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Most Credit Card Thieves Fail
By Paul Corcoran
LOS ANGELES — (UPI) — The boast of a fictive that he lived royally on stolen credit cards for four years, sounded a discordant note today in a computer era in which hard cash is almost a novelty.
But many major firms using credit cards for everything from golf balls to air plane travel claim the case of Peter J. Moskoviz is an increasingly rare exception to the general rule.
QUITE FREQUENTLY, one is worth more than that $100 bill for what it can buy on credit.
Instead, these companies claim the American consumer is a good student learning—sometimes the hard way—to protect the plastic credit card with the same tender care he would give a crisp $100 bill.
The case of Moskovicz, 32, came to light by accident. He checked into a hotel near International Airport using an alias, Dr. Robert Fisher, unaware that another alleged doctor occupied the same room before him. Police were drawn to him while investigating the earlier occupant.
Moskovicz, booked on a forgery charge, boasted he lived for the past four years on stolen credit cards, and occasional cash. "I'm wanted in almost every state in the union and at least four Canadian provinces," he said.
Police said Moskovicz, whose latest spree began in Toronto, Canada early this year, claimed he stole cards in various cities—such as Chicago, San Francisco, and New York They said he told them he ran up a few bills he paid with stolen credit cards, then stole another auto before leaving town.
FOR OBVIOUS REASONS, most firms don't like to go into detail on how they are coping with thieves who use pilfered credit cards like stolen money.
But they are working at the problem, and feel the general situation is improving because card-holders are more conscious of making quick reports once their tabs are stolen.
"The person who uses a stolen credit card is a con man, the same as a man who lives on forged checks," said a spokesman for Carte Blanche, of the Hilton Credit Corp. His firm uses computers set to alert employees when cards listed as stolen are used without authorization.
Carte Blanche, like BankAmericard, the system used by Bank of America, accepts responsibility for any use of cards after a theft is reported.
Wednesday, April 22, 1964 University Daily Kansan
THE BANK OF AMERICA representative declined to go into specifics, but claims generally good results in handling 1.3 million cards in California alone. Short duration—six months—on the life of the card, and a limit on the maximum purchase
A spokesman for one western oil company said the problem of stolen cards had decreased in the past five years, despite an increase in the number of persons using them.
requiring a check with a bank office were credited with aiding Bank of America in its program.
Another oil firm, Union Oil, now does substantially all its business in credit transactions, but had no greater proportion of abuses than in times when money was used more frequently.
The Moskovicz case, although regarded an exception, was not isolated.
Wireless Electronic Fiddle FCC Approved, Sends FM
LAST WEEK, for example, a juvenile judge ordered two 15-year-old Pittsburgh boys arrested here returned to Pennsylvania. The boys had taken a car and traveled 3,000 miles on a stolen gasoline credit card.
SAN FRANCISCO — (UPI)— Paul Revere may have broadcast from one plug, but Bert Hanson has the first bass fiddle with a radio station built into it.
AND THE SOUND is spectacular. A listener can catch the subtle tones behind the basic rhythm drives of a big band bass coming in with the full crew, instead of having to wait for a rare solo.
Moskovicz's asserted escapade was far more expansive. He used aliases, Fisher, Peter Martin, Peter Miller and Tobert Anderson. He ran up $1,000 in clothing store bills alone, and used the credit card of Dr. Robert Fisher of Portland, Ore., to buy $250 in various items at the hotel where he was arrested.
Hanson, a 37-year-old music teacher, accomplished jazz and classical musician, is giving his space age descendant of the standard finger-whanging bull box a trial run at Bimbo's huge, supermarket-sized night club here.
Not only that, it's licensed by the Federal Communications Commission.
"It can send for 200 yards with
The bass is a compact, electronically-tuned instrument of buterite plastic. It's equipped with a tiny, $371_{2}$ watt transmitter which plugs into the instrument behind the strings. The antenna is concealed inside the bass's neck.
the present power," the handsome bass player commented. "The sound is transmitted by transisters to an FM receiver, and then through an amplifier and speakers.
Preliminary investigation by police showed Moskovice was injured on charges of grand theft and forgery in Chicago, Sandusky, Ohio, New York, Las Vegas, Nev., Phoenix, San Francisco, Portland and Toronto.
the receiving rig, which would make any high fidelity fanatic's ears vibrate, can be placed most anywhere in line with the audience, leaving Hanson free to move around, un encumbered by the tangled cords and occasional distortion of conventional amplifying equipment.
"I EXPECT TO pick up taxi-cab calls any night, he said with a grin.
It's probably a good thing, too. He's playing in a show featuring specially arranged folk songs of Greece, Yugoslavia, Turkey and other Mediterranean steps — and a couple of those belly dancers certainly make a man's mind wander. He could trip and break a leg.
The bass is the brainchild of Everett Hull, president of the Ampeg Electronics Corp., Hanson said.
When taken into custody, he had possession of stolen credit cards from a department store and oil firm.
"THE CARDS WERE stacked against him from the start," a policeman commented wryly.
Police and representatives of most credit firms agreed a way of coping with abuses was care in handling the cards, as well as prompt notification when stolen or lost.
As one oil company executive explained it: "I lost one card last week, and I didn't waste a day in reporting it."
He was speaking from experience, and the knowledge that there are those who make a precarious business of living off the fat of the credit card empire.
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