[Jeff Flowerday]

4 charges have shown up on my card that I didn't make. So the bank froze it and a new card is on the way.

Some geeky U.S. bastard signed up for a bunch of U.S singles sites.


I wonder who's site got hacked or had their credit card list sold?

 

[Gilliangirl]

OMG! Do you have to pay for the charges? Hope not. This is my biggest fear. That whole identity theft thing is becoming a big problem here in Canada, too. Will they be able to catch the guy?

 

[Jeff Flowerday]

OMG! Do you have to pay for the charges? Hope not. This is my biggest fear. That whole identity theft thing is becoming a big problem here in Canada, too. Will they be able to catch the guy?

Visa/Scotiabank has my back, I won't have to pay for the charges. It's only $300 so it could have been much worst.

 

[Metal#J#]

It's happened to me a few times now. Once for $1400 TD has always got my money back in good time though. The problem I'm having now is when I make high $ purchases I have to call in and confirm


It hasn't happened since I applied for a card just for online purchases.
I also change the card# every year or so.

 

[sneakypete]

I have never and will never put my CC number on any web site. Read too many stories just like this one. No shortage of evil doers out there eh.

 

[ajcoholic]

I read my ccard agreement pretty well last time I got my card renewed. It is my understanding that if a charge is made without my authorisation, and the charge is not made by a family member of mine, the bank will not hold me liable.

I make a lot of "weird" high value purchases, stuff like music equipment and other things for my hobby. Heck, I just charged an $8K piece of jewelery to my card this week and no call from visa to see if its me or not. But some of my friends get a phone call nearly every purchse they make if its past a certain amount.

I do a lot of online purchasing and feel its as safe as giving my card number to a person on the phone who could also be a thief and rip me off too, right?

Sorry to hear that you got burned. I have had a few of my cards stolen when my business got broken into, and just having to cancel them, wait for new cards and activate them, make sure all the companies I deal with get the new ##, etc is a royal pain in the @ss.

AJC

 

[drift_boat]

No, but I've had the bank send me a new card with instructions to destroy my old one. Their only explanation was that my card had been "compromised". No unusual charges had ever shown up on my monthly statements prior to that. And then, 3 months later, they repeated the same process. Same explanation.

 

[nine]

You can have your card stolen a lot easier in "real life" than online.

All it takes is one extra swipe and the deal's done. It's not hard and happens all the time. I've had my bank card replaced twice due to it being skimmed. Or they can just take the actual card. Either way, it's a lot easier and quicker than hacking some company's secure database.

 

[Lester B. Flat]

My bank/debit card was "compromised" twice within a six week period last year. There was never any money missing from my account but someone was trying to get at it. They probably had the card number and made several attempts to crack the PIN, which the bank found suspicious, and subsequently alerted me.

I assume the thieves must have card blanks that they can write the card number to because unlike credit cards that you can phone in the number and expiry date, debit cards have to be swiped and the PIN entered. Or am I wrong?:confused-smiley-010

 

[torndownunit]

I am way more worried about 'real life' theft then online theft.

I spent last week dealing with the issues that resulted from someone somehow getting my Social Insurance number, and using it to sign up for about 20 credit cards. If you want to know what the meaning of hassle is, it's identity theft.

In my case the guy trying it wasn't very bright though. He used my SIN and my name, but didn't even use my correct birthdate when applying. Which sent up a red flag as soon as the credit card companies started processing the applications.

I also know tons of people who have had their credit card numbers and debit card numbers stolen around here.

I have been shopping online though for years and never had a problem. IMO you have way more to worry about offline.

 

[nine]

I assume the thieves must have card blanks that they can write the card number to because unlike credit cards that you can phone in the number and expiry date, debit cards have to be swiped and the PIN entered. Or am I wrong?:confused-smiley-010

That's exactly how they do it. They can skim the card by either:

1. Having someone on the inside that swipes it through the skimmer while you're not paying attention.
2. Compromising the actual unit you're putting your card into.
3. By attaching the skimming unit over top of where you'd put your card in the bank machine.

Meanwhile, they're not very far away, watching you punch your pin in through binoculars. Then they have everything. They just write your card info to a blank and go take out 500 bucks a day until you or the bank notices.

