First time having someone swipe one of my bank card numbers and make BS purchases.
Pain in the ass, as it is, I'm pretty impressed that my bank shut the card time "for suspicious activity" seeing three purchases in Georgia earlier today. They called right away - it was me who was suspicious at first, but I called them back on the number listed on the back of the actual card.
Fortunate in a number of ways, one being that the three purchases were for $12, then $3-something and the third for $16.20. A fourth, about an hour later for $57, was blocked.
It'll be investigated and I'll likely get my few bucks put back. Not sure if I'll learn how it actually occurred, but the guy on the line said it's likely it was a device at a gas station. They're apparently becoming more popular, and easily placed above the card-readers at gas pumps. Smaller, too, and tougher to detect.
So, all's well, my people. But please, let's be careful out there!
Could have been a much larger pain in the ass.
Before you put your card into the pump's card reader, look in the card slot for anything that doesn't look right. If the card reader extends out beyond the main page of the pump, give the extension a simple tug to see if anything comes off. If anything comes off, turn it in to the attendant.
Betting some piece of technology that could be re-sold on the street.
Because that level typically goes unnoticed by a lot of fraud analytics. The crooks use the card to go buy a bunch of gift cards from Wal-Mart, Target, etc. at lower amounts to go unnoticed, not to mention they can convert to cash easier than a bigger ticket purchase.
Guy in the fraud department said, yeah, likely they were test purchases. The $3 one was for a Coke.
Quote:
multiple Walmart purchases of $80.00 each. Not sure why that amount but I am sure there was a reason.
Because that level typically goes unnoticed by a lot of fraud analytics. The crooks use the card to go buy a bunch of gift cards from Wal-Mart, Target, etc. at lower amounts to go unnoticed, not to mention they can convert to cash easier than a bigger ticket purchase.
I had someone buy a little over $1000 in Green Dot cards from Walmart, in $50 increments in separate transactions. That's likely what happened, especially if it was even increments. They can spend the cards themselves or fence them for most of the card value (as opposed to buying merchandise to sell, where they're realizing 40-50% of the sticker price from a fence, at most, or where they have to put a name and identification down to pawn the item for more).
Turned out the first call was legit and somebody did in fact apply for a CC in my name with my social. They listed my employer as Taco Bell.
It was a pain in the ass and I had to put a fraud alert on my credit and contact all the credit agencies and all that, but I didn't actually have any money charged or accounts opened.
The most annoying thing was that as a part of that big Anthem hack, I was given free monthly credit monitoring for two years, and they didn't detect anything.
Then she got a letter saying that some on-line swimwear company she charged from credit card purchases were compromised during the time her purchase was made....
Took her a few weeks to get it back
I cringe every time I sign them up for sports online.
Make purchases with a credit card. You have more protections from fraud. And it's not your money being taken when this happens.
Turned out the first call was legit and somebody did in fact apply for a CC in my name with my social. They listed my employer as Taco Bell.
It was a pain in the ass and I had to put a fraud alert on my credit and contact all the credit agencies and all that, but I didn't actually have any money charged or accounts opened.
The most annoying thing was that as a part of that big Anthem hack, I was given free monthly credit monitoring for two years, and they didn't detect anything.
Yeah, got the same protection after the Anthem hack and have kept it up. Cheap insurance.
I'll also only gas at 24 hour stations and only use pumps that face the station office. Just added caution.
I'll also only gas at 24 hour stations and only use pumps that face the station office. Just added caution.
I NEVER use anything but a low limit CC at gas stations after both my ATM cards were hacked there. And now I only use my ATM cards at the bank ATM(hiding, of course, the pin code in case of hidden cameras).
Visa and MC do not allow merchants to require ID for card purchases as long as the card is signed.
Quote:
wondered how they are able to do this. I feel if the merchant does not ask for I.D. that merchant should be on the hook for the amount. BTW in N.Y. when I visit annnualy I never get asked for my I.D.
Visa and MC do not allow merchants to require ID for card purchases as long as the card is signed.
That's interesting. You would think it is in their best interest to have merchants check for ID.
Skimmers are everywhere, small devices that are inserted by hackers into card readers which grab the numbers off your magnetic strip when you insert the card for retrieval by a bad guy later, sometimes even in real time.
You cork suckers, you have violated my fargin rights...
Visa and MC do not allow merchants to require ID for card purchases as long as the card is signed.
That's interesting. You would think it is in their best interest to have merchants check for ID.
Perhaps, but it's not in your best interest. Dishonest cashiers are a major source of identity theft. Your address and drivers license # along with your credit card gets them a long way.
BTW: They are not prohibited from ASKING for ID. But you are allowed to refuse and they must accept your card anyway.
Thankfully, I got an email about the two purchases (both about $100 work of old computer parts) on eBay. I immediately went to my eBay account and canceled one of the purchases as it was being processed. Shot the vendor an email and they responded within a few hours saying it was cancelled. The other had already shipped (only took two hours from purchase to shipping...fast service I guess), so I immediately placed a dispute claim into eBay and PayPal for that purchase (along with another for the order I had just cancelled).
I did see a FedEx tracking number for the already shipped item, so I just told FedEx to hold it at a distribution center (in Newark, DE), which would require an ID to pick up (and since it was still under my name, the scammers couldn't pick it up).
It only took eBay and PayPal a day to refund me the money for the purchase, and the vendor that had shipped the item got it back when FedEx returned it to them after no one picked up the item.
Definitely a learning lesson to change my password on occasion on these two websites.