Adventures in Foreign Finance

[IvonaDestroi]

Something similar happened to me, except they used my card number in my immediate vicinity so it was really hard to differentiate between my charges and theirs. (Fast food places, grocery stores, etc...)

They used tiny amounts at a time and over a 6 month period they maybe took a hundred out total. Finnally they spent $300 at a grocery store an hour drive from here and that tipped off the bank. It was only then I discovered all the fast food charges and public transit tickets they had been purchasing.

I had my card and have no idea how they got my number. The bank customer service rep said they were sliding a card to use it, and they must have gotten my number somehow and made a fake one (she said it was easy to do!)

Of course I have Bank of America, which steals money from me constantly. They said they would re-imburse me temporarily, and they did. Then, 6 months later they took the "temporary" money out of my account permanantly and with no explanation. I was told to mail them a letter (?). I did and they never responded. This goes right up among many other ways this bank has scammed me out of my money (they have a security guarentee for these things).

Other times they did not make my deposits available on purpose, without informing me, and charged me multiple overdrafts. Once a cashier stole $100 from me (a cash deposit) and it tooks 6 months of hassle and a great many hours on hold on the phone and multiple trips to the bank to get it back. In fact, every time I made a $2500 student loan deposit, $300 of it always went in to one fee or another that they came up with... they have probably stolen a couple grand from me over the 5 years I've had that account

[malaholic]

Zen, that's terrible! Is the card company holding you responsible for the charges or is there anything you can do to recover some of the stolen funds? It doesn't sound as though they are being very helpful to you at all.

If you've only used the card online at Amazon, it's highly unlikely that they'd have leaked it or have had their customer information hacked. However, if your computer somehow got infected with a keylogger or similar spyware, it's possible that some third party could have stolen the number undetected while you typed it in. I'd check to make sure your computer is clean before typing a CC #, or any other sensitive information.

Ivona, a similar thing happened to me, only luckily Discover triggered the fraud alert much sooner. My # was stolen while I was visiting NYC. The only time the card was out of my sight was when I used it to pay for a T-shirt in one store, and dinner in a restaurant, so apparently one of the workers must've had a side gig in identity theft.. The cc fraud person I spoke to said it's really common and that some of them have little reader devices they can hide in their palms, and it scans all the information which they then use to make duplicate cards later.

It's depressing how many crooks & scammers are out there. I know very few people who haven't gotten their card # stolen at one time or another.

[ilima]

Ugh. I'm sorry. I've had two cards hacked--a credit credit and my debit card attached directly to my checking account--in the last month.

My bank was more than happy to let the thieves empty out my account and then declare I had insufficient funds for a charge from a week before that had been approved. One of the orders was to Dell, who realized it was fraudulent and canceled it before shipping.

When I was at the bank yesterday they said that they'd have to let another $500 fraudulent charge still processing be taken from my account and then credit me late because 'it's automatic' and they can't decline it. BS--They were more than happy to not pay my optometrist's charge when it officially came through! That's a logical inconsistency!! Something's rotten at my bank. [Sorry! Can you tell I'm pissed at my bank?]

As soon as money shows up in your debit account, you might transfer it to an account like and ING orange checking account.

I'd also complain loudly to your school. Find out if others are having the same issues (I bet they are) and demand that the school take responsibility for playing fast and loose with your information.

[ZenSojourner]

\In fact, every time I made a $2500 student loan deposit, $300 of it always went in to one fee or another that they came up with... they have probably stolen a couple grand from me over the 5 years I've had that account

Ivona, get a different bank. Try a credit union. There are banks out there that will nickel and dime you to death, like the one you've got, and there are banks that have no-fee options. Get an account with no fees. There's no excuse for that.

I wouldn't be dealing with these a**holes except the school forces me to.

[Blueberry]

ZenS-

That sucks

Try going to your school if you can't get relief from the debit card company.

Check you account agreement - usually you have a right to dispute the charges. I had my credit card company refuse to tell me who charges were from, and I disputed them since I didn't recognize them. Some were legit, and some weren't. However, it was more work for the company.

A couple of years ago, someone made a duplicate copy of my card and went shopping in NYC. They did 100 in groceries (to see if the card worked) and then 2000 at the Apple store. Thankfully, my card company caught it.

