Finally got hit - I was wondering when this would ever happen

woodstock

woodstock

Final Approach
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Yep, my credit card (the only credit card I have) that I have had with my credit union for 21 years, no problems... was used fraudulently. Kudos to my credit union for immediately catching it - especially given all the travel I do, and have done lately. Someone in the UK tried to dine at Pizza Hut and my CU turned it down on the spot. When you consider that I just got back from Vienna, it's not a stretch to think that I could be in the UK and still they caught it.

Somehow the ten bucks someone tried to spend at some elder care place made it through, but they flagged it as suspicious and that will be reverted.

Dang it. I have had the number memorized forever, and now I gotta re-do everything. Even my fitness club membership has an auto-renew on my CC. Grumble.

I have to ask - if you are going to steal a CC, why the heck would you use it for PIZZA HUT and then ten bucks for elder care? My robbers are boring.
 
I have only gotten hit once in all the travel I do as well. They bank caught it and reversed the charge then notified me. So there was no issue to me as well.
 
It makes me wonder if I should have two credit cards. One for internet-only purchases, and the other for regular day to day, gasoline, stores, etc. If I were on vacation this would tick me off because I wouldn't have the card.
 
I got nailed 20 years ago with about $2,000 of charges for electronics paid for with my Amex number - that I closed and cut up 1 year earlier. It took my own investigation and about 4 months before Amex admiitted it was fraudulent and reversed it. I will never use them again.

Since then, I usually get a new number when I renew my one credit card, precisely for this reason. Too many people see this number and can use it. (i.e. when you hand it to a vendor and it's out of your control, what's to keep them from noting the number, expiration date, and the 3-digit number on the back?)

I've also been with LifeLock for a couple years, and have a little more piece of mind.
 
Some credit card companies will issue you virtual one time use numbers to use for online purchases. That way if the number gets scraped during an online "secure" purchase, and it's attempted to be used again it will be denied.
 
I use my card all the time for online stuff and have never had a problem. The one issues that I did have was most likely a CC number skimmer at a restaurant.
 
a month or two ago my email got hacked, sending messages to everyone i knew that i was in africa and needed money western unioned to Nigeria.

then i had charges on my CC to the Gap, Everlast boxing gloves, and a baby boomer dating website. called visa and cancelled the card, stopped at the bank and got a new one. it was pretty painless to get the everlast charges reversed, the lady was really nice on the phone. the baby boomer website figured it out right away and reversed the charges before i had a chance to call them. Teh Gap actually mailed me a package with whatever this person ordered. I refused the shipment and when they got it back they refunded me too.

Leah bought a christmas gift the other day that got flagged as fraud. i think she ordered it from somewhere in the UK
 
nddons said:
It took my own investigation and about 4 months before Amex admiitted it was fraudulent and reversed it. I will never use them again.
Click to expand...

My mom had troubles with Amex too. Someone kept repeatedly ordering new cards then attempting to intercept the package before it reached us. They had it sent by UPS (to big for our mail slot) and tried to arrive shortly after the truck. One day they rang our doorbell seconds after the truck pulled off claiming to be from Amex and needed us to hand the cards back to them. Needless to say, we no longer have Amex.

I've also been with LifeLock for a couple years, and have a little more piece of mind.
Click to expand...

Would be willing to share your SS with us?:wink2::D:D
 
Pi1otguy said:
My mom had troubles with Amex too. Someone kept repeatedly ordering new cards then attempting to intercept the package before it reached us. They had it sent by UPS (to big for our mail slot) and tried to arrive shortly after the truck. One day they rang our doorbell seconds after the truck pulled off claiming to be from Amex and needed us to hand the cards back to them. Needless to say, we no longer have Amex.



Would be willing to share your SS with us?:wink2::D:D
Click to expand...

I hate AMEX and haven't used them personally for 12 years. I don't like that I have to use it for work, but it's their problem.
 
I bought vacuum pumps from a company in the S.E. for a number of years using a credit card. One of their employees was buying pizza on our card too. I hope they tipped well and enjoyed! The owner of the company took swift action and it hasn't happened again.

Kevin
 
kmead said:
I bought vacuum pumps from a company in the S.E. for a number of years using a credit card. One of their employees was buying pizza on our card too. I hope they tipped well and enjoyed! The owner of the company took swift action and it hasn't happened again.

Kevin
Click to expand...
[FACEPALM!!]

