Farking credit card thieves!!!!

Paid for a new alternator to be installed in my new Cherokee with my debit card. After a week, it turns out that my card was denied. This was to a mechanic I have known and respected for almost 20 years. DO NOT WANT TO PISS HIM OFF!! OK, wife gets in touch with the bank, turns out my card had been run in New York City for a bunch of charges. Drained my account. Ahh, I have not been in NYC for 30 years. OK, bank will correct everything. I use this card all the time, to purchase equipment, or even to just get gas, so doing without will be a major pain., but the question remains. How do these people get this info? I recharged my long distance dialing card earlier today, and commented why I had a new card number. She said they have this happen all the time. Have any of you had this happen? Is there any defense? I use my card all the time, what can we do?

Yeah, they got me again last week. Got me last year too. My bank is VERY on top of things and called immediately when someone tried to buy $50 worth of stuff at a Publix in Georgia. The fraud department lady said that it was likely the card info was stolen by a local merchant. I only use it at a couple of restaurants, auto parts stores and wally world, locally. What I have now done, is have 2 checking accounts (debit cards). One has my bills on it and the other is for local purchases. That way, if the local purchase account blows (again), it is easier than changing all the online autobill stuff.

I had my card number stolen at a NAPA in Conyers. No idea how the counter person did it, but I did find out what they bought, where, and tracked them down. Too bad the cops didn't care...

Yeah, they've gotten me 3 times in the last couple of years. Last time was the company credit card, and three of us were affected, on three different card numbers, all while traveling--in different states. I, too,asked about it, especially last time, and was told it's quite common.

Margie

slefain wrote: I had my card number stolen.. Too bad the cops didn't care...

I had that problem too. And the credit card companies won't give you any info either.

Two of the times my card was stolen, it was after they ran it with an imprinter multiple times, because the "number wasn't showing up". Well it showed up good enough for a desk clerk at a Miami motel and the girl at the Long Johns Silver to sell them.

Happened to my wife a few years ago, too - a cow-orker "borrowed" her debit card and went online shopping. My best one was when I got a call from Amex if I'd just bought some tires in Sri Lanka...

There isn't much you can do against someone stealing the card, but it's one of the reasons I'm mostly using credit cards, especially when travelling and for online shopping. That way, at least it's the issuer's problem and our next mortgage payment isn't in jeopardy like it was for a friend of ours who had her account cleared out and the funds weren't restored in time for the mortgage payment to clear.

That was a mess and a half, as you might guess.

I got a call from Chase one day asking me if I had made two small purchases, one was about $10 and the other was about $40. I said no, they immediately canceled my card and issued a new one. During the conversation, the guy said the two charges that alerted them were made from Russia through all kinds of interweb linkage. That means my info was probably stolen when the State of SC Dept of Revenue security system was compromised.

http://www.scmagazine.com/sc-tax-breach-began-when-employee-fell-for-spear-phish/article/269448/

When that happened, the SSN's could be used to identify all kinds of stuff including credit card numbers. I don't like those credit card imprinters for the reason spitfirebill mentioned and also because that happened to my dad. Someone swiped his CC number at a restaraunt then sold it, there were approximately $5k in 1-900-PORN numbers alone. I used to ask him if those really were bogus calls.

I've had it happen multiple times. The first time I only found out after my card was turned off, the other two times card services called me within a couple of hours of fraud occurring.

We have three cards, all debit cards. Currently using Chase Bank. They took immediate action, but will be a day or two to get everything cleared. No great inconvenience, it is just the invasion of my space that irks me so much. Yeah, me, the security guy, getting forked over by the great unknown. Arrgghh.

In the beginning of July my business card number was stolen. We found a $4800 fraudulent charge on the card when looking at the online statement the night of the 4th. Called and disputed it with the card company. They had a new card in my hands delivered to the shop Saturday morning.

Looked up the company that ran the card, but they were closed for the long weekend. Got hold of their accounting dept. It's a plastics company and somebody used my card to order 48 4x8' acrylic sheets to be shipped to Hawaii. That was only half the total charge. They were still working on the shipping logistics of the deal.

The woman thanked me for letting them know and canceled the whole thing.

The situation stunk, but it wasn't as bad as having my identity stolen in '05. That really sucked.

We also had a bunch of bogus checks hit our account last year, as much as 10K. Tried to cash checks at banks and check cashing stores. None of them were successful, but it was a wakeup call. There are some bad people out there. Oh, the checks were a perfect duplicate of our bank checks, except for the out of date address.

