Warning! We had a theft last week!

[Mystery Fan]

I just called the front desk at Beach Club and they transferred me to security. My story is identical to yours- we stayed at BCV a week ago- the card was in my wallet in my room. Not the card I used to check in with- it was just along as a backup.

I'm Wehavesix's husband, the reason we believe someone came into our room was because the card I used to check-in was on my person at all times and not compromised.

Make sure you contact Orange County Sheriff's office and file a report. They will direct you to their online reporting. This is the website, www.ocso.com.

 

[sunshineNJ]

This happened to me in 2008. Credit Card was always with me. It was used in Disney at different locations and a car service.

 

[Sammie]

This isn't always possible. We have teens that are usually out after we're getting ready for bed. And I get up between 4 and 5 am to go run, so the deadbolt is off then too.

I've had someone walk into our room (at ssr) in the middle of the day when I was doing laundry but everyone else was at the pool (so again, no deadbolt--I planned to take a nap). She was carrying her lunch! So I knew she was just looking for someplace to eat. She had the nerve to be grumpy at ME for being there. "why you no in the park"--no kidding, that's what she said. It was the second incident that trip. We spoke with a manager and have never stayed at ssr again.

It most certainly is possible, maybe inconvenient but possible. Even if someone is coming in later, I never, ever leave the door unbolted. It is your choice between convenience and safety, I always choose safety.

 

[Judique]

Just curious, did you figure this out or did Disney catch them and then notify you?

We just had a CC fraud charge caught by Chase - first time ever. They did try a minimal charge first to test the account, and the larger charge was denied (it was an online purchase and my guess is that they didn't have the security code.)

It certainly has made me more cautious and we've had two businesses have laptops stolen with our info on them in the past couple years. Why any employee is allowed to take a laptop out with thousands of folks SSNs in them and leave them in their car to be stolen is beyond me.

Not the poster you quoted, but - Disney notified me that my credit card info may have been compromised - 9 months after the problem.

 

[tarheelgirl]

Something very similar happened to us in October 2008 at Disney while staying at non DVC property. We had driven down from Georgia and the only stop before arriving at our resort was outside of Savannah. We used an American Express to check into the resort. We stayed for five nights and never used our car at all, we were on property the entire time. We kept our wallets in the room and we only kept our KTTW cards on us when we were out of our room. We did not start using the safe until the second or third day of our trip. We had three cards compromised and they were all three VISAs. (Two of them had not been used in years). We were not aware of any problems during our stay. When we left the resort to drive home we did not stop until we were about three hours outside of Orlando.

When we arrived home that night two of the banks had left a message on our home phone that we had suspicious activity on our account. I told them the must be wrong since no cards were missing from our wallets. On the day we left two of the cards were used at Wal-marts around Orlando. The bank was suspicious because they could tell the card numbers had been manually entered at Wal-mart, not swiped. I confirmed with the banks that the activity was not mine and they blocked the cards and issued us new ones. The bank told me they were having many reports of credit card numbers being stolen from hotel rooms.

I called Disney so they would be aware that this happened. I also let them know that I never thought this was done by anyone associated with Disney. I wondered if someone entered our room while the door was propped open when it was being cleaned. Our room was the last on the hall of interior corridors and was right by the stair exit. I also wondered if the thief was able to scan my DH wallet while it was in his back pocket. The lobby was crowded while we were checking in. Disney security asked me to also file a report with Orange County Sheriff's office. The Sheriff's office told me that this was happening at many resorts in Orlando - not just Disney. Since that trip we always use the safe from day one. We also travel with only one debit card and one credit card. I also think I need to invest in a metal wallet for DH!

 

[Disney Spaz]

So far our credit cards have not been compromised but last week on June 1st we were staying at POFQ and my DD's laptop was stolen out of the room. I know your first thought is why was it in the room when you weren't but I had placed a request for no one to enter the room unless we were present including no maid service. I did this because on the first night we were there my DD and DS said they thought someone had gone through their things while we were at dinner. On the first night nothing was missing but I called the front desk anyway because the kids were uncomfortable. Then the next day nobody enterd the room and everything was all good. When we came back the third night one of the 2 rooms we had was made up by the maid and the laptop was gone. I called Disney security and the Orange County Sheriff's office and filed a report. Disney moved us home to SSR and found out the maid was the only one who entered the room. She was arrested and they are looking into refunding the cost of the laptop.

 

[Belle & Ariel]

It's happened to us 2 times in Florida. Both times cards were locked up in suitcase with combination locks--not the ones with TSA key locks. We also had cash which was undisturbed, so I seriously doubt someone got in the suitcase.
I think they are being scanned at some point.

I have even wondered if driving through the turnpike tollbooths there is capability to scan credit cards the way they "read" sunpass chips. Once we drove to FLL for a cruise and our card was compromised. We had charges hit our account while we were at sea. We did not go to the World that trip.

 

[anna08]

I don't know if this will help anyone, but there are accounts you can have where the credit card number only is good for one use and can't be reused, and you are given another number to use for the next use, etc... My in-laws have one through Citibank and it's all they'll use on the internet. You can't use it for recurring charges - so, for example, on DCL they send your charges through your credit card whenever your OBC exceed $300, but it certainly would cut down on this kind of fraud. Anyone know if WDW charges your card before the final night of your stay?

