Someone got my debit card #

[toomanymodz]

I've had my credit cards hacked 3 times within the last year or so. This last time they had info including my name, address, phone number. What I noticed was that the phone number was a 'bogus' phone number that i use when making online purchases. So clearly it was an online vendor's database that got breached, not a local merchant such as a restaurant. A buddy of mine had his card hacked, and the only place he'd ever used it was to buy parts at Summit Racing.

When I called my credit card company, they said that the hacking is so wide-spread now, that they are weeks behind on processing this stuff. The lady sounded really concerned, as I am also. Never use a debit card, that's just playing with fire.

I went one step further, and froze my credit reports. That keeps identity thieves from opening loans in my name. That's a huge deal that is much more dangerous than credit card hacking.

 

[TurboTnZ06]

You can try to freeze your credit for free with each bureau online (I've done it, its a PITA but doable if I know I'm not needing credit pulled), but its only good for 90 days, and even then it only requests the banks to make a phone call to you when the request for credit is needed, of course some shady credit pulling companies might not even do that so it's still a chance for id theft even when placing the freezes on your credit.

 

[scot w.]

Just recently I went into my local auto-zone to buy a few items and at the register the guy said it came back as insufficient funds. I was embarrassed and shocked so we tried it another way and the same thing happened so I went home to see what my actual balance was and it was still WELL above what I was trying to buy so I went back to auto-zone and this time he manually entered it and it came up the same thing... Now I went to my bank who then told me it was restricted because of fraud. Turns out our business card got skimmed somewhere and they started the charging with a $3.74 to a Queen Victoria's, where is queen Victoria's you may ask, In the UK!! and it's a Motel there.... That is what tipped off the fraud department because just the night before I got gas at our local gas station...Then the pricks tried to charge $369.00 three times and also $782.00 one time...

Just 2 days ago it happened to my wife's credit card and she found out while going though the grocery store check out! They had already charged $0.62 somewhere and the fraud department seen that as a red flag and monitored it and restricted her card and come to find out they tried charging $369.00 again several times without success.

Thief's can buy a $50 card skimmer that can skim & store about 4,000 cards and it's the size of an eraser. Many times it's the waiters & waitresses at restaurants that keep these things in their aprons and while walking your card to the machine they slide it through and it stores everything. then they sell the damn card information over seas and that's where the buying happens.

Just once I would LOVE to catch one of those bastards.....

 

[S10xGN]

The only time our card got compromised was at a local Target store. I buy nearly everything off the 'net, but have been using Paypal as much as possible...

 

[aminga]

Actually had mine stolen in a home depot. Guy was behind me in the checkout line fiddling with his cell phone. Turns out he was photographing the card. He had enough information to get himself added to the account and have new cards mailed to his address, so he had the CCID from the back of the card (it's not encoded on the magnetic strip). But because I caught him before he bought anything no crime was committed. Police wouldn't do anything and I had his home address (In Az)

 

[Dennis Kirban]

Several of our customers have brought this thread to my attention.....if only thieves used half the effort to make an honest living.....you can't pick up any newspaper today without reading about someone embezzeling, or cheating or hacking into a companies computer...

Never ceases to amaze me the extent thieves will go to.....and like it has been stated small time fraud basically goes unpunished.....

I just read where they caught a Mom and her son who made it their job to hit about 25 Toys R Us stores in 3 western states....it was a full time job for them....they would look for a big boxed cheap toy and remove the cheap toy put in the more expensive toy and would take it home and I guess hours later had it on ebay and ran a very lucutive business.....

Also last week in my area...Comcast snagged a group of people that had successful pocketed over 2 million dollars by tweaking accounts for some customers to pay less for extra channels and pocketing a bonus from the home owner....it was a very detailed plan and what tripped them up is oen of the people they approached with the comcast savings happen to be a comcast employee!

The list is endless....thats what makes it frustrating....especially when its credit cards and ID theft....

denniskirban@yahoo.com

I apologize if I strayed for the subject matter.

