Last Thursday I got an email from a Juice Bar in California {I live in Tucson} requesting I complete my Door Dash order of $49.54. The order was for several herbal and vegetable products {boy these idiots really don't know me}. Fortunately within ten minutes of their email being received I had seen it and was on the phone to Capitol One.

They immediately froze/closed my card and denied the charge and sent me a new card which I just received. The real PITA was having to contact half a dozen places that were getting auto pays from the card account and wading through their robocalls switchboards and fouled up beyond all recognition websites. After an hour and half on the phone every merchant was notified and provided a new card number {my old back up} so none of the services were interrupted.

These thieves had my complete card number including the 3 digit security code off of the back. The only time that card was ever out of my sight was at a couple of restaurants where often dine and that will NEVER happen again. I'm guessing a crooked employee copied my card info and then just sold it to the highest bidding scum bucket on the dark web...GRRRR! Had I not caught that incoming email right away this might not have ended this well.

Obviously I was to cavalier with my card security and as noted it will never leave my sight again for any reason, no more just adding it to the check and waiting for the waiter to process my bill and return it {Duh!}.

To add insult to injury the next day these bozos then sent another email stating that my old card was declined and asking for my new car number! I have had nothing but good luck over the last few years with the security department at Capitol One. They always text or email me on anything that looks remotely suspicious and wrapped this up in one brief phone call.

Keep tabs on your emails and texts and watch your credit card billings carefully.

All I can add is to also check your account statement every single month. On a few occasions I have found unauthorized charges on my monthly statements, and a quick follow-up with the card service has taken care of the problems.

As careful as we might try to be there will always be another scammer trying to reach in our pockets.

My card services have been excellent in
taking care of problems and clearing
charges. Also, periodically I'm called or
notified about a "suspicious" purchase.

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Ubi Est Mea

Captain Steve,

It appears that your CC number may have been fraudulently obtained using a credit card "skimmer". In my opinion, this is a real problem. From your post, you've already reached that conclusion.

This is a royal PITA since some of these devices can be very difficult to detect. They can be anywhere that a CC or debit card is accepted, including ATM machines, self-service gasoline pumps, etc. We've seen these problems, and the resulting fraud in both the Atlanta and Austin areas. The devices themselves are often very difficult to detect.

In the case of restaurants, the perp takes the card somewhere out of sight, scans it in to the restaurant device for an expected charge, and also scans the card in to his/her "skimmer". The "skimmer" stores the data in to a memory device which the perp later retrieves. The perps later use the data themselves, or they sell the data to a third-party.

As you described, the best defensive tactics that we can utilize are to work with our credit card companies to quickly identify all fraudulent activities or unauthorized charges.

In the past I have contacted my credit card companies before I travel (especially internationally), or plan to make a large purchase. During the conversations the representatives have disclosed to me that most credit card companies today have "Fraud Alert" or "Fraud Detection" departments. They continuously run system analysis programs using standards, algorithms, etc. and transaction reviews to immediately detect fraud.

Other than the time spent for the notifications (which could have been better spent at a LGS or on the road), I was pleased to read that you, once again, defeated the "bad guys"!!

Bill

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That's what we do!

Mine has been compromised several times but BofA is pretty good about it.

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Jorge

Very common to grab card and account info from your mail. You might also be shocked how little info is required by your card company to reset a pin number.

Sent from my Moto G (5) Plus using Tapatalk

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Slava Ukraini!

I don't think that the skimmers will read the 3 digit security code.
Vendors require that code to ensure that the customer actually has the card in hand for a phone or online order.
When I get a card the first thing that I do is copy the security code in a remote location, then scratch the code off of the actual card.
I believe that this has thwarted would be scammers more than once.

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I'm with her

A lot of companies never ask for my 3 digit security code they ask for my zip code which that's very easy to get off the internet with someones name.

You also can suspect the Equafax breach. I have cards that never were used get hacked. So many hacks these days you don't know who to blame anymore. Fortunately everytime one of mine was hacked the card company was right on top of it.

Yep it's happened to me twice in the last two months and both times it was a gas pump skimmer, fortunately my card company stopped payment and contacted me.

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SWHF #595

Had a weird email from Paypal this am.
Stated several attempts were made regarding my
account which they deemed as out of the norm.

The email wanted me to click on a link and update my info.
Sounded shady.
I passed.. went on the paypal website just changed my password.

Same exact thing as happened to OP Capt Steve happened to me last summer - and I hadn't used that particular card in a while, so I am certain that the card was photographed the day prior when I used it for payment (it went out of my sight) at a restaurant. $300-odd of groceries charged in CA and my card company wrote me and said, "Was this you?" I clicked "No," and they had a new card overnighted to me. As happened with OP, they made another run at my card later that day (it was declined).



