Skimmed again

[Allen in MT]

Got a call from the bank today that our debit card was being used in AZ. It had reached its limit at Kohls in short order. Our limit is 500.00 a day. My wife was in AZ about 10 days ago and had used it at Target and Walmart in Mesa. Both of the unauthorized charges were at Kohls in Oro AZ where ever that is. Good thing is that we are covered so will get it back. This is the 2nd time in 2 years. Last time it was a regular credit card to the tune of about 1700.00.
It sure would be nice if a pin number had to be used at all times or a zip code.

[Mrs. CountryGuy]

I have seen a few stores that do require zip codes as part of the purchase process.

Last skim, as you call it, for us, was this past December, they nailed us when I purchased a $21.50 book at the gift shop in Big Bend National Park. $2,200.00 plus later - -

Nope, we were not liable. Yep, it was a big hassle as we were no place long enough for them to send us new cards, so we had to do without it for well over 2 weeks.

Life is good - - eh??

[Montana Sky]

The crooked get richer and the average person just works that much harder to get it back.

[DQDick]

They've been hitting merchants in Mesa and Apache Junction hard. Several grocery stores and some other businesses have had large numbers of customers card info stolen in the last couple of months.

[Bill-N-Donna]

Had ours skimmed once with a call from Saudi Arabia to New York. Don’t have a clue how that came about. It wasn’t a pleasant experience at all. Had to file a police report to get credit back and no one wanted to file it because I lived in one state and my bank was in another. We finally got it worked out. Good luck!

[MIMF]

I think the thing is, that when a merchant gets hit like this from the crooks, the price of everything in the store goes up because, they have to make up for the lose somehow. So, in the end, you and me.....us honest people still pay for it in the end.

[1retired06]

Has happened to us twice! But both times, the credit card notified us based on unusual purchases. Have been asked to let them know in general what states we will be in, over a 2-3 month period and we do that by email.

[Art-n-Marge]

For everything good thing we try, the crooks come up with a bad thing. So much brain resources used for non-productive reasons. That sucks big time, but I don't think we're ever gonna get over it. Then you finding these crooks takes time and more resources, then they go to try, get locked up, then release quickly for overcrowding. Now they are convicted citizens and can only seem to resort to crime again as their manner of life.

I read that when you give stores your zip code you are giving them permission to send your name for their (and whomever else they sell your approval) junkmail.

I'm glad you were able to get your money back!

There are already some safeguards for credit card theft. Check the signature in the back against a proper ID card 100% of the time. It frosts me when vendors DO NOT do this!!! Crooks will know who checks thoroughly and who doesn't. They just want to make a sale! Many retail stores are guilty of this especially with their own cards.

[Allen in MT]

My wife will get a new debit card in about 7 business days. We had the credit charge amount dropped to $1.00 or less. If we need to make a credit charge we can call the bank and have them raise the limit for this charge and then lower it back down. All future transactions are debit and will require a pin number. If we use our debit card in a store and the merchant tries to run it as a credit it will be denied.

Thieves can capture credit card number thru the air from a parking lot, a skimming device in a card machine or by walking by you close to your wallet. They can not get ahold of your pin number. A lot more service stations are requiring zip codes for approvel and this also helps us out

[FLtravelers]

quote:Originally posted by Mrs. CountryGuy

Yep, it was a big hassle as we were no place long enough for them to send us new cards, so we had to do without it for well over 2 weeks.

Last time that happened to us, the credit card company overnighted new cards at no charge.

[jgavin]

In a lot of cases it isn't the merchant staff that is at fault. And yes, it is possible that the waiter or other person handling your CC has a skimmer, but that doesn't happen often. So you ask who is? I've worked on several of these cases and the short answer is the IT staff or person that did their IT/Wireless setup.

An insecure WiFi setup is the culprit!

Theives set outside in the parking lot with a laptop and antenna, and a wifi receiver listening to all the data traffic. Since the business doesn't have a secure WiFi connection, the theives captures ALL of the credit card information that is transmitted within the store! Generally speaking, there is 1 computer connection that connects to the CC company and all of the other cash registers or CC readers transmit the CC info to that machine which is acting as a data concentrator.

Once the data is in the air, most everything that is on the CC is digitally sent including your PIN. Overall bad juju!

As to scanning your CC in your wallet. Yes it can be done, but it needs to be a bit closer than driving by.

A good defense for this is an aluminum CC holder, the reading RFID on the card is greatly diminished, I won't say impossible, but it is way down in signal strength.

My Trusted Traveler card has a shielded card protector from the CBP just for that purpose.

Food for thought.

Joe