Credit card fraud just got personal

I’m still mad about this first time occurrence ... I tried to use my MasterCard last Friday and it got declined twice (with PayPass (tap and go) and chip). This scenario is a little embarrassing as well.

When I got home I tried to log on to my account to have a look at what was going on ... account frozen ... call this 1-800 number ...

I called the 1-800 number and eventually got forwarded to a security supervisor who told me that some bogus gaming site tried to charge $1500 to my account! Thank god for security filters!

I asked, “but don’t they need the card verification number on the back of the card to process a payment?”. Nope.

Anyway ... I very rarely use my credit card to pay for stuff online so this is just a heads up as I know the few sites I use my credit card on got hacked in the past few months ... BIS, UBI etc.

Two of mates have been done in a similar online deal. One lost $450 the other was on it before the transaction had gone through to somewhere in Europe.

That's why I have separate credit cards for online and physical payments (and another for recurring, automatic payments). If one gets compromised the others aren't affected.

In the last 5 years I've had at least 10 compromised account numbers for both of the first 2 but not the third.

3-4 years ago my CC company called me because they had noticed some "suspicious transactions" on my card. The operator then continued to read out about two dozens transactions in Canada and the US that summed up to ~6000 USD. The whole affair was fixed with another telephone call and a fax.

I use PayPal for online purchases drawn from a bank account I only keep 1 penny in it until I am getting ready to buy something online, then I go to the bank and make a cash deposit for the exact amount my online purchase(s) is/are, not $1 more.

We pay everything thru credit cards online and at the shops, so it is very difficult to verify all the purchases on the statements.
Once I was charged a small amount for lingerie in Australia, I live in Japan, the wife gave me some funny looks.
I don't really worry about it as the credit card company pays the money back, just the hassle of getting a new card, but as someone said, keep multiple cards as a backup.

Judging by recent news, it seems the hackers/scammers are becoming more and more effective. They seem to be winning the arms race against the online retailer security measures.

Until someone tries to use it, Paypal puts it through, and then the bank charges you for overdraft (happened to me, I thought Paypal was still on the CC but the wife had switched it to her small business checking and it only had $5 in it...we got charged $50 for my $8 purchase).



The Jedi Master

Ah yes, overdraft protection or payment protection or whatever the banks like to call it is just another way for them to make more money. I told them to remove it from my accounts but I have to remind them almost every month because they keep adding it back on.

Welcome to the club. I've had it happen at least a half dozen times. Citibank catches it pretty quickly. The last time, they had a replacement card waiting for me at my layover hotel in SFO 4 hours after they notified me of the situation.

The U.S. is behind Europe in implementing chip technology into our CC's.

Yet ironically the rest of our snack technology is far ahead.



The Jedi Master

I haven't shopped at Target in years and ever since the Target hack, when I go to the grocery store or department stores or anywhere I am purchasing something, even the gas station, I've been paying cash.

I won't even use the debit card or credit card anymore.

I have instructed my wife to do the same thing.

This is even better budget wise.

So we only spent money when we have cash.

Couple years ago someone bought 2 fitness machines around 1500 each.

First i never use the card for those amounts, second.. me..fitness machines, didnt take long to get the funds back

Which is well and good as long as you have the time to get to an ATM beforehand and it's conveniently located. My banks are enough of a PITA to get to that if I had to pay cash for everything I'd be forced to carry around hundreds of dollars all the time, and that's more risky than using a CC in the first place.

There's zero fraud protection for loss of cash, or protection on purchases.




The Jedi Master

Heh, that's interesting because I find the opposite is true for me. When I have cash on me I tend to spend it more quickly or be prone to "impulse" buys so that's why I hardly ever have more than 5 bucks on me at any time. I use my debit card for everything.