Somebody used my bank card number to basically clean out our checking account. They bought $3,000+ in airline tickets and travel insurance. The bank stopped action on our account, and we'll be reimbursed plus the fees charged for the past week (nobody called us about serious overdraft!!) will be taken off -- but it may take three months. In the meantime, we are seriously hurting. Automatic withdrawals for bills start on the first. I have to contact all our "friends" and ask them for help. This is ugly. It could be anybody who ever saw the number on my card. I use paypal online, but Amazon.com uses my card number. It could be an employee at anyplace I ever did business, or somebody standing behind me in line. Or a hacker who got it out of our computer.
I guess just a cautionary tale to check your bank account online every day or two. I will from now on.
This appears to be a form of identity theft. Many people have insurance coverage as a part of their homeowners policies that helps with that, so you might want to check with your insurer. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you . . .
By the way, for people who don't have ID theft coverage, it's well worth getting, and not expensive if you get it as an endorsement on your homeowner's policy. (My additional premium is $22 a year.) That coverage is a whole lot more expensive if you buy it from a credit card company.
There is a rash of this going around right now. DS in Albany, NY got a call from his bank that large purchases were attempted on his credit card but they were thwarted....his credit limit is quite small. He was being sent a new card and number. He has only a 95 dollar charge that wasn't his to fix. I guess it was in the news in Albany last week that one of the grocery stores had numbers stolen.. I got a new set of cards in the mail this week (in Iowa) and the letter with it said there had been a breach of card security and though no problems had surfaced yet, they were issuing new cards anyway. I'm so sorry to hear of your immediate problems, but I think the card companies are scrambling to fix it as quickly as possible. It's infuriating.
Oh, bad luck, Sunny! That must be so awful, in so many different ways. That you have to struggle to manage without the money (although it must be a relief to know you'll get it back eventually), wondering how you your details were stolen and doubting the security of businesses you commonly use, not to mention the feelings of anger and violation. I am sure the people who do this must have no idea of the sufferring they inflict on others. They just think they are so clever to spend other people's money without having to work for the money themselves. You'll be in my prayers, Sunny. Have a
(((hugs))) There have been a couple of TV reports here lately showing how thieves install fake key pads with radio senders on top of ATM machines. The thieves then wait nearby in a van, where they can record the pin numbers. Then they can simply copy the card. Very scary! Even worse, very few store assistants bother to check signatures against the card, which would seem to be the most basic precaution. Roberta in D
"Sunny" schrieb im Newsbeitrag news: snipped-for-privacy@t12g2000prg.googlegroups.com...
This is the ugly side of debit cards - most banks insist that you have them for ATM withdrawals, but we asked our bank to issue an old- fashioned ATM card instead, and they did. I use a credit card for all online and recurring transactions (you know, like the water/sewer bill
- you'd be surprised how many times credit card numbers are stolen from these recurring charge lists).
My credit card company (Bank of America) also has a service called Shop Safe - each time I make an online purchase, I can generate a new credit card number, with a specified credit limit, to be used for that transaction. So, if I am ordering something that is $47.89 with tax and shipping, I generate a number with a limit of $50.00.
Then, if that number ends up in the wrong hands, the thief has access to only $50 worth of credit, NOT my entire Mastercard limit.
They also allow you to set up a ShopSafe number for recurring transactions.
In short, there are a few simple rules to follow:
NEVER give ANYONE checking account info Do NOT use debit cards - I don't care HOW safe your bank says they are. As in this case, you may get all of the money back, but WHEN? Do NOT use credit cards with high limits on the 'net. Our credit card company keeps upping our limit, to the point where you could buy a luxury car with our Mastercard. This represents nothing but potential liability to the cardholder. For internet transactions, use a service like ShopSafe or get a credit card with a low limit like $500 or so, and don't let them increase it.
It is absolutely horrible that we have to be so careful, but I will tell you that I have been 'net shopping since 1998, and have never had a problem. And I buy a TON of stuff on the internet - when we were building our house, I even bought our lighting and plumbing fixtures online.
The same thing happened to me several years ago, and it only took a few days for the money to be replaced. It did take several months for the bank to figure out whether or not you should be responsible for some of the charges (none of which I was), but in the meantime, they should not place you in financial hardship like this. I'd talk to them again, stressing that you will take your business elsewhere if they do not work WITH you instead of seemingly against you. This is the sort of thing they're insured for, after all.
I am so sorry that has happened, I just recently went through that myself and the money was put back into our account within a matter of days. They did originally tell us it could be up to 3 months but it was just a couple of days.
Ours was a whole lot more than $3000. It all sucks. We have to fly to Canada to file a police report to try to get the rest of our money back.
The sun shines a bit brighter. The airline has refunded the cost of the tickets. It should be back in our account within the next few days. Now it's time to batten the hatches and make sure this doesn't happen again. Thanks for all the good advice. I'm going to be looking into a card with one of those new generating card numbers for specific purchases. What a great idea! Wow, this is a nasty problem. The tickets were bought for a specific destination in Asia. A group of tickets all going to the same place were also bought using other people's cards. Good grief, what a way to fund the senior trip! LOL
Yay! Thanks for letting us know. It's good to know you don't have to suffer for too long, and it's good to know the system does work to protect the innocent. Now all I need to hear is that they've caught the criminals and imprisoned them, and my faith in humanity will be restored.
