A Warning!!

[ducklite]

I got a call from my bank tonight. Seems a company called "Shepherd Enterprises" out of Carol Stream, IL had used my check card to charge 80 cents for an online purchase.

I never use that card for purchases. I only use it as an ATM card.

I told them I had definitley not made any online puchase this afternoon, and in fact hadn't even used the card since June. It's also not been out of my possession.

Of course they cancelled the card, I need to go to a branch to get a new one tomorrow, no big deal.

I asked how they could possibly have gotten the number, and she said that sometimes these places just randomly batch in thousands of numbers hoping to "hit", and it's possible that happened. She said that because the charge was only 80 cents, the people who had the number were probably just "fishing" to see if they could get access, and if I'd figure it out. She said that such a low amount often isn't even caught by the consumer.

Luckily this "company" is one the banks fraud deprtment has been watching and is trying to catch, so when the debit was made to my account by them. it was immediately flagged and my account was temporarily frozen pending my verification of the charge.

Just a warning to keep a close eye on your accounts, watch your statement closely for small charges that might be easily overlooked, and contact your bank immediately if you even as much as suspect fraud.

Anne

 

[my3kids]

I will watch for charges such as that. Thanks for the alert.

 

[N.Bailey]

Thanks for the heads up. I rarely look that closely at our statements, but I will start! It's unbelievable what lengths some people will go to these days.

 

[ducklite]

An update...

As I was talking to my DH about this, he remembered that I HAD recently used that card to make a purchase. I used it at our local Sam's Club about three weeks ago. Sam's no longer takes regular Mastercard, only the Sam's charge (which I cancelled a couple years ago) and Visa check cards.

I went through my statements for the past seven months, and sure enough, that was the only purchase made with the card. That fact, as well as the timing from the time I used it until it was used fraudulently makes me feel pretty confident that is how the crooks got the number.

So I'm going to call the bank's Visa fraud people back as soon as they open, and I'll also be calling Sam's down in Benton, AR today and talking to someone in their security department.

Think I'm going to cancel the Sam's membership and get one at BJ's or Costco--does anyone know if they take "regular" credit cards?

Anne

 

[my3kids]

Costco only takes American Express or Visa with a PIN. I was told you can not sign a Visa as credit. Initially I was told it was checks or cash only, but once I saw someone with a Visa and asked and they said they have always accepted PIN transactions, just not signature transactions.

 

[SunnyB0019]

Anne,

I am sorry to hear about the problems with your card. I live in NW Arkansas, very near Bentonville. Try this number 479-273-4000. It is the main number for Walmart in Bentonville and I am pretty sure that they will be able to transfer you.

Good Luck!
SunnyB

 

[goofy4tink]

BJ's takes Visa and MC also. At least they did last week. They also had a problem with someone accessing their computers, so a lot of people had to get new cards.

 

[ducklite]

Thanks for the info everyone, especially that number Sunny!

Anne

 

[The Mystery Machine]

You are too late! I just got ripped off two weeks ago. $350.00!

It was my debit card and the charges that drained my account were made in Clearwater FL at a drugstore. (can't think of name, right now, too early)

My card was not taken, just my number. So the moral of the story is too NOT have a ton of money sitting in an account that you use all the time. It might be a pain to transfer but well worth the extra security.

Everything is fine & the bank was great but I was lucky that I caught it right away & hardly any money was in it.

 

[Serena]

Thank you for the warning.

 

[stinkerbelle]

Originally posted by The Mystery Machine


My card was not taken, just my number. So the moral of the story is too NOT have a ton of money sitting in an account that you use all the time. It might be a pain to transfer but well worth the extra security.

sometimes - that's not a deterrent.

someone got into DH's and my joint bank account. we have a money market savings (where the bulk of money is) and a checking account. we have our mortgage EFT'd (electronic funds transfer) out of that account each month. I've NEVER had a problem with EFT with my car payment or my car insurance which just goes into my account each month and takes the money.

DH calls and asks me if I did some spending recently...apparently there was a little over $9,000 missing from our account. (WHAT?!?!?!) The only way we found out was that our mortgage payment bounced. ( )

Apparently "someone" broke into 'wherever' and transferred money OUT of our Money Market account and into our checking account and then made a withdrawal out of the checking account to some random business/bank in California. All this happened in 2 days, and we completely missed it until a week later.

luckily we got all our money back, the bank and mortgage company waived the 'bounced' fees and we changed all our passwords and what not. Now, even *I* don't know it, only DH does.

this all went through the bank...so, be careful!

Also - if you ever purchase anything at one of those mall kiosks (those little carts in the middle of the mall) PAY ONLY IN CASH!! My mother bought 2 items (total - $115) for my brother and DH for Christmas this past year. After 4 different charges for all the same amount came up on her credit card, she had to cancel the card. (also - the items were broken and the guy had already skipped town...luckily mall security had extra items to swap for).

I hate to carry cash...but sometimes, it's safer.

 

[ducklite]

OMG!!! I'd DIE if that happened to me! I'm lucky, they only got me for 80 cents before the bank caught it and froze the account. I didn't ask if I was getting it back, I was just glad the bank fraud people had done their job! I'll be happy to eat the 80 cents knowing it could have been a LOT more!

