My debit card # got scammed

[Cloud]

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.

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.

[elSicomoro]

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.

[Cloud]

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.

[xoxoxoBruce]

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.

[Cloud]

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

[xoxoxoBruce]

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

[lumberjim]

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.

[xoxoxoBruce]

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

[TheMercenary]

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.

[richlevy]

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).

"Based on our investigation to date," the company wrote, "we believe that our computer systems were first accessed by an unauthorized Intruder in July 2005, on subsequent dates in 2005 and from mid-May 2006 to mid-January 2007, but that no customer data were stolen after December 18, 2006."

In filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday, the company said 45.6 million credit and debit card numbers were stolen from one of its systems over a period of more than 18 months by an unknown number of intruders. That number eclipses the 40 million records compromised in the mid-2005 breach at CardSystems Solutions and makes the TJX compromise the worst ever involving the loss of personal data.
In addition, personal data provided in connection with the return of merchandise without receipts by about 451,000 individuals in 2003 was also stolen. The company is in the process of contacting individuals affected by the breach, TJX said in its filings.

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

[Cloud]

ugh. Just noticed another $87 charge went through.

[Elspode]

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.

[xoxoxoBruce]

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.

[Cloud]

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

[Hyoi]

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.