Jump to content

anyone ever had a debit card # stolen?


Speedball

Recommended Posts

I had to cancel my card last week due to an unauthorized charge on mine. Today someone sent flowers and paid for a phone with my wifes #. Is this a crazy world sometimes or what?[:#]

Hopefully the persons other half breaks up with them and the celphone gets reposessed or stops working.[Y]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I had my wallet stolen out of my car a couple of years ago. I got a call from VISA security before I realized the theft. These folks were immediately busy charging up $1700 in gas and Walmart purchases before the cards were frozen. I had to make police reports and send them to card security. Thankfully they backed off all the charges.

Do you know how the bad guys got your numbers?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm guessing am(uh)zon, (misspelled intentionally) because that is the only place both of us have used each of our cards. I don't know how else it could have been done.

Glad we caught this early on before things got too far out of hand.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That happened to me just this past Februrary (and right before I was to leave for Colorado on top of that). While getting ready for work, I got a call from my credit union. Since I was in the shower, I obviously could not answer the phone, so they left a message. Just the fact that they called me like immediatly set off the "red alert" in my mind and immediatly logged into my bank account - only to find nearly $1,000 of unauthorized charges originating from the Fort Lauderdale, Florida area. They racked up charges at a Winn Dixie, Sports Authority, Chili's, Publix, and Payless Shoes. Hell, we don't even have a Winn Dixie, let alone a Publix in the Fredericksburg area (used to have a Winn Dixie, but it closed up years ago). I immediatly called the credit union back and told them those were definitly unauthorized charges. I've never even been in Fort Lauderdale, so they definitely were not mine. Thankfully, the credit union managed to get all those charges reversed and the money back into my account. As to how they got that number? Lord only knows. At around that time, I did get a letter from the credit union saying something that there was a data breach at some online merchant/credit card processing site and my card number may be one of the numbers that got compromised. Go figure that exact day was when my new card arrived and I was about to go activate it and cancel out the old one.

Thankfully, the credit union did an awesome job handling this, but still, the whole principal of the thing. Somehow I felt violated here - after all, this was MY MONEY that some jackass decided they had to have fun with! They are not the ones spending countless hours on various projects to earn that money. Also makes the jobs of the fine folks at the credit union that much more difficult. Not only that, in the end, we all end up paying for that in the end in the form of higher interest on loans, lower interest on savings, higher banking fees and so forth. I can only hope some security camera somewhere manage to get a picture of the @$$hole that did this that will lead the cops to them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not my debit card, but someone broke into my checking account so to say a few years back. Very low tech way. Here's what he did (they caught the guy). I wrote a check at walmart. they guy found the time etc. to write down my account and routing numbers. And that was all he needed to pay for stuff online with checks. He just made up generic check numbers. Got about 900 bucks in one day.

On the brighter side, they caught the guy, and my bank re imbursed me the money........

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Back in 2000 a clerk at Target stores got my credit card number at the checkout. I have no idea how she did it but she opened accounts at Walmart, J C Pennys and a second account at Target. She ran up 2000.00 worth of bogus charges immediately. I did not know anything was wrong until I went to use may card and it was denied.I thought everything was OK until years later I found out that Wal mart had sold the debt to a collection agency. I refuse the payment requests stating that the debt is fraud- so the collection agency sells the debt to someone else. This has been going on for 10 years. I would have to go to the police department where the b#tch was arrested and get a report-if still available- to clear it up.It has not kept me from geting credit so i have ignored it.

My wife's debit card got phised a few weeks back. She caught it immediately and cancelled the card- major PITA.

Another friend of mine- JC- had a guy pick up his mail at the post office for his small business. He just said he had forgot his key. Had a fake ID so they gave him the mail. The thief took out loans, bought cars, and charged thousands. Ruined him for several years. They caught this guy 3 times before he went to jail for a light sentence. He laughed at JC and flipped him off in the courtroom. When he was released - he went right back to the same thing and was re-arrested- out in 18 months.

