identity theft

[sundial]

It all started with a Netflix I received in the mail.

Then the Neiman Marcus order. And a Match.com, QVC, blood pressure monitoring, and jeans. Oh, and a long distance call--out of the country.

I just got back from the bank. I have a series of charges on my bank issued debit card and thankfully I will be reimbursed for the losses. I cannot figure out how it happened as I only use it to make online purchases with reputable companies that are (supposedly) hacker safe. I always make sure the website is secure before ordering. My bank recommended I log on to www.verifiedmyvisa.com to help make my online transactions more secure.

Somewhere, some punk kid is having a hey day and I'd like to clean his clock! :mad: :mad:

[Blueberry]

OH - that SUCKS!!!!

Go ahead and have a fraud alert put on your credit so the little creep can't open any more accounts - and get a copy of your report so you can see what else he/she has done.

I really don't like people some days:(

Edited to Add: Someone in NJ made a duplicate copy of our credit cards and went on a shopping spree. We never learned how it happened. Some merchants "double scan" and save the info, so it could have been anywhere. Thankfully, we have not had any more problems.

[mimitabby]

the thief could have been an employee at the last restaurant you ate out at. It would be wrong to assume the thief could only be via the internet.

[sundial]

Well, I contacted the credit reporting agencies. The little punk bought a camcorder on QVC, opened an account with a porno website, (they have since flagged my account and banned him), had a great time on Match.com and who knows what else. I'm waiting to get my paperwork from the bank and take it over to the police department.

I haven't lost a card so I don't know how he got my info. Apparently this guy is over in the UK, we think. How in the heck did he do this? :mad: :mad:

[sundial]

Mimi, I use this particular debit card for online orders of art supplies. :confused: I have a Mac computer too so I don't know how (or if) he hacked.

[mimitabby]

wow.
I am clueless, unless one of the art stores has a creep working for him.

[VeloVT]

Sadly there are lots of security holes out there. Hannafords (an east coast grocery chain) just revealed that hundreds of thousands of card #s had been obtained by hackers. How? There was some kind of vulnerability in Hannafords' system, and the card #s were being captured during the card authorization process. Who would have thought that swiping your card at the grocery checkout would put your information at risk? My card company just closed my account and sent me a new card because my card # was compromised (though luckily I didn't get any unauthorized charges).

I don't use my debit card for anything other than local ATMs anymore. I know that Visa/MC branded debit cards now have protection for unauthorized purchases, but it's still your bank account in the meantime...

Sorry this happened to you and good luck.

[maillotpois]

I've had this happen a couple of times. Most recently, Amazon contacted me and told me that my credit card was being used in a suspicious manner. They track this information if you store your credit card data with them. I think it was pretty nice of them. Someone was buying stuff and shipping it to China. So we canceled that card.

I also had a wallet stolen from on my desk at work when I was in san Diego. Some woman applied for some credit cards, and I ended up putting a fraud alert on my TRW, etc. I recommend the fraud alert, in general. It's a pain in the neck because it makes it hard for you to get credit sometimes (they have to go through additional steps to verify your identity - DH had trouble getting the 90 day same as cash deal on a TV once because of the fraud alert :rolleyes:), but it is worth it.

Good luck!

[sundial]

Liza, I'm beginning to think maybe I should open a credit card account instead of using the debt card. And keep the credit line low--say $500 in case some jerk wants to go on a shopping spree.

Did the thief open any new accounts after your identity theft?

[Brandi]

My dh said you never know in a case like this. It could be someone in one of those companies you made the purchases from. Never store your credit card info always re enter every time. and don't use a debit card use a credit card. You don't want them to have a link to your bank account. And (not to preach I swear) Make sure you have a good firewall or security on your own computer. But it happens.

[VeloVT]

Liza, I'm beginning to think maybe I should open a credit card account instead of using the debt card. And keep the credit line low--say $500 in case some jerk wants to go on a shopping spree.

Did the thief open any new accounts after your identity theft?

I actually haven't checked (suppose I should). I figured my card was one of hundreds of thousands of numbers that were stolen, and it appears they just hadn't gotten to mine yet :eek:. Also in this case, it was JUST numbers that were compromised, not names, addresses, etc.

