Last week, I got a notice that someone attempted to use my cc number in Nashville. I got a new card number. Today, dh gets a similar notice that someone tried to use his cc number in Knoxville. We’ve never had an issue with this before. Here are my questions …
Is there any way to determine where they got our numbers?
Ds2 happens to be in TN this summer. Is that just a coincidence? He’s not an authorized user on either of our cc, but I wonder whether his daily stop at Starbucks, etc., to use free wifi has something to do with it.
Dh and I were in TN this spring. Is that just a coincidence? It seems weird that the unauthorized used just happens to be in TN.
I hear about people whose cards get used, and it causes all sorts of headaches for them. We only knew about this because our company texted us a fraud alert. Do some companies just have better algorithms/systems in place to catch these things? I have to say, I am impressed by how quickly our cc company acted on this!
I haven’t found that it’s possible to know where someone got your numbers, because there are so many people in the chain who have cause to know. IMO it doesn’t really matter.
Glad they texted you for fraud alert. We have something similar through Chase where they let a charge through but email and ask if it’s a legit charge.
It may be that somewhere in your charging in TN someone used a card reader and you didn’t notice. That’s one method of fraud.
There are many others though! Some people just run random numbers and guess at cc numbers. That happened to me 3 times in two months last fall. Not sure, but since it was a chip card that is the most likely scenario.
Shortly after a trip to Florida, our credit card number was fraudulently used, also in Florida. We had used it only a couple of times - at restaurants where the wait staff took it out of view with the check.
I worry about public wifi systems. It seems that whenever I’ve used the public wifi in a hotel, for example, in a few days people on my contact list are inundated with spam emails. So as a precaution, I access my bank account only from home. And I don’t order things online using public wifi.
^^^ I did just get an e-mail claiming to be from ds2 but with a fake e-mail address. That’s why I worry about him using the Starbucks wifi. But I use free wifi all the time, too.
Just because the charges were in TN does NOT mean the numbers were lifted in TN.
We dealt with huge credit card fraud for DD (her credit card was locked in a Peace Corps,safe…). Charges were being made from all over the place. Card was cancelled.
Card reader is a good guess. That whoever might have sip[honed off the number did not try to use it for a few months just means that they were patient and/or sold it on to the person who tried to use it. I don’t think DS2 at Starbucks has anything to do with it.
Over the past 15 or so years we’ve had 4-6 incidents of credit card fraud. Its usually caught before they’ve spent more than about 1500 dollars, since it seems to happen away from where you are. I’m told that the thieves involved actually make a new card with the properly encoded magnetic strip, so that they can just run it through.
My guess is that it happens at restaurants and other places where they can swipe your card without you seeing them. They could also make note of your security code on the back, although it seems to me that most of the purchases are made at bricks and mortar stores and not online…since then they would have to give an address for shipping, and also have to know your address for the account information, which is problematic.
I’ve often wondered if there are accomplices at the stores where the purchases happen, but probably that isn’t the case.
In more advanced countries the high-risk handing your card to the waiter is gone; they bring the portable secure chip-card reader to your table, and only you handle the card. There are still many backward stores around here that can’t even read the chip.
@dadx : Here is California, we actually have a specific crime for manufacturing forged credit cards AND for possessing the equipment to make them. So, yep, that’s how it often happens.
Just last week my Amex was hacked. They emailed me about a transaction that seemed fishy , so they declined it.
My debit card has been compromised twice in the last few months , and so was my daughter’s.
It seems like the criminals are one step ahead of the credit card companies in their efforts to combat fraud and theft
anywhere your card is out of sight is an opportunity to lift the magnetic stripe data and can be sold and used anywhere. can’t do much to make it not happen (restaurants are a prime example) but if your credit card company reacts quickly and stands by the cardholder - it’s their risk to manage. the device to lift the mag stripe - is not so high tech, radio shack sold it. the chips now prevelant are the next level of risk mgt the card companies are using but once the bad guys learn how to create that, they will have to come up with something new.
I think it’s a little bit locking-the-barn-door-after-the-horse-is-gone to worry about when your physical card is out of sight. Surely you know that the banks you deal with, your credit card company, and the retailers you deal with have your cc number and security code electronically and a “bad guy” at one of those places (or someone who hacks into their databases) doesn’t need your physical card to get that info.
We had several cards hacked right about the time all the cards (including debit cards) switched to chips. I don’t know if it was just a coincidence or if something happened in the change over. For my daughter it worked out well because I had just sent her the new debit card and the old one was hacked. She was out of state and wouldn’t have had a card at all if I hadn’t just mailed the new one.
I had one cancelled after someone ordered something online and the 3 digit code didn’t match. I think the hackers just try different numbers until one hits or they find a retailer who doesn’t have good security. Once I had a card denied at a gas station and I just went to another station that didn’t have a system that checks. Turns out that my new landlord gave me the wrong zipcode so when I changed it at my bank, the bank was using the right code and I was putting in the wrong one. The fraud lady told me that often those who steal cards often go to gas stations to see if they work for a minor purchase before trying the big ones. On my daughter’s hack, there was a small $6 charge at a 7-11 and then a big one at an Urban Outfitters.