Credit/Debit card #'s stolen again! **Rant**

I know many on this board have had similar experiences as I have seen your threads. This is not my first ball game either, on average my fam experiences a stolen credit/debit card # at least once a year. This time; however, just urks me more than other times as I got hit, then THE WIFE!!! !

Fricking kidding me!!! #$*@*$*@*# [Mad][Bang].

I typically check the accounts each day to ensure everything looks good. Been doing this for years, as again, this is not my first ballgame, been hit way too many times

Thursday 10-31-13: . I get to work and look at the accounts. Two charges I did not make $100+ total, I am not rich and count every penny so this caused other payments to get rejected and caused $100 worth of FEEs. I call my bank and inform them of this and they do the typical cancel the card, dispute the charges. Unfortunately this takes time to correct, 48-72 hours to credit the charges and fees. In the meantime, I have no credit/debit card and only the small amount of cash I had managed to pull out and place in my pocket. It has not been corrected in the account yet as of 11/03/13, no access to the money anyway until Monday.

Saturday 11-02-13: Already pissed about my credit/debit card getting stolen, I check accounts this morning as usually, drinking my coffee. I find the wife's credit/debit card # has been stolen as well. $200 worth of charges. I rush to transfer what is left out of her account to her savings to stop any further charges until she can get home from work to call her bank.

So now, neither one of us has an acting Credit/Debit Card, only the cash in our pockets for the weekend.

In pondering how and why, I came down to two places where this stolen shit could have come from. My wife RARELY uses her credit/debit card and the two places that we have in common are King Soopers and the Shell gas station.

I reported this to the Gas station manager and the King Soopers supervisor of the suspicious activity. The Gas Station manager said this is very common and there are a lot of employees who get access to the credit card numbers. It could be any of the minimum wage employees................. Nice, makes me feel confident. :(

Just had to get this off my chest.

Sorry to hear it, I have had it happen to me once before. Hopefully what goes around comes around and they get what's coming to them one day...

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Originally Posted by mackbamf

Sorry to hear it, I have had it happen to me once before. Hopefully what goes around comes around and they get what's coming to them one day...

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While that may occur, unfortunately for the OP, he probably will never know whether or not this jerk gets what he deserves. For sure feel for you man, had this kind of thing happen before. It really sucks

I've had this happen to me too. I can sympathize. While someone local may have gotten a hold of the numbers, there's probably a higher probability they were hacked out of some database somewhere.

Hope they get it sorted out soon.

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Originally Posted by osok-308

While that may occur, unfortunately for the OP, he probably will never know whether or not this jerk gets what he deserves. For sure feel for you man, had this kind of thing happen before. It really sucks

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You are so right. It is all about the amount stolen will depend on whether they get serious in finding the criminal. Most of the time it falls all the way downhill on to the business. I had my own business a while back in the late 90's and lost thousands of dollars on people buying my product with stolen credit card numbers. It is tough to own your own business.

The process goes like this;

1.) Card number stolen used to purchase products or services.
2.) Owner of stolen card reports, gets their money credited back, they are good now.
3.) Credit card processor/bank reverses the amount that was charged to the business and sends them the notice letter of what happens. They are good now.
4.) Business' are typically the ones taking the BIG hit for stolen card numbers as they are responsible to pursue or initiate criminal charges. Most of the time if there is no serious evidence and description of the person Law enforcement wont get involved and mark it off as a loss.

In one of my cases that I lost a lot of $$ back with my game store. I thought I had good evidence on the person. Called the police and wanted to press charges. Police looked into it but the thief was good, fake id, fake name printed on CC with stolen number and a fake address, other than the description there where no leads. Never recouped my money, credit card processor/bank didn't hesitate to get their money back from my account though.............

Why insurance and product has some nice product mark up.

Suck to hear this happening to others too. A few months ago my paypal account got hacked by someone in China and they got 1100 out of my account and all I got back was 400 since they did EFT's instead of CC transactions. My bank said it was up to PP to get the money back and all they could get back before the funds were transferred from the Chinese account was 400. Anytime I go to get gas I check the card swipe area to make sure it is intact to make sure there's no supplemental device attached to read and store CC info.