We had a guy at our company who was in the ordering department that would take orders from customers and then ship them what they ordered plus a full and equal amount of product to his house. The customer would pay double and then he would resell the items. He was earning maybe $30k in salary yet lived in a $250,000 house, had a new car every year and bragged of never wearing clothes more than once. It took 5 years before anyone noticed [Double FacePalm]
 
ScottM said:
The AmEx black card is pretty nice.
Click to expand...
I am taking my family of 5 to Hawaii next summer, compliments of AMEX. I can't complain. The one time someone in California tried to buy a big-screen TV at WalMart using my card, I got a call, the charge was not applied to my account, and I had two new cards the next day.
 
BofA has replaced one of my cards twice in the past year when they've detected fraudulent activity. Most recently a month ago. Annoying as I have automatic renewals going to that card as well. Plus I have to set up a new account on the on-line bill payer service each time. Oh well.

And Amex? My corporate card is from them. Not my choice. I had an Amex Optima card 15 years ago. Had a number of charges made to it in the Beaverton Oregon area shortly after I moved there. The card had never left my wallet and the bills were still being sent to my address in California (wife and kids there to finish the school year). It was like pulling teeth to get Amex to reverse the charges. I cancelled the account and will never deal with them again for a personal card.
 
woodstock said:
I have to ask - if you are going to steal a CC, why the heck would you use it for PIZZA HUT and then ten bucks for elder care? My robbers are boring.
Click to expand...

It's to see if the card will work and be shut down due to fraud controls in place.

I used to get mine shut off all the time. However, my travel itinerary can often include stops of up to 3 or 4 stops in different cities and different states on the same day. That can go sometimes for about 12 to 14 days at a time. It took over 3 years before my travel profile seemed to become accepted by the issuing bank. Lots of repeated phone calls.

Now I go online every night to check the card activity. That card has basically no fraud control. So I have to act as my own fraud control mechanism.

I was hit with fraud about 10 years ago using an AMEX card. It took almost 6 months to resolve. That is the worst company by far to have a business relationship with. i wouldn't utilize that company again if it was the last one on earth.
 
woodstock said:
I have to ask - if you are going to steal a CC, why the heck would you use it for PIZZA HUT and then ten bucks for elder care? My robbers are boring.
Click to expand...

My card numbers have been used fraudulently twice in the last 10 years. Both times my CC company flagged it and called me. They cancelled the cards, and sent me new ones right away.

The CC folks said it's normal for crooks to make a small charge first, just to make sure the number works. Then they'll use it for buying thousands of dollars of stuff on the next purchase. In my case (I can't remember what happend the first time) they used it for a $2 purchase, found out it was good, then bought something like $2500 of stuff from an Apple store.

The biggest inconvenience we had was that our bill-paying software still continued to paye our CC bill with the old credit card number on it because we had forgotten to change the number there. We got a couple of calls from the CC company asking us to please change it. Oh, and the CC number I had on file at the FBO didn't work anymore, either.

edit: D'oh! I don't type fast enough, both previous posts say pretty much what I just said.
 
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woodstock said:
Dang it. I have had the number memorized forever, and now I gotta re-do everything. Even my fitness club membership has an auto-renew on my CC. Grumble.

I have to ask - if you are going to steal a CC, why the heck would you use it for PIZZA HUT and then ten bucks for elder care? My robbers are boring.
Click to expand...


I've had an account swiped. The CC company caught it immediately. They explained that the crooks will buy a low dollar item at a low security location to test the account.

In my case they bought a pair of cheap sunglasses at a mall kiosk (which went through) then walked over to buy a laptop (which was flagged and stopped).
 
You had the same card number for 21 years?! AND, you travel extensively! That has to be a record.

What will happen as fraud escalates yet further? Will we:
-see further security features on cards like photos, fingerprints, and some kind of print scanner on the phone?
-all have to check our account every night like someone posted?
-find the costs associated with fraud and fraud prevention get so high that our buying will change, or we will come up with some new, more secure form of payment?
-what else?
 
woodstock said:
Yep, my credit card (the only credit card I have) that I have had with my credit union for 21 years, no problems... was used fraudulently.
Click to expand...

Phew. For a second there when I saw the title, I thought it was you and Hanna Belle who got hit! :eek::cryin:
 
woodstock said:
I hate AMEX and haven't used them personally for 12 years. I don't like that I have to use it for work, but it's their problem.
Click to expand...
I just had my company AMEX denied at a gas station in a little town in Kansas. The attendant said it was probably because I was traveling. No kidding.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
You had the same card number for 21 years?! AND, you travel extensively! That has to be a record.

