Check you bank accounts

[lasater]

We tried to use our debit cards 3 days ago and found them blocked. After downloading out statement, we found that both mine and the DW's debit card had been compromised.

I had a charge of $151 from somewhere outside the US and she had a $500 charge from Indiana. Since neither of us has left Arizona we managed to get the charges reversed.

We think our cards got compromised at "Q". I don't know if it was the Q Café, Chevron, or the Roadrunner Market. These are the only places where both of us used our cards.

So, now we are waiting on new cards. We have changed every password we can (bank, e-mail, Amazon, Costco, Cabelas, Sams Club, etc.)

We advise all the "Circle" participants to scrutinize their accounts very carefully.

[DonandBonnie]

We can access all of our bank and credit card accounts on the internet. I try to check my bank account daily and my credit card accounts two or three times a week. It was a bit of a hastle when I first started doing this, but now with repetition I can check them all in less than 5 minutes. I also have the important contact phone numbers programmed into my cell phone contact list. Haven't had a problem yet, but the regular checking gives me peace of mind.

[7.3Ford]

Most bank and credit credit cards you can setup email or text pages or both every time you credit card is used, or you can customize what you want to get paged on (or email). I get a text page every time the card is used online (where card isn't present), and gas stations.

[lasater]

Anytime our cards get used outside our normal areas, we get a phone call to verify the charge...but, we were at Q and the card company called our home phone instead of my cell. Gotta fix that.

[Allen in MT]

We have one CC that is used only for fuel, the other is used for power co. tele co, dish network, etc. and the other is our bank debit card. Our gas card was comprimised in a quick fashion to the tune of 3700.oo from CA, TX, & PA. We found it when we got home last year anf the CC Co took care of it.

[1retired06]

Our credit card with USAA has been compromised three times. In each case, we got a email and phonecall notification of suspected compromise. Credit card companies seem to be pretty good at spotting unusual purchases. Because of the kickback on every purchase, I have 18 different bills from house elecricty to auto insurance paid automatically on that card, which requires couple hours on the phone to set up with the new card. Worth it to have all bills paid automatically as we spend bulk of the year away from home. In each case, absolutely no hassle any unauthorized purchases. As indicated by others, we also use a different card for on-line/phone purchases, and check our accounts every few days. Sorry to hear about your experience.

[pappy65]

In 2011 we had two CC's that were comprimised. At the time I checked CC's online at least once a week. When I checked them, one of them had a charge for $2500 at a clothing store in Vegas. We've never been to Vegas. Called CC company and got card canceled. Next day another of our CC's had a charge of $1500 in Los Angeles. Canceled card. After conversations with both CC companies it was determined both charges were made with cards that had been reproduced on our account. I went through every scenerio I could to try and find the common point that someone could have captured both accounts and the only thing I could come up with would be somebody scanned my wallet in my pocket. These cards were different cc companies, different passwords,we do not get paper statements, etc. By the way the one in vegas showed up as a temporary charge and never went permanent. Talked with store in Vegas and they would not give me much info other than they must have challenged user. Both charges were written off by CC companies. I set up accounts to get text and email when any charge $100 or more occurs. Problem is, these usually do not arrive on my iphone for at least 24 hours. I know this, because so far all of these have been mine. Bottom line, don't think getting text or email, at least in my case, is immediate.
I might add, this P............sd me off about as much as anything I have had to deal with. I feel anyone caught doing any of this should go to jail just like if they held you up with a gun. Over $50 should be a felony.

[timandsusan]

We have had our CC compromised twice -- once while traveling in Oregon. The companies immediately cancelled the cards and sent replacements. The only solution is for retailers to question users--BUT--the could mean fewer sales and PO's customers. SO, we all pay for this by higher prices at retailers or the CC companies--that is why it is so easy to write off the debt. Nice scam for the scammers!

[7.3Ford]

My CC is threw Wells Fargo. I get the page within 10 seconds of the transaction. Some types of alerts (more than $800 in any one day) are sent to email over night.

