 TITLE: How Do Credit Card Companies Investigate Fraud? CONTENT: The Two Types of Credit Card Fraud\n----------------------------------\nCredit card fraud is when someone uses your credit card or account information to make purchases without your permission. It generally gets broken into two categories.\n*   **In-person fraud**, or card-present fraud, is when someone steals your card, creates a counterfeit card with your account information or otherwise uses your account information for an unauthorized transaction while they're at a merchant.\n*   **Remote fraud**, or card-not-present fraud, is any other situation when someone fraudulently uses your credit card account to make a purchase, such as shopping online.\nOnce you report an unauthorized transaction, the credit card company may work with you to confirm it's a case of credit card fraud rather than a simple mistake. For example, a merchant overcharging for a purchase you made or failing to deliver a product is not necessarily credit card fraud. You may be able to initiate a chargeback and get refunded—but you wouldn't go through your card issuer's fraud channels to do so.\nIf you are a victim of credit card fraud, the federal Fair Credit Billing Act (FCBA) limits your liability to no more than $50 for unauthorized charges. However, American Express, Discover, Mastercard and Visa go one step further and bring that liability down to $0 on consumer credit cards. END