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Old 02-12-2009, 12:12 PM   #1
Ozz
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Hey buddy, I'm using your credit card......

So, I get this letter from one of our credit card companies stating there has been some unusual transactions on our account.
About $500.00 worth of unauthorized charges, dating services, smut sites and two $1.00 charges to Paypal...what the heck would that be?
I talked to the fraud division of the card company, they will be issuing a new card number, and crediting our account, but how the heck does this happen?
Has this happened to any of you folks?
Bummer......
 
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Old 02-12-2009, 12:30 PM   #2
ols1932
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Ozz,
Happened to me in December 2007. A strange transaction of $1975 for a hotel in Singapore! Called the credit card company. They immediately closed my account and sent me a new card. They sent me some forms to fill out whereby I was verifying that I had never been to Singapore, had no intentions of going and by the way, on that day I was in a certain place that could be verified.

Credit card company removed the transaction and told me they would let me know when it was resolved. They never did and I haven't heard anything since. Don't care as long as the transaction was removed. Interesting thing though, they didn't let me know that this transaction had appeared. I only found it when I did my normal daily download of transactions.

Yes, I have wondered also just how this can happen.

Orv
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Old 02-12-2009, 12:35 PM   #3
racerjoe
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Both of our debit cards were hit. My wife for about $700 and mine was hit for $2000. The bank credited both accounts back but you are out your card until new ones are issued and a police report is done. Both ours were hit when BJ's "secure" web system was broken into. They spend it all at once so you don't even have a chance to stop it. We found out when my wife went to the atm to withdraw some cash and it showed a negative balance. It showed sales in Texas and Arizona at several stores.All of it was done within 24 hours.
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Old 02-12-2009, 01:19 PM   #4
HamRad
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Ozz,

Saw a television program on this issue a while back. The one dollar charges are to 'check' to make sure the number is a good one. If the transaction goes thru then the crook that is using the card knows he can start putting more on it. Often they will have many multiple transactions that are just under the 'reporting threshold'. This allows them to use the card for a longer period of time than if they tried a one time big ticket item.

Sorry to hear you got hit. I suspect we're going to see more and more of this.

There are companies that will track your cards for you and alert you to any suspicious transactions. We've had them call us while we're traveling and spending.... Thankfully all items have thus far been legitimate. But we know the system works.

Dennis
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Old 02-12-2009, 02:08 PM   #5
Wayne and Carolyn Mathews
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Ozz, my Visa card was hit in February of 2007. I'd used it at a TJ Maxx in Missoula before Christmas. Apparently the "master transaction computer" for that company and all the other companies under the same corporate unbrella were compromised by an insider.

Last month, the Montana newspapers reported that many Montanans are now learning (when their checks bounce) that their Visa debit card accounts were hacked in early December. I'm fairly computer literate, but I can't begin to figure out how someone does that. I do know that at school, in spite of all the blocks on web sites, filters, and everything else we have on our computers, nearly every month some little smarty-pants manages to skirt all of that and find porn site after porn site. Go figure.
Carolyn
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Old 02-12-2009, 02:46 PM   #6
richfaa
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We have credit cards but only use them if there should be a emergency.We do use our bank debit card but have a 500.00 tranaction lock on it. a transation over 500.00 will bounce the card and the bank will notify. We have to call the bank to authorize a transaction over 500.00. A hassle but necessary these days. Our credit reports are locked out and monitored.Hamrad is correct about the 1.00 charges. we also use a reporting system similar to Hamrad It cost money to do all this....but...... We have had alerts but no problems thus far.
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Old 02-12-2009, 03:08 PM   #7
jpbcny
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A friend of mine just last week, went to Pep Boys Auto Supply, and spent a couple of hundred dollars on his Visa, the next day the bank notified him of some "Suspicious Activity" on his card, three transactions totaling over thirteen thousand dollars! I log on DAILY to my bank WebSite, and monitor my transactions, only once have I found a BOGUS charge for the amount of 38 dollars, which was promptly removed after disputing it. Take a minute every time you're online, and check your transactions THOROUGHLY!.

JP
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Old 02-12-2009, 03:24 PM   #8
02pullin
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There's folks out there who'll try almost anything to rip folks off. My wife works for a credit union and she has to deal wife ID thief all the time. A good idea is to check your local police dept websites. You'll not only get information concerning local scams but information on how some of the scams work.
A couple of ideas to do is make sure your postal carrier is informed that if there's a change of address form submitted for you. That you will confirm it before he's to forward any mail. Scammers can call your bank and say that your card was lost and request replacement. The scammer will do a change of address on you and end up with the card.

Check the machine you use your cards in. There's skimmers the cons insert in the machine and when you use the machine it gets the information. They then go to any store selling gift cards and apply your information to the gift card.

Folks they're out there with nothing better to do...
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Old 02-12-2009, 03:39 PM   #9
Waynem
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We recently had a letter to contact our bank. Seems MC had a leak and they were concerned our CC's were compromised. We went to the bank, the canceled the card and we were issued new ones. Thanks MC! I checked our account statement daily on-line and did not notice any unusual activity.

My Son recently had United Airlines call him and ask if he recently had a $750 transaction to a "foreign" city for such and such name. He had not and they are crediting his account the $750. Now that is a dumb thief. When you show up at the airlines you have to show two proofs of identification, right!

Ladies and Gentlemen, I gave a few presentations on Identity Theft when working for NASA. Why me? Because I was an Information Security Specialist, and I worked in a closely related field in the military.

