Twas a dark, stormy and rainy evening...

[taeto]

Yesterday Friday at about 9 pm I return with train from a meeting. Exiting the station, notice a plastic card lying on the wet asphalt outside. It is a Visa debit card, the name of its owner too generic for precise ident. I can at least identify the bank, and I chug the card into the mailbox of the local branch, with a short note telling the story. That's it then, today's good deed accomplished, happiness will ensue. Bonus points for remaining anonymous, just in case some shadier character already managed to clear out the account using the chip function on the debit card, and subsequently discarded it on the ground as useless. Then I might begin to look like one of the possible suspects to a crime, what with standing there, the card held in my grubby little guilty looking hands. 

But actual guilt creeps in. If it was me, suppose I had lost my own card without noticing. The bank opens Monday morning, and would give a call saying, hey, we just got your card in with the mail, how about it? You must've just left it in a shop at some point during your weekend shopping spree. But we'll keep it for you until you are ready to come by and pick it up. Have a nice life.

So I am thinking, I should, just in case, have tried to warn the owner of the lost card: Before handing the card to the bank, engage with an ATM, slide it in, ask for 10 bucks and punch 0000 three times in a row as pincode. Do I have that right? The card gets blocked automatically and surely the owner gets a notice, checks her purse, and properly notifies the hotline that the card is actually missing. When it gets returned from the bank it should work the same as before.

Inb4, yes, there is a bank hotline where info of a lost card can be called in. I looked for it after I got home, without finding anything other than a robot voice, that clearly did not understand the concept of somebody calling in about a lost card of the found kind. 

Edited February 22, 2020 by taeto

[nevim]

I think you did the right thing in the first place. 

[Sensei]

I found several Visa cards in the last year. Some of them I leaved on the police station (they know smartphone numbers of everybody local), some returned to owner hands (three weeks ago the last time), and some leaved at place were I found (I tried calling owner but nobody was answering for half hour attempts). Stuff was in a such place only owner searching for it could find it. Rechecked place couple hours later, it was found.

 

Smart wallet thieves take the cash and everything else are throwing away. It disallows almost completely to identify them. If thief is going to ATM trying to withdraw cash, knowing or not knowing PIN, will be recorded by e.g. cameras on the street around, even if ATM has no built-in camera. Analyse of cell-stations who logged in and out will reveal thief phone number..

[taeto]

17 minutes ago, Sensei said:

Smart wallet thieves take the cash and everything else are throwing away. It disallows almost completely to identify them. If thief is going to ATM trying to withdraw cash, knowing or not knowing PIN, will be recorded by e.g. cameras on the street around, even if ATM has no built-in camera. Analyse of cell-stations who logged in and out will reveal thief phone number..

Debit cards found here are valuable in any case. You take it to a shop, pick up goods, and check out paying by it. Only in rare cases do you need to know the pin, and if the teller should ask for it, the thief can just claim that he forgot it, and then leave to try the next shop.

[StringJunky]

13 minutes ago, taeto said:

Debit cards found here are valuable in any case. You take it to a shop, pick up goods, and check out paying by it. Only in rare cases do you need to know the pin, and if the teller should ask for it, the thief can just claim that he forgot it, and then leave to try the next shop.

In the UK, you can contactlessly use your card 5 times in a row, then you have to enter your pin number. Any transaction over £30 must have a pin entered as well. If any internet transaction is over £30 my banks page will come up during the payment process and ask for a number that is sent to my phone.

Edited February 22, 2020 by StringJunky

[Sensei]

11 minutes ago, taeto said:

Debit cards found here are valuable in any case. You take it to a shop, pick up goods, and check out paying by it. Only in rare cases do you need to know the pin, and if the teller should ask for it, the thief can just claim that he forgot it, and then leave to try the next shop.

...and such person is immediately identified, arrested and waiting for trial, and sentenced...

Here are cameras on every corner and in almost every shop.. Bank will just exchange data with police where somebody attempted to withdraw cash or shopped. Police is going to shop and getting videos from cameras..

Edited February 22, 2020 by Sensei

[taeto]

51 minutes ago, Sensei said:

Here are cameras on every corner and in almost every shop.. Bank will just exchange data with police where somebody attempted to withdraw cash or shopped. Police is going to shop and getting videos from cameras..

Here we do not have cameras at check-out in ordinary shops. If you find a lost card on the sidewalk and use it to pay for purchases, you can do so freely, dispose of the card somehow and be free to go. In any case, if you worry about cameras, just wear a hoodie and sunglasses.   

[dimreepr]

23 hours ago, taeto said:

Yesterday Friday at about 9 pm I return with train from a meeting. Exiting the station, notice a plastic card lying on the wet asphalt outside. It is a Visa debit card, the name of its owner too generic for precise ident. I can at least identify the bank, and I chug the card into the mailbox of the local branch, with a short note telling the story. That's it then, today's good deed accomplished, happiness will ensue. Bonus points for remaining anonymous, just in case some shadier character already managed to clear out the account using the chip function on the debit card, and subsequently discarded it on the ground as useless. Then I might begin to look like one of the possible suspects to a crime, what with standing there, the card held in my grubby little guilty looking hands. 

But actual guilt creeps in. If it was me, suppose I had lost my own card without noticing. The bank opens Monday morning, and would give a call saying, hey, we just got your card in with the mail, how about it? You must've just left it in a shop at some point during your weekend shopping spree. But we'll keep it for you until you are ready to come by and pick it up. Have a nice life.

So I am thinking, I should, just in case, have tried to warn the owner of the lost card: Before handing the card to the bank, engage with an ATM, slide it in, ask for 10 bucks and punch 0000 three times in a row as pincode. Do I have that right? The card gets blocked automatically and surely the owner gets a notice, checks her purse, and properly notifies the hotline that the card is actually missing. When it gets returned from the bank it should work the same as before.

Inb4, yes, there is a bank hotline where info of a lost card can be called in. I looked for it after I got home, without finding anything other than a robot voice, that clearly did not understand the concept of somebody calling in about a lost card of the found kind. 

Don't feel guilty for an act of kindness, even if does go wrong (which you'll never know); if we all did that, it can't go wrong... 😊