 

[Chuck S]

I don't know if this will help anyone, but there are accounts you can have where the credit card number only is good for one use and can't be reused, and you are given another number to use for the next use, etc... My in-laws have one through Citibank and it's all they'll use on the internet. You can't use it for recurring charges - so, for example, on DCL they send your charges through your credit card whenever your OBC exceed $300, but it certainly would cut down on this kind of fraud. Anyone know if WDW charges your card before the final night of your stay?

It depends. Any park ticket media is immediately charged out, when charged to the room. Also, any time you hit the key card limits of:

$1500 for DVC and Deluxe
$1000 for Moderates
$500 for Values

your card will be charged out.

 

[dmoore22]

We had a situation where our account had been compromised. It ended up that another individual had an account that had the same digits as ours but a couple of the numbers were in a different order. The individual had reversed a couple of his/her digits thereby withdrawing funds from our account. The bank could never explain how our account was compromised (online transaction) when the individual did not have our password or pin. We received many apologies from the bank.

 

[Disney Bunny]

Several years ago, I happened to catch a fraudulent transaction on the same day it was made against our checking account. There was a $500 withdrawal listed to a bank in California (we don't live there and had only visited once 2 years before). I contacted my bank and was put thru to the fraud department. They were able to tell me that the withdrawal was made by what they called a full magnetic strip scan and pin number entry meaning someone had been able to duplicate the actual card. The card that was compromised was one that my husband carries all the time....the Visa Logo credit card that works with your checking account for either debit or credit transactions. The crazy thing about it is that the only way my husband had ever used the card was for credit transactions where no pin number was required. As he put it, the pin number was locked away and HE didn't even know what it was and had never entered it anywhere that he used the card (never used it for bank withdrawals as our bank also issues another card that he always used for ATM transactions which has a different card number and pin number). Since the bank told us that the pin number is not encrypted on the magnetic strip in any way, we are, over 2 years later, still clueless how someone could have obtained the pin number.

 

[cpbjgc]

It is very true you will likely never know when your card was compromised. Just because your account is being used in Florida does not mean the skim happened there. My brother, who has not been to Florida since he was a child (30+ years ago), has had his card compromised twice, and both times the suspicious charges were run up in Florida.

 

[Geezer]

People can scan cards through pockets, wallets, and purses with the new sophisticated card readers. Some can even do it from their smart phone.

 

[paulh]

We were a BCV a few years ago and there was a couple at the pool with a small child. I was staring out the window and it started to rain. The couple walked over to the clean towels and stuffed a baby carrage full of towels and headed for the parking lot. They were swimming in the quit pool and not even a guest there.

when our kids were young we would use the car to go back to the room as some propertys are quite big and far away from the pool,Also we have pool hopped and would have to go back to our resort when were done.So would stuff everything back in the car
Paul

 

[nonni]

Can this issue be partially addressed by online checkin where you don't give a CC to the front desk? After that we put all CCs in the safe and never use them in Disney. Only the room key is needed.

I'm glad I read this. We were at the World last Dec. and on NY's Eve we got a call from the Fraud Dept. that our card was being used in Arizona. It was my Disney visa and the only time I used it other than our trip was to book a tour at AK three months before we went. We were staying at AK Jambo and I did not do online check-in. I will from now on!

 

[dmoore22]

This thread just jogged my memory. We did have an issue a couple of years ago. Our daughter "lost" her cell phone on Thunder Mountain Railroad. Apparently it popped out of her pocket on one of the bumps. We immediately reported it. The CM at the attraction told us that they walk the tracks each evening to check and see what has been "lost" or dropped on the tracks. We were naive enough to think all Disney employees are honest. We followed procedures like the CM had told us but the phone never turned up. We would dial the number but, alas no answer. Finally, after a downpour. The voice mail no longer responded. We figured it was dead and contacted our provider to report it lost so we could get a replacement. Fortunately we had it insured. When we got our phone bill we noticed that $60 worth of music had been downloaded. I didn't think anything of it since our son tends to do things like that. I then got curious when I noticed a lot of songs downloaded that we already had CDs or had previously downloaded. Then I realized it had been on our daughter's phone number after we had checked out and were on the road home. Needless to say it adversely affected our opinion of Disney CMs. Fortunately our service provider was able to go back and credit our account though the culprit, as far as we know, was never identified.

 

[disneynutz]

People can scan cards through pockets, wallets, and purses with the new sophisticated card readers. Some can even do it from their smart phone.

The only cards that can be scanned without swiping are the cards with the embedded RF chip. Most cards do not have this chip and require that the thief scan the card with a small card reader that fits in the palm of their hand. Everyone should know the type of card that they have and take the proper precautions.

Bill

 

[JennMouse32]

I keep my cards with me at all times

 

[wehavesix]

The only cards that can be scanned without swiping are the cards with the embedded RF chip. Most cards do not have this chip and require that the thief scan the card with a small card reader that fits in the palm of their hand. Everyone should know the type of card that they have and take the proper precautions.

Bill

That's what we learned too. The symbol we were told to look for looks like a wifi symbol like you see at the top of an iPhone or iPad. After learning this, we checked every card we own. None of ours have it. My son has one like that and showed it to me. It said Pulse followed by the wifi symbol turned on it's side. It was on the back of his card.

Our cards had to have been hand scanned. Three separate accounts were hit within hours of each other. Several thousand dollars in charges on all three. One of which was a checking account.

 

[wehavesix]

I keep my cards with me at all times

Smart. We will only take what we are going to use and keep them in our possession from now on. I am going to investigate other ways to secure valuables before our next trip as a back up when we use the pools, etc.