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Originally Posted by ray1970

I've had this happen to me too. I can sympathize. While someone local may have gotten a gold of the numbers, there's probably a higher probability they were hacked out of some database somewhere.

Hope they get it sorted out soon.

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Just sucks, not like I or the wife are well off. Thanks man!

We will never know, the bank lady told me it goes to the business's card processor on the return and how they pursue. My bank says they hardly ever get any request for evidence or response.

I believe in Karma. It does work, just takes time to come around sometimes. [Beer]

Sucks to be sure.

There are many things one must do to keep secure, just a few quick bullets I like to point out when stuff like this comes up in conversation.

1. Keep only enough money in a checking account tied to a debit/ATM card for necessary coverage of payments and daily use needs. I use a savings account that I can easily transfer money back and forth on paydays and when bills come due.
2. Sign up for e-mail/text notifications any time there's $xx of activity on the account.
3. Do not use a debit/ATM card for anything but bank ATM cash withdrawals. Use a CC tied to the account, even if it must be a secured card based on your finances. PAY IT OFF each month with the money in your account and stick to the mindset that it IS a debit card - no exceptions. You have more protection and if you have to close/cancel a card it's much less painful.
4. Be cognizant of foreign ATM's and "skimmers" inserted into open access ATM's and gas pumps. Same goes for handing the card over to a cashier/waiter, etc. Pay cash if you can.

I truly believe that every time my AMEX has been compromised, it has been wait staff at a restaurant.

Stop using debit cards. Seriously, use real credit cards and pay them off every month. This will at least avoid the part with NSF fees and locking you out of your cash. I'll assume you still have checks gathering dust somewhere so you are not completely locked out of your account without plastic.

It is still bad and a PITA when a CC number gets forged but not as bad as a debit card.

(My CC was forged in MN last Sept. Couple weeks later I get a letter, company I had used last spring got hacked.)

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Originally Posted by merl

Stop using debit cards. Seriously, use real credit cards and pay them off every month. This will at least avoid the part with NSF fees and locking you out of your cash. I'll assume you still have checks gathering dust somewhere so you are not completely locked out of your account without plastic.

It is still bad and a PITA when a CC number gets forged but not as bad as a debit card.

(My CC was forged in MN last Sept. Couple weeks later I get a letter, company I had used last spring got hacked.)

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I dont have any credit cards. I am not rich and we put what money we have left into savings. After every payday all our bank accounts carry less than $50 in them after liabilities. I wouldnt doubt one of the businesses got hacked. I always look for odd things on the gas pumps before I use and never use with my PIN number as a debit.

It happens, happened before. Just frustrated it happen to the wife and I within 48 hours.

Had this happen where our CC # got hit twice in a 1 month period. The wife got inquisitive with the bank about why this might be happening, and they shared, but weren't supposed to, that there was an eatery in the area that they believed had malware on the registers that was doing this. They also stated there was an active investigation. We had an idea of a couple of places that we frequented at the time and we only paid cash there. Have since been back to those establishments and it hasn't happened again.

Cash for everything but the gas pumps!

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Originally Posted by BushMasterBoy

Cash for everything but the gas pumps!

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Only CASH for everything, unless on the road. Then CC @ pump
That's one of the reasons we do not have debit cards. However my CC was taken for $4k, which the co. covered.

There is a lot of good advice here about using cash or CC instead of debit, but sometimes it is just unavoidable. For example, my mortgage and loan payments come out of my checking account every month because I'm only allowed (by law) 5 withdrawals per month from my savings. Between those debts, my checking account has several thousand in it at certain times of the month... This terrifies me. I should use my debit card less.

I never use my debit card and no bills are automatically taken out of my account. Call me paranoid, but i don't trust anybody with my account or having access to my money.

I have never had it happen to me prior to moving to Colorado. In the past 5 years since I have been here it has happened to me and my wife 3 times! I have no idea if it is just bad luck or if Colorado is a hot bed for CC/identity theft?