Here's the story -- a little scary that it looks like there are holes in legal requirements for security best practices that made it easier for the thieves. So, in your case, who knows where your information was compromised...
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0402/p15s01-stct.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/23/us/23credit.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
http://www.hannaford.com/credit_card_security/

[Brandi]

www.verifiedmyvisa.com[/url] to help make my online transactions more secure. [/QUOTE]
I tried going there it didnt work. Do you have the right address?

[Blueberry]

Sundial-

Sadly this can happen without them having your card. Ours never left our possession.

True credit cards are generally zero fraud liability - so there's not so much to worry about. At least, if something happens, you're not out the cash until it's resolved. Plus, I'm just less comfortable with someone potentially getting access to my bank account. I will not use my debit card online.

It could well be an employee of one of the art stores. Truly, it could be anybody, anywhere.

CA

[DrBadger]

I just had something sort of similar happen to me, but in my case they were just using my address to have things shipped to (the name being used was probably the victim of identity theft). My accounts and credit were all intact (though I still put on a fraud alert), the only thing that I am dealing with is that the person who was shipping things and claiming them at my apartment complex intercepted one of my packages and signed for it... that was my new point and shoot camera (well, that was take one of getting that camera, I ended up picking up the camera at Best Buy instead... took 4 photos and then dropped and broke it :o ...still dealing with that one!). Costco is dealing with the "mis-delivered" camera.

I did file a police report (one of the things that I got in the mail was for some checks that had been ordered :eek: so there was obviously something sinister going on. The sargent who responded to my call told me that you shouldn't use a debit card unless it is pin driven, and even then you are better off with credit cards. He said to have one credit card that you only use online, might be good to have one that you only put your recurring payments on, like utilities, cable, cell phone etc., and have one other one you use for everything else. That way if one of the numbers gets compromised you can cancel that one without having a huge impact on the rest of your life. He also said that online is actually the most secure way to do things like you banking (make sure your internet connection is secure). He worked white collar crime and said that they didn't see a lot of identity theft online (though there obviously is some), most of it comes from stealing checks out of the mail, and stores/resteraunts either using a sniffer (gets your number), or just copying your credit card info.

Sorry this happened to you Sundial! Good luck getting everything straightened out!
Ellen

[DrBadger]

www.verifiedmyvisa.com[/url] to help make my online transactions more secure.
I tried going there it didnt work. Do you have the right address?[/QUOTE]

It is verified by visa. Here is the website:
https://usa.visa.com/personal/security/vbv/index.html

[sandra]

Liza, I'm beginning to think maybe I should open a credit card account instead of using the debt card. And keep the credit line low--say $500 in case some jerk wants to go on a shopping spree.

?

definitely. I always used a debit card and had my identity stolen from an online purchase. It is such a pain because you have to deal with overdraft charges and closing the account and opening a new one, waiting on new checks and debit card....etc.

I got a credit card for online shopping now. If that gets stolen, I can dispute the charges and close the account, but I won't have the problem of overdrafts.

Took forever to get it straight. good luck.

[TryToKeepUp]

identity theft is the worst! online poker got my identity stolen once last year.

[Thorn]

Paranoid as I tend to be when I'm shopping on line, I also know that I will slip up. I won't use PayPal anymore. I've used it twice and after each time I had extra charges on the credit card. Maybe a coincidence. Maybe not.

My credit card will assign one-shot credit card numbers for on-line purchases. Time to use it.

[sundial]

I tried going there it didnt work. Do you have the right address?

It is verified by visa. Here is the website:
https://usa.visa.com/personal/security/vbv/index.html[/QUOTE]

Sorry about the wrong addy. Thanks DrBadger for clarifying this.

Hubby and I are going to use a specific CC for online purchases for now on. As for the firewall, my version of that is to keep the computers unplugged when I'm not using it. Also, I have an external firewall set up so that no one can access our wireless stuff from the street corner.

It's a sad state of affairs when you can't trust anybody with your id.

[Lifesgreat]

What a pain in the neck!

Last fall, I started receiving cookbook club books, Scholastic Phonics Club books and Scholastic Disney ornaments-none of them ordered by me, but billed to my card. Other stuff that didn't ship was a video game and "How to Sell Things on Ebay" book. Scholastic said the stuff came to me b/c the dirtbag diva (considering what was ordered it MUST be a female) didn't have my three digit code from the back of my credit card, just the front numbers. W/o the back numbers, I guess most places don't ship to an address that is different than the billing address.

