# How did they get my credit card? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 21, 2010, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-get-my-credit-card/557899 "2010-10-21T17:02:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-get-my-credit-card/557899/21 "2010-10-22T02:10:13Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > I pulled my credit report, and there is no unusual activity on it. No alerts, balances look fine. (In fact, I owe less on my house than I thought I did.) > > So how did they get my number? I’ve just noticed that the card expires at the end of this month. Is the most likely explanation that someone intercepted the new card before it got to me? Credit bureau report information generally lags real time processing (sometimes considerably). Going to your CC online portal and looking at your credit cards online list of your current transactions will give more timely and relevant info. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-get-my-credit-card/557899/22 "2010-10-22T02:57:49Z")
Yes. I wanted to check that there was no unusual activity prior to this one. ---
**Author:** ![GiantRat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@GiantRat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GiantRat)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-get-my-credit-card/557899/23 "2010-10-22T20:14:25Z")
Just as a follow-up to the comments regarding credit card generators, each card brand (Visa, MC, AmEx, etc) has a unique algorithmic formula to their card numbers (I won’t go into detail here, as I’m a security assessor for the PCI-DSS [Payment Card Industry - Data Security Standard). With minimal practice, you can quickly identify quite a bit about a card number. That’s why, for example, there’s that 3 or 4 digit CVV (verification number) printed on the back (unless it’s AmEx). It’s sort of a half-hearted, but moderately effective security augmentation. Perhaps once a year, I’ll be in a small gas station or shop where they’re still using the carbon paper approach (with that nifty plastic “chunk-chunk” sliding machine). It makes the security guy in me want to cry; sometimes I make a comment, since those are a no-no these days. Other times, I say “F it - I’m not responsible if there’s fraudulent activity.” You’d be amazed at some of the companies that practice shoddy credit card security… anyone remember TJX? There’s another one that most folks don’t know about, but they’re a former client of mine after multiple breaches (no encryption, no applied standards)… and it was a large company. Tsk, tsk. ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-get-my-credit-card/557899/24 "2010-10-22T20:42:54Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > Since nobody ever sees or handles this card except for me, does that mean that someone in the gas station’s corporate office might be stealing card numbers? At my local gas station, the manager once showed me the main computer in his office.It listed every transaction on every pump, with every credit card number. All in plain text, where any employee could copy it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-get-my-credit-card/557899.md?page=1)