My credit card got skimmed and sold!!

[CrzyforPiglet]

I still can't believe it. Last night before shutting off my phone I saw and e-mail from my credit card company saying I needed to call them ASAP re: possible fraud charges. I actually thought it was a phishing e-mail so I logged onto my account on-line and sure enough there was a big red notice saying the same thing - call card security NOW! I called and found out that someone had gotten a hold of my number and charged close to $2,000 of services and merchandise in Brooklyn, NY (we live in MI) within 2 days. I was floored - the rep said that b/c the charges were in store and not online that someone must have skimmed my card, copied the info to a blank one and sold it. Luckily I'm not responsible for any of the charges but I still feel so violated. I don't use this card that much so its not hard to look at the charges and track where I would have been that the card had been out of my sight (as opposed to swiping it in front of me) and of the last two months the only place someone actually took the card from me was a local chain restaurant. DH says it could have happened earlier than that but I'm not so sure. I'm also angry at all the businesses that took a blank credit card - I guess they'll learn a lesson when they don't get their money but it is still all of us who will pay for it with higher prices. I hate to say it but some people just really suck.

 

[jmartinez1895]

I am thankful that you did not have to pay for these items. It is very unnerving to think that things like this happen all the time. A few years ago we got a call from our card comp. Some one was trying to charge a huge amount and they where just calling to see if it was us or not.

 

[mafibisha]

So sorry to hear that. Yeah people can definitely suck

Were you using it as a Debit card?

We never let our debit card leave our sight because we've heard exactly what you experienced. Glad you're not responsible for the charges!

 

[Marionnette]

Credit card skimming can happen right under your nose. Disney had a problem with this at SSR a couple of years ago. A cast member was skimming card information right at the check in desk. Hundreds of guests got the notification months after their stay.

OP, I'm glad your CC company flagged your account early. It could have been much worse!

 

[3boymthr]

I still can't believe it. Last night before shutting off my phone I saw and e-mail from my credit card company saying I needed to call them ASAP re: possible fraud charges. I actually thought it was a phishing e-mail so I logged onto my account on-line and sure enough there was a big red notice saying the same thing - call card security NOW! I called and found out that someone had gotten a hold of my number and charged close to $2,000 of services and merchandise in Brooklyn, NY (we live in MI) within 2 days. I was floored - the rep said that b/c the charges were in store and not online that someone must have skimmed my card, copied the info to a blank one and sold it. Luckily I'm not responsible for any of the charges but I still feel so violated. I don't use this card that much so its not hard to look at the charges and track where I would have been that the card had been out of my sight (as opposed to swiping it in front of me) and of the last two months the only place someone actually took the card from me was a local chain restaurant. DH says it could have happened earlier than that but I'm not so sure. I'm also angry at all the businesses that took a blank credit card - I guess they'll learn a lesson when they don't get their money but it is still all of us who will pay for it with higher prices. I hate to say it but some people just really suck.

With so many places where the person swipes the cc and the store never looks at it I'm totally not surprised that could happen - I can name at least 50 times in the last month where I've swiped my card and no one has ever asked to look at it. But then again it may not have been a "blank" credit card. All they have to do is attach a magnetic strip to a real cc. So it could look legitimate with their name and info on it.

 

[dawson5]

Our hometown grocery store always asks to see my card when I use it as credit. They look to make sure the name is imprinted and check that the signatures match. This isn't occasionally, it's every time. Also, I am the one who scans it.

I had an email from our bank back in November, on a Friday, that someone tried using our card in PA. I was grateful they denied it, but then I thought about it for a sec--we have overdraft protection and had plenty of money in the account at that time to cover it also... I still wonder why it was denied, grateful still, but wonder what triggered the decline. I am the paranoid one in our family. My card does not leave my possession. It's in my pocket, I won't even put it in a wallet in my purse.

 

[mafibisha]

Credit card skimming can happen right under your nose. Disney had a problem with this at SSR a couple of years ago. A cast member was skimming card information right at the check in desk. Hundreds of guests got the notification months after their stay.

OP, I'm glad your CC company flagged your account early. It could have been much worse!

Thats awful - and to think it happened at our perfect sad2: LOL) WDW!

So can you - or someone - explain how skimming works please. Its not checking to see who signed it. (although it can be stolen and used that way)

Isn't skimming when the number is stolen by a technique within the scanner?

 

[FLmomof2]

Wow~ This just happened to my MIL the day we got to Disney last week. Someone swiped her card in IL and she is in MA. 3 days in a row totaling around $1000. UNREAL that people do this and get away with it.

 

[ADKSPiette]

How violating. I'm glad to hear you're not responsibile for the charges.

I guess I shouldn't make fun of DH anymore for being vigilient in reviewing the credit card account online ALL THE TIME!!

 

[CrzyforPiglet]

Thats awful - and to think it happened at our perfect sad2: LOL) WDW!

So can you - or someone - explain how skimming works please. Its not checking to see who signed it. (although it can be stolen and used that way)

Isn't skimming when the number is stolen by a technique within the scanner?