Any suggestions about a bank that is VERY proactive on these problems? Not very happy with the current situation.

A co-worker of mine had his replacement card compromised while it was still in the bank. He hadn't even picked the card up yet.

Banks really care about this. Why? Because they're responsible! That's why there's all sorts of data mining going on as well as monitoring of your usage patterns. Nobody is responsible for identity thefts, which is why you're on your own there. It really bugs me when people call credit card fraud "identity theft", it's a very, very different thing. I may have been known to chew out bank employees who have made that mistake.

Of course, the banks then turn around and take the money away from the business that took the bad charges. And people wonder why Flyin' Miata works so hard to verify credit cards.

I don't work in a bank, but I do prefer to use my credit card over debit in case something happens. There's a limit to how much damage can be done to my credit card, and none of the money goes out of my hands until it's been confirmed. Debit cards, that could get messy.

Personally, I have had no problem with debit cards. Corrections have always been made to my satisfaction.

cwh wrote: Any suggestions about a bank that is VERY proactive on these problems? Not very happy with the current situation.

As much as I hate to suggest them, Wells Fargo has never let a bogus charge through to my accounts. I've been hit 5 times on 2 accounts in the last year or so. Three of those were on my business checking, on cards in 3 different names. I promptly get a phone call and a new card issued.

Other than that, they suck.

Happened to me once, after eating at a restaurant and letting the waiter take the card away with him to run the charge. Last time I ever did that. I was impressed with how quickly the CC company caught it,there was only a single charge for about $25 but somehow they figured out it was out of the ordinary.

Wells Fargo hooked me up the one time my card was stolen. Happened during the great ps3 network hack of..whenever. Some jackhole got my car number about bought like 85$ worth of farmville credits. I had to say "PSN hack" and "Farmville" and they credited me back immediately. Apparently they knew what was going on.

That sucks, guys.

How does it happen?

http://consumerist.com/2008/04/30/fake-credit-card-reader-found-at-california-grocery-store-linked-to-thefts/

And the big link:

http://consumerist.com/2009/04/21/id-an-atm-skimmer/

I've been hit twice in the last year, first time was in Cleveland. We stayed at a crappy motel on our way out of town(there were two side-by-side, this one actually had lights in the parking lot, so we stopped there). The second time it was taking from an online vendor I've used numerous times - and while I was using my Linux box too.

Fortunately, it was just my credit card, and not tied to an account. I hate the damn things, but that's why I keep one around, just to order crap online.

cwh wrote: Any suggestions about a bank that is VERY proactive on these problems? Not very happy with the current situation.

VERY Proactive? Honestly not sure that there is one better than the next, but USAA seems to top the rankings in just about everything.

Here's the thing: We're using technology from the 60's and 70's. We're about the only "advanced" nation to still do so. Magstripe technology is so old and easy to steal, that Europe doesn't really even use it any more, they use something called a smart card. Heck, even MEXICO is going over to the smart-card tech. Unfortunately, for the US, the banks losses are not big enough yet to justify the cost to switch over.

One thing to remember: Fraud will never be zero with any bank. If it is, they are spending wayyy too much money on it.

If you can meet the membership requirements, USAA is brutal about stopping this. The missus got a call over 2 charges that were less than a dollar (apparently it a common tactic to test the waters) and within minutes the account was closed, a new one opened and a new card was expressed mailed and she had it in her hand the next day.

Years ago there was a legitimate mistaken charge on my account. One phone call the the customer service center gave me the merchants phone number and the relevant data to the charge with a promise of "if they don't reverse the charges, we'll sick the lawyers on them." That was the actual quote. Luckily is was an honest clerical error and reversed. So if you can get in with them, you will want for nothing security or customer service wise.

these type of problems are the main reason that I don't have, and can't envision ever having, a debt card ... I carry some stash cash, an emergency check, and my credit cards ... use the cards everywhere I can (the points add up) and pay it off every month ...

Chase has been great about catching charges that don't seem right ... plus I check my account pretty much every day

I got hit back in march. My bank didn't do anything until the 3rd of 4 fraudulent transactions and my overdraft was beyond maxed out. Thankfully they straitened it out.

But yeah, it berkeleying sucks.

We've got USAA cards. Seems like we get hit about every six months. Which is a PITA since we push a lot of bills through them for the points. Never have used a debit card, since I've never seen any advantages over a credit card. Seems the big disadvantage is that you are in the position of trying to get your money back from the bank, rather than vice versa.