The Glade 4.0

The bank called me. Someone got my debit card #, made a fake card, and attempted to use it at a Safeway in Davis California sometime yesterday. Their purchase for $246 was denied by my bank because of the location....my bank knows we are in Mississippi.

How the heck did they get my number?? And they made a fake card?? I really hope this is the end of it. The only think I have bought online was pizza from Dominos and that was yesterday...hmmm...

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"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Jesus of Nazareth

I have no idea, I received a credit card in the mail from my bank and it just sat there for 2 months before I activated it. Not two days later (without me having used it) someone tried to charge ~$500 on Post-it-Notes in Italy.

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Did you activate it online, Hop?

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"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Jesus of Nazareth

Nope, telephone.

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Wow thats pretty freaky.

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"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Jesus of Nazareth

!@$%@$#%!@$%!# I just had a nice long post about this, and was switching between windows to give you more info, and click on the little red X instead of the tab, closing it. Crap, I hate that.

Anyway, this is exactly what happened to me a couple of years ago. I would strongly suggest canceling the card and getting a new number. Kind of surprised your bank or credit union hasn't done that already. I would think that more charges are on there way through, given the delay. I was looking at my account on a Sunday night, and saw charges from a couple of days before start showing up, as I was on the account. It was eery, especially since they were from Mexico City, where I have never been.

What will probably happen is that you will forget about this, and in six months or so you'll read about someone at a restaurant or store who got caught stealing numbers. That's what happened to us; we had been to a Hamburger Hamlet in the middle of 2006, and the ID theft showed up later that year. Then, in the middle of 2007, I heard about this:



I sincerely hope she go the jail time. $12K for this does not seem an adequate punishment. Maybe being just stupid enough to do something like this is punishment enough, I dunno.

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This cold and dark tormented hell
Is all I`ll ever know
So when you get to heaven
May the devil be the judge

That really sucks. I'm glad your bank's on top of it though.

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Holy shitsnacks!

Aethien: Dude. I hate that too. Its usually after I've spent 20 min typing the perfect response...then I'm so frustrated I either don't reply at all or just one or two lines.
(I wonder how many great works of literature have been accidentally deleted and never recreated?)

Anyway, yes, my bank's monitoring service called to ask me about 5 transactions. 4 of them I verified as mine and the 5th was the imposter. They cut the card off immediately while I was on the phone with them and I ordered a new one.

I can't believe people are stealing stuff like that...I really hope they catch whoever did this. I'm guessing its either someone online or someone local who is selling the numbers to someone else.

So you had this happen to you to? That really sucks. Thanks for the tips and the advice. We will be monitoring our account very carefully...which my husband already does, but even more so now. Thanks.

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"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Jesus of Nazareth

Card skimming can be done from virtually any machine, this is why it's better to use cash, well for me personally. Also I avoid using my pin and opt for the signing option just cause I dont' want them to get my pin and access my online accounts.

Also I pay $5 a month for insurance just in case. Now that my card is linked to my mortgage I'm totally paranoid.

many attorneys I know that deal with these issues will tell you straight out to cancel and destroy your debit cards as generally the worst option when it comes to paying for items.

Does this include debit cards that can be used as credit cards? My debit card has a Visa logo, so I can use it as a credit card (but it still comes straight out of my account). When I buy gas, for instance, I always choose the "credit" option, if I can, so I don't have to put in my PIN. That being said, if they have the number of the card, they can use it as a credit card, too, but at least they can't directly access the account and withdraw money.



LK - yup, happened to me. It sucked big time, and the total charges were less than $500. I can't imagine getting hosed for thousands. For some reason, that night, I was looking at my account online, maybe balancing the check book or something. I noticed a charge from a sushi restaurant, so I asked my wife, "Did you get sushi a few days ago?" She said no, and I became suspicious. Then I noticed that the sushi restaurant was in Mexico City. I said, "And, I'll bet you weren't in Mexico City recently, either, were you?!" I hit refresh, and a few more transactions came up. That was really disturbing.

I would imagine that not so many great works of literature have been typed up as messages on a board that doesn't have a Save function. RTSO.

_________________
This cold and dark tormented hell
Is all I`ll ever know
So when you get to heaven
May the devil be the judge

I had my banks fraud department call me last week, the very day I used it to buy gas. I decided to use the credit feature instead of the debit...but here in Arizona, at gas pumps, it asks for your ZIP code instead of a PIN when you use credit. I miss-entered one number, and wound up having to go inside. Mildly annoyed, but I didn't think all that much of it. Signed for the gas, went on home and straight to bed.

They called me 3 hours later to verify the purchase.

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Women are from Hoboken, men are from Trenton. ~ Jimmy Kimmel

I feel ya. It is a sucky feeling to be sure.

I am so scared for my credit right now because of the ID thief who has all of my info.

I know right where you're coming from.

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This must be Thursday. I could never get the hang of Thursdays.

Colphax:

I'll trade you your minor annoyance of walking into the store to complete the purchase for my months of paperwork to clear my credit and ensure the five fraudulent accounts the ID thief opened are closed and off of my credit report.

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This must be Thursday. I could never get the hang of Thursdays.

Now that they seem to be embedding those stupid RFid chips in cards I am just waiting for someone to build small reader that can be carried through a checkout line scanning wallets and picking up the numbers.

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You forgot the huge annoyance of them waking him up by calling him while he is trying to sleep....poor Colphax never gets any sleep.

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"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Jesus of Nazareth

Yes, it does. It has to do with the protections that are required to be offered to credit card holders vs. debit card holders with regard to liability for fraudulent charges.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Yeah, that...trust me, Foamy, I feel for ya. You too, LK. What you guys are going through kinda puts it into a new perspective for me.

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Women are from Hoboken, men are from Trenton. ~ Jimmy Kimmel

Huh, OK, thanks. Should probably just destroy all plastic and live in a cave, I guess.

_________________
This cold and dark tormented hell
Is all I`ll ever know
So when you get to heaven
May the devil be the judge