From what I've seen on TV the thief has a handheld device that they basically swipe your card through and it stores your information then they can take a blank "credit card" swipe it through the same machine and transfer your info to the other and voila someone has a shopping spree. The security dept. for my CC did say they almost always sell the fake card to someone out of state so that they're harder to catch. I know my thief definitely had a good time with my info - they got themselves a designer handbag and expensive make-up in addition to everything else

 

[dawson5]

Thats awful - and to think it happened at our perfect sad2: LOL) WDW!

So can you - or someone - explain how skimming works please. Its not checking to see who signed it. (although it can be stolen and used that way)

Isn't skimming when the number is stolen by a technique within the scanner?

http://consumerist.com/2009/04/heres-what-a-card-skimmer-looks-like-on-an-atm.html

My point was that it's verified, you wouldn't be able to use a blank card, at my local grocery.

Have a friend who was in the banking industry, she said there were some waiters/waitresses who had them in their shirts. You could watch them go to ring you out, nothing would seem amiss.

 

[sydneysmom]

I totally feel for you !! I work at a major high end retail store..... my store credit card was skimmed and the people charged $ 3700 !! I found out from our Internal Fraud Dept, thankfully. Otherwise, I wouldn't have known until the bill came, but fortunately, we're all in the same Corporate building, so they knew me and called me.

What I found out was, they think that during that big Epsilon email hacking, not too long ago, more information was compromised than they originally thought. It's very scary and very upsetting.

The best advice that I got from our Fraud Dept.... go out to www.annualcreditreport.com and pull your credit reports from the 3 credit bureaus. You are entitled to run your credit reports, for free, once a year. You can also put an alert on your social security number so that it's flagged and that information cannot be used to open new accounts. You want to make sure that no other information was compromised. I went out there, put a security alert on my social security number and flagged myself. So that way, IF someone got my social security number, they couldn't open any new accounts w/ my information. (without me being notified by the credit bureaus first). It was peace of mind.
Fortunately, no other information was compromised except that one card.

 

[magicbride2b]

Crazy thing....I live in Sterling Heights, MI and this happened to my credit card 2 weeks ago. I received and email from chase as well as a text and thought it was a scam...wrong. They were charging gas in New Jersey for a couple of days on it.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

You have to be careful where you use the card. For example the atm inside of a gas station is usually owned by a 3rd party company so who knows how well out info is guarded.
Handing it over to a server at a restaruant who could swipe a card to a device they have which records your info and then they sell the info.

Now they are able to record your cc info by just being close to your wallet and using a device to electronically record your info.

 

[seashoreCM]

It would be wise for the real bank or credit card company not to put their phone number in email messages and not to put links to their web site in email messages. Because the customer should not be calling number found there and should not be clicking on links found there.

 

[KrysiaG]

I have had my CC # stolen twice in the last 5 years (not skimming, these were online purchases). It sucks, but it is SOOO common these days.

 

[SandrA9810]

Have a friend who was in the banking industry, she said there were some waiters/waitresses who had them in their shirts. You could watch them go to ring you out, nothing would seem amiss.

This is one reason why I like Fridays (I'm fairly sure it's them), they have the mini wrist computers, so the waiter/waitress scans the card automatically in front of you without ever leaving your sight.

 

[snow88]

Our hometown grocery store always asks to see my card when I use it as credit. They look to make sure the name is imprinted and check that the signatures match. This isn't occasionally, it's every time. Also, I am the one who scans it.

I had an email from our bank back in November, on a Friday, that someone tried using our card in PA. I was grateful they denied it, but then I thought about it for a sec--we have overdraft protection and had plenty of money in the account at that time to cover it also... I still wonder why it was denied, grateful still, but wonder what triggered the decline. I am the paranoid one in our family. My card does not leave my possession. It's in my pocket, I won't even put it in a wallet in my purse.

My bank calls 1. if there are charges higher than normal 2. If it's in another country 3. If it is a business that I haven't used before (like online charges).
I have to tell them what dates I am out of the country and where I will be so they don't lock my card. This applies to the debit card as well. I tell them if I will be using the debit card as well as the credit card so they can enter that information for the credit card department.

The only problem that I ever had was when I bought the Disney stock for my son and the company that handled the information lost my information. I got a new credit card to be on the safe side.

I love my bank for all of these safety measures do make a difference.

 

[snow88]

It would be wise for the real bank or credit card company not to put their phone number in email messages and not to put links to their web site in email messages. Because the customer should not be calling number found there and should not be clicking on links found there.

I'm surprised by this too because normally a link like that is a way to steal more information.

 

[ShelsGoingToDisney]

Our Discover card # was stolen about a month ago. I noticed online when I checked my account there were a large number of gas purchases for very high amounts in TX (we live in NE). They immediately canceled the card and issued a new one and took care of it all. I figured it was some type of skimmer too but a couple days later there was a story on our local news that some computer hackers in Eastern Europe had hacked into the computer systems of several businesses in our county and got CC#'s that way. Lesson being it isn't always skimmers.

This is the 3rd time it has happened with our Discover card over the last 10 years. What was different this time was I noticed before they did. In the past they noticed right away and canceled card and called me. Much more was charged this time around. I am just thankful I don't have to pay for it!