I Was Robbed!

[ltorlo64]

Actually, it was my daughter. Last night I answered the phone at about 7:30 and it is our credit union for my daughter. Handed her the phone and about a minute later she says she needs to check her credit card usage as the credit union has noticed unusual activity. She checks and someone had bought gas with her credit card so she called the credit union. While she was on the phone with the credit union the guy helping her was watching new charges get added to the account, but by then it had been blocked. It looks like only one charge actually made it through before she called and that will be taken off. We are in the DC area and all the charges were in Texas. Not quite sure how someone got my daughter's credit card number but I am glad for the credit union watching usage.

[El Jefe]

Actually, it was my daughter. Last night I answered the phone at about 7:30 and it is our credit union for my daughter. Handed her the phone and about a minute later she says she needs to check her credit card usage as the credit union has noticed unusual activity. She checks and someone had bought gas with her credit card so she called the credit union. While she was on the phone with the credit union the guy helping her was watching new charges get added to the account, but by then it had been blocked. It looks like only one charge actually made it through before she called and that will be taken off. We are in the DC area and all the charges were in Texas. Not quite sure how someone got my daughter's credit card number but I am glad for the credit union watching usage.

Thieves are everywhere, and computerized commerce in some ways makes it easier for the perps. Its just good that it was discovered quickly.

[alismith]

You (your daughter) were lucky all the way around. My guess would be that someone hacked something off the internet and got her card number and other relevant info (it could be from a hacked site she deals with, too). Does she use her credit card, much, on the Internet?

[l921428x]

this is why you have a credit card instead of a debit card. my info was stolen 2 times in a year, a while back, and it is scary! lifelock is a couple of hundred a year and well worth the cost for some piece of mind.
I live in ga and the card was used in ny.

I am really glad this was caught early, it can become a nightmare.

[ltorlo64]

You (your daughter) were lucky all the way around. My guess would be that someone hacked something off the internet and got her card number and other relevant info (it could be from a hacked site she deals with, too). Does she use her credit card, much, on the Internet?

I don't think so. If she does it is limited to Amazon.

[ltorlo64]

Thieves are everywhere, and computerized commerce in some ways makes it easier for the perps. Its just good that it was discovered quickly.

My wife checkes our credit card usage everyday to make sure there is nothing unusual on it. My daughter and I were actually sort of laughing about this over the weekend. I guess we won't be laughing now!

[Richard Simmons]

Might not have been your daughter if a friend or coworker has access to her purse, cc, etc. Perhaps she let a friend us her cc for a purchase on a website that has questionable security. She didn't shop at Home Depot earlier this year did she, perhaps a Father Day gift?

[CigarGuy]

Chase has an alert that they send me via email as soon as there is any activity. Most times the alert is on my
phone before I've left the store. Don't all CC companies do that?

[FunkyPertwee]

This happened to me a few years ago. Thankfully the bank caught it and removed the purchases that were made by the thief.

[Krupski]

Actually, it was my daughter. Last night I answered the phone at about 7:30 and it is our credit union for my daughter. Handed her the phone and about a minute later she says she needs to check her credit card usage as the credit union has noticed unusual activity. She checks and someone had bought gas with her credit card so she called the credit union. While she was on the phone with the credit union the guy helping her was watching new charges get added to the account, but by then it had been blocked. It looks like only one charge actually made it through before she called and that will be taken off. We are in the DC area and all the charges were in Texas. Not quite sure how someone got my daughter's credit card number but I am glad for the credit union watching usage.


That happened to me about a year ago. My debit card (I don't use credit cards) got drained dry by someone buying gasoline in.... FRANCE!

I've never been to France! Anyway, the bank reversed the charges and I had to sign a statement that it wasn't me that made the charges.

The bank watches usage quite closely. I once tried to pay for an item being shipped out of the UK and it wouldn't go through. Then a minute later the phone rings, the bank asking if I am trying to make that purchase. When I told them I was, the second attempt went through.

[Krupski]

this is why you have a credit card instead of a debit card. my info was stolen 2 times in a year, a while back, and it is scary! lifelock is a couple of hundred a year and well worth the cost for some piece of mind.
I live in ga and the card was used in ny.

