Victim of Credit Card ?Skimming?

Thread starter jevery
Start date Dec 15, 2008

jevery

Chief Petty Officer

Dec 15, 2008

#1

My Wife was balancing her checkbook online Saturday and was surprised to see an account balance of $2.50. There were four charges against our checking account totaling over $450 that were make earlier that day over 500 miles away in Ohio. We eventually came to the conclusion that we had been victims of credit card ?skimming.?

Reading up online I discovered skimming has been a big problem in Europe for years and is now becoming more prevalent in the US. I had no idea this kind of thing happens. Apparently unscrupulous clerks, waiters, waitresses, etc. use a small handheld ?skimmer? to record the info off the magnetic strip when out of the card holders sight. They then sell this data to organized crooks who produce counterfeit cards and steal folks money right out of the bank. Many of my co-workers have also had this happen to them. Be aware that when a person is out of your direct sight with your credit or debit card that it could be skimmed and counterfeited. VISA is replacing the money lost, but it could take up to three weeks and I now have to deal with charges from bounced checks, etc. Don?t let this happen to you. Insist on keeping your card in sight during transactions.

SS MAYFLOAT

Admiral

Dec 15, 2008

#2

Re: Victim of Credit Card ?Skimming?

Another reason why I haven't used a credit card in 3 1/2 years and won't be after they are paid off. Only 9 more months to go,,,,and no more friggen credit card debt!

tashasdaddy

Honorary Moderator Emeritus

Dec 15, 2008

#3

Re: Victim of Credit Card ?Skimming?

jevery, your real problem was, it was the debit card, not credit card. my debit card does not leave my hand. other than into the machine.

J

joed

Lieutenant Junior Grade

Dec 15, 2008

#4

Re: Victim of Credit Card ?Skimming?

here is another scam that I have read about regarding gift cards.
With store keep them out on racks in plain site the crook goes into the store and writes down the number off the cards. Then they keep trying to use them online. Eventually when someone activates the card they work. When the purchaser goes to use them there is no money left on them.

D

DJ

Guest

Dec 15, 2008

#5

Re: Victim of Credit Card ?Skimming?

I have had this problem before with CREDIT cards.

I have to use credit cards for business, I can't get around that.

UnregisteredUser

Petty Officer 2nd Class

Dec 15, 2008

#6

Re: Victim of Credit Card ?Skimming?

jevery said:
and I now have to deal with charges from bounced checks, etc.

I would think that if you jumped through all the hoops, that the bank would not charge you over draft fees.

I have never had this problem first hand, but my Ex had this same problem last year. All she had to do was contact the bank's fraud dept and they took care of everything.

Sorry to hear of your misfortune, this is a bad time of the year to be in such a pickle.

O

ob

Admiral

Dec 15, 2008

#7

Re: Victim of Credit Card ?Skimming?

For years the wife and I have been deciding whether to enroll for a debit card through our bank for convenience purposes.Well, six months ago we finally did and it came in rather handy instead of writing checks or making trips to the bank for cash needs.So,last month I get a call from my bank asking me if the wife or I had made any charges on our debit card for various amounts tallying up to $685 in Canada over the last ten days.Well...I replied "absolutely not." The bank rep then said that our account had been automatically red flagged and the card de-activated because of the suspicious charges and that we would have to come down in person and sign some forms in order to have our account credited.The nice lady then asked , "would you like to re-establish a new debit card?" Our answer was a prompt, " No thanks." While I admire the banks' diligence in detecting the fraud and also crediting the account at no charge to us,we didn't feel like contributing to what seems to have become a pervasive issue for a bit more convenience.

Are we just unlucky or has this credit-debit card fraud become such commonplace that it is just a matter of time before ones number is up? I mean ..we probably used the card a few dozen times in the six months we had it.

D

DJ

Guest

Dec 15, 2008

#8

Re: Victim of Credit Card ?Skimming?

ob said:
Are we just unlucky or has this credit-debit card fraud become such commonplace that it is just a matter of time before ones number is up? I mean ..we probably used the card a few dozen times in the six months we had it.

Yes, it's that.

Bob_VT

Moderator & Unofficial iBoats Historian

Staff member

Dec 15, 2008

#9

Re: Victim of Credit Card ?Skimming?

Well last winter we were notified that our debit/credit card numbers had been stolen in the big TJ Max theft. Bless the credit union that froze and changed all of our accounts..... re-issued new cards.

F

fishrdan

Admiral

Dec 15, 2008

#10

Re: Victim of Credit Card ?Skimming?

ob said:
Are we just unlucky or has this credit-debit card fraud become such commonplace that it is just a matter of time before ones number is up? I mean ..we probably used the card a few dozen times in the six months we had it.

I got bit 2 years ago. My CC company calls up and asks if I made and purchases from,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, BRAZIL. Well heck no, why would I go all the way to Brazil to buy radio and camera equipment?

This happened 2 days before Christmas so I think they were trying to fly under the radar.

