Scammers got me

I've been hit twice, first time my bank fraud prevention department called and left a message to call back. When I did so, they asked about some activity at an Office Depot in Detroit. Considering I was in Houston, they very quickly cancelled the card and returned the $110 charge that did go through. They tried to hit me for more but I have a fairly low limit on my debit card for that reason. The second time it was an online game purchase to an address in the UK. This was pre-chip. No idea where they got my card info, most likely a skimmer at some sales point I visited.

 

I pm'd you all the info Dirt ! See if you can help me out. If ya need my SS# & DOB just let me know.......

 

That is concerning about your card being a chip card although if you use it in a restaurant and they take it out of your sight then I guess they can still copy the details at that point. I remember when I started going down to Brazil for work 9yrs ago they already had the chip cards then and when you went out to a restaurant they had a hand-held unit they brought to your table to make your payment with.

My bank is Wells Fargo and they have been pretty good about catching suspicious activity. I do need to call them and tell them when I travel where I will be going and for how long. If I forget to call them beforehand it leads to me making a last minute international phone call to them at odd hours to get the authorization to go through!

 

The mag stripe is still present on all cards, and can still be run the old fashioned way, so it likely wasn't the chip that was the issue. Yes, chip cards are more secure, but only if nobody uses the old swipe method anymore. This won't happen for many years. Plus, it's kind of a joke in this country anyway since we don't use a PIN like most of the rest of the world. Relying on a signature for verification is just stupid.

I'm personally a fan of using a credit card with contact less payments in my phone, aka Android Pay or Apple Pay. This requires fingerprint or password to use, and I can remotely disable payments if the phone gets lost or stolen. Along with tokenized transactions, essentially a number that can only be used once, it seems like a much harder system for criminals to take advantage of. And it feels like magic just tapping the phone and being done!

 

I have found ss#'s and credit card info posted on people's photobucket accounts while browsing, it's crazy what people put out there. If I was any good at being a crook, I'd be rich.

 

Ask the store if they have video footage of the jerk. You know there are cameras at the registers in case they are held up.

 

Happened to me several years ago, my debit card was rejected at a gas station, called my bank and was transferred to the fraud unit, they asked me if I bought gas twice the week before in Miami. I told them twice that I had never been to Florida. I was sent a new card and all charges to my account were reversed.