Another friend of mine had checks stolen from his mailbox. The thief got BOA for 200k in fake home equity line of credit funds.He actually got 20k more after this was discovered??? W T _????????

The scum who do this should be tortured and slowly killed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have gas station car wash & c-store, been on both sides of the stick. As an employer I post signage CC fraud 1st offense 3 years in jail. Your debt card if it’s a visa master etc...can be used as a regular CC. so no pin is needed, easy for any employee to get. If you have a bank debt card make sure you have a good pin, don’t use home address, phone #, name etc... If I have John Smiths CC # I go online and I can get any personnel info needed to try pin's. Once my wife lost her wallet on vacation, sitting at burger king my 12 year old son wanted to get another burger he grabbed wallet from her purse took $2. out and left it on seat. Needless to say it was a nightmare SS #’s License, CC etc… and we’re 2000 miles from home. Since most of our CC are same accounts we were able to cancel some of them but not all. Could not figure out who to call and how to cancel others. Now we keep a separate ledger of CC in a safe place to access (with her dad at home or one of my brothers). The best thing about CC is stay in good standing and good credit 99% of the time your CC company will stand behind you. Even as a business I had a guy getting gas 2 times a week would often challenge a charge, I get notified 2 months later to produce a signature in 10 days. I get billed $25. for the challenge and if I can produce the signature I will get the reimbursement (but not the $25.) If I miss the 10 days (have to go through boxes of CC receipts) The guy rips me off for a $40.00 gas and I get charged $25.00. When you only make .10-.12 per gal. that sucks.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The micro charges are just checking to see if you are monitoring your account.If not discovered- the scum will wait until a weekend and empty out your account. From now own- I never allow cards or checks to be mailed to my house. Pick them up in person at the bank.

I cannot imagine anyone actually serving 3 years in prison for a single incident of CC fraud. The guy who got my friends company information at the Post office(federal?????) was convicted/ jailed multiple times and served less that 3 years total. Ripped off well over a million dollars from multiple victims.To the best of my knowledge he is out of prison doing the same thing again. Low priority for law enforcement.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ripped off well over a million dollars from multiple victims.To the best of my knowledge he is out of prison doing the same thing again. Low priority for law enforcement.

I have a feeling that guy will someday end up ripping off the wrong person, only to find himself on the wrong end of a Smith & Wesson.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Biggest reason why I only have an ATM card with no VISA logo on it instead of a debit...that ensures that if its lost or stolen no one can use it without my pin#. If it had a VISA logo on it, could be used like a credit card which hits your checking account for funds...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's the problem. There is almost no enforcement. If you get caught, it's a slap on the wrist. The cops figure it's the merchants' fault for accepting the stolen card and don't even bother going after the bad guy. Even if you know exactly who the bad guy is.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Biggest reason why I only have an ATM card with no VISA logo on it instead of a debit...that ensures that if its lost or stolen no one can use it without my pin#. If it had a VISA logo on it, could be used like a credit card which hits your checking account for funds...

Interesting. ^

Have another meeting w/ the bank this evening. They have taken care of a couple charges already and they are deleted as they post. My question to them tonight is how long does it take to cancel the card? The bad guys could do some damage until this is straightened out.

Odd thing about our meeting yesterday was there were at least 2 other customers complaining about unauthorized tranactions to their account at the same time. Makes one wonder about the bank itself unless this is considered regular bank business.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My question to them tonight is how long does it take to cancel the card?

I thought it was an instant kind of thing. I know when I canceled my own C.C., closed them out, I was told that yes in fact that it will be done that day or the next. Also since the thieves have to use your card as credit it should show up on your account within a day or two max. I would really question the bank about this, a week later and you are still getting charges.

A buddy of mine got his debit card number taken some how, good thing he caught it the next day. He lives in the Chicago area and was at the store in the morning then had charges in Terre Haute within an hour or so. His bank fixed the charges and canceled his card and sent out a new one, all within a weeks time.

Good luck, I hope everything gets worked out for you.

