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

[Skully]

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!!! #$*@*$*@*# .

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.

[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...

[osok-308]

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...

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

[ray1970]

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.

[Skully]

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

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.

[Dave]

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.

[Skully]

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.

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.

[brutal]

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.

[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.)

[Skully]

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.)

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.