One merchant was ringing up hundreds of dollars in merchandise when he was presented a credit card. While phoning the processing center to get an authorization code he was informed the card was stolen. He quickly called the police and informed them he had a shopper in his store about to use a stolen credit card. He offered to complete the transaction if they wanted to nab the guy outside the store. They said not to bother.
Crime does pay when dealing with credit cards.
They simply pass their losses on to us. Next time you see a finance charge on you bill, you can take pride in knowing you're helping crooks have a better standard of living.