On my online statement, the fraudulent transaction is listed as a “signature purchase” in Lansing, Michigan. Is a signature purchase one where a customer is physically present with an actual card and signs for the charge, or can it also refer to an online transaction?
Is there any way for me personally to find out what kind of purchase this was? (they wouldn’t say.) It bothers me intensely that my debit card, which has never left my possession, was used in this way.
Is it normal for it to take a month before I can get my money back? This is an incredible hardship on me.
I’m almost certain it just means the card was run as a Visa (credit) which may or may not involve actually signing a receipt and does not necessarily mean the person or the card was even present, as opposed to being run as a PIN Purchase which would mean it was run as a Debit Card requiring the user and card to be present, and the user to enter the proper PIN.
I don’t know how relevant this is, but I have twice had fraudulent activity on credit cards. Although the charges were promptly refunded, I found it very frustrating trying to get any information whatsoever out of the “fraud department”. I wanted to know exactly what information the person making the charge knew about me - did they know my name, address, any other identifying information - since that might give me some idea if my identity had been completely compromised, or whether someone was just trying random numbers to see they worked. I got nowhere, and eventually just gave up.
We had something similar happen to one of our bank accounts. Because it was an electronic transaction, we didn’t need to file a police report. The bank goes and investigates it and puts the money back in our account within 10 business days (pretty much what Ruken said).
IIRC, things would be a bit more complex if it wasn’t an electronic transaction.
The bank has, up front, no more idea than you do about the kind of purchase. They get the information that you see on your statement.
Around here, the credit card company also has the right to ask for further information from the supplier, which they will do if you are disputing an item and demand more information. So I’ve heard my petrol station proprietor complaining about having to find CCTV pictures. But I’m not sure if they will even do that for you if they’ve already agreed that it wasn’t you and wasn’t your transaction.
And there may not be much more information available: there may not be CCTV, the supplier may not have inventory recording cash register etc.
It should be the first. I’ve been able to use my card to order things over the phone on occasion, and it doesn’t seem like a very secure process. (I could literally steal someone’s credit card and order things over the phone. I don’t need a password, and the security code is on the back of the card… unless I erase that.)
When you shop, you get two receipts. One for the store, one for the card. If you went to Walmart and spent $5 on soap and $10 on cereal, your store receipt will break this down, but your card receipt will just say that you spend $15. The bank will only have access to the less specific information.
As stated above, you get a provisional credit. But this raises questions…
Why have signatures for debit cards? But I understand in the US, debit cards are co-branded. You can use them like a credit card, and sometimes (no PIN pad machine or whatever) you won’t have the option to use a PIN.
I would suggest cancelling the card and asking/demanding/begging for an ATM-only card without cobranding. You can use a credit card for when you need to use an actual credit card. The first makes it harder to defraud your bank account directly, and for the second, the bank provides far more protection.
In researching this, I had the same idea. Because one thing that is suspicious about this is that the purchase was exactly $250, and I had $243 in my account – so it was just enough to kick in a courtesy payment resulting in an overdraft, rather than the purchase being declined. Could be a coincidence; but it’s awfully convenient that the person knew to make a purchase from somewhere bearing only a number, not a name, in the exact amount they could get away with. No more, no less. Looking back through my transaction history, I have no purchases at all that don’t at least have a vendor name.
Anyway, I have bought things from etsy once or twice. But in reading an article about it, it seems to be vendors who were ripped off, from the credit cards associated with their vendor accounts (to receive payments, send refunds etc.) And it wasn’t random criminals making bogus purchases, but rather etsy itself, citing “a billing error.” So my thing was not connected.
You want to know what I think, I think that sometimes large-scale things like that are rich SOBs screwing around with systems trying to generate a little cashflow when they know they’ll have it to pay back a short time later. You know, like maybe there’s an opportunity to make a killing on the stock market, but they need a few million right now.
Maybe etsy isn’t really large enough to make that worthwhile or even possible. But I am getting to the point where there is pretty much nothing that is so unethical, that I think some rich f***wad wouldn’t do it.
After having my credit card number used fraudulently once, I went into the credit card website and set up text alerts. Now I get a text message immediately (1) every time a charge over $50 is made, **and **(2) every time a charge is made and the card is not present (i.e., an online charge). If both of those conditions are present, then I get two text messages. So I can be sitting here at the computer and charge something online for $55, and my phone dings twice announcing two texts. I’m not sure how this would work with a debit card. My credit card number has been used fraudulently since I set up the alerts (sign of the times), but now I’M the one who calls Chase immediately and says, “A charge was just made but not by me.”
I also have an alert for when my CC balance reaches a threshold amount (in my case $,1,000). No more rude awakenings at the end of the month. :eek:
My credit union never followed up with an investigation when I had a fraudulent transaction. Law enforcement was never involved to even scare the person from doing it again. The charge was reversed and I was given a new account number. I have a feeling hundreds happen daily.
I second what ThelmaLou has done: get text and email alerts – for all accounts. Do this for your regular checking and savings, and double do it for your retirement accounts. Don’t put money in an account without doing this. I’ve twice been notified of attempted hacks on my retirement accounts and I’ve been texted once for fraudulent activities. I sometimes get false alarms because I’ve set parameters so that purchases over a certain amount - even ones i make - automatically trigger an alert.
If you’re smart, checking your accounts often and regularly changing your passwords to something that’s not easy to hack, then getting hacked online is probably going to be more challenging than getting CC/Debit info. Also, bear in mind, hackers and scam artists can get your info in a lot of places - anywhere you’ve ever shopped really.
My debit card (which had never left my possession) was used to withdraw cash at an ATM in a city where I’ve never been. The fraud specialist at my bank told me that criminals put devices on Point of Sale purchase systems at gas stations to steal your Credit card/Debit card number, password, etc. Then they create a new counterfeit card which allows them to withdrawal cash or use your card to buy things. Once they have the fake card, they can access your account and check the balance…then they spend just under or over that amount. It’s a total hassle and the only good news is that the bank absorbs the loss, not you.
That’s expected. The security department would not want to give out potentially sensitive information to untrained people who may try to do DIY police work or use it to work out proprietary details on the bank’s fraud detection systems. They are also unlikely to know how your card details were compromised in any specific case.
It’s also virtually impossible to create valid cards from randomly generated numbers. You won’t have the CVV1 value, which basically works the same as the CVV2 value on the back, except it’s encoded on the mag stripe. EMV payments (like chip cards) are something else entirely and don’t rely on the printed card number.
This hasn’t been my experience. My TD Bank Visa was frozen for suspicious account activity and they knew exactly what was purchased: an iPhone, which apparently seemed odd because not only was it purchased in another state I pay for service on an Android phone via credit card.
If it’s a bank card, you may have a specific time frame in which to report the suspected fraud. I know probably most people check their balances regularly, but if they’re confident that their balances are solid, they may go several weeks without checking their accounts. That’s why it’s good to sign up for alerts.