What will happen as fraud escalates yet further? Will we:
-see further security features on cards like photos, fingerprints, and some kind of print scanner on the phone?
-all have to check our account every night like someone posted?
-find the costs associated with fraud and fraud prevention get so high that our buying will change, or we will come up with some new, more secure form of payment?
-what else?
Click to expand...

We have fingerprint-reading timeclocks in our facility now. The associates don't have any other sort of swipe card to 'forget' at home. The come in, put their thumb on the timeclock, punch in their PIN, and they are clocked in. Time will tell about the durablity of the readers.

How about an implanted RFID chip that contains your account info? Checkouts have a RFID reader that you simply wave your hand past a la Jedi style "This is not the droid you are looking for".

How about a revolving credit card number? You have a keychain fob (or something similar) that constantly rotates a set of digits based on a predetermined algorighm. You have your 'standard' credit card number, but your PIN actually changes every 5 minutes or so. When buying something, you swipe your credit card (or key it in from memory), but then have to enter your PIN, which is displayed on your keychain fob. The PIN is sent to a central server which checks your card number against your PIN algorithm. This way, the crooks have to 1.) Know your card number and 2.) Have immediate access to your rotating PIN device.
 
tonycondon said:
are you in wichita?
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I am. I'm sitting in the Citation Cafe right now, looking at the airplanes parked in front of the service center. I'll be here over the weekend but I don't think I am done until about 7pm most days. I'll look up my schedule when I get back to class.
 
I've had my credit cards cloned 3 times in the past 3 years. It gets pretty annoying when that happens. (My corporate visa card was stolen within 1 hour of the first time I used it ever -- it was pretty easy to identify which restaurant had the skimmer...)

I have had nothing but great experience with AMEX. When I moved to the US from Canada, they were willing to give me a card when nobody else was. Every time I call them they have never put me on hold, and always take care of anything I ask them to promptly and competently, at any hour of the day. They spot fraud before I do, and FedEx me a replacement card the next day. Their web site is easy to use. In short, their customer service puts the service of every other bank I've dealt with to shame. Even when I was a F1 visa grad student making <$20k per year.

The only thing they do which annoys me -- they constantly send me ads asking me to "upgrade" to "better" cards which include fees (as opposed to my current card, which they pay me to carry), and offer ill-defined benefits. I might consider these cards if they actually told me _what I get_ instead of trying to tempt me with fancy coloured chips of plastic...

Chris

(CitiBank, on the other hand -- if I never had to do business with those folks again I'd be thrilled.)
 
$10 is huge. They did a $0.14 charge to test mine.
Now-a-days I use my CC just incase I'm skimmed. I rarely visit my bank and losing access to my funds via ATM is a huge deal.
 
I stopped using my debit card for anything a long time ago. Not even sure why I carry it, although I guess it's a backup just in case.

I don't like to use the CC for restaurants, but on this trip I did. I wonder if that is what did it in...
 
woodstock said:
. Even my fitness club membership has an auto-renew on my CC.
Click to expand...
I just had to cancel all my cards since I lost my wallet. My fitness club membership charge tried to go through the day after and it was rejected. It was $38.

The fitness club wants me to pay them $58 now. I plan to battle that with them tomorrow.
 
And I got my new card today. It has the new pay-wave feature on it...

I'm still cheesed that I have to memorize a new 16 digit number now. Or 12, rather, since the first four are the same.
 
woodstock said:
Yep, my credit card (the only credit card I have) that I have had with my credit union for 21 years, no problems... was used fraudulently. Kudos to my credit union for immediately catching it - especially given all the travel I do, and have done lately. Someone in the UK tried to dine at Pizza Hut and my CU turned it down on the spot. When you consider that I just got back from Vienna, it's not a stretch to think that I could be in the UK and still they caught it.

Somehow the ten bucks someone tried to spend at some elder care place made it through, but they flagged it as suspicious and that will be reverted.

Dang it. I have had the number memorized forever, and now I gotta re-do everything. Even my fitness club membership has an auto-renew on my CC. Grumble.

I have to ask - if you are going to steal a CC, why the heck would you use it for PIZZA HUT and then ten bucks for elder care? My robbers are boring.
Click to expand...

Is there a way your CC company can forward a message??

I think it would be hilarious to sent them an email saying that not only are they stupid criminals, but that they're unimaginative and are made of fail on every level. :rofl:
 
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