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If a credit card transaction appears on your account, that you did not authorize, does it have to be fraud or could it be a glitch? For example, could the magnetic strip on someone else's card be corrupted somehow and going to the wrong account?

tlng05
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ctc231
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    "Accidental fraud" is a bit of an oxymoron. Typically, there is intent to defraud. Could there be a glitch in the credit card company's system that inaccurately records transactions? Sure, all systems have bugs. – schroeder Mar 07 '15 at 06:12
  • I agree that the phrasing of the question is an oxymoron. Is there a technical basis for your answer. Is it really possible and if so, any thoughts on how that could happen? – ctc231 Mar 08 '15 at 04:13

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Its is extremely unlikely for this to occur by accident.

If a magnetic stripe becomes corrupted then the checksum on it will let the machine know and not perform the transaction.

So this would require both the data to become corrupted and the internal checksum to be corrupted in such a manner that everything adds up.

Damian Nikodem
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    Also, usually there's other data on the card that would have to be corrupted - expiration data, CCV, name... It's vanishingly likely that would be randomly corrupted into your data. – Clockwork-Muse Mar 07 '15 at 15:30