I don't want to go into a full course here, but ID Theft is a very easy thing to do. Credit card numbers are easily obtained. The number one culprit is the clerk who sells the transaction receipts to criminals so that the criminals can use the numbers. Then there is dipsty-dumpster diving (your trash can). Here is on that the Ladies are more prone to doing. They leave their wallet open on the counter when checking out of a department store. The ID Thief shoulder surfs and gets whatever information he can from you driver license or CC number, or anything else available. Then there is(was) a web site that you can(could) put a series of numbers into and it will tell you if it is a good algorithm for Master Card, Visa, AMEx, etc. Once you get a number that comes up as okay, you are ready to fraudulently acquire some goods. The only problem is, that number usually belongs to someone. In a law enforcement class (we worked closely with them) we not only put the numbers in but then traced the numbers to a gentleman in the Middle Eastern part of the US. Also on the web site were harvested CC numbers that were known to be good. What could be done? Nothing, the web site was "overseas," outside the jurisdiction of US Law Enforcement.

A lot of that has changed over the years, but there are now other ways. Example: A lot of CC have a chip and you just need to wave your CC over the reader and it picks up your information. Well, there are portable readers that theifs have in their pocket and when you wave your card, they also read your information. I smash any chips in any cards I have. The cards can still be swiped.

And on, and on, and on. It's a cruel world out there. Very cruel if you are the victim. I appreciate it every time a clerk asks to see my ID when I use my credit card.
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Old 02-13-2009, 12:51 AM   #10
Glenn and Lorraine
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Quote:
quote:Originally posted by jpbcny

I log on DAILY to my bank WebSite, and monitor my transactions, only once have I found a BOGUS charge for the amount of 38 dollars, which was promptly removed after disputing it. Take a minute every time you're online, and check your transactions THOROUGHLY!.

JP
I fully agree. Lorraine monitors all our credit cards on a daily basis and in 36+ years we have had very very few bogus charges.
If I use any CC and forget to give Lorraine the reciept in less than 24 hours she's asking about it.
I repeat jbcny's advice---Take a minute every time you're online, and check your transactions THOROUGHLY!
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Old 02-13-2009, 02:26 AM   #11
SlickWillie
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Google Heartland Payment Systems security breach.
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Old 02-13-2009, 02:39 AM   #12
exav8tr
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Check out www.lifelock.com.
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Old 02-13-2009, 03:51 AM   #13
Delaine and Lindy
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We have been hit twice, and both times we had no problem except we had to wait for new cards but we learned a long time ago you must have two different C/C and two different Banks. We don't use the debt cards no more that we have to. Debit cards goes instantly to your banking/checking account. C/C cards are easier to keep up with if you check your account daily and C/C cards takes no money out of your banking/checking account. We use C/C's when traveling on any purchase over 50 dollars. And if you travel as many miles as we have you just can't check your account everyday, but when you set at one place weeks or months at a time its easy to check on a daily basic. Delaine knows were I'm by just checking the Bank or credit account. I don't think you should ever use a debit card when at a Restaurant. The way our Debit cards work is its locked at $500.00 dollars daily but thats easy to defeat 5 minutes before midnite and 5 minutes after midnite. Just my opinion.. GBY.....
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Old 02-13-2009, 04:13 AM   #14
capn chris
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We, too, check our CC transactions regularly. A little surprised that Ozz got a letter? We get calls from our CC companies immediately if they suspect any funny business. Usually same day or w/in hours! Can't be too careful these days.
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Old 02-13-2009, 05:06 AM   #15
Ozz
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Chris, they said they couldn't get me on the phone, which was a, shall we say; LIE, as they had my cell phone number. They just didn't try. I got that covered now, I raised a little fuss over that.
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Old 02-13-2009, 07:13 AM   #16
richfaa
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Check out www.lifelock.com. Good idea..Might also want to do a google on lifelock just for the learning experence.
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Old 02-13-2009, 07:24 AM   #17
Ozzie
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You know when you pay at the pump for fuel? Ever notice that dish that's behind the fuel station? That's for wireless transmission to verify your credit card number. You can take all the precautions you have available, but your info still gets out there for those smart enough to grab it.
I've been burned too, had my fuel card shut down on me while I was on vacation.
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Old 02-13-2009, 07:43 AM   #18
bsmeaton
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Isn't it a sad day when a private enterprise like Lifelok gets to PROFIT by offering something the government should be doing as part of thier ENFORCEMENT responsibilities we pay them taxes for. Just think, if the government ran lifelok, it would be self enforcing like the IRS.

I just get real suspicious when I see some fool forcing another monthly charge on me to protect violations against the very method I would use to pay HIM (cc - online - etc). Someday we will see Todd looking out of the back of a Police car window after they found out he scammed 70 billion dollars in profit by actually generating ID theft cases to inspire his business.

Oh well, on to another conspiracy theory
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Old 02-13-2009, 08:51 AM   #19
richfaa
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You are correct Brad it is a sad comment on our society and our government that we must take these steps to protect ourselves. We are exeriencing a huge lesson on what lack of oversight can cause and apparently learned nothing... What tweeked my interest in lifelock is that the credit card companies and others just hate them because thy do provide some oversight and contol. We use "True credit" for security but are researching lifelock..On the surface it sounds better????????
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Old 02-13-2009, 09:02 AM   #20
capn chris
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Pardon me, but I'm a tad suspicious of Lifelock due to their advertizing. "This is my SSN." WRONG! Not since the 1930's has a SSN w/odd numbers in the middle 2 been used. Could be wrong, but years ago I researched this for a contest and found no one w/o even middle numbers issued. Advertized number w/55 in the middle is bogus, I believe. Just my opinion. Be careful out there.
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