I just noticed my bank acount was overdrawn by about $230. This came as a shock to me as I haven’t made any large purchases as of late. I looked at my statement further and saw 3 charges which I didn’t make. The most recent is a POS (point of sale) purchase which has not been posted yet. After that is a $60 purchase which isn’t marked at all. The description is completely blank. After that is a purchase for Mobileweb in Bruxelles. That’s odd because I’ve never been to Bruxelles (Brussels?), let alone made a purchase there, so I’m assuming someone got my credit card number (how, I don’t know), and made a copy of it. I’m calling the bank first thing in the morning to try and get it straightend out. Has anyone had this happen to them before, and how difficult will it be for them to straighten it out? (The purchase in Bruxelles was on the same day as a purchase here in town, so I don’t think it’s going to be too difficult to get them to believe I’m not conning them)
My mom had this happen with her credit card about a decade ago. She called the cc company and it wasn’t a hassle at all. Call. It will be all good.
so what happened? are debit cards as safe as credit cards?
Earlier this year, my hubby was notified that his debit card number was stolen, but the thieves were caught by the FBI before they could use it.
We had no trouble resolving the issue.
xgxlx
We had our debit card cloned at a gas station in January. We hadn’t used our debit cards in a couple of weeks. My fiance got gas in Ottawa and that night at 11:57 the thieves deposited a $4000 empty envelope into a bank machine in Toronto and another one at 12:05 AM. They attempted to take out $4000, then $1000, then $500 then finally got 2 $300 transactions since that was all his daily limit was.
The next morning my fiance told me there was over $10000 in our account. I called the bank and told them, they looked into it, had us sign affidavit’s that it wasn’t us, took out the “money” and reimbursed us $600.
They never found who did it.
ALWAYS swipe your own card if available and HIDE YOUR PIN!! Cards are cloned VERY easily!
Wow! Talk about deja vu…
This just happened to me and Mr. SeGate last month. I stopped by the ATM to get some money for a nice evening out (on our 5th anniversary) and was told that I did not have even $20. I freaked out. I managed to get ahold of my credit union that evening. It appears that we had eight transactions in London, England totaling over $700.00. We were able to go in on Saturday morning, fill out several forms, and have the money credited back to us before we left.
Though our cards are for the same account, we have different numbers. Somehow they had used mine (buying wine, shoes, and sports equipment and doing a little off-site betting). We had to wait almost 2 weeks for our new cards to arrive.
Everything worked out okay, but I was a wreck when I first discovered the problem. I did some research online and discovered that our happy thief’s spree was mostly limited to one street in London (he literally went next door and straight across the street… before traveling to the winery).
That was a pretty rotten anniversary though. My folks were going to babysit for us, so we took some frozen dinners to their place (so we could “eat out”), then left our daughter there so we could go to the bank the next morning. On our way home we were, oh, so pleased to discover that our power was out again (the 4th time in 1 week – and in 90 degree weather). Definitely not the most romantic evening.
xgxlx, assuming this is a Visa debit card (and that you’re in the US) here is some info.
Best wishes to you.
I have been making online purchases for a few years now. About four months ago, a charge showed up on my Mastercard for a website I didn’t subscribe to. Calling the subscription company, I found that it was a sex site specializing in images of women urinating. Not my cup of pee, um, I mean tea. The subscription company refunded the charge with no question.
The following month, I had a charge for about $45 to some place in Italy. I couldn’t get much information from the credit card company other than that it was a software company of some kind. I contested the charge and immediately canceled the charge card. I had to sign a statement that my card had been compromised and that I had not made the purchase in question.
Since then, I haven’t had any more problems. I feel lucky that whoever had my number started out small instead of going all out and that my problem was easily remedied.
My dad, on the other hand, had his identity stolen a couple of years ago. That was a bit more complicated. The thief had used my dad’s identity to get a cell phone and got greedy. When he tried to order more lines, the salesman asked some question that made the thief nervous and he hung up. Thinking they had been disconnected, the salesman called the phone number he had on record and got my dad’s house instead of the guy he had been talking to.
The salesman said that there would be no problem on his end, but my dad got past due notices for several months from the phone company for the thief’s account. He also had to notify the credit bureaus and make a statement with the local police after discovering the theft.
Again, I think it was lucky that it was discovered so soon (and funny how the thief exposed himself). My thoughts is that the crook was either a drug dealer or maybe even a terrorist operative of some kind.
I’m wondering it it’s the Esso on the corner of Bank and Gladstone where my brother’s then-girlfriend had her card cloned last year?
Fortunately, they were able to prove they were no where close to where the card was next used, Toronto. The bank cheerfully refunded her money.
Update: Went to the bank yesterday, had my card cancelled, and filled out a transaction dispute form. Had to write a statement that I didn’t make the transaction (apparently two of them were the same – it just hadn’t fully gone through yet, and the blank charge was the overdraft), and sign it. They said it would take between 2 and 3 weeks for them to investigate and reimburse me, but I still may be responsible for the first $50 of the transaction.
Elle
Nope, it was at a Petro Canada Station at the corner of Baseline and Merivale.