The police think it was stolen from the internet, I think it may have been stolen when I bought something at biking event (number taken manually on a paper). It is all cleared up now-I got to keep the 8 cookbooks, Scholastic wouldn't credit my account until months after I returned the stuff to them-at their expense. It all worked out, but was a hassle.

The part I still don't understand is how the "How to Sell Stuff. . ." people knew my phone number in order for them call me 10+ times a day to get permission to ship charge for shipping the book to me. This was before I knew the # was stolen and I kept insisting I didn't buy anything. . .

Hang in there!

[invsblwmn]

So sorry that has happened, what a nightmare! I use a citicard for my online transactions which are quite numerous. My account generates a new credit card number for each transaction and is only good for that transaction. I also use Money software and probably overtrack everything. Wish you the best.

[Lifesgreat]

Just thought of something else that happened to me a few years ago.

Someone in Russia used one of my cc # to buy porn-about $40 worth. ATT canceled the card and credited my account. I received no other credit on the transaction.

4 YEARS later (about 2 years ago), I received a letter from a company in San Francisco saying I reported a fraudlent charge on my card four years earlier and that ATT AND this company (supposedly the company selling the porn) had both credited my account, "resulting in a double credit". The SF company threatened me with legal action if I didn't send them the $40 in question.

I went back and got copies of my statements, even though I knew this company was lying, just in case. Then I ignored them.

Haven't heard a word since.

My advice: Keep all paperwork related to the fraud for a LONG time.

[Tuckervill]

I noticed a charge in my bank account for about $8. Then another one for about $12. I didn't recognize it, so I googled the "company" name, and the 800 number associated with it. I found a whole message board full of people that had these charges.

Somehow they got my debit card number from somewhere. No one on the message board ever got more than $50 taken from their accounts. I guess they assumed no one would notice eight bucks at a time. Eight bucks times a thousand people is a lot of money--they weren't too greedy--they will just take a little bit from everybody.

I had to sign an affidavit that those weren't my charges and the bank gave my money back. It was my debit card, not my husband's. On the message board, we could find no common thread--paypal, online purchases, whatever. I think these scum pay for ordinary thieves working in restaurants or whatever to "harvest" cc numbers, you know? I'll bet if you googled how to sell credit card numbers, you could find it.

I, too, put the fraud alert on my credit account. Some creditor grantors won't even consider your app if there's a fraud alert on it, so that can be hassle. We just decided not to apply for credit at all for that 90 days.

Karen

[shootingstar]

After reading all this, I will stick to the same forever for the rest of my life...no debit card. I actually don't feel comfortable punching in password, etc. with people standing around me...

And will continue to discipline myself financially..yea sure I never had have the debit card convenience but I shouldn't make spending money so convenient for myself anyway.. If my parents raise 6 children on a cook's salary (my mother was a housewife) and they never used debit card, rarely used credit card...then I can discipline just for myself and organize methods of payment in advance.

One of the Canadian banks is actually experimenting with debit cards/activation via a keyring fob... can you imagine??? :eek: That's too convenient..

[Mr. Bloom]

I've not been able to read all of these messages, but a couple of initial thoughts:

Card numbers are not only compromised with online transactions.

Everytime a card is scanned at a retailer, that retailer's hardware is potentially compromised by hardware or software installed by a dishonest employee. There are safeguards, but they're not perfect. Online is clearly riskier though.

I don't use debit cards. PERIOD. We put all our purchases on a credit card and pay the balance off each month. While I acknowledge that their popularity grows, I still view them as a conduit into my cash accounts. Technically, my ATM card is a debit card, but it's not tied to our main accounts and I rarely even use cash. I may be outdated and old school in my concern, but I feel that the consumer has more protection against fraudulent credit card usage (but I've not reviewed the laws recently).

I would NEVER USE A DEBIT CARD ON AN ONLINE TRANSACTION. Much more risk and protection can be less available if YOU don't have current spyware/virus detection software on your computer. Use PayPal as a safer intermediary and they can debit directly from your checking account. I still use a credit card for online purchases unless it's through PayPal.

Mr. Silver Mom got a telemarketing call where she wound giving out her checking account # (to me, similar to a debit card)...After 9 months, I'm still dealing with the implications, and although I tracked and recovered the $1,000 that was stolen from her to NY, then Canada, then California...I will assure you I had better things to do with my time then deal with that.

JMHO...

