credit-debit/identity theft question

[natenapril]

So it happened to me. Someone in London apparently had my bank acct/debit info and was having a little fun. Only about $200 so I know I am luck compared to others but

So now my DH and I are looking into steps to take to prevent further fraud and need advice.

The debit cards that were used have been shut down but some places they were used at such as KFC and McD's would have required a card so this person more than likely has too much of our information

So what steps should we take to prevent further use from this person adn to help prevent this from happening again.

I think we should cancel places like amazon and paypal that have our info but what else

TIA!!!

 

[DisneyBaby2004]

Ugh!!!! I was just coming to post to vent. They got me too. I actually had my wallet stolen from a friends office today at lunch. They were able to charge about $1000 between the two cards before they got shut down. They didn't waste anytime. I am soooooo mad.

I contacted the bank and credit card company. I contacted the police and he came to fill out a report. I called Target - which is where they spent most of the money and contact the security lead to provide him with the info (times/amounts). I am more mad because he said one if the cashier mentioned someone had been going through the lines using multiple cards. Why would they not do something. Anyway the police officer said that Target had a great surveillance system that he is famailiar with after he took the report he went over to the Target.

I also contacted the 3 credit bureau to put a flag or fraud alert on the
accounts. But I don't know what else to do.

I just needed to vent!!

 

[vicki_c]

The debit cards that were used have been shut down but some places they were used at such as KFC and McD's would have required a card so this person more than likely has too much of our information

TIA!!!

What does this mean? You don't need a PIN # to use the card if you swipe it as a credit card, and most places don't make you sign anymore either if it's under $25, I think. So I don't think it means they have more of your info (I assume you mean like the PIN # or something).

But I'm sorry it happened to you - our debit card # was used for a fraudulent charge a few years ago, but I caught it in a day and the bank shut the card off immediately and we only had 1 bad charge. The bank gave us the money back within a day or two as well and sent us new cards right away.

 

[natenapril]

Ugh!!!! I was just coming to post to vent. They got me too. I actually had my wallet stolen from a friends office today at lunch. They were able to charge about $1000 between the two cards before they got shut down. They didn't waste anytime. I am soooooo mad.

I contacted the bank and credit card company. I contacted the police and he came to fill out a report. I called Target - which is where they spent most of the money and contact the security lead to provide him with the info (times/amounts). I am more mad because he said one if the cashier mentioned someone had been going through the lines using multiple cards. Why would they not do something. Anyway the police officer said that Target had a great surveillance system that he is famailiar with after he took the report he went over to the Target.

I also contacted the 3 credit bureau to put a flag or fraud alert on the
accounts. But I don't know what else to do.

I just needed to vent!!

Ouch! Your damage was much worse than mine! Vent away! I am so upset and my DH is REALLY upset. We just want to take preventative measures at this point!

What does this mean? You don't need a PIN # to use the card if you swipe it as a credit card, and most places don't make you sign anymore either if it's under $25, I think. So I don't think it means they have more of your info (I assume you mean like the PIN # or something).

But I'm sorry it happened to you - our debit card # was used for a fraudulent charge a few years ago, but I caught it in a day and the bank shut the card off immediately and we only had 1 bad charge. The bank gave us the money back within a day or two as well and sent us new cards right away.

Sure you don't need a pin but you need a CARD at those places. Where did they get the card? I live in AK and bank at an AK Credit UNion. They would have needed a card to run it at places such as KFC in LONDON!!. My wallet wasn't stolen. How in the world did they get a card?

Why can't people have morals? Why steal

 

[Planogirl]

Make sure that you add a fraud alert at at least one of the credit bureaus (one will notify the other two) and get your reports to see if anything odd has shown up.

I'm so sorry that this has happened to you!

 

[DisneyBaby2004]

Why can't people have morals? Why steal

Exactly!!!! I am so mad.

 

[natenapril]

Make sure that you add a fraud alert at at least one of the credit bureaus (one will notify the other two) and get your reports to see if anything odd has shown up.

I'm so sorry that this has happened to you!

Thanks! I am going to try that tomorrow!

Exactly!!!! I am so mad.

It's really pathetic. We're not rich so they def. would not have got very far

 

[vicki_c]

Sure you don't need a pin but you need a CARD at those places. Where did they get the card? I live in AK and bank at an AK Credit UNion. They would have needed a card to run it at places such as KFC in LONDON!!. My wallet wasn't stolen. How in the world did they get a card?

Why can't people have morals? Why steal

Duh! Sometimes I'm a little slow -- I knew that, but somewhere got confused along the way! But they can just clone new credit cards using your number (that probably wouldn't make you feel any better, but if the account is now closed, you won't get any more charges).

 

[blessedmom4]

I don't have any great words of wisdom, only (((((hugs))))). How violated you must feel, I am so sorry! I am hoping to learn something myself...

 

[natenapril]

Duh! Sometimes I'm a little slow -- I knew that, but somewhere got confused along the way! But they can just clone new credit cards using your number (that probably wouldn't make you feel any better, but if the account is now closed, you won't get any more charges).