Here's what happened: the busy (but trustworthy) career waiter left the card for a minute in the restaurant, and some dirtbag druggie photographed it with his cell phone and sold the image to different dirtbags in CA. The credit card company knows about this type of crime and when they get serious about it (as they are in Europe) we'll have those little point-of-purchase terminals brought to our tables by our waiters. Until then, it's "cost of doing business," which means it's loaded into the purchase price of everything since the sellers have to pay the credit card fees the companies charge (which includes recouping these criminal events).



What a hassle - so sorry it happened to you, Capt Steve!

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Now go make God proud...

They may have a computer program that generates random 16 digit
numbers until it hits one that works, usually on a small purchase, then
load it up to the max limit.

I got into the habit of checking my credit card activity online about every day. Good thing, because I caught a couple of purchases of airline tickets down in Chile. I make chili, I don't visit there. Even though the card was securely in my wallet, somehow the sale went through. I immediately called the card issuer and told them I was a little displeased that even though no card was present at the transaction and I have never been outside North America in my life, no red flags went off and nobody checked with me to see if the charges were legitimate. So now I have them send me a text message for every transaction where the credit card is not physically present.

I had a call on a Sunday afternoon from BB&T asking if I was in Hamburg Germany trying to buy train tickets. I said nope, cancel it and send me another card.

Another time I had three fraudulent charges on my card $7.77, $77.77, and $777.77. Each from a different location in the US.

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Isaiah 41:10

Check your statements! I have had my numbers jacked a couple times, but my bank had the card cancelled and a new one in the mail to me the same day. Minor inconvenience with a bank with good service. Still though, thieves suck and deserve what is coming to them.

I have received several e mails from pay pal saying something is amiss in my pay pal account.
I delete them, as I don’t have a pay pal account.

Anybody should be able to get a text to their phone every time the card is used if they want


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I get a email and a text
You have to be very careful out there
Sorry for all the hassle
God Bless,John

Sent from my SM-S727VL using Tapatalk

How did they get your email address too?

My credit card number was stolen the one and only time I used it at a restaurant. Never again.

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Common sense isn't so common.

Yep. That's what I set up after a problem with my card from Chase. I noticed a charge from a restaurant that I've never visited. In fact I don't eat out at all. It was only about $40, but I called Chase and they cancelled the card, removed the charge and sent me new cards.

The process was painless but took some time to get the new cards and notify the utilities that take auto-pays. After that wake-up I set up my account to notify me any time my card is used. I already check my account every few days but now I'll know immediately if something fraudulent is happening.

Credit card theft can lead to much worse things if you are not vigilant. It is a very common occurrence today, and what the card is used for can cause real pain. My wife and I had a potentially disastrous breach just two months ago. Someone in Florida gained access to one of our credit cards and used it to forward my wife's mail to Delray Beach.

It seems the US Post Office has only one defense against this type of identity theft, and that is to require the person who is forwarding mail using USPS online forms to use "their" credit card to apply a $1.00 fee to the process as proof of ID. We are always careful, but this issue went on for two weeks without noticing until a couple of packages did not show up at our door.

In those two weeks, mail went to an abandoned home in Florida, the thief took out two lines of credit at two major online banks, not to mention that it took three weeks to go through police reporting, USPS fraud investigations, credit reports, Social Security, Medicare, retirement accounts, financial & bank accounts, and credit card companies. I hope they enjoyed the pair of shoes and the vitamins that went missing from our door-step.

Worse than the time it takes to recover from this type of event, is that it can happen again and again! I would advise that people consider identity theft protection. Today, there are several companies that offer this service like LifeLock, Experian IdentityWorks, etc. I picked these two out of several services available because, in addition to all the other monitoring services provided, they monitor US Mail forwarding and mail fraud coverage.

We avoided the most disastrous events by stopping the fraudulent mail forwarding just a few days before the US Social Security 1099s were delivered. As many know, that document prints out your full social security number. Bottom line for me is to be prepared for when and not if fraud happens to you.

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Gary
SWCA 2515

I just received notification from Discover that my account information MAY HAVE been compromised. The breach did not involve any Discover card systems. I also received an E-mail from Discover advising that my credit card was found to be in a Group of cards that had been compromised, and they were sending a new card. I hope I don't have to change some of my automatic payments.

The low life thief’s’ are still hard at work. So, keep a close eye on your C/C statements. I check my statement weekly.

Added:
The plot thickens. Discover Card, has declined my payment to AT&T, twice. Spoke with a very nice CSR, who had no idea why my charge was declined. Now my Discover account shows three identical charges, pending, to AT&T. I’m sure these will fall off but what a royal pain. I’m just glad that this muck up did not happen when I was out of town.
I’m going to give them 24 hours to get this resolved. If they don’t I’ll pay off my current balance freeze the account, and switch to my Visa card.

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Always Stay Strong!

Wow, those crafty SOBs. Pretty sure it is not a matter of if but when anymore. Because my info is out in the interweb thanks to Equifax, Yahoo and god knows who else, I put a fraud alert on my credit report. At least this should help going forward.