So sorry to hear about all the trouble you've been thru Sunny. Thank heavens everything is okay now. This stuff sure can give a gal a heart attack. The bad guys are getting better and better at taking us good guys for a ride - makes me sick.
Wow, so it was a teacher who did it! Good thing they know. Hopefully the school district will fire the teacher who took your money.
I used to live in Fairfax County, Virginia, outside Washington DC. I'm a teacher. Well, Frederick Ahr (no relation) was a teacher at a local Catholic high school. Apparently he was in charge of the annual ski trip. He kept the money that the kids turned in for the trip. Unfortunately my phone number was the only Ahr listed in the phone book, so I got all the obscene phone calls from the parents. I finally changed the greeting on my answering machine to include the local police non-emergency number.
How awful! I'd protest all the way to the President of the Bank to get your money back sooner.
This happened to our HOME MORTGAGE!!!!!!!! And we ended up talking with the Vice President of the bank who didn't have a clue as to how to fix it.....so we ended up with a NEW mortgage.........and they wanted to charge us a higher interest rate.
All we got was a letter from the bank saying that the home mortgage ppl's info was compromised. ..nothing else--not when or anything. After the long waste of time call with the VP, we went mortgage hunting and ended up refinancing with another bank, Wells Fargo now. We took all of our accounts from that bank as they could not say if anything else of ours was compromised. Course the new loan has a higher percentage rate---but the lowest theyc ould give us by law...still not as low as our original one. The new bank did say to watch the market and come back if it was lower. (Sure, why not--it means more money in THEIR pocket by the time you get done paying all the fees.) They did do a little 'nice' for us. They had a 'special' going that gave you $50. if you got a 'friend' to open an account with them...the bank Manager gave it to each of us.as we did open all of our accounts with them...instead of just to ONE of our new accounts.
I've never liked banks..but you are lead to believe it is unsafe carrying cash with you......
Butterfly (what a conundrum we have gotten ourselves into)
How awful, Sunny! I do hope your bank gets things back to normal for you quickly; I know they can sometimes take a while. Have you had the bank change your card number yet?
I am so sorry Sunny. I feel bad for you but at the same time relieved that I just subscribed to Lifelock yesterday. They insure us against id theft, request credit reports for us on a regular basis, take us off of junk mail lists, no more pre approved credit offers, plus fraud alerts from all 3 major credit bureaus (I'm not sure what this actually is). I sure hope things work out.
Apparently all the tickets purchased by this "group" were purchased with somebody else's money. I just happened to be one of the victims. All were headed to Bangkok. And yes, names were used. Talk about stupid criminals. And they weren't flying until June sometime. So whoever it was is still in the US city where they did the purchasing.
We will be fine. But what a mess. Now I have to change all my "pay direct from your bank account" bills. I hate these kinds of changes. I'm bad about this stuff.
But we won't go down in financial blazes. Thank goodness.
Oh Sunny, I feel so bad for you! What a horrible thing to happen.
Don't believe your bank when they say it takes 3 months. Legally, they have just 14 business days to return your cash (see the bottom of the post for the law concerning EFT transactions). Still, 14 business days is a danged long time away from the first of the month!
To anyone who reads this-- DO NOT ACCEPT BANK CREDIT/DEBIT cards.
It's a nasty little secret. The banks want you to think that Visa-debit or whatever are protected the same as credit cards (see Donald Trump commercials) ... but as many have found out... NO they are not.
If you dispute a credit card charge, you do not have to pay the charge, and are not charged interest, for the time it takes to 'investigate'. IF an error is found, you are limited to a fifty dollar liability. Most importantly, credit card charges DO NOT come directly out of your bank account.
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"Under the law, your liability for unauthorized use of your credit card is limited to $50. If someone steals your card, for example, your credit card lender can charge you a maximum of $50 no matter how much the thief has charged on your card. "
DEBIT cards, however, fall under the category of EFT transactions. There are fewer protections. And, as many have found out, mistakes come DIRECTLY FROM YOUR CHECKING ACCOUNT.
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"The best way to protect yourself if an error occurs - including erroneous charges or withdrawals from an account, or for a lost or stolen ATM or debit card - is to notify the financial institution by certified letter, return receipt requested, so you can prove that the institution received your letter. Keep a copy of the letter for your records.
If you fail to notify the institution of the error within 60 days, you may have little recourse. Under federal law, the institution has no obligation to conduct an investigation if you've missed the 60-day deadline.
Once you've notified the financial institution about an error on your statement, it has 10 business days to investigate. The institution must tell you the results of its investigation within three business days after completing it and must correct an error within one business day after determining that the error has occurred. If the institution needs more time, it usually may take up to 45 days, in most situations, to complete the investigation - but only if the money in dispute is returned to your account and you're notified promptly of the credit. At the end of the investigation, if no error has been found, the institution may take the money back if it sends you a written explanation."
Get an old-fashioned ATM card for cash withdrawals or for supermarket purchases. The banks will fight you, they want that Visa logo (more fees from the vendors AND less protection for you!). Wachovia reluctantly gives me an ATM card (requires a pin) -- but the bank does charge me fifty cents each time I use it at a store. It's ok, I WRITE A CHECK at the foodstore, and anyone behind me in line can just wait. If they get too impatient, I give them the 'difference between ATM, Visa/debit, and Credit cards' lecture.
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