social media campaign.

In addition, she is a member of numerous business groups, including the Lafayette, Danville, and Concord Chambers of Commerce, and has recently participated in several fairs drawing thousands of participants, including Lafayettes biggest annual event, the Art and Wine Festival. Over the years, she has built up a personal database of over six thousand contacts in the business and film communities in L.A. and the Bay Area and does regular e-mails to these groups.

She is also a marketing associate with the Jones & OMalley Public Relations Company, and as such does regular blasts to targeted media for her own books and for clients using the Cision database.

She has received national media exposure for her books, including appearances on Good Morning America, Oprah, Montel Williams, and CNN. She has been the producer and host of a talk show series, Changemakers, featuring interviews on various types of change.

As a filmmaker, she has written and produced over fifty short videos, and is the writer and executive producer of three films in release or in postproduction, including Suicide Party #Save Dave, Driver, and At Deaths Door, based on the book of the same name.

A lot has been written about fraud perpetrated by fraudsters around the world. Some get your credit card information and put bogus charges on it. Others lure you into signing up for what appears to be a good deal or free trial of a product, subscription, or service that then turns out not to be free. Consumers keep falling for these traps because so many of the fraudsters are so compelling.

Another credit card scam that has not received much attention is where clients and customers obtain products and services by using a credit card and later claiming fraud to get their money back. This is particularly a problem for merchants, service providers, professionals, and freelancers who get their clients online.

Since the early days of Internet commerce, I have run two mostly online businesses, where I do not meet most clients. Typically, they pay by a credit card, debit card, or PayPal; occasionally they mail a check. Since 2000, the model has worked well for my Internet-based business, where I write and ghostwrite for clients all over the world and also help clients find publishers, agents, and film industry contacts by sending e-mails for them to contacts who might be interested in their projects.