No problem! It's just frustrating how easy it must be for some people to make new cards from other people's acct

I don't have any great words of wisdom, only (((((hugs))))). How violated you must feel, I am so sorry! I am hoping to learn something myself...

Ya know, I do feel kind of disappointed in the whole situation. But I am hoping to glean some tips from some financial gurus here

 

[dd50]

I am so sorry that happened to you and can only imagine. So if I understand you have the card but they could use it for fast food? If so, that is real scary.

 

[natenapril]

I am so sorry that happened to you and can only imagine. So if I understand you have the card but they could use it for fast food? If so, that is real scary.

Apparently they some how made a duplicate of my visa debit card and used it initially at fast foods joints in London. They probably ran my debit as a credit so they did not need a pin. My bank didn't flag that even though I live in Alaska The cards to that acct are both shut down now and all pending transactions have been denied. My bank will be refunding the money in a few days but now I am nervous about getting back intot he debit transactions. But I guess it could have happened with a cc too

 

[kathyell]

Sure you don't need a pin but you need a CARD at those places. Where did they get the card? I live in AK and bank at an AK Credit UNion. They would have needed a card to run it at places such as KFC in LONDON!!. My wallet wasn't stolen. How in the world did they get a card?

They can sometimes make a card if they have the machinery to put a magnetic strip on the back of a card and program it with your information. It's not as hard as you'd think it should be to have the kind of equipment you need to make and program a fake credit card. A lot of places don't even look at the card, they just let you swipe it and put it back in your wallet, so it doesn't even have to look that convincing. Sometimes they have an accomplice, a friend who works in whatever establishment they want to use your information to buy stuff from, and they simply have their accomplice type the CC information in manually and they don't have to have a card at all.

Someone in California used one of those two methods to use my Disney Visa at a Toys'R'Us to the tune of almost $600. Chase shut the card down after that first charge and we found out when it was declined for us later that night at Target. Chase was very helpful and made it very simple for us to indicate which charges were ours and which ones were fraudulent and they also quickly sent us replacement cards. We weren't liable for any of the money that was stolen.

Even with how easy Chase made things and the fact that it didn't end up costing us any money, I found myself very upset about the whole thing. It felt like someone else using my name to steal (which, let's face it, isn't just how it felt, it's what they actually did) and it took some time to stop feeling upset about it.

I hope your bank is just as easy to deal with to get it straightened out as Chase was with us.

 

[natenapril]

They can sometimes make a card if they have the machinery to put a magnetic strip on the back of a card and program it with your information. It's not as hard as you'd think it should be to have the kind of equipment you need to make and program a fake credit card. A lot of places don't even look at the card, they just let you swipe it and put it back in your wallet, so it doesn't even have to look that convincing. Sometimes they have an accomplice, a friend who works in whatever establishment they want to use your information to buy stuff from, and they simply have their accomplice type the CC information in manually and they don't have to have a card at all.

Someone in California used one of those two methods to use my Disney Visa at a Toys'R'Us to the tune of almost $600. Chase shut the card down after that first charge and we found out when it was declined for us later that night at Target. Chase was very helpful and made it very simple for us to indicate which charges were ours and which ones were fraudulent and they also quickly sent us replacement cards. We weren't liable for any of the money that was stolen.

Even with how easy Chase made things and the fact that it didn't end up costing us any money, I found myself very upset about the whole thing. It felt like someone else using my name to steal (which, let's face it, isn't just how it felt, it's what they actually did) and it took some time to stop feeling upset about it.

I hope your bank is just as easy to deal with to get it straightened out as Chase was with us.

Wow that's kind of scary how easy you made it sound! Really there should be something in place to protect consumers.

So far my bank has been good about being on top if it. I just wish so many charges hadn't gone through in the first place but I am partly to blame for that as well.

I think I will feel upset about this for awhile too.

 

[disneylove69]

I work in retail security and it happens more then you think. Criminals can buy the number off the internet for just a few dollars. These numbers are imbeded on Visa gift cards or fake credit cards. The embossed numbers don't even match the numbers in the magnetic strip. They then go around town until it's shut down by the bank. As a retailer when a card is scan through the register we can't shut it down unless the bank says so. I can't tell you how many times I see people scanning several cards in one transaction until one of them goes through. We can't stop or accuse them due to legal liability issues. Credit cards companies also limit the security protection we can take with their clients. Like asking for id's, etc. Many stores do but they risk losing the opportunity of taking Visa, MC, etc. I find Amex is the least to be counterfited and find more potential alerts then the other logos. The best thing to do is limit yourself to one card and monitor it daily or weekly on the computer. My bank also had me transfer most of my money into an account that is not linked to a debit/cc account but I could easily transfer money to the check account.

 

[bumbershoot]

I think we should cancel places like amazon and paypal that have our info but what else

TIA!!!

Well, what would that accomplish? Not sure about paypal (seems the problem with pp is that people respond to phishing emails and click through and just give the info away), but with amazon, seriously, it's a vault. No one got your info from them, and unless you really think your computer was hacked into and passwords were taken, the people can't go from having your debit card info to getting into your amazon account. If you are worried about your computer, first go to a safe computer and change your passwords, then do a serious wipe on it, make sure there's no spyware etc.

