My credit card number was stolen the one and only time I used it at a restaurant. Never again.
My credit card was compromised...
- Thread starter Capt Steve
- Start date
mmb617
Member
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.
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.
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.
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.
Last edited:
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.
Credit cards? ! ?
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
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
OP
Capt Steve
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Beats me???
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 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.
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.
pittpa
Member
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.
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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.
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 -
charlie sherrill
Member
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.
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.
There's maybe the assumption your wanting to get home.
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.
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.