O

ob

Admiral

Dec 15, 2008

#11

Re: Victim of Credit Card ?Skimming?

fishrdan said:
I got bit 2 years ago. My CC company calls up and asks if I made and purchases from,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, BRAZIL. Well heck no, why would I go all the way to Brazil to buy radio and camera equipment?

This happened 2 days before Christmas so I think they were trying to fly under the radar.

This sort of stuff just burns my arse.IMO the lending institutions and CC companies have simply made it too easy to secure purchases with plastic.Whatever happened to the days of providing a picture ID and one other form of ID to use a credit card has obviously taken a back seat to volume credit with huge interest rate profits to the lending institutions at the cost of breeding corruption.Little wonder why average investors reap such meager return on their savings accounts nowadays compared to decades ago.Seems with all of the technology available nowadays that a fingerprint,cornea scan, or something of the like is needed asap to curb this global epidemic. I simply don't feel secure using plastic at all.I used to not use it because I was too tight to pony up the service charges and interest.

UnregisteredUser

Petty Officer 2nd Class

Dec 15, 2008

#12

Re: Victim of Credit Card ?Skimming?

ob said:
This sort of stuff just burns my arse.IMO the lending institutions and CC companies have simply made it too easy to secure purchases with plastic.Whatever happened to the days of providing a picture ID and one other form of ID to use a credit card has obviously taken a back seat to volume credit with huge interest rate profits to the lending institutions at the cost of breeding corruption.Little wonder why average investors reap such meager return on their savings accounts nowadays compared to decades ago.Seems with all of the technology available nowadays that a fingerprint,cornea scan, or something of the like is needed asap to curb this global epidemic. I simply don't feel secure using plastic at all.I used to not use it because I was too tight to pony up the service charges and interest.

Funny you should mention these problems. None of my cards are signed, all of them are marked "CID" on the back, and rarely is my ID ever checked. I do however live in a very small town, and am known at most every place I shop, but I do travel from time to time. In the past I have watched pretty close, and very few clerks even look at the back of the cards. With today's card machines being on the counter, most clerks don't even have to take the cards into their hands.

gonefishie

Commander

Dec 16, 2008

#13

Re: Victim of Credit Card ?Skimming?

jevery said:
My Wife was balancing her checkbook online Saturday and was surprised to see an account balance of $2.50. There were four charges against our checking account totaling over $450 that were make earlier that day over 500 miles away in Ohio. We eventually came to the conclusion that we had been victims of credit card ?skimming.?
/QUOTE]

Could it be that your acct. info was stolen right off your puter? I'm not saying that you didn't get skimmed but it was likely your online banking activities was the problem. With the convienient of online everything, most people take advantage of it but most of them don't know how to protect themselve. Even if your card is in your sight during the transaction, your info can be stolen as in the case of BobVT. TJ Max got hacked because their wireless network wasn't secured, outdated technology, and the hacker got into the network, took million of records. I've been a card user for a very long time and am lucky enough to not have been a victim. I also help myself by keeping my puter squeaky clean. I have anti virus/anti malware/spyware, pop-up blocker and in addition to a program called CCleaner. I set this handy software to run on shutdown. It wipes everything clean, cookies, temp internet files, history, etc..all the things that make your puter vulnerable to attack. It will slow internet browser down on start up but that is a small price to pay. I will rather take my chance of carrying a card instead of a wad of cash in my pocket anyday.

The_Kid

Chief Petty Officer

Dec 16, 2008

#14

Re: Victim of Credit Card ?Skimming?

Happened to my wife about a year and a half ago. She was at the store using the store issued credit card. The next months statement had some catalog charges on it for about $500. Someone in the store got a hold of the card number.

When she contacted the stores credit card department she found out the items were being shipped to another state. Because some of the items were on back order the catalog center sent a letter to the recipient informing them they were back ordered. Sine they were sent a letter through the mail, it now became a federal mail fraud case.

Now the good part. As of now there are 4 people serving time in a federal prison instead of getting a slap on the hand for CC theft. Three were originally caught during the investigation and one of them turned in the fourth person.

jevery

Chief Petty Officer

Dec 16, 2008

#15

Re: Victim of Credit Card ?Skimming?

gonefishie said:
Could it be that your acct. info was stolen right off your puter?

No, my online account security was not compromised as I have two savings accounts that they could and would have moved the money from to the checking account before they started. I?m also extremely careful online. I run Norton Internet Security 2009 on this computer and additionally have all passwords encrypted using PasswordSafe so that passwords are not retrievable off the hard drive without the key. PasswordSafe also allows me to never need to actually type the passwords in to counter threats from keystroke logging programs or hardware. Norton has been an excellent security addition, (I?ve run earlier versions for years). About once a week it will block some type of attack ? Usually a port scan, a fake scan webpage, an unauthorized activeX download, or malware. Anyone who does not have good online protection should not access any banking records or probably even make purchases online. Of course I know nothing is 100% secure, and you're right - Even if my end is secure, dosen't mean that their end is.

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