Sure you don't need a pin but you need a CARD at those places. Where did they get the card? I live in AK and bank at an AK Credit UNion. They would have needed a card to run it at places such as KFC in LONDON!!. My wallet wasn't stolen. How in the world did they get a card?

Why can't people have morals? Why steal

As others said, they would have gotten your numbers somehow, and then just made a card. And they probably got your info months ago; seems to be how the rings operate. Get the info, wait, then go on a spree doing as much as they can before the companies figure it out and stop it. The small purchases are the way they know the info is good...once they know it's good, they start spending.

 

[happymommy]

I have unfortunately had two incidents of identity theft. The first one, someone obtained my credit card number as well as the billing address. They used it to purchase travel online as well as a couple of airline tickets (one which I was able to cancel before the flight!). I could see the transaction online - but also my cc company saw the transactions and put a stop to one of them and contacted me (yeah!).

I wasn't responsible for any of the transactions, but still did some investigating on my own. First of all, I filed a police report in my county. Then, I found out about one hotel stay and provided the police with all the info I had.

What do you know - a couple of months later, I got a call from a police investigator in another state - he had one of the criminals! He got the info from our police station! The guy was arrested attempting to check into another hotel using someone else's credit card number. I was elated - they usually never catch these folks! They can get your number in so many ways, then just sell it quickly.

The other incident that happened to me was much more serious. Someone used my name and social to open an online checking account in another state. Then of course, they overdrew. I only found out about it months later when I got a collection letter from a collection agency. I again called the police, then put a fraud alert on all my credit bureaus. Once I had the copy of the police report, I forwarded that to one credit bureau to place a 7 year fraud alert - an initial one is only for a few months. Keep a file of everything! Definitely you need a police report.

 

[Swimalie]

Sorry this happened. When you contact the credit agencies, contact all 3. Don't trust them to do it for you. Also, don't use a debit card any more. Use credit or cash only! Then you have more protection and the chances of this happening again go down.

 

[natenapril]

I work in retail security and it happens more then you think. Criminals can buy the number off the internet for just a few dollars. These numbers are imbeded on Visa gift cards or fake credit cards. The embossed numbers don't even match the numbers in the magnetic strip. They then go around town until it's shut down by the bank. As a retailer when a card is scan through the register we can't shut it down unless the bank says so. I can't tell you how many times I see people scanning several cards in one transaction until one of them goes through. We can't stop or accuse them due to legal liability issues. Credit cards companies also limit the security protection we can take with their clients. Like asking for id's, etc. Many stores do but they risk losing the opportunity of taking Visa, MC, etc. I find Amex is the least to be counterfited and find more potential alerts then the other logos. The best thing to do is limit yourself to one card and monitor it daily or weekly on the computer. My bank also had me transfer most of my money into an account that is not linked to a debit/cc account but I could easily transfer money to the check account.

That's a great idea to open a seperate acct not attatched to a debit a cc card. Thanks.

I have unfortunately had two incidents of identity theft. The first one, someone obtained my credit card number as well as the billing address. They used it to purchase travel online as well as a couple of airline tickets (one which I was able to cancel before the flight!). I could see the transaction online - but also my cc company saw the transactions and put a stop to one of them and contacted me (yeah!).

I wasn't responsible for any of the transactions, but still did some investigating on my own. First of all, I filed a police report in my county. Then, I found out about one hotel stay and provided the police with all the info I had.

What do you know - a couple of months later, I got a call from a police investigator in another state - he had one of the criminals! He got the info from our police station! The guy was arrested attempting to check into another hotel using someone else's credit card number. I was elated - they usually never catch these folks! They can get your number in so many ways, then just sell it quickly.

The other incident that happened to me was much more serious. Someone used my name and social to open an online checking account in another state. Then of course, they overdrew. I only found out about it months later when I got a collection letter from a collection agency. I again called the police, then put a fraud alert on all my credit bureaus. Once I had the copy of the police report, I forwarded that to one credit bureau to place a 7 year fraud alert - an initial one is only for a few months. Keep a file of everything! Definitely you need a police report.

Sorry this happened. When you contact the credit agencies, contact all 3. Don't trust them to do it for you. Also, don't use a debit card any more. Use credit or cash only! Then you have more protection and the chances of this happening again go down.

Wow! Way to go helping cach one of these slimeballss
I will e calling the credit bureaus today to place a fraud alert and closing some of my online accts.

 

[dd50]

Sorry this happened. When you contact the credit agencies, contact all 3. Don't trust them to do it for you. Also, don't use a debit card any more. Use credit or cash only! Then you have more protection and the chances of this happening again go down.

Excellent advise.

If you do need to use a debit card because you don't believe in cc's or can't handle them my advise would be to have a saving account that isn't connected to your checking. Only keep as much money in checking as you need to clear bills etc. and when you need to place more in to either do it online or call your bank and have them transfer for you.

I am so sorry this happened and glad that it is going to be taken care of quickly. As soon as they find ways to stop the thieves they find new ways to get in.