I am really glad this was caught early, it can become a nightmare.

Wasn't me! :)

[Penguin]

This has happened to me before. The Credit union was very helpful. Luckily I caught it pretty quick which helped. I got that steightened out.

[LAGC]

My wife checkes our credit card usage everyday to make sure there is nothing unusual on it.

That's basically the best thing you can do. I have one credit card that I use for online purchases (2% cashback) and another I use only for gas (5% cashback). About a year ago, on a whim I just happened to check my account activity on the card that I use for online purchases, and noticed two pending charges: one for like 98¢ and then another for like several hundred dollars. I immediately called the card company and told them I had no idea what those charges were, as I hadn't even used my card in several days. They explained that the 98¢ charge was likely hackers trying random credit card numbers against a hacked online storefront credit card processing software until they found a number that worked. Once the hackers confirmed it worked, they proceeded to make a big ticket purchase to make sure that went through. After that, the fraud representative told me: the sky is the limit. If I hadn't caught it, they would have likely proceeded to make a bunch of other big ticket charges -- as many as they could get away with -- until they were finally detected and shut down. Sadly, most of these assholes operate overseas, so it's hard to ever bring them to justice.

One thing you have to be real careful about these days are credit card skimmers (credit card swipers/interceptors that thieves affix on top of the real swipers on gas pumps) -- some of them are very realistic looking, not conspicuous at all. So if you see anything different on your usual gas pump, check another pump to make sure, or ask the clerk if they just recently upgraded their hardware. This is mainly a concern at places that aren't open 24/7. Because thieves install such devices in the middle of the night when the store is closed. So 24/7 pumps tend to be less likely to be targeted, since there's always a clerk on duty and customers who might notice them installing it.

I did just have an incident last month where I tried to order a $200 hard drive from an online photography store in New York. The credit card company anti-fraud software thought that was suspicious, so they stopped the transaction and froze my account until I saw an e-mail from them, confirming if it was really a legitimate purchase by me, which then let it through. Kind of annoying, but better safe than sorry, I guess.

[Krupski]

That's basically the best thing you can do. I have one credit card that I use for online purchases (2% cashback) and another I use only for gas (5% cashback)

You DO realize that "cash back" is nothing more than an absurdly high interest loan, don't you?

[LAGC]

You DO realize that "cash back" is nothing more than an absurdly high interest loan, don't you?

Not if you pay your credit cards off every month and don't carry a balance. ;)

(Or keep utilizing introductory 0% APR for 12 months, transferring balances from card to card. But you got to be careful and not get too carried away.)

[tank_monkey]

You DO realize that "cash back" is nothing more than an absurdly high interest loan, don't you?

DOH!!!! you're confusing CASH BACK with CASH ADVANCE. Cash back is a percentage the CC gives you as a rebate for using the card on certain purchases. It's not a loan, it's a cash rebate. The only thing I'm not sure about if the IRS considers it income, since you're essentially getting a small refund on your purchase. I once redeemed almost $700 on a cc statement (and yes, I always pay off the full balance each month).

[Richard Simmons]

To the OP. Is it possible your daughter used her CC online while on wi-fi at some place like Starbucks? I've heard places like that with free wi-fi can be problematic but don't know for sure.

[ltorlo64]

To the OP. Is it possible your daughter used her CC online while on wi-fi at some place like Starbucks? I've heard places like that with free wi-fi can be problematic but don't know for sure.

She doesn't do a lot of on-line shopping, mostly at department stores. I expect that in one of the recent big hacks she just happened to be one of the millions of cards gotten. We hear about the big names, Target, Home Depot, but in each one there were other companies using the same services that are not mentioned, or mentioned in passing.

[1 Patriot-of-many]

My bank almost cost me $6100 when I won the M936A2 wrecker and they denied the charge. Had I not seen the email from Govliquidiation I'd been on the hook for the money and watching the wrecker go back on the block. The solution to this problem of fraud is to make the penalties severe and enforced, like say prompt execution IMO.