Credit-Debit Card ALERT!!

[IndyBeerman]

Be aware that Credit Card and Debit Card info-theft are now at a all time high due to the economy.

Today my wife was online and we noticed a charge to our debit card that we did not make, sure enough some how my debit card info was pilfered, thinking account # may have been gotten at a local tool store as that is the only place I have used my debit card other than at a atm or pay at the pump gas stations.

Any way here are some tips...

Check your Credit card and checking accounts as much as possible, if you notice any irregularities contact you lending institution ASAP to prevent further theft.

Cancel the card and get a new one issued.

Place a fraud alert immediatly for security purposed at one of these credit
reporting agency's:

https://www.alerts.equifax.com/AutoFraud_Online/jsp/fraudAlert.jsp
TransUnion Personal: Fraud Alert
https://www.experian.com/consumer/cac/InvalidateSession.do?code=SECURITYALERT

All you have to do is place it at one and it will be forwarded to the other 2 automatically.

Next, you are entitled to a free credit report each year by the 3 credit reporting agency's. Get that here:
https://www.annualcreditreport.com/

Do it at one every 4 months to cover yourself for the whole year.

Be aggressive and protect your credit as much as you would your family and yourself with your right to keep and bears arms!

 

[Scutter01]

Also be on the look out for inconsequential charges: 24 cents, one dollar, that sort of thing. Many times, they'll push through a tiny charge that a person might see and not bother disputing since it's so small, to verify that the account is good before hitting it big.

 

[Fenway]

Ahh yes.... The Office Space method of sorts.

Also be on the look out for inconsequential charges: 24 cents, one dollar, that sort of thing. Many times, they'll push through a tiny charge that a person might see and not bother disputing since it's so small, to verify that the account is good before hitting it big.

 

[Scutter01]

Ahh yes.... The Office Space method of sorts.

Don't knock it, it works. There are actually two scams like this. The first is to verify that a card is valid before hitting hit. The second is "grazing" (the Office Space method). We've actually been hit by both. Fortunately, we caught both and stopped them before it became something worse. The grazing method was apparently a high-profile job. They hit several million cards to the tune of 24 cents each. Quite a pile of change.

 

[Benny]

I do everything I can to use my debit card as little as possible. If I'm anywhere near my bank, I stop and get money out of the machine and pay cash.

I refuse to use my card at a fast food restaurant with skeevy little teenagers taking my card and also bars/restaurants in which I'm not on a first-name basis with my server...Unless I get drunk and run out of cash.

I have a really bad habit of not checking my bank statements, so I try to use alternative precautionary measures.

Luckily it has worked so far ***knocks on wood***

 

[IndyBeerman]

Also be on the look out for inconsequential charges: 24 cents, one dollar, that sort of thing. Many times, they'll push through a tiny charge that a person might see and not bother disputing since it's so small, to verify that the account is good before hitting it big.

Exactly! The charge to our account had a 800# attached to the memo, we called it, no way to talk to a person, only a web site to go to. On that web site you was supposed to enter your info to dispute. Uh-uh, that was not going to happen.

Bank told me that it's a 2 way attack, if it goes un-noticed they go for more money, if you enter in info like some people might do without thinking, they actually gain info and can open up fraudulent accounts as fast as they can.

 

[jeremy]

My bank is actually really great at catching this kind of crap. In the past 5 years the only time they failed to catch an illegal transaction was when I was moving around the mid east and europe every couple of days!

 

[spasmo]

Don't knock it, it works. There are actually two scams like this. The first is to verify that a card is valid before hitting hit. The second is "grazing" (the Office Space method). We've actually been hit by both. Fortunately, we caught both and stopped them before it became something worse. The grazing method was apparently a high-profile job. They hit several million cards to the tune of 24 cents each. Quite a pile of change.

And yet somehow Keybank's Fraud department appeared have no knowledge of this .24 scam that happened on November 21st to millions of people. AND THEN decided to charge me $5 for a new debit card .... sigh.. Not amused because it is not known how these villians got the card number. They could have been obtained from a db or they could have been generated. I'm not amused I have to pay for this! If it were Star Financial, I bet they would have caught it right away. They caught something for my mom right away. So right now, I am not happy with Keybank. Actually I believe this is 2 strikes against them in my eyes.

 

[jsgolfman]

My wife checks our account daily online and I am alerted when deposits/withdrawls occur. Also, I set a standard of $20 withdrawls on the debit card. All I have to do is put the card in, enter the number and it spits out $20, no more. Limit on withdrawls is $100/day unless I authorize more.

 

[singlestacksig]

there was a back page new story last week about the FBI investigating the hacking of a card processing company..
they had be hacked for some time and millions of transactions got copied...
the processer handles small retailers..

I will try to find the story link..
I just don't use a debit card for purchases...
if my credit card gets hacked, its not my money that gets stolen.. i still have funds in my checking to pay bills with while bank investgates bad charges...

and if any bank wants to charge you a fee for a replacement card after a bad charge, change banks...

 

[40calPUNISHER]

I was a victim not long ago. I had my debt card # stolen (online most likely) and over $100 in charges, most of which were $.02 to $1.00. They were just testing it to see if it worked. Then they started charging $20 to $40s. This all happened within a couple days. I am still waiting for the bank to return my money. I've got half back so far. It's a pain in the ass. I wish the person that took my card # would come to my house and try to take my actual card out of my wallet...

 

[colt45er]

All good info. Also check with your insurance company about adding Fraud/ID theft to your homeowners/Renters policies. Not all companies offer it but many do.

With Liberty Mutual it works out to like $24 a year for $15,000 worth of fraud protection and then like $5 a year for $10,000 worth of Credit Card reimbursement.

 

[Pami]

Hmm. I count myself lucky then.

We had an incident over the holidays with some fraudulent charges on our account. The only frustration I had with National City was that it happened during the holidays, and the people I talked to (twice) convinced me that maybe my husband was buying a Christmas present for me and was denying making the purchase to me in order to be sneaky about it. We had done so much Christmas shopping that week that I thought it was possible that he snuck it in on me. When the second charge went through a month later, I made HIM call the bank and tell them it really was fraudulent. They credited our account for both charges the next day, canceled his card and replaced it at our request (at no charge), and contacted the company who charged our account.

We just got the transaction verifications from the bank last week. These people were good, too. In one transaction they had our name and address right, but a completely wrong phone number. The second was similar, but off the top of my head I forget what the detail was that was wrong. Both had the items shipped to some out of state address.

For the record, Buy.com has the crappiest customer service ever. We never could figure out how to talk to someone there, and it took over two weeks for them to respond to an email request from Lars when he inquired about the first charge. We were rather relieved that the bank took over getting information from the company.

 

[indytechnerd]

Last summer we went camping for a weekend down at Spring Mill. On Sunday when we got home, there was a message on the machine from our bank (5/3rd). Apparently on Saturday night, some folks in Mesa, AZ used my wife's debit card on over $3900 worth of stuff in a little over an hour and a half before the fraud guys shut the card # down. It was tried 4x more. The fraud guys did an awesome job, the charges never made it off the 'pending' list, we paid no fees due to overdraft or card replacement. They replaced both my wife's card and mine. We were lucky because I used my card to get gas to come home on Sunday. We'd have been in trouble had they shut the whole account down. Best part was the fraud guy on the phone, "we wouldn't have noticed so quickly, except you hadn't spent more than $80 on your debit card in 7 months." That's why it's cash only for us, the only exception being gas. My wife is not cool with unloading the kids to go in and prepay.