[Duck on Wheels]

I've had this happen to me, in one sense or another, twice. Once I got a call from my cc company asking had I bought about $5000 worth of telephone cards in Berlin a few days ago? Well, I'd been in Berlin, but I definitely hadn't bought phone cards! If they wanted, I could send them my cell phone charges to show I'd been using my usual cell phone nr., but they didn't need any further proof than my say-so. They sent me a form to fill out and, as long as I was willing to witness in court should they catch the thief, they were willing to credit my account back. Whew! I'm pretty sure the thief was somebody at the swanky restaurant where the whole research team had lunch one day. It's the only place I used the card but for the hotel where I regularly stayed for meetings in Berlin. My guess is that the restaurant found and fired the thief and settled out-of-court with the company just to keep the problem out of the news.

Second time it was my US publisher (only one book, so they're also my only publisher :o). They'd had a break-in and one computer that was stolen had all their authors' names and tax and account info on it. :eek: So far I haven't noticed any unauthorized movement on my account. Nor have I noticed anybody using my social security number to open up charge cards etc. It'd be hard to do since I have no US credit rating. The publisher signed us all up for one year of free credit tracking, but of course you never know when an ID thief will decide to start using the info. The credit tracking co. sent us all a FAQ sheet about what they advise you to do if that happens, and boy did it look like a major hassle!

I think that hassle is just as major be it a cc or a dc that gets hacked. The banks where I have visa cards all carry insurance and guarantee reimbursement on the same basis as my cc company, so I just try to live my life with normal caution and hope for the best. Now I'll hope the best for all you other ID-theft victims as well!

[uk elephant]

Just watched a program on tv (bbc) the other night about identity theft. Scary stuff how easy it is to steal your identity either on-line or the old fashioned way by stealing paperwork and you will have no idea how or when it happened. And so much information is available about you on the internet these days it is impossible protect yourself fully. There seems to be no way to fully protect yourself, but common sense things like good up-to-date virus and firewall software whenever you are on-line, never use the same password for several sites, critical of who you purchase from on-line and in real life.

I had my cc compromised a few years back too. No idea how they got the info, but somehow someone managed to have what looked like a very nice holiday in Morocco charged to my cc. The card was never missing from my wallet and I hadn't used it for nearly a year before it was compromised. Luckily the bank got suspicious of the charges and blocked the card before I even noticed and they cleared all the charges without too much hassle.

[mupedalpusher]

[QUOTE=maillotpois;303470]I've had this happen a couple of times. Most recently, Amazon contacted me and told me that my credit card was being used in a suspicious manner.

We had similar issues a couple of years ago and I am almost certain that Amazon was how my number got stolen. I've never purchased on Amazon since and have not had any fraudulent charges since. Maybe a coincidence, but I'm careful now.

[shootingstar]

Come to think of it, my partner doesn't have debit card either. He's never had one.

I am aware several of my siblings are like myself. Pay off monthly balances on time without interest. It does help enormously (at least for several family members) to witness parents how hard they disciplined their spending and budget planning.

And it helps..sort of...that we can't buy alot more physical, non-consumable /non-wearable possessions. We already live a small place. :p That already limits our spending. Period. Even our pantry space to buy food in bulk is limited. Therefore for us, to use debit card...just well...doesn't make sense ..based on our limitations.

And believe me, one's spending style changes when you don't have car and only bike as means to carry heavy, bulky weight. For me, as result, one is less spontaneous in grocery shopping ....you have to be abit wise how you will transport purchases or is it really worth the whole weight of buying it in the first place. :o:rolleyes:

A close friend of mine, had her credit card hit with fradulent charges. They chose the wrong target: she works for the police.

[Kano]

Happened to Mom and Dad a while back. They found out about it when $700 worth of clothing, in XXXL, arrived on their doorstep from somewhere in Australia. Mom is 5'2 and wears about a size 0, maybe 2, and Dad's nowhere near that big either! (and it was "gangsta" style clothing. needless to say, they're not into that sort of stuff!)

For them, aside from the hassle, it was kind of amusing!

What kind of Credit Card thief would have the stuff they bought delivered to their victim?????

Karen in Boise

[Lifesgreat]

What kind of Credit Card thief would have the stuff they bought delivered to their victim?????

Karen in Boise

I wondered the same thing when I received stuff a thief ordered with my stolen credit card number. One business said it was shipped to me b/c the thief didn't have the 3 digit verification code from the back of the card. Apparently, some businesses require that code in order to ship to an address other than the billing address.