Responsible use of credit cards is far preferable to debit cards, as they have more protections for fraud usually. Plus, it's the bank's money that's missing, not the money you need to pay your bills. I understand that wasn't an option here because of school, but generally....

Good luck!

CA

[Biciclista]

bummer Zen
i hope you get it all sorted out soon.

i love my credit union~!!

[Triskeliongirl]

I am sure you can dispute the charges (but you do have to follow the bank's procedures). This happened to me. I got the last 2 charges back, but not the first one since more than 6 months had passed. I only noticed the most recent one, but went back over my older statements and saw there were more (someone in dallas was using my san antonio atm card, which was in my posession, to pay their DFW water bills!).

[shootingstar]

Either I'm just lazy or just want to reduce possibility of problems, but I don't use debit machines at all.
I only use ATM directly installed inside the bank building itself. Not the independent companies outside of the major banks.
I will try to use my bank's ATMs to avoid interbanking charges with competitor bank ATMs. Yes, it's peanuts charges....but my lifestyle makes it easier to plan small withdrawals.

It is possible..to live like this ...remember we don't have a car, cellphone. And helps me budget very carefully.

I was stunned a few years ago when my brother-in-law told me he never uses any ATM machine. Not sure about my sister. But they have 2 children (now grown). Now that takes abit of coordination.

Guess he just didn't trust what the thieves can do in terms of technical gadgets and trickery. He has a PhD in engineering and teaches at a major Canadian university.

[ZenSojourner]

This particular card is issued by a bank that doesn't even have a branch in the state, let alone in town.

The only place you can use it as an ATM card is on campus.

If you use it as a debit card they charge you a fee. If you use it at any other ATM machine besides the 3 on campus they charge you a fee. If you try to write checks on the account they charge you a fee (plus make you buy checks from them).

I always use it as a charge card because of this, or for the ATM machines on campus.

In fact usually I go to the ATM and take out the $500 max every day until I've got it all and then put it in my regular credit union account, but the last semester was hell on wheels for me and I never got around to emptying the account out. This was partly due to the fact that the only place I can use an ATM without a fee is on campus, quite some distance from where my classes are.

This account is a really bad deal for students and the campus authorities ought to be ashamed of themselves for forcing students into using it.

[Grog]

I always use it as a charge card because of this, or for the ATM machines on campus.

Out of curiosity, can you explain how you do this? Do you just tell the cashier how the card should be used? Not being in the USA I am not familiar with ATM cards that can be used as charge cards, but I can see how that would be an interesting system in some regards. Do you need to sign anything when you use it as charge card? Or punch a PIN?

This account is a really bad deal for students and the campus authorities ought to be ashamed of themselves for forcing students into using it.

It does sound like quite a dubious deal. I wonder what kind of kickback the university gets from the bank.

[Grog]

In one of the conversations I had with a Visa representative when my credit card number was stolen last summer, I was told that it was possible that the thieves just randomly generated my number. They generate a whole bunch and then try them on tiny items (like a $1 song from iTunes). The numbers that work are then used for bigger purchases.

I know that's not what happened in my case because they also had my old address, where I received a thank-you-letter for opening an account with some gambling service in the UK a few weeks later. But they did make a $1 iTunes purchase before proceeding to a $50 purchase at a computer store in Luxembourg and then a $500 at a gambling service.

CIBC Visa was spectacular in dealing with it. The first purchase in a foreign country after the $1 iTunes triggered their alarm system and they immediately called me to see whether I was in Luxembourg or buying things there, which of course I wasn't. The gambling money never made it though authorization, and the other charges were reversed very quickly.

My new credit card has a chip on it, and I read recently that we are just about to get debit cards with chips. Now if all business can move on to the chip-based authorization, things will improve a great deal!

[Tater]

ZenS, sorry to hear about your misadventures in foreign finance!

Add my husband and I to the list of victims of credit and debit card thievery within the last couple months. Same as Grog, it started with the $1 iTunes purchase and then a couple more smaller charges. Thankfully, the fraud department of our card company was on the ball and caught the shenanigans before it got too far out of hand.