All these are configurable via online banking.

[BB_TX]

We just recently had our Discover card compromised. Received a phone call from Discover within about an hour of two suspicious charges. DW told them the two charges were not legitimate and they cancel the charges. They sent us new cards Fedex.
I checked our account online and saw where the charges had been posted and immediately cancelled even before they called.

[Mrs. CountryGuy]

Been compromised?? Oh, yea, cannot count the times over the years.

Last time was just in December of 12 while we were in Big Bend National Park, I purchased a book in one of their visitor centers, and within 24 hours, the charges began. Well over $2,200.

Prior to that I was getting a frozen account each and every time I used that card, as we were not in our home state.

Yes, we called the company, spent considerable time trying to get them to note that we will be traveling for the next 10 months or so, so they would not freeze the card every time we used it.

Nothing worked to stop the legit use/frozen account incidents, till the real fraud happened.

LONG LONG ugly story, my Facebook friends heard all about it, pity my FB friends. SIGHHH

Oh, and good luck with them trying to text you or call you in Big Bend! They did manage to get thru while we were in the ghost town of Terlingua. Some irony there, eh??

[Art-n-Marge]

You know, there's a comedy movie coming out about identity theft, called Identity Theft. The fact this is happening has really angered me, not because, someone is expressing their freedom of speech, or that I was ever a victim of identity theft, but because this is an attempt that this is worth making a comedy movie. I wonder how many identity thefts will occur as people use their Credit cards to purchase tickets for this movie?!

This world really has a lot of crappy people, eh? Heartless, selfish, insensitive, stupid people who think they have a right to your stuff who feel better that they are stealing from others they don't have to see. And then when you catch them and lock them up, now you continue to pay for them as you support their prison time through your tax dollars.

[RickW]

quote:Originally posted by pappy65


I might add, this P............sd me off about as much as anything I have had to deal with. I feel anyone caught doing any of this should go to jail just like if they held you up with a gun. Over $50 should be a felony.

Don't hold your breath. Vendors/Merchants are half the problem. They are figuring in to their pricing the loses. That is cheaper for them to accept the loss vs tracking down the thief's and prosecuting. Last year my Health Savings Account Debit Card (only debit card we have) was compromised. $1200 gone before I figured it out. (Non-health related charges should have been a big clue!). The card was only used 1 time in the previous 12 months to pay a Dr. visit charge (payment processing center). So we knew where it was compromised. They used my card to pay their phone bills with Verizon & Sprint. So a real good clue of who they were due to phone numbers attached. This should have been a slam dunk!

HSA Bank required me to call both the companies where the fraudulent charges occurred as well as file a police report. In my community of 43k people we have one detective that all he does is investigate identity theft cases. Nothing else. He is also a friend of mine and was excited when I filed my report because I had already done as much legwork as I could for him. Both Verizon & Sprint had no interest in helping him identify the person who fraudulently used my HSA debit card number to pay their phone bills with. Verizon even told him that since they had already refunded my money they considered it closed and would not be of any more assistance with out a warrant. In the end the case was dropped due to lack of interest in Sprint & Verizon and the fact I had been refunded my money and too many other cases on his desk.

About 2 years ago we had a $50 Visa gift card stolen by the mail carrier. We purchase a lot of Visa Gift Cards for our business so our vendor was very helpful in providing when and where the card was used as well as the phone number used to activate the card. We filed both a police report and a report with the postal inspector. The Postal Inspector was excited because he had known for some time that this carrier was stealing but he had no evidence. The information we provided with the phone number of that was used to activate the gift card was the phone number for the carriers girl friend. He was also able to obtain video of him and her using the card at Walmart. The carrier was prosecuted and finally sentenced a few months ago (the postal inspector made sure we were mailed court documents all the way thru the process), all said and done he lost his job, paid restitution and was sentenced to probation. No jail time and according to the postal inspector our $50 gift card was only a fraction of what was stolen but we provided some of the best evidence.