/

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Originally Posted by colorider

I never use my debit card and no bills are automatically taken out of my account. Call me paranoid, but i don't trust anybody with my account or having access to my money.

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I am in the opposite boat. I only use a debit card and have several automatic debts from my account each month.

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Originally Posted by colorider

I never use my debit card and no bills are automatically taken out of my account. Call me paranoid, but i don't trust anybody with my account or having access to my money.

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Originally Posted by mtnrider

I have never had it happen to me prior to moving to Colorado. In the past 5 years since I have been here it has happened to me and my wife 3 times! I have no idea if it is just bad luck or if Colorado is a hot bed for CC/identity theft?

/

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You know I think it is. I get hit at least once a year.

I had a bank associate tell me in a previous hit that they test to see if it works with small purchases then attempt larger ones. Mostly online as to avoid being seen in person to be linked to the stolen number. You think they could easily trace to where the product was shipped to if they were serious about catching these fuckers.

I rarely ever carry cash, and only use my credit/debit cards as credit. I never have automated payments as I agree with Colorider, dont like others to have access to my accounts either. More areas that can be a compromised by hackers.

I am lucky that our banks have been really great when these things happen, always get covered, I am grateful for that at least.

This is why my wife and I have 3 checking accounts. 1 joint account where direct deposits go and we pay bills. Then a checking for me and 1 for her. All I do is transfer money from joint to mine when I need to spend money. If my debit card is stolen, I can live without it, but the joint account is never effected.

Also our credit system should be like Europe with the swipe and pin. In France, when we want to pay at a restaurant or something, the waiter brings over a machine and hands it to you. You put your card in, enter your pin to confirm charge and take card out. Give machine back to waiter. Waiter never touches your card, sees the numbers, etc. also no signatures.

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Originally Posted by Madeinhb

Also our credit system should be like Europe with the swipe and pin. In France, when we want to pay at a restaurant or something, the waiter brings over a machine and hands it to you. You put your card in, enter your pin to confirm charge and take card out. Give machine back to waiter. Waiter never touches your card, sees the numbers, etc. also no signatures.

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I think that would be a great idea and believe it was proposed in the US, but I think too many complained about the inconvenience of the extra steps.

We had over $6,500 charged up on an AmEx card two weeks ago in Montreal, ...a place I've never been.

The Authorities aren't concerned with our piddly identity theft problems, I've been there too and that's essentially what I was told, by one of the top dogs in the DPD Detective bunch. They "don't have the resources".

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Originally Posted by rondog

The Authorities aren't concerned with our piddly identity theft problems, I've been there too and that's essentially what I was told, by one of the top dogs in the DPD Detective bunch. They "don't have the resources".

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I'm sure they'll get right on it as soon as you vote yes on the mil levy. ;)

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Originally Posted by Skully

I think that would be a great idea and believe it was proposed in the US, but I think too many complained about the inconvenience of the extra steps.

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Not so sure it was inconvenience. It was more the cost to change everything. Personally I hate receipts. I wish they could do electronic receipts like Apple does.

I have yet to have my card info stolen, but I have had my card shut down multiple times by the bank. First time was because I tried to date a teller, she killed the card one weekend. Almost got stranded because of it.

Last time was with my business card. They shut it off because I kept making the same purchases I have made at the same locations I have made them for the last two damn years. What. The. Fuck. Pissed me off and I had to call my parts suppliers and apologize.

We've had similar things happen with one of our cards, and our Xbox account (you have no idea how much money can be charged on an Xbox account...). I haven't been on the Xbox in forever, but still use a card.

Now I would suggest getting a Walmart, or prepaid green dot card (we have both). You can refill them at Walmart, and most grocers. The key is to only put the ammount that you will immediately spend on the card, and not extra. It does make it kind of troublesome, but it keeps you from losing money. Even if they do get your card number, they can't do anything with it (as long as you don't drop a bunch of cash in the acciunt). Either way, with the extra account, you can feel safe in that they can't get to your actual bank account.

