My Debit Card # got compromised

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I got a call from my bank yesterday because they wanted to ask me about some recent transactions. The charges in question included an airline ticket in Sweden and a RR ticket in England. I’ve been in WI for the last several weeks and have no plans (that I’m aware of) for a trip overseas.

Luckily these charges were caught and I’m not out any money, but I am out of a debit card for about two weeks until I get a replacement. I’m just wondering how something like this could happen. I really doubt anyone could be lucky enough to guess my debit card number, exp date, name and adress. It makes me question the security of online purchases.

Any chance that this guy will get caught? He purchased an airline ticket last Friday and my bank said that the charges are getting sent right back to the airline company. Will they arrest him when he comes to pick up his ticket?

I’m not really expecting any perfect answers here, I just wanted to see if anyone else has experienced this.

2

Are you SURE that call was from the bank?

3

I second Musicat’s suspicion. Did the agent on the phone start by asking for some of the allegedly stolen information “for confirmation” or spoke of details your bank should already have (ex. address, account number, bank name) in generalities? If so, you were probably contacted by a phisher.

If the caller asked for your PIN there is a 100% chance it was not legitimate. No legitimate bank representative will ever ask for that.

It’s always a good idea to hang up and call back using a phone number you already have, not one the person on the phone gives you. If the person on the phone objects to such an arrangement you should be extremely suspicious.

4

It was completely legitimate. I didn’t answer the phone when they called and I called the number back. The lady on the phone knew where I had my bank account and asked me if I had made some purchases. She never asked me my account number, card number or PIN. I would have been very suspicious if she had. When I told her that I didn’t make any of the purchases, she told me to call my bank and arrange to get a new debit card since she had now disabled my current card. I’ve been monitering my bank account online very closely and everything seems fine. Anyway, I called my bank (I looked up the number myself, I didn’t use a number that she gave me over the phone) and my banker verified what I had been told. I’m glad it was caught, it just bothers me that it happened in the first place and I don’t know what to do different to keep it from happening again. I guess as long as these fraud protection people are on the ball I don’t have anything to worry about :dubious:

5

This happened to me in April but the bank didn’t contact me, I just happened to check out my online statement shortly after returning from a long weekend in FLA, when I noticed my card had been charged 300 bucks for a QVC purchase. I went to my bank immediately, where they fortunately/unfortunately have plenty of experience dealing with this - my account was credited back, my card was shut down and a new one was issued that day and in my hands two days later. I had to fill out some simple paperwork documenting that I made no such purchase.

Fraud investigators figured it was either the cleaning people at our hotel* that got the card info or someone at a store where we made a purchase, b/c they used the three digit security number or whatever its called on the back of the card when placing the order. The items (it was a set of books I think) were to be sent to a third party that apparently had absolutely no idea he was being used in this - the baddies would track the ups shipment and grab it when it was dropped off at the guy’s house.

No problems since then and I check my online statement once every couple days to make sure poop ain’t hittin the fan.

6

It could have been from an online purchase, but more than likely it was when the waiter took your credit card and walked away for a few minutes or when you left your purse in your desk at work and someone took the information while you were in the bathroom. If you are careful how you use your card online it is probably someone you have met, maybe even someone you spend time with every day. My friend got her credit card stolen from her purse while she was at work one day and that is the worst, knowing that you know the person who is stealing from you. Kudos to the thief for being stupid enough to make huge purchases you would definately remember making. And how were they going to pick up their tickets at the airport? Anytime I reserve tickets for something like that they ask for photo id and to see the card they were charged to…they would have had to print up a fake id and a fake credit card which cant be cheap. Might as well pay for the plane tickets themselves.

7

My CC was stolen a few months ago (May, I think), and I’m pretty sure mine was an online theft. The weird thing is, the purchases were all random shit, like a children’s book club, some samples of beauty products, entertainment coupon books for both DFW and Los Angeles, a tie-of-the-month club, etc. Stupid things. Most were for very little money, and the total was just a few hundred dollars. A good portion of the stuff arrived at our house. I sent back what I could, but when those stupid coupon books kept returning to me, I finally just kept them.

8

Yanno something?

I hate these thieving fuckers with a vengeance, I really do.

I’ve never been a victim and hope I never am but these bastrds really get my ire up.

Work for a living you idle twats, if you want something then earn the money to buy it

9

Few days ago I checked my online credit card balance to find out when I needed to make my next payment (I got a bit out of control 4 years ago, finally got it paid off at the beginning of the summer, and am now paying off my vacation to Florida and a trip to A-Kon in Dallas over the summer so I can buy a new digital camera for myself for Christmas). :cool:

Anyhow, I noticed that I had made $1000 worth of iTunes purchases, in incriments of between $20 and $50. Wait a tic! I didn’t purchase from iTunes! In fact, I rather dislike Apple products (not nearly as much as I dislike their marketing though) and in any case wouldn’t be able to justify (even with myself) $50 worth of MP3s, much less $1000 worth. :dubious:

So I call the fraud people, they cancel my account and send me a new card, and tell me they’ll credit the charges back to me. What really gets me? This was done with my old credit card number, which I cancelled two months ago. My family suspects it was probably some lowlife working for the credit card company who pocketed the account info instead of cancelling it. Scum. :mad:

I’m a fairly nonviolent person by nature, but this left me two steps from breaking loose my Jewcano rage (all the combined contained rage of all the opressed Jewish people, plus a large volcano, unleashed in one kamehameha wave of angryness). The only thing that kept me calm was a lack of a legitimate target for my rage, and then I spent about half an hour dealing with a minor case of the post-adrenaline shakes. Seriously, I wanted to find who had done this to me, and test out a baseball bat on them a few times. Yaknow, feel the satisfying feedback when a well-swung Lewisville Slugger solidly contacts a ribcage. :mad:

Let’s just hope THIS number gets cancelled correctly. :rolleyes:

Honestly, haven’t felt quite this violated since I had my wallet stolen from me at church. Whoever did it made off with $10 too. BIG money in a Catholic Church, you know. :rolleyes:

10

On a related note, the Identify Theft Prevention commercials with the voiceovers? The one with the big black guy singing “Unbreak My Heart” in the valley girl voice STILL cracks me up. :smiley:

11

One of the purchases made was $10 worth of perfume at an online shop. From what I understand, this is sort of a feeler site. The theives test out the number there to see if it works. If the purchase goes through, they know that it is a good number and then they go crazy with purchases.

