Don't sign your credit card slips blindly!

Next time when a waiter at your favorite restaurant or a person at your nearest petrol pump hands over a credit card authorization slip to you, make sure you read it carefully before you sign and give it back. You might be being cheated and you may not ever know unless you are in habit of reading your credit card statements carefully.

Couple of months back, on my way to fast-drive journey to Bombay, I stopped at the HP petrol pump operated by Sai Services to feed my baby Palio (what a car it is!). I asked the guy to put petrol worth Rs 500. He did that, took my credit card, swiped and came back. As usual I was about to sign the authorization slip without even looking at the amount, but suddenly I realized; the slip was showing amount of Rs 1000. When I asked, the guy was like "Oops! Sorry Sir. The other customer filled petrol worth Rs 1000, so I mistakenly swiped for Rs 1000". I smiled and he happily gave me back Rs 500 cash (I was happy too. I got the cash and kept the reward points too :-))

One week later, at the same petrol pump, the same incident happened again. This time I became suspicious and in strong words reprimanded the guy that this seems like a fraudulent practice and probably he is cheating customers who are not watchful enough to check their receipts.

Yesterday, it happened with me again, though at a different petrol pump (HP pump near the Agriculture College, Shivajinagar). This time I decided to report the matter to the manager. I can't believe that the same incident can happen three times in two months and every time it was just a mistake. I am sure there something fishy about this.

So guys be careful when you sign your slip next time. May be you are the chosen victim this time. Also subscribe for mobile alerts for credit card transactions and read your credit card statements regularly. Well, I too need to start reading my statements henceforth.