James

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Moderators

About six months ago my daughter asked me to pick up her paycheck. Her office is about an hour from our home. So, I loaded up Buddy, her 8 year old son that I homeschool and headed off. Well, Buddy decided he needed some "snacks" for the ride. I stop at our local corner convenience store, head inside....with Buddy in tow....after much deliberation he makes his selections and I pay for the transaction using my daughter's debit card (with permission of course). After the trip to her office I stopped by the local grocery store to pick up some items our daughter requested for dinner. I look for her debit card and I can't find it....figuring it must be somewhere in my "purse". So...I pull out my debit card and pay for the purchase. About an hour after I get home, I started thinking about not being to find the card. At that point I realized I only stopped once and that was at the local corner store, so I go out to the car and literally tear it apart. I looked between the seats, under the seats, under the floor mats in the various storage compartments and still no card.

Next move, I go online and see almost $200.00 in charges at the local cigarette store. Phishing is common, the thief purchased two packs of cigarettes, then went back in the store and purchased six cartons of cigarettes, along with some "pipes". Well, I didn't even know selling "pipes" was legal. Apparently the little sweetheart roses in the glass tubes are used for crack pipes. In addition to the cigarette store the thief used the card to purchase cigarettes at another "quick stop" type store. In total almost $400.00 of unauthorized charges within one hour of my dropping the card.

Moral of the story....I immediately reported unauthorized usage to bank, had to file police reports with both the city police department and the county sheriff's department, as unauthorized purchased were made inside and outside city limits. I was adamant the only place the card could have been picked up was at the corner convenience store. Luckily the clerk at the cigarette store remembered the unauthorized purchase and gave the police a very accurate description of the person. With a description of the thief in hand the sheriff's deparment then requested the tapes from the local convenience store, which had outside surveillance installed. The video clearly showed me putting Buddy in the car, hooking his seatbelt, walking around the back of the vehicle and dropping the card...without even noticing. Within one minute of me dropping the card it was picked up by the "thief" and within twenty minutes she had charged almost $400.00 in purchases. The clerk in the corner store recognized the girl and was able to give the police her name.

If I remember correctly you have thirty days to "dispute" the charges and the bank has ten working days after notice of the dispute to reimburse you, providing you can give them "proof" why you are disputing the charges. However, any little piece of missing information extends the banks ten day reimbursement.

It's a joke. It took almost three months for the bank to get my daughter's money back in her account. They tried to BS us by saying the "person or persons who committed the crime" had not been arrested. I told them, it didn't matter if the "person or persons had been arrested or not", they needed to discuss that issue with our local law enforcement agencies and in the meantime I expected the money put back in my daughter's account, within 48 hours. Needless to say the money cycled through and was posted that night.

I would seriously recommend online bank account access to any of you that have not already set this up with your bank.

It does sound like your bank may be having a serious "security" problem if two other people were in there at the same time you were. BTW,the financial institution should have cancelled the card immediately upon notification of suspected fraud from you.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The 2nd meeting the following day at the bank I asked about the conversations I overheard in their office the previous day. She said that particular branch recieves on the average of 6 to 8 complaints a day about un-authorized charges. [:#] Can you say C-h-a-s-e?

They are covering everything $$ and we have been reimbursed but the whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It happend to us. We never lost possession of the card, but I think what happened was that someone sniffed the cards data and pin number out of the air. The only place we could come up with where the card might had been captured was during a trip to Bush Gardens. Wh charged some items in one of thier gift shops where there was a street and parking lot on the other side of the shop wall. I have visions so some guy sitting in a car w/ a laptop filtering all of the wireless transactions. I could be wrong, but it's the only place, and scenario that made any sense.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Moderators

All it would take is a clerk using the store receipt and watching you press you pin #, give it to a friend not connected with store.....I think that's all it would take..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's possible, but I don't think was the case in this instance. I'll never know for sure. I do know that when this happened, wireless routers were not as secure and there are several tutorials on Youtube giving step by step directions on breaking in. 60 minutes did a piece on TJ Maxx, and how thieves were breaking into their wireless and obtaining CC numbers also.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...