There is a way to get around the ID thing with an airline ticket, but I don’t want to give anyone ideas :eek:

12

There are various further steps you can (and should, imho) take if ANY billing information has been compromised. Further identity theft may have taken place. Billing info hits most radars first because people usually keep tabs on their checking, savings, and credit card balances. But if someone’s compromised one thing, they might’ve gotten their grubby hands on more.

Consider filing a police report, and I’d talk to your financial institution about putting together a fraud affidavit, which requires a notary stamp. It may not be necessary but it is worth asking about. Especially you, Raguleader. Often a fraud affidavit is involved if activity occurs on a closed account/number, or if you and your financial institution decide the best way to handle the issue is to close an account and start a new one (stolen checkbook, etc). If you file a police report, they’ll want the fraud affidavit information, and the bank will want to know your police report number. Also, you may need to provide the affidavit and police report numbers to any businesses where the theif made a transaction using your account, to clear your name with them.

There’s lots of good suggestions in this vein, and an ID Theft affidavit form, available on the FTC’s ID Theft site:

It covers things such as putting a fraud alert on your credit profile, closing any unauthorized accounts set up with your identity, and involving law enforcement.

To clarify the difference between a fraud affidavit and the ID theft affidavit, if the only thing compromised is a single account, the fraud affidavit is between you and that bank. An ID theft affidavit will help you deal with similar issues on a larger scale, especially if your Social Security number is compromised.

In my case, a theif who had broken into my house found an old box of checks (old address, but my account number was the same) that I didn’t even know I’d had. 6 months after the breakins, old checks with forged signatures started hitting my account. I only had to deal with my bank and clear my name at any of the businesses where the stolen checks were used. A fraud affidavit was sufficient, and I didn’t need to take further steps.

Just don’t lull yourself into a false sense of security, and familiarize yourself with all of the ways that your personal information could be used without authorization, and monitor those avenues for a long enough time to ensure that you detect potential problems early.

13

Oh good, now you got me paranoid. A couple of months ago, my fiance and I were looking at big screen TV’s at Best Buy for our new house. In order to get a price quote, we had to sign up for a BestBuy card. They were having computer troubles, so the card application couldn’t go through. We were on the fence about whether or not to spend that much on a TV and decided that this was a sign. We took the card application back, told them that we were not interested in the TV and left. The next day, I got a call from one of the employees informing me that they weren’t supposed to give the application back to us since it was already in the computer. I don’t know why, but I ended up taking the application back and giving it to them.

A couple days later I got a letter in the mail that informed me that my spouse had taken out a line of credit at Best Buy. I thought it was kind of wierd since we aren’t yet married, but we did take out a line of credit together so it made sense that I got the letter. A couple days later, however, I got another letter. It was pretty much a copy of the first. I thought it was a duplicate, but what if there are two lines of credit that my “spouse( and by spouse I mean someone that I don’t know but somehow got ahold of my credit info)” now has taken out? I need to do a credit check and make sure that I know about all of the lines of credit that I have.

14

I have a habit of checking my online statement daily - and my credit card statement nearly as much. Sometimes I feel like I’m being paranoid, but I suppose it is better than not catching something like this.

15

The thieves often make a small purchase to verify that the stolen card will still work, prior to trying for something larger. They may also do it to prove it is a “good” card if they are selling/bartering the hot card. A few dollars worth of gas at a pay-at-the-pump station is a favorite. No clerk to ID them, or be told to hold the card.

I know this because I take long trips on a motorcycle, and it would not be unusual to make 2-3 fuel stops each for a few gallons. I have to carry at least two credit cards, and rotate them, or the CC companys place a hold on my account as these transactions raise a flag. If any dopers know of a way to inform the CCC that this behavior is normal for certain people, hundreds of LD riders would love to know how to get it through thier thick skull.

16

This happened to my brother earlier this year. He checked the balance of his checking account right before a weekend trip and discovered he had a negative $300 balance instead of the $1500 he was supposed to have. His bank, Suntrust, said that a computer system had been hacked – reports vary as to whether Suntrust or Visa was responsible for the security breach.

My brother had to go down to the bank on his lunch hour and file a ton of paperwork. Unfortunately Suntrust refused to return the funds to his account for 10 days, despite acknowledging that the charges were fraudulent. A few of my brother’s coworkers had Suntrust accounts that had been emptied as well. We suspect that my brother and his coworkers used their debit cards at the same store, and that the encryption system was somehow compromised.

There’s one part of the story that none of us can figure out: the Suntrust employee who helped my brother with his fraud claim said that someone had made an ATM withdrawal in Chicago using his card. My brother was in Florida, and the card was in his wallet when he filed the complaint. I don’t see how that could happen unless someone managed to make a physical duplicate of his debit card. Is that possible? :confused:

ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies has some good advice (love the name, BTW!) Monitor your account activity and keep an eye on your credit report. IIRC, there’s no fee if you have reason to believe you may be the victim of identity theft.