With the HSA card I spent about 4~5 hours of my time to get it straightened out. On the $50 gift card we had about 8~10 man hours in to it after chasing down info, filing reports and working with the postal inspector. So it is easy to see why companies will just write the loss off instead of investing the man hours in to solving these crimes.

What I have learned from all this is that consumer protection laws are written to protect credit card purchases more than they are written to protect debit card purchases. While most companies & merchants treat both credit & debit purchases the same not all do. Some are learning that they have a better chance of not having to write the loss off with a debit purchase and will fight them. With a debit purchase the money is gone from your account until (maybe even if) they refund it. In addition you may incur fees if you start bouncing checks.

While we have had fraudulent activity on our other cards in the past these two were the most frustrating as we felt they were both cases where the guilty partys should have been identified and prosecuted easily. Since the issue with the HSA Bank card we cancelled our ATM/debit card (We only kept it for emergency access to bank funds anyways). We only keep enough cash in the checking account to pay the bills we have issued payment for. All other accessible cash is in another account at the bank that can be instantly transferred to the checking account when needed. No checks or ATM/debit cards are attached the account with the cash in it. Transfers of cash can be scheduled so the cash is just transferred the day before payment is made. We pay electronically as much as we can with the payment being originated from our bank account so that the payee does not have our bank account information. We make almost all purchases on our credit cards and pay the card balance in full each month. We keep a little cash for emergencies (jokingly refereed to as our "Bail Money") for those little emergencies that we can not fix with a credit card and happen outside of banking hours. We can also get a cash advance on a credit card in an emergency. We purposely have it set up without a PIN assigned. So in order to get a ATM to give a cash advance we would first have to call the card company and set then PIN. It would have to be a REAL emergency to take a cash advance on our credit cards. Yes this all takes some time but not as much as you would think. Spend less time a year with the extra transfers vs the time it seems to take to get a fraudulent charge straightened out.

[Flymutt]

quote:Originally posted by Art-n-Marge

You know, there's a comedy movie coming out about identity theft, called Identity Theft. The fact this is happening has really angered me, not because, someone is expressing their freedom of speech, or that I was ever a victim of identity theft, but because this is an attempt that this is worth making a comedy movie. I wonder how many identity thefts will occur as people use their Credit cards to purchase tickets for this movie?!

This world really has a lot of crappy people, eh? Heartless, selfish, insensitive, stupid people who think they have a right to your stuff who feel better that they are stealing from others they don't have to see. And then when you catch them and lock them up, now you continue to pay for them as you support their prison time through your tax dollars.

AMEN, Brother...Amen!

[swanny]

We get emails anytime our cards get a charge over a 100 bucks or outside our normal geographical range.

kevin

[Crossthread]

Brad, I bought fuel at the Chevron in Q. Did you pay at the pump,or go inside? Also do you know what the pump number that you used? Bill

[Carl n Susan]

Well we got the call today from the credit card company. Our card has been compromised too. The only use of it in Q was at the Chevron Gas Station. I used it four times at different pumps each time. I always look for a phoney reader on the pumps but never saw one. We also used the card in Parker at Safeway and Super Fuels. I know Dave and Kelly Anderson had their card compromised before we left Q. I don't know where they used theirs (and they rarely log on to the MOC) but it sure seems like there is an epidemic going on.

[Crossthread]

Brad, Thanks for the heads up on this.
Carl. I just got off the phone with my CC co. Everything looks good so far. I used pump # 3 &
I was there at 6:30 pm on the 24th. bill
.

[DQDick]

If you used your cards at Bashers (or one of their affiliates) last summer they had a lot of card numbers stolen and they are just now getting used. It's been on the news for the last several days.

[daily double]

I have heard that you should press the clear button on the keypad after you use your card. I don't know if it works or not but I always do it and haven't had any problems yet.(Knock on wood)