No, they won't. I've had very recent experience with this. My purse and wallet were stolen last Sunday (5 days ago) and by the time I discovered they were gone, the thief (or thieves) had gone on a spending spree with my cards and charged several thousand dollars worth. Here's what I learned in hours of calls with the credit card companies:
First I had to report the cards as stolen and cancel them. This stopped new transactions being presented.
Next the cc company will send me a fraud report that I have to complete stating they were not my transactions. (I have not yet received these forms to complete). They said I would need to include the police report number in order for the transactions to be reversed.
Next the cc company does a "charge back" to the retailer. So the retailer is the ultimate victim here. In my case, most of the transactions were at Walmart.
I looked at my statement online to find out which Walmart, called and had a lengthy call with their Head of Security - a very competent woman, I am pleased to say. She was able to pull up some of the transactions and print them off while I was on the phone with her, based on the dollar amounts I provided her.
Next she plans to look at the videos from the registers where these transactions occurred, make a DVD and, when the police contact her (I already filed the police report), she will hand over the DVD.
She said the police will likely be in touch with me to review the video to see if it is anyone I recognize.
She feels confident the thief/thieves will be caught. I hope she is right but am not nearly as confident. On the other hand, this all occurred at 5am Sunday morning so if they got video footage of them carrying their new Sony Surround Sound system out to their car and the cameras are positioned in such a way as to catch the license plate, maybe.....
In the event they are caught, they will be prosecuted criminally AND Walmart plans to go after them civilly to recovery their damages (as I said, several thousand dollars worth of merchandise).
In my case pressing charges is a no-brainer. Your FIL is in a more delicate situation. I really don't know if someone other than the victim can press charges. In the case where the card is reported stolen, there are two victims - the cardholder and the retailer. However if your FIL doesn't report it stolen and pays the bills, in your case the retailer is not a victim. If you report the card as stolen, the retailer will become a victim and the retailer can then choose to press charges.
First I had to report the cards as stolen and cancel them. This stopped new transactions being presented.
Next the cc company will send me a fraud report that I have to complete stating they were not my transactions. (I have not yet received these forms to complete). They said I would need to include the police report number in order for the transactions to be reversed.
Next the cc company does a "charge back" to the retailer. So the retailer is the ultimate victim here. In my case, most of the transactions were at Walmart.
I looked at my statement online to find out which Walmart, called and had a lengthy call with their Head of Security - a very competent woman, I am pleased to say. She was able to pull up some of the transactions and print them off while I was on the phone with her, based on the dollar amounts I provided her.
Next she plans to look at the videos from the registers where these transactions occurred, make a DVD and, when the police contact her (I already filed the police report), she will hand over the DVD.
She said the police will likely be in touch with me to review the video to see if it is anyone I recognize.
She feels confident the thief/thieves will be caught. I hope she is right but am not nearly as confident. On the other hand, this all occurred at 5am Sunday morning so if they got video footage of them carrying their new Sony Surround Sound system out to their car and the cameras are positioned in such a way as to catch the license plate, maybe.....
In the event they are caught, they will be prosecuted criminally AND Walmart plans to go after them civilly to recovery their damages (as I said, several thousand dollars worth of merchandise).
In my case pressing charges is a no-brainer. Your FIL is in a more delicate situation. I really don't know if someone other than the victim can press charges. In the case where the card is reported stolen, there are two victims - the cardholder and the retailer. However if your FIL doesn't report it stolen and pays the bills, in your case the retailer is not a victim. If you report the card as stolen, the retailer will become a victim and the retailer can then choose to press charges.
