Fabric shopping - credit card theft

Thanks for letting us know about this! Sorry it happened but glad your bank was alert. Barbara in SC

I use ShopSafe from Bank of America - it creates a new credit card # with a limit of whatever the order amount is just for that transaction, with an expiration date two months in the future. I use it for ALL online purchases, so that if that CC# is stolen from the merchant, the card has no "open to buy" left (well, maybe $6.12, since I round up the transaction).

It works beautifully, and I never have to worry about using my credit card online.

Very definitely a leaky website. I ordered a work item for my electrician son from a website - only time I ever used them - and during a 2-week period, their website was hacked, and my card number compromised. I had two suspicious charges on my card that my bank alerted me about, so they didn't go through. I was issued a new card. (The first charge was for less than a dollar - a sure sign that some hacker is checking to see if the number will go through; the second charge was for a $300 software package from some French company. First, the hackers test the credit card, and then they steal a larger amount.)

I was thinking, what kind of luck is that? The only time I've ever used that website, and that's when it was hacked! LOL.

N.

thanks for the heads-up. I shall keep vigilence.

Nel (GQ)

Howdy!

It might not be the shops' fault. Leaky computer(s) (I like that description, Roberta), pretty good hackers, someone who has figured out another system, bored teen-agers, Ukrainian entrepreneurs, could be any number of things or people:

JOE MENN: Half of all credit card numbers are in the hands of organized criminals, according to the Justice Department. Half of all computers have some form of malware on them. It's the worst stuff that steals your financial passwords and the like.

~~~

The card I use is connected to an intense scrutiny program; last year they called me w/in seconds of something being "off", didn't follow any pattern connected w/ my spending record. I was impressed, they caught a one-penny i-tune attempt (phishiing) w/in 5 seconds.

Good luck!

R/Sandy

Our DS 2 has credit cards but almost never uses them. We decided to have a family get away over the holidays. He was in a position to see rentals and choose one. Chose and charged the deposit. Didn't even get out the door of the Realtor until his phone rang. Yep! Credit Card company "We just had some acitivity on your card, was it you?" Feels good to be watched over.

On the other hand within the last three months, both DH & my cards have been used on line to purchase air line tickets. One from Orlando to Atlanta, mine for a ticket to India and a railpass in India. We were called in time to keep from having more of a problem.

Everyone should check their credit ratings after this happens. Anna Belle

Might be an idea in future to look at the raw code of a site you're thinking of dealing with and see if it runs on Windows. (It's not an absolute guarantee of safety if it doesn't, but using anything from Microsoft to handle other people's money suggests irresponsibility).

----------------------------------------------------------------------------- e m a i l : j a c k @ c a m p i n . m e . u k Jack Campin, 11 Third Street, Newtongrange, Midlothian EH22 4PU, Scotland mobile: 07800 739 557 Twitter: JackCampin

I constantly get phishing attempts to steal my info via e-mail messages saying, "We've completed the trip reservations you requested, and your flight cost is $348. Please click on the link to see your confirmed flight information." These are all fake, in my case, so I never click on the link, delete the message, and do check my online statements to make sure there not any charges going through.

The bad guys just keep thinking up new ways to suck you in.

N.

In many cases, merchants do not have access to full credit-card data. It is the processors who do. Over the latter years many hundreds of databases have been misappropriated in the US alone. You may find past newspaper articles in the archives at

There are so many ways now to steal CC information we couldn't possibly even know them all. My sister handed her debit card over to a very young clerk at a drive-thru window. (Remember, they usually take the card inside to run through the machine). The guy was taking photos of CC's front and back with his cellphone. Then he used them on the internet for game- playing charges! Sherry

Be sure to secure your wireless router too, if you have one, including changing its administrator password from the default. Hackers can get into them from a distance - no parking on your street required. They can then monitor any data flowing back and forth for card #s, etc. When ordering online, making sure the order form & submission are encrypted will probably be sufficient to protect from hacks outside your computer and the vendor's, but sometimes we see folks emailing us their card or CID number in plain text. We DO NOT recommend that. (Note to self: figure out how to set up a secure form for customers to submit encrypted messages to us.)

IIRC, the biggest card number theft on record was made possible by hackers accessing a store's wireless routers. (Note to shops: wires are your friend!)

John A.