This is why you should always, always, ALWAYS cover up your hand when you type your pin in. Now, if the unit that you're using has been compromised, then they're just going to get that info right from the number pad, but there's nothing you can do about that particular scam. Fortunately, I think that one is a little harder to pull off, and it's usually the other two methods.

 

[kat_]

This past summer I was working for a small magazine. This is a totally legitimate business, that regularly takes credit card numbers over the phone and online for subscriptions and advertising. They had about 10 computers in the office, all running pirated copies of windows. Because of this they couldn't get the windows security updates. They also didn't have any anti-virus software on the computers. It took me about a day and a half on each computer to clean it up to where I would even feel safe logging into email from it. They each had between 200 and 400 viruses that I cleaned up. Who knows what I may have missed. Any of those viruses could have collected credit card numbers, names, addresses, phone numbers, etc, of every subscriber and advertiser the magazine dealt with. Even dealing with legitimate companies isn't safe if those companies are run by idiots.

 

[J S Moore]

I had the good luck to attend a fraud seminar one year along with my boss. It would surprise a lot of people how simple credit card fraud is.

One of the guest speakers had been arrested for credit card and cheque fraud a number of times. All the ways he gained access to the information were incredibly easy and simple. Like paying his friend, who worked at a gas station, $20 per credit slip. It's that easy.

Most times it isn't even a hacked system, it's an employee who feels he isn't paid enough or is under-appreciated.

I wouldn't even bother trying to hack a system. I would simply set up a dummy on-line e-commerce site and have people send me their info willingly.

Honestly though, I wouldn't really do that. Really. I swear.

 

[torndownunit]

That's exactly how they do it. They can skim the card by either:

1. Having someone on the inside that swipes it through the skimmer while you're not paying attention.
2. Compromising the actual unit you're putting your card into.
3. By attaching the skimming unit over top of where you'd put your card in the bank machine.

I have heard one sign to watch out for is if they are doing multiple swipes with your card.

 

[nine]

I have heard one sign to watch out for is if they are doing multiple swipes with your card.

Yeah, that's what I meant by #1. Instead of trying to do it covertly like I had mentioned, they could be bold and do it right in front of you and come up with some "Oh, this stupid machine sucks..." line.

 

[Lowtones]

I just had my corporate card replaced due to fraudulant use in South Africa & Hong Cong. I was told that they were actually swiping a counterfiet card. Sure Glad I don't have to pay the charges on that one.

 

[torndownunit]

One of the guest speakers had been arrested for credit card and cheque fraud a number of times. All the ways he gained access to the information were incredibly easy and simple. Like paying his friend, who worked at a gas station, $20 per credit slip. It's that easy.
.

I never use my credit card or debit card at gas stations anymore for that reason. Both people I know who had their cards copied, had it done at gas stations. And if you watch stories on the news, a good % of the time when they bust people it's at gas stations.

 

[Jeff Flowerday]

Update: Scotiabank credited the charges back to my new Visa.

Wierd part: A couple days ago one of the singles sites credited my card back as well, probably part of an investigation. Now I'm ahead $120 dollars, but I imagine the bank will take it back eventually.

 

[Powdered Toast Man]

This past summer I was working for a small magazine. This is a totally legitimate business, that regularly takes credit card numbers over the phone and online for subscriptions and advertising. They had about 10 computers in the office, all running pirated copies of windows. Because of this they couldn't get the windows security updates. They also didn't have any anti-virus software on the computers. It took me about a day and a half on each computer to clean it up to where I would even feel safe logging into email from it. They each had between 200 and 400 viruses that I cleaned up. Who knows what I may have missed. Any of those viruses could have collected credit card numbers, names, addresses, phone numbers, etc, of every subscriber and advertiser the magazine dealt with. Even dealing with legitimate companies isn't safe if those companies are run by idiots.

Pirated software? Viruses and no firewalls on the computers? Sorry, but that wasn't a legitimate company. If it was, they were doing some very illegal things.

 

[kat_]

Pirated software? Viruses and no firewalls on the computers? Sorry, but that wasn't a legitimate company. If it was, they were doing some very illegal things.

It's legitimate, just incompetent.