stolen identity

[druid w/stick]

Finally got hit. Someone got my credit card number, but failed in to make use of it. Company refused the purchase. Lucky! I had purchased an onieda osprey bow for bowfishing direct from the company. Had to go thru paypal. Received bow everything great. Two days after bow purchase, I ordered more parts from AWS. Received everything , great.
Two weeks later, card company notifies me about attempt to use card that raised red flag. I called and confirmed that it was not me . $640 for tennis shoes.
So card is cancelled and new one to be sent, Everything fine, right?
Nope!
Get new card. Wife activates them and put them up. One week later, get another call from card company. Another declined purchase. this for $104 for art supplies. Lucky again.
The cards had never been used! I asked how possible to agent. She had no idea. Maybe they had my ss#. Okay but this had to be done thru the card company.

Still trying to figure what to do. Joined lifelock. Have new card coming, what's next?
Any ideas?
Thanks Greg

[Robinhood]

Change banks and CC company. It is an inside job.

[JeepsAndGuns]

I read this online somewhere, so take it with a grain of salt. But I have heard about scammers making a computer program to randomly generate a group of number the correct length for a credit card number, then then try to make a charge with it and it does not work, on to the next number. Statistically, they should get a hit every now and then, considering how many credit cards there are out there.

It happened to me to last year. My CC card company caught a charge of $600 and something and flagged it before it went through. I was not happy it happened, but was glad they were able to flag it and stop it before it went through.

[yobuck]

That does sound like it could be an inside job, but with all were finding out about things internet and cell phone, who knows?
I had a Shell gas card scammed recently. Got a statement for a much higher amount than i knew i spent.
Quite a few charges from Miami, I'm 150 miles from Miami and hadn't been there in about 4 years.
Apperently theres a way to get card information from a pump you just used.
They waived the charges and sent me a new card.

[Robinhood]

For a gas pump or any unattended credit/debit card transaction scammers use card readers place or fitted over the real reader.

[druid w/stick]

I dislike cc's, but you have to have one to do business today. I've been with this company since 75. Might be getting replacement one today. Oh joy!
Thanks for the replys,
Greg

[Phranque]

I dislike cc's, but you have to have one to do business today.

Same here. I keep a higher limit card in the safe for emergencies, use a lower limit card on the interwebs. PITA, about every 6 months or so, I get a letter in the mail for the lower card saying "Congratulations, we've raised your limit!!" Then I have to call them to put it back down to where it was, and you'd swear they thought they were talking to a 3-headed alien.... "What?? What do you mean you don't want more credit...??"

[druid w/stick]

Missed the local news cast this morning. Wife said there was a report about sears and best buy being hacked. Have'nt talked to sears yet, but this might be what happened.
Greg

[Stockrex]

Happened to me few weeks back, American Express card was copied and smart guy tried to use it at an Oreillys near DTW.

CC called me and I told them I am still in my jam jams.

I used it last at:
1. BP station in Fowlerville, MI
2. Oreillys in Grand Rapids

From what i have read, some of the gas station use plain wifi to transmit the gas pump transaction to the cashiers desk, anyone can monitor the traffic.

Also, it could have been the auto parts store in town, but I used it myself and used the chip thing.

[Stockrex]

OP, lifelock will not help with this,

You can go to the credit reporting agencies and mark your account of victim of possible fraud. Are you sure you PCs are virus free? change all your online account passwords.

As a get a new CC and just use it at one of the merchants.

[J.Baker]

I've been hit twice in the last 6-8 years.

First time was my debit/bank card after ordering computer parts from Newegg.com and Dell.com. About 3 days go by and I get a letter from my bank stating that I'm $3,000 over drawn on my account. Sickening feeling to say the least. By the time all the charges had come in they had overdrawn my account by almost $4,500. All the charges were for auto body supplies in Thailand. Mad as I was about having my account info stolen, I was more pissed off at my bank for just continuing to let them make purchase after purchase without freezing the account. Of course they wouldn't do that - every new charge was another $20 insufficient funds fee and every day the account was over drawn they hit me with another $25 for carrying a negative balance. Cancelled the card and had it replaced. All the fraudulent charges were taken off and all the penalties were waved, but it still took about 12-14 days to get the money back in my account. Needless to say I gave the branch manager some heated words over their overdraft policies - especially when on two of the days I had a swipe purchase here in town and others from a swipe terminal in Thailand. I then insisted that they remove the overdraft protection from my account and automatically block any international charges on my account unless I notify them before hand that I will be traveling.

The second time was this past fall when someone tried to make a small purchase with my one and only credit card. Card company blocked the purchase as suspicious, but they never bothered to notify me about the activity. Soo...a few days later I'm at the gun shop trying to purchase a gun when my card gets declined. I pay it off every month so I know it's not a limit issue, but rather than fuss with it then/there I just used my debit card for the purchase. Got home and called the CC company and found out about the attempted purchase. Card cancelled and new one mailed, but thought it was B.S. they didn't notify me in any way even though they have my phone #, email and mailing address.

It's for this reason that I carry cash and use it as much as possible these days. Security technology just can't keep ahead of the hackers (or companies just neglect to update their systems and software as needed) which makes it more and more risky that you'll fall prey to identity theft each time you use your cards.

Unfortunately there are certain things you can only purchase with CC's these days - hotel reservations, rental cars, etc. are just a few examples. For those items and any random traveling money you might want, I recommend getting yourself a pre-paid Visa or MasterCard. Most banks offer them now and they work just like any CC for purchases. I also use mine for paying for gas as that's one of the most targeted transaction points.

[Stockrex]

I travel for work and I am on a plane 4 times a week, a typical week for me is:
Breakfast in Pensacola, lunch meetings, late lunch in Gulfport and catch a plane, eat dinner at airport in Atlanta and then get on a plane back to MI.

I swipe my CC just about anywhere, but do prevent fraud and catch it here is what I do:

1. I have 3 major credit cards that I use. 1 only for lodging and any food bills there. 1 for client M&E and The amex for everything else. I assume the amex will get copied (this is the 3rd time this happened).

2. I never use my debit card anywhere but startbucks or my little towns grocery store self checkout. Never I mean never, I don't even look at it.

3. I ONLY deal with the Amex bus, Costco Citi Visa, Chase Marriott etc. They are no nonsense and take care of you in the event of a dispute.

I am not a Credit person, meaning I never carry a balance but dealing with CC as Mr Baker pointed out is a necessary evil in this great nation of ours.