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Originally Posted by colorider

I never use my debit card and no bills are automatically taken out of my account. Call me paranoid, but i don't trust anybody with my account or having access to my money.

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I never allow ACH. Bill pay on my terms from my account.

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Originally Posted by Skully

You know I think it is. I get hit at least once a year.

I had a bank associate tell me in a previous hit that they test to see if it works with small purchases then attempt larger ones. Mostly online as to avoid being seen in person to be linked to the stolen number. You think they could easily trace to where the product was shipped to if they were serious about catching these fuckers.

I rarely ever carry cash, and only use my credit/debit cards as credit. I never have automated payments as I agree with Colorider, dont like others to have access to my accounts either. More areas that can be a compromised by hackers.

I am lucky that our banks have been really great when these things happen, always get covered, I am grateful for that at least.

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This is why AMEX security is generally better. Unless you're at a gas pump, AMEX rejects any pre-auth attempt as fraud. I often have to call or reply to an auto-mailer for online e-tailers that attempt pre-auth in their checkout process.

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Originally Posted by Madeinhb

This is why my wife and I have 3 checking accounts. 1 joint account where direct deposits go and we pay bills. Then a checking for me and 1 for her. All I do is transfer money from joint to mine when I need to spend money. If my debit card is stolen, I can live without it, but the joint account is never effected.

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That is a very good strategy and one I should have pointed out in my list. We don't have joint accounts but that's what works for us.

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Originally Posted by Madeinhb

Also our credit system should be like Europe with the swipe and pin. In France, when we want to pay at a restaurant or something, the waiter brings over a machine and hands it to you. You put your card in, enter your pin to confirm charge and take card out. Give machine back to waiter. Waiter never touches your card, sees the numbers, etc. also no signatures.

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That's funny considering my card got hit once for an online purchase made in France.

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Originally Posted by hatidua

We had over $6,500 charged up on an AmEx card two weeks ago in Montreal, ...a place I've never been.

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AMEX is great about handling fraud.

dang, I travel all over the country and never have the CC company call me about anything. about 5 years ago my visa had an issue where some california company used some type of computer program to pull credit card numbers. I caught the test charge of something like .27 and called visa right away, they cancelled and had me a new card by the time I got home from my trip.

I use my CC for everything, pay it off every month, never use my debit card, don't attach my checking to paypal or anything like that.

Cash cash cash

Wife and I are using the envelope system. Pain in the ass at times but it's working and I don't worry about CC numbers getting swiped.

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Originally Posted by fj605

Cash cash cash

Wife and I are using the envelope system. Pain in the ass at times but it's working and I don't worry about CC numbers getting swiped.

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Im with you on this. I like to carry cash and pay in cash as it takes the opportunity for fraud out of the equation.

cash also leaves you with the possibility of a lost or stolen wallet, being mugged (less likely with this group) and offers 0 protection should your cash be taken. a credit card requires a phone call and the charges disappear. protecting the number as best as you can works out great.

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Originally Posted by sniper7

cash also leaves you with the possibility of a lost or stolen wallet, being mugged (less likely with this group) and offers 0 protection should your cash be taken. a credit card requires a phone call and the charges disappear. protecting the number as best as you can works out great.

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Money clip in a front pocket leaves it out reach of pick pockets. It's no more vulnerable to the other ^^^^things than cc in a wallet in your pocket. I've never lost a wallet or keys in the last 20 years so not too concerned there. Had fraud on a debit and credit card? Yup and got screwed on one of them to the tune of $800. I'll stick to good ole fashioned cash. Saves you money also by avoiding fees ect.

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Originally Posted by Trout Hunter

Money clip in a front pocket leaves it out reach of pick pockets. It's no more vulnerable to the other ^^^^things than cc in a wallet in your pocket.

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How do you figure?

Lose wad full of cash it's gone, likely never to be seen again.

Lose credit card, you cancel ASAP, and any unauthorized charges can be reversed.