# Credit Card Thieves



## CamperAndy

Well It is that time of year I guess. The credit card thieves are out in force and someone got my card numbers and tried to use them. BoA who always seem to want to charge fees to process a fee they charge, came through and caught the charges before they could affect me.

If you use your card for online purchases keep a close eye on the card details to be sure you do not get caught out if the bank does not catch it first.


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## raynardo

It could actually be lax security on the behalf of some of the companies that you either gave your credit card information to, either online or in person, or their credit card processor. Within the past month, hundreds of thousands of cards were compromised, including almost everyone in the state of South Carolina.

It's a sign of the times. And yes, it's a very good practice to watch you credit card balances. I'm anal about it, I do it every morning on each and every bank account and credit card account I have. I have the time, I'm retired!


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## TwoElkhounds

Ours were just stolen as well. Had all our cards replaced a week or so ago. Not the first time, won't be the last.

DAN


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## Oregon_Camper

Same here!! From my BofA account (Alaska Airlines card)

Had this happen on Dec 3rd....


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## CamperAndy

Oregon_Camper said:


> Same here!! From my BofA account (Alaska Airlines card)
> 
> Had this happen on Dec 3rd....


It was my Alaska Airlines card also. Maybe that is where the leak occurred.


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## KTMRacer

Glad you caught the fraud early!!

I also check transaction daily. My strategy is On online purchases, unless I really know the vendor my first choice is discover or VISA online app that generates a unique card number for every transaction. If it's stolen, it won't work anyway. And I NEVER allow my credit card number to be stored on a vendors online site. And I try to use only 1 card online, the discover, occasionally a Visa if the don't take Discover. My other credit cards are never used online.

Did have an occasion about 5 years ago of someone somehow getting card info, and since I check daily I caught it the