I'm a victim of fraud!!!! Alert!

[PinkTiger]

I am a victim. I've been keeping close tabs on my checking account, which also has a check card, and last week I noticed a charge for $177.33 on my account -- I didn't recognize the vendor, and it really put me in a bind. A phone number on the vendor was an Oregon cell phone that was out of service. I called my bank and they put a fraud alert on my account, refunded the money, and canceled my check card immediately. I'm getting a new card in the mail.

In the meantime, I wonder -- how did this happen? I'm really very careful. It was a non-pin purchase, meaning someone got my card number somehow and made the purchase.

The only place I can think of on the date of the charge was, I was in Barnes and Noble and used my card for a purchase. I was with my daughter and not paying a lot of attention. Someone could have taken a cell phone photo of my card very easily and i would never have known.

Anyone else having similar problems? Or is it just me??

[Cleita]

1. No, but thanks for the heads up. I will be more careful from

now on. I too have purchased non-pin items on my card.

[benburch]

2. It could have been a number gleaned from a purchase long before.

Plus, several major leaks of credit card information have happened in the last couple of years.

Good thing you caught it!

[Random_Australian]

3. Computer fraud. Peoples ID's are on sale

all the time... not bieng a prick but mostly reported to be based Indonesia/SE Asia. That's what the news here says most of the time, anyway. Plus, cell phone pix... are they of good enough quality to read someone's number?

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

7. Depending on the cell phone... YES.

[MissMarple]

10. Hackers are gaining access to pin numbers as well as the card.

Asia was mentioned in the news reports. Sorry, I don't have a link. Google may help. It has been in the papers. Perhaps the card companies will begin to take notice. They haven't to date... well some will call you if a charge comes through that is out of character for your account. Good luck, all.

[napi21]

4. I guess it could have been at B&N but it also could be

a whole lot of other things too. I assume you've heard of all the different CR card information that has been "lost" on tapes shipped via aps and can't be found, or all the different banks whose information has been compromised over the last year! You really just have to monitor all your accounts all the time, and notify the bank or cr. cd. co. when you see something that's wrong.

[alcibiades_mystery]

5. Could have been a restaurant swipe

And it need not have been recent. They have a little swiper that copies the coded information in the black stripe, which they then feed in to produce a fake card. Then they sell the cards. Use it at a restaurant any time in the last six months or so? What area do you live in?

I use to be a credit card fraud investigator. Seen it a million times. You're just smart to keep an eye on the account. Keep an eye on all your accounts. And if any credit card companies send you convenience checks, cancel them. Oh, I should also say, even though I'm sure it doesn't apply, but this is quite frequent, if unpleasant. Might the purchase have come from...ahem...inside the house? You don't know how many times I've seen kids ripping off their folks, etc. Sure it's not the case here, but every parent wss surprised when we had junior dead to rights on a fraud.

[EFerrari]

8. All of that. I do ALL my shopping on line and am amazed

that I don't have daily problems.

More people must have my info than know the pledge of allegiance.

[PinkTiger]

20. No kids at home - my daughter is married and is more careful than I am.

But I have used it at restaurants, I'm sure, in the last few months -- just not a lot. That's why I think it was last weekend's B&N trip. I just haven't used the card much except at self-service gas stations and the ATM (and not much there, either).

The only other thing it could be, I think, is a company called epassporte. I have used this company to create a virtual card that I use for various things online. A week before the fraud happened, they alerted me that they were changing their security system around and needed me to verify that my card was mine. I didn't bother to verify it because I didn't plan to use it again. They wanted me to fax them my card, front and back, and give them another ID source. I'm not sure how it could have been them, but now I wonder if they were somehow compromised??

[democracyindanger]

6. Lots and lots of people

are having problems.

PIN Scandal "Worst Hack Ever;" Citibank Only The Start

The unfolding debit card scam that rocked Citibank this week is far from over, an analyst said Thursday as she called this first-time-ever mass theft of PINs "the worst consumer scam to date."
Wednesday, Citibank confirmed that an ongoing fraud had forced it to reissue debit cards and block PIN-based transactions for users in Canada, Russia, and the U.K.

But Citibank is only the tip of the iceberg, said Avivah Litan, a Gartner research vice president. The scam -- and scandal -- has hit national banks like Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Washington Mutual, as well as smaller banks, including ones in Oregon, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, all of which have re-issued debit cards in recent weeks.

...

http://techweb.com/wire/security/181502468

[Art_from_Ark]

9. Excuse my ignorance about the way these things work

As you know, I have been "out of circulation" for a while. What is a check card? Is it like a debit card? Or an ATM card?