Yesterday I transferred all the money for our closing into that account though, so I was REALLY freaked!

Apparantly these type of criminals often make a very small charge against you account first to make sure that it's a valid account, and keep it small hoping you'll never notice it.

Anne

 

[Kimberle]

Once again, my bank send me a debit card! I sliced the thing up! I will NOT use those! Cash or credit card only! I don't even write a check unless it is to pay my morgage or utility bill.

Fraud is a very big problem! You wouldn't believe some of the "things" I've seen working in cash management!

Glad you got your problem quickly resolved, Anne!

 

[Beth76]

A similar thing happened to us about a year ago. I went to the grocery store and they said my card was declined. I didn't have time to think about it, so I just paid with a different card, assumming it was just a computer problem. I went to a *different* store a few hours later and they said it was declined for suspected fraud. Well, that concerned us a little. Then I realized that I just paid for our cruise and maybe that big purchase had put them on alert.

So, we called Discover when we got home and the person we talked to said everything was fine. Hmmmm, OK? A few hours later we got a call from Discover telling us that they suspect fraud on our account. They went over a couple of charges that were *pending* and we told them that they were not charged by us and that we both still had our cards in our possession.

Apparently, someone got our card # and attempted to use it to get a $500 cash advance from a local gas station, or something like that. Discover IMMEDIATELY suspected fraud and stopped all charges at that point.

We would have had no idea that any of this was going on. It was Discover that picked up on it right away. We've had no problems since then. It's scary though, that you can have your cards in your possession and still something like this can happen.

 

[Trish Bessette]

Wow, these stories are scary. I always use a debit card and very rarely pay in cash.

Now I'm worried

 

[dianeschlicht]

Wow! My bank just sent me a debit card, and now I wish I had sent it back!

 

[ducklite]

More update... I have been making calls all morning, the bank, Sam's corporate security office, and another victim--the guy who's merchant account this was all run through. I'm not the only victim, there were five other people from within a 30 mile radius of my house. We all share one thing for sure so far--the same bank. Put the merchant (who runs an online store with "blind" credit card transacting--think Paypal, he never saw anyones number, just knew it was paid for) in touch with Sam's, waiting to hear if the other victims who had contacted him as PO'ed as I was at first had shopped at Sam's (the Sam's people can pull the names up on their computers.)

This is getting interesting, and the FBI will be involved before the day is over. it's looking like someone from Sam's cash office stole a bunch of names and card numbers.

I told Sam's corporate that myself and the merchant involved are both looking to fully prosecute.

Anne

 

[Cinders]

So I'm going to call the bank's Visa fraud people back as soon as they open, and I'll also be calling Sam's down in Benton, AR today and talking to someone in their security department.

I wouldn't call Sam's. First ask Visa if you should call Sam's. It's possible the FBI will be working with your CC company and that might interfere.

A couple of years ago we had someone in the Carolinas steal all the money out of our checking account through a "sister" credit union. By doing a search on the internet I found the credit union to be a police and fireman's credit union. When my debit card was declined at the grocery I checked my statement online and saw a large withdrawal from an address in the Carolinas. Called the CRs fraud department and she said we withdrew the money while at a CR there. I said that is not possible since we havent left the state. She reviewed a few activities with our account. One was my usual Friday deposit and another was buying gas at a local station with my card. I told her she could call DHs boss to verify he'd been working in state. She did call our local branch and they verified I'd been there Friday. She then said we'd have to fill out paperwork in order for them to prosecute the person that withdrew the money if the FBI caught them. They never told us if they found the person but we did fill out the paperwork twice. Since the person walked into the CR and withdrew the money she said they could have done it one of 3 ways. 1. They knew our account # and name. 2. The teller mistakenly used our CR name and it was truely the persons account # 3. The person was a "usual" customer and simply randomly said an account # and since the tellers had seen the person before didn't ask for ID

 

[dizneegirl]

I've had Citibank call me and ask if I was 3 states away trying to buy $500 worth of items at a store.

Seems a woman there had a fake card, and knew my name, address and phone number. Citibank was alerted due to the fact that I hadn't used the card in quite a long time, and there was no personal information when the card was swiped (fake card).

I still had my card in my possession.

Citibank kept the woman on the line while they talked to me, and called store security. Don't know what happened to her, but I like to think she spent at least a night in jail.

There were 2 other charges on that statement (a day or two earlier) to a Sprint account... I had to sign an affidavit stating they weren't my charges, and Citibank took care of the rest. I've been watching all of our statements since then. Seems to have been a random thing.

I LOVE Citibank. And the Citibank fraud commercials... makes me laugh every time. Wish I knew what "my" voice sounded like, and what "I" was trying to buy!

 

[ducklite]

Another followup--Due to the inner workings of their corporate security, it looks like Sam's wasn't "corporately" responsible, although the cashier is still suspect.

It's also possible that it was an inside situation by someone at the bank

The FBI and Secret Service (bank fraud is handled by them) are involved, so we'll see what happens.

Anne