Be careful of Capitol One cards! ! !
My story(horror story)!

My card started out as a Cabela's card for 20 years! It bought me 3 Leupold scopes plus much more(free from Cabela's Bucks)! Bass Pro buy out started my mess! Capitol One ended up with the credit cards from Cabela's! Number got stole and used! I called and they canceled the number and issued another number(late Aug)! I changed the cards on my auto pays. Early Sept, before I had received the new card, another bad charge on the new number! Called again and they issued another new number. 3rd card number used before I received the new card. Called again, 4th number issued, at this point I canceled my account with Capitol One. That's 4 card numbers in 3 months and all were compromised before I received the new card! The reason; Capitol One informs the auto pays of your new number, even before you receive the new card, which were set up buy the fraudulent user of my acct! No more Cabela's Card for me!
jcelect

I have no clue which makes this whole incident all that much more frightening. I appreciate all of the posts of support and BTDT. I thought that if sharing might help just one of you folks it would be worth doing... also it helps to vent.

I had the same thing happen once with a Sears (Shop Your Way) card. Sears card turn into Shop You Way card and before the new card arrived it was hacked. That tells you about how deep the hackers are into the CC game.

Info on your card was most likely lost from someone you do business with. Probably nothing you did wrong. It happens. Don't sweat it.

Folks can do a lot to help themselves however. I was in the credit / collection / ID theft protection business for many years. Here's advice I follow and give to my family, friends and customers.

Have your card with a LOCAL credit union or bank. Some place you can actually walk into their lobby if you have a problem. Shy away from the big corporations.

Avoid the "auto pay" stuff. It creates you problems just like you experienced and described.

Pay attention (like you did) to emails, calls and your statements. Take action when you question something.

Enroll is an ID Theft product that not only monitors this stuff but also will fix your problem when you become a victim. Most folks lose no money when this happens but the time and effort it takes to fix it is the real aggravation.

I got a text one morning from my card company. My numbers were used to spend $79 at Condomjungle.com. I called to see what was ordered. They wouldn’t tell me.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I had the same thing, a couple thank you emails from a food delivery service for restaruants in New York (I live in Colorado). New card and charges reversed. The email thing is puzzling.

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Jim
Many K and N Frames

I travel internationally often, and always get foreign charges that were not mine, after I returned. I have, with a great deal of trouble and effort, identified all of these fraudulent charges, whether successful or not (well, maybe). Notifying all the merchants using the monthly "Auto" is truly a pain, especially if you overlook one. I have grown to embrace the "Apple Pay" product, using my iPhone or Apple Watch. With this, the merchant does not know, or store, your card number, security code or name. Each transaction has a "One Time" code unusable to a hacker. Almost every merchant has this to use - except Walmart. It is universally available overseas. You load your credit cards into your phone and Apple Pay uses the one you select for the transaction. Certainly worth looking into -

Here's a happy ending. When I was an investigator with the Sheriff's Department back in 2003 my card was stolen. A woman working in the mail sorting room at the local post office was stealing them and giving them to her ex-con boyfriend who was somehow activating them and using them. He bought to camcorders with my card at a local Walmart. When I got the bill and saw the purchase I went to Walmart and looked at the camera footage of the purchase and recognized one of my former "clients." It took me a few weeks to find him but I was able to bait him using an old girlfriend. I caught him in a stolen Explorer full of stolen items. He did several years in prison and when he got out he got back in the same business that sent him there. After an unsuccessful attempt at passing a card at one of the local stores he ran from the business when an employee called the police. A few minutes later he came in second in a gun fight with an officer and the perp's career is now officially over.

I had a text from Chase about a charge attempt at a sporting goods store in England. Like an out of the US purchase like that won't throw up a flag, dummies.

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9tenz

It didn't when somebody bought airline tickets in Chile using my account number without the card being present.

We went out to a restaurant just last night for dinner. I paid cash.

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Birds like shiny new toys too.

There's maybe the assumption your wanting to get home.

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9tenz

One of my many hacks was a down payment for a time share in the Philippines. The card company contacted me to tell me my card was used. The deposit amount was immediately taken off the charges but strangely the foreign transaction fee took some time and a little hassle to get the card company to remove it.

My credit card is constantly being compromised for purchases at my LGS.

More than a couple times, my business CCs were hacked. One scam was to add a moderate recurring charge to my charges in the hopes it would get overlooked I guess. Other times the card companies contacted me to tell me my card was just used in Italy or Canada and did I make the purchases.

Two times things I didn't order were delivered to my house. One was a inflatable kayak and another it was a sleeve of plastic party cups. From what I understand the SOBs try small test charges for some reason before really going to town.

Equifax was the hack that really got my goat. The company knew the hammer was coming down and sold off stock before telling people about it. Then they hired untrained CS phone people that had bad attitudes to answer the questions. They should be out of business.