[alcibiades_mystery]

12. It's a debit card

Some folks call em check cards, but it's the same thing. An ATM card that you can use at stores.

[laheina]

13. It's an ATM card with a credit card symbol on it.

You can use it anywhere that will take that credit card. So if your ATM card has a visa symbol on it, you can use it anywhere that takes Visa. Some people would call this type of card a "check card" or "Visa check card."

[catmother]

11. not recently. but about 20 years ago i got a call from citibank

telling me that i was over my limit. i said "can't be i only owe you about $150 bucks". they said "you haven't been to europe?" i said "no don't even have a passport". well it seems like someone got my card number -- had a good time in london -- even shopped at harrods -- then took a plane over the the netherlands.

they cancelled my card and issued a new one, but for months i was getting bills for charges all over europe. :eyes:

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

14. Had 3 Grand Stolen From My Card Within 24 Hours.

Same events took place afterwards (money refunded, new card sent) and my township PD got involved. It turned out me and several others were victims of the same establishment, a chinese buffet right down the road. Turns out the perpetrator scanned the card for my purchase but had a machine under the desk that when your card is slid through copies all the electronic data that a new clone card can be made from. The 3 grand worth of purchases on my card were all made in China and with big purchases quickly. After he copied a couple cards he fled back there and started using them. The buffet ended up being shut down by law enforcement and to this day (3 years later now?) it still hasn't been re-opened.

[iamthebandfanman]

15. depends

how old are your kid(s)?
sometimes kids get smart and order something from the internet with out parents knowing. not saying this is so, but consider it if they are old enough.

its aweful easy to purchase things over the internet, all you need is the name , card number, and the security code (three digit one) from the back and anyone could use your card at any online store

[pinniped]

16. A few months ago I got a call from a police investigator in another state.

Some repeat offender ID thief was attempting to use my info to apply for credit cards.

The detective read back all my info the dude had, including my SS number.

He advised me to check my credit report.

Luckily, I didn't see any unauthorized cards out. This jerk was caught with an application ready to go.

I have no idea who this clown was, though I got a name and saw his picture. I hope they threw the book at this jerk. ID theft can seriously mess people up.

I highly recommend cheking credit reports at least semi-annually. CA residents are entitled to 3 free reports a year, one from each of the 3 main agencies. I don't know what the deal is with other states.

https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

17. I lost my wallet a few weeks ago

It was a mini wallet with just my debit and credit cards, my drivers license and a little cash. It slipped out of my pocket somewhere. A family member was in the hospital and I was having a really frazzled day.

I called the card issuers right away. Then I started calling the credit reporting agencies - Equifax, Experian and Trans Union - to put a fraud alert on my accounts. The first company offered me a "product" that will alert me if anyone tries to use my information to open a new account or change existing accounts. I reluctantly agreed to a year's worth of monitoring. There's probably a free way to do this, but I know someone whose ID was stolen by professionals and the damage they did with her credit cards and bank accounts ($8,000 gone in 24 hrs) was flabbergasting. After they stole her purse they came to her house and broke into her mailbox, then tried to enter her home.

There hasn't been any problem so far. But I have found fraudulent charges on my statements in the past. There are a lot of thieves out there.

Here's some good advice on what to do if your info is stolen:

http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/scams/credit.htm

[Blue_Tires]

18. someone took a bunch of credit cards out in my name

but he/she was too stupid to realize my credit was shit anyway, so they were only able to charge $400 before i caught them

[badgerpup]

19. Can they get into your bank account...

...even if you don't have credit cards or a debit card and don't buy stuff online?
I still insist on paying my bills by check- via snail mail- and I take them to the post office and drop them off there so if there are check-washing gangs in the neighborhood mine aren't available.
:hide:

[Greyhound]

21. I'm sorry to tell you this, but your account information as well as

way more than you'd be comfortable with is being shipped overseas in order for the companies you deal with to save a few bucks, and that information is being harvested and sold to anyone that wants to buy it.
The info could have been garnered by a B&N employee or the credit processing company that your bank uses, or by the company that the credit card issuer uses, or by the company that your local utility company uses, or the company that your state revenue dept. uses, just about everyone that gets your card number will send it out of the country and what happens then is anybody's guess.
This is not to say that a company that does use domestic companies for these services is much more secure, but they are within the jurisdiction of our laws and therefore tend to be a little more careful. But hey, it's only $177 of your $ and you're nobody and they saved a bundle by laying off your neighbors to ship her job over there. BTW, there are also no enforceable reporting requirements imposed on these off-shore vendors so if their system is compromised you'll never know until the mysterious unpaid bills start showing up on your credit report.
The downside of computer technology.