Well, I'll be damned, it happened again...

[Dan W]

My credit card number has been stolen AGAIN  , and walmart.com let the charge go through yesterday. My wife's account with walmart.com does not even show the transaction, despite it being processed on the credit card linked to the account

Thankfully, I am vigilant about checking my accounts online, as I was hit for a large amount of Tmobile cell phone service on my debit card I use for shooting stuff. And another time I was charged for a porno movie at some dive I have never been to      
 
CC cards are canceled, credit reports have a fraud alert posted.  Good thing I found it early.

[RLMoeller]

That sucks Dan.

I know what a pain it is to have to shut down a card and have another reissued.  I have done it twice so far this year with a card a don't actively use.  That card is only used for auto payment to Verizon and Cox.  Very odd, and certainly frustrating.

[Dan W]

Thanks Rod,

First time I was hit, I had a card I only used 3 times. A hunting permit from NE Game and Parks, a reloading component order from Midway USA, and a small part from Brownell's.

I gave then all notice I was unhappy one of them let my info get out.

In hindsight it was probably unrelated to those vendors.

[bkoenig]

A lot of time it's a 3rd party payment processor that loses your card info.  The processors take the payment info from the vendor and pass it along.  Look up Heartland Payment Systems - they had spyware installed on their network for months that resulted in hundreds of thousands of cards being stolen.

The state of financial transaction security in the U.S. is awful.  There are a lot of safeguards that could easily be put in place that aren't being used because banks and/or consumers think they're too expensive or too time consuming.  I've worked in this field for almost 10 years and I've seen hundreds of thousands of dollars lost because a bank was too cheap to spend a couple thousand on prevention.

[Chris Z]

Bum Deal! I'm glad you caught it so quick.

I also log into my accounts daily to make sure everything is good

[Roper]

We got a card number heisted along w/ a lot of others in the Lincoln area this summer.  My card was used to buy gas in Florida - the card company was great to work with.  Wished I had been there to enjoy it!!  We are now signed up w/ Debix and watch the cards closely.

[Mudinyeri]

We only have two credit cards that we use.  One is from US Bank.  The other is a Sam's Club Discover.  Neither has ever been subject to fraud (knock on wood).  We use the US Bank card the most and I've had them call me several times to verify purchases that tripped their red flags.  All of the purchases were legitimate, but they checked nonetheless.

Not sure who issued the cards that you've all had hi-jacked but you might want to look into canceling cards that you don't use much and using cards from issuers that have top-notch anti-fraud systems in place.

I've spent some time working in the industry and your issuer's fraud prevention system is the single biggest factor within your control to avoid getting hit by the fraudsters.  Even if a merchant or an intermediary processor loses your information, your issuer can catch bad transactions.

[shaggy853]

I try to put everything I do on credit cards.  Not only for the kickbacks but because if something fraudulent happens its their problem not mine.  With that said I have never had an issue and I use mine everyday.

I only use my debit cards at the atms that belong to the bank that has the account, never for purchases.  I am responsible for fraudulent debit charges.

Cash is for sitting in my safe and its next to impossible to decipher my writing on checks.

[Dan W]

My Debit cards are protected from fraud just the same by Mastercard. The difference is that when this happens, I have to fight to get back my money if I use a debit card, but the credit card issuer is fighting to recover their funds if I use a credit card. 

I have had fraud on both types, and I definitely prefer it this way.

[Dan W]

I know this is OLD but I need to vent...

Bank calls today and says   " your main account debit cards have been compromised after using them at Lamar's donuts in Omaha" 

My wife is in Omaha today, and the card was rejected, so she goes to the backup credit card. It gets rejected too! Seems my purchase of lumber from Menard's for my deck project triggered a fraud alert due to the problems we have had... Not a call, email or a message on my online access from the bank that locked my accounts.

I can appreciate the concern about fraud, but how about a "heads up" Bank of the West???

[FarmerRick]

Dan said:I can appreciate the concern about fraud, but how about a "heads up"Bank of the West

There is your main problem right there my friend.  They are rated almost as bad as Bank of America for customer service.

[sparky]

I am also with Bank of the West and just went through the whole Lamar's Donuts thing.  I have not gone through what you apparently have though and understand your frustration.

[gsd]

And people give me crap about prefferring FTF cash transactions.

If i ever HAVE to buy anything online, i use one of those prepaid cards that i put only the amount i need on it.

Hope everything squares away.

[sparky]

I always use a credit card online.  Mine was not online, all I did was take my daughter to Lamar's donuts and used my debit card and BLAMO I get a $100 charge to radio shack in Fort Worth, Texas.

[Ronvandyn]

One of the worlds largest credicard processors resides right here in Omaha.  First Data.  I worked for them for 7 years, in their Fraud Detection Unit, 1 year as an agent and 6 as a supervisor.  During that time I shut down thousands of cards due to actual fraud, and hundreds of thousands due to possible fraud.  I remember one day when I (and a few other supervisors) shut down an entire banks portfolio of cards due to a computerized credit card hacking operation.  Must have been 400,000 cards in that portfolio.  And no, we didnt call any of the card holders.  It was esitmated that we prevented more than 22 million dollars in fraud that day.

Debit cards are a troublesome breed of beast.  Most people think that the money they spend with them comes directly out of their checking or savings accounts, and that is not the case.  Eventually it does of course, but several things happen during that transaction that we as consumers never see.  Like that the authorization is a promise from the bank to the merchant to transfer the funds, a promise that by law cannot be broken. 

There is no way to absolutely prevent credit card fraud in your name.  Not having a card is not going to help much in that, Identity Theft is the fastest growing criminal enterprise in the world, and its childs play to get a card issued in someone elses name if you have their information.

I keep an eye on my accounts daily, as does my wife.  She had some fraud on one of her accounts a few years back at a local NAPA auto parts store, but nothing since then.  This is the best way to stop credit card fraud.  Stop, not prevent.  You just cant prevent it.

Scary, 'eh?

Ron

[Dan W]

Thing is Ron, BOW was great and called about the possible Lamar's donut fiasco, but 5 days after the Mastercard was flagged for a possible fraudulent transaction there was no action taken other than removing my available credit limit.   

My ***** was...  Why did they call about one thing and ignore the other? Call me and we can work it out.  BTW my little sister works for First data too, and my new debit cards are enroute.

I too use online banking and scan all my accounts  several times daily for unauthorized activity.