nqr credit card fraud

[uncquilter]

Has anyone else had trouble with credit card fraud? Someone has stolen information and charged for purchases online! I got a call today from the fraud protection dept of my American Express Card. It seems someone went online and changed my billing address. Then this unscrupulous person started making purchases online with my card. How does this happen? I have no idea exactly what information this person has. I find this very troubling. I am very grateful it was caught early. I just had to vent!

Carol

[GrandmaLKB]

Isn't that terrible ???? These people who are to lazy to go get a job and choose to steal from others instead. :mad: We had a call once from our CC company that someone tried to access our account, but they caught it, promptly called us & cancelled our card, and sent us a new one !

[nineva]

I have AMEX. If they went online and changed things they had to have your sign on info. So either you have a keyboard spyware on your computer or someone knew your info. Even if they changed your password they still have to know your user name. AMEX will only mail your password to the email you have in your profile. Just last night I ran anti spyware on my MAC, which is not as vulnerable as Windows based computers. There were 67 tracking cookies on my computer! 67 sites were tracking where I went and what I did. That is scary. Thank goodness I did not have any viruses or keystroke tracking spyware but still....Make sure you use a user name that is different for each website and use numbers and symbols in each user and password. not foolproof but it sure makes it harder for the bad guys. Sorry this happened to you.

[Daisy2018]

Dear Carol: There are lots of ways thieves have to work the credit card angles. My husband's Amex card wasn't stolen, and he hadn't used it in awhile, but thieves made a physical card with his number on it, and went to gas stations in 4 states, in 10 hours, used up $5,000 worth of credit on diesel purchases before they could get it stopped. Amex paid the whole tab, were very good with us. There were a number of physical cards made and they just tried until they hit... They were caught :cool:

Do check back frequently, the police told us that they sell successful numbers, wait awhile, then have another go at it... Take care, Pat

[Oma]

Happened with my Discover Card a couple of months ago. Discover called me and asked me if I was in England and attempting to purchase a plane ticket to the USA. I laughed and said not likely. They stopped the card immediately and sent me a new one and took care of the charges. I had only used that card once in the past 6 months and that was a small purchase in October. They said the spending spree was the tip off. I laughed again and told them that I had spending sprees just not on that card.

[Guest Linda S]

I'm sorry this happened to you. I try to make it a habit to log in and look at my accounts once a week so I can see if there is any unusual activity. I have two debit/checking accounts, but only one credit card.

[Calicoquilter]

Carol,

I work for a police department and you have no idea how often this happens. Most of the time, the victims still have the credit card in their purse or wallet. There are so many ways that the criminals can get your information that I don't have room to list them all. I am glad that they found it in time but I would advise you to make out a police report so that you have it on record just in case any more bills show up. If they have your name and personal information, they can always make another credit card. I would also notifiy the three major credit bureaus just to be sure.

[victoriasews]

Happened last week. My Visa was being used all over California. They caught it after only $50 some worth of purchases and I still had my card. The card company said most often, people get your card number at gas stations.

[DB]

I had this happen with in the last year. I think it was for Discover Card. Someone in England was using my card number, two small purchases. It was flagged by Discover in under 24 hours, the charges hadn't even been logged onto my online statement yet. Discover promptly closed that account. I was quite impressed at how quickly they caught it.

[Stagecl]

We didn't have a card used but the checks the companies send to your house...on a closed loan, mind you. The lady who forged my DH's name on the check was charged, taken to court and the case was dismissed because it was her first time...hum...her first time being caught, who knows how many other times she has done it. The company sent checks to an old apartment address, so we didn't know, the loan was closed before they ever sent the checks about 2 years prior. The only reason why we found out was because I got a letter saying we were 3 months delinquent. The company had been sending the bills to the apartment. They finally sent a bill to me at the right address. The company never changed his address, but they had changed mine. Talk about panic until Monday when I could call.

[Primitive1]

We've had it happen several times, the latest was someone we think at a major hotel chain that used our card back in Feb in FL. If your company doesn't catch it and notify you - it also helps if you check your cc statements on line each week for charges. And Nancy Jo is right - change your passwords all the time.

[uncquilter]

Thanks everyone for sharing your stories. I'm amazed at how many of you have been affected by this type of crime. Colleen, you are so right. I have the card in my possession. Guess I should look on the bright side. People didn't break into my home to steal from me. That happened to my mom once. I will be much more careful now.

Carol

[sharni]

We had this happen to us. Someone got our card # and tried to use it for a lot of online purchases. Talked to the local police ande they said it probably happened at a local restaurant. They had others in town who had used a credit card all at the same restaurant and their card had attempted use at about the same time. We were told that restaurants is a place where card # are often stolen. The police said that we should get cash from an ATM and then use cash at restaurants would be safer.

Other things mentioned here are also good.

Go on line and check your card charges frequently.

Shred all of those check the cc companies send monthly.

Pay to have extra security with alerts put on your computer and clean cookies cache OFTEN. It is worth it.

Make a police report if and when it happens.

Use cash at locations that are high risk for your # being stolen.

Get Identity Theft Protection. It is relatively cheap and pays to have it is ever needed.

[anita]

The only time this has happened to me was from major retailers. All 3 times the credit union informed us they were sending new cards because some major retailer's customer database had been broken into and millions of customer data was stolen. First time, Office Max. Second time, TJ Max. Third time...don't know.

Frosts my cookies!

I'm glad it was caught early. I too have Identity Theft Protection.

Anita

[CWBowser]

I had it happen to my Visa card. Someone started with a very small amount to Netflix. The they moved on to the Disney Movies. The credit card company called me at 7:15 in the morning. The scary thing is I had the card but they had my number and the address because about a week after the attempt was made and the credit card company cancelled the card I got 2 bills in the mail from the Disney Movie company that my credit card didn't work and I owed them money if I wanted the movies. I called Disney and told them what happened and they cancelled the two accounts that were started in my name. The idea they had my address too gives me the creeps too. I don't like these cards with the Radio Frequency Identification chip either. The card readers can be purchased by anyone and not just a business and they can get your number and information just by standing next to you and the credit card can be in your wallet. Do the credit card companies want to lose money!!!!