 

[broke]

In the last few months we have quit ordering online with cc or debit and stopped using paypal. It has gotten very inconvenient but safer. Postal MO only to the vendors here. It really kinda sucks.

 

[FastB]

Got my card hacked this weekend.... Never enter ur debit card # on any of these sites...there r other places to buy that never asks for ur #. PayPal is much safer.

 

[klrv6]

There are so many ways to get cc info now. Everyone should read about "man in the middle attacks" to change how they shop online. It is so easy to perform against networks, your computer OS doesn't matter at that point. I would suspect any time you can't physically see your card. I had a business card halted due to the fact that I bought AV software in Sweden, Payed for my msdn subscription to microsoft in Washington and paid for lunches at a mexican restaurant in Kentucky all within 24 hours. Visa said the it was the high fraud rate at the restaurant that triggered the halt.

Always use a CC and not a debit card when buying online. The CC has coverage for card number theft and abuse. Many debit cards do not. Also keep most of your money outside of your normal checking account that the cards pull from. No overdraft protect. That way, if it is wiped out, everything will not be gone until you work out the details with the debit card company. just transfer money as need to pay bill and cover planned purchases.

 

[Turbo boy]

3 times for me this year too. It does take Wells Fargo some time to investigate and refund. This last time someone tried to get a hotel room in Arkansas I'm in South Texas. Since then I opened a seperate account and only keep a small amount in there just incase it gets hacked again.

 

[RUDE DOG]

I think its too difficult to catch these theives, and so many or most of them get away with it. You dont hear many reports about this kind of theft.

 

[KevinB]

My bank sells gift cards for a few bucks. They are a debit card that works like any other card. You still get buyer protection and all that other stuff that comes with any MasterCard credit or debit. I've been ordering parts online using these cards all summer. I got my real debit card number ripped off earlier this year but Keybank caught it after a $1 purchase. Was a wake up call though. I don't own a credit card so these gift cards are perfect for me. I only get them in $300 amounts unless I need to buy something greater than that. The way I see it, worse case scenario, my card number gets hijacked but the card is not linked to my my bank account.

 

[TurboTnZ06]

Someone tried to by $7,000 in Luftansa airline tickets on my card over the weekend. Bank declined it and I'll get a new card in the mail.

 

[bison]

I think its too difficult to catch these theives, and so many or most of them get away with it. You dont hear many reports about this kind of theft.

LE rarely pursues them even if you have a bunch to work with unless it happens to one of them. What is there to stop them from doing it? If I caught someone doing that shit I'd deal with them myself. No calls to any LE would be made. They'd wish I called LE for their own protection though.

 

[aminga]

Here's one. Someone purchased Xbox live credits from Walmart on a friends debit card but had the delivery sent to her home email address. So yea they used the card but they sent the stolen goods to the person they took the card from.

 

[bison]

Here's one. Someone purchased Xbox live credits from Walmart on a friends debit card but had the delivery sent to her home email address. So yea they used the card but they sent the stolen goods to the person they took the card from.

Did she have xbox?

 

[aminga]

Did she have xbox?

No.

 

[OvaBoost]

I too have been a victim. I had both my MasterCards fraudulently used, but banks were quick at responding and froze accounts; no money lost by me.

I did some research and found that, most times, the retailer you deal with is completely uninvolved in the theft of your CC info. Do a google search and you will find that millions of CC#'s had been stolen from 3rd party processing companies by a security breach of their servers. Basically, when you make a purchase at a retailer, in-person or online, the order is processed at a central "secure" processing company that is the middle-man between the retailer and the credit card issuer. It is a prime target for hackers because of the volume of cards that are processed. Additionally, some major retail stores had previously used unsecured or under secured wifi to process CC transactions due to a lack of knowledge (i.e. TJMaxx/Marshalls).

Unfortunately, information security is only as good as the programmer and network admin who designed it and there are plenty of hackers/thieves that are happy to take on a challenge to breach a secured system.

A tip for anyone that uses a wireless router (wifi) at home. PROTECT YOUR INFORMSTION! Use WPA2 to secure your network!!!! WEP is old technology and is easily hacked.

Good luck,
Bill