My debit card # got scammed
 

So, I try to rent movies with my debit card last night and it was declined. Embarrassing, and weird-- since I knew there was money in my account and my bank would cover it regardless.

I check with my bank online today and there's something else weird--a $30 charge I didn't recognize to a career search website I had never visited or heard of. :worried:

I call my bank and sure enough, someone had gotten a hold of my card number and there were several attempted charges; tried to run a debit of $795 and my bank's watchdog service caught it. When they couldn't reach me by phone, they froze my card.

I'm lucky though--lucky they only succeeded in debiting $30; lucky my bank was on the ball; and very lucky I didn't discover this on Saturday night with a full cart of Easter groceries!

I don't know how my card number slipped into the wrong hands, but I do use it a lot. I talked to the bank person and she said there's nothing much you could do exept try to be careful about it. Merchants are not supposed to put any but the last 4 digits on receipts anymore, but some still do; more than likely someone working for a retailer, either RL or online, just copied the number down.

:mad:

That sucks, Cloud. Hopefully, the mess will be straightened out in a hurry. You might also want to check your credit cards and put a ID theft warning on your credit report...had to do that a few years ago myself.

good advice, thanks!

No credit cards though--ergo, no credit card debt either., hah! I'm going to be investigating what more can be done to alleviate this and prevent it in the future.

Having the card refused sucks. Seems to me instead of freezing it they could flag the merchant to require a positive ID instead. Guess that's too much trouble.

well, they try to call you first if something seems suspicious, but I had changed my number. Never answer my phone, anyway.

Ah Ha, see, freshnesschronic is right, you inconsiderate people that don't answer your damn phones....yada, yada, bitch, piss, moan, whine....

You know those evil impulses you get?

well.....

this bank rep i have...who i like..she's really nice.....well, she orderd pizzas for us one day from my office, and for some reason, I secretly wrote down the numbers of her cc as she gave them to the guy. I had the mischievous notion that I would order a bunch of sex toys from an online dildorium and send them to her office. as a joke.

i didn't do it. and i shredded her card number. it would have been funny tho.

Go ahead, just let us know when the visiting hours are.

I hope it never happens to anyone, a good friend had the id stolen and some person/group in Canada opened like 3 or 4 credit cards on them, then ran them up to $990 dollars, which kept the offense a misdemeanor in Canada so the authorities would do nothing to help catch the offender. The guy got out of paying for them but went through quite a bit of wrangling to get out of them.

In the early days of debit cards one of my coworkers got nailed and it took her about two weeks to get the charges reinstated.

I will never get a debit card that doesn't require a PIN. Credit cards are bad enough, but the laws on them are very clear. The rules on debit cards are mostly voluntary, and with the rise in banking fees the potential for overdraft charges, etc piling onto the initial loss lead me to wonder how anyone can consider using them.

I hope everything works out for you Cloud. Have you ever bought anything at TJ. Maxx, Marshalls, Bob's Stores, HomeGoods, or A.J. Wright?

So far, the TJ Maxx credit card mess (and here) appears to have broken the record both in terms of affected cards (45 million) and length of time before discovery (about 18 months).

TJX runs TJ. Maxx, Marshalls, Bob's Stores, HomeGoods, and A.J. Wright chains in the United States

HomeSense and Winners in Canada

T.K. Maxx in the United Kingdom and Ireland

ugh. Just noticed another $87 charge went through. :(

Every time I hear about things like this, the same thing runs through my mind:

Why do people suck so much, and so often? How fucked in the head do you have to be to do shit like this?

Sorry you're being taken such advantage of, Cloud. Hopefully, they'll use their ill-gotten gains to buy enough drugs to die of an overdose.

I think your naive to think this was some junkie raising fix money. I'm more inclined to think it's someone that does this for a living....a nice living.

apparently not . . . since they're looking for a job

I can surely empathize, Cloud. Let's hope a family member never pulls that stunt on you. I've a niece (rampant, spoiled) that somehow got my SS#, applied for and received four credit cards, and proceeded to ring up over four grand in various online computer equipment purchases. When it's a family member, the police won't touch it.

I made my sister chain her up in the backyard. We hose her down once a week.

That sounds very restrained of you Hyoi. My ex ran up a shed load of debt, also in my name by forging my sig, & of course he knew my bank details etc. I'm gonna be forever and a day trying to sort the mess out. I'm still finalising plans for my revenge

Anything involving a truckload of farmyard manure somewhere in the process gets my vote :D

(of course you have to be sure that gets charged to their card, too)

I like your thinking

Have you tried getting a chargeback for this? You didn't receive the goods or service, after all.

And seeing how it's an online site, someone may be able to trace the perpetrator. The servers for the online site would routinely log IP addresses and times. IP addresses and times can be traced back to specific ISPs. And ISPs would be able to determine from their own logs which of their customers was logged on at that time. Even if the perpetrator used stolen credit cards to pay for the ISP, the physical link to the perpetrator's location can still be traced. Provided of course that they are not smart enough to use other people's unsecured wireless networks for all of their net access.

Yes, I'm going to protest the charges that went through. I have contacted the providers of the services; unfortunately, they claim not to be able to trace the person. At least without my debit card number, which I'm not about to provide to them.

I suspect they will know your credit card number after you protest the charges. :D

BTW, Paypal has some really good information and links on their site about identity theft.

They should. Only time my card got hit was after I started to pay using them and hit cancel. Will look for the post.

I also refuse to accept a debit card from my bank. I still have a traditional ATM. The idea of a card that sucks money right out of my account without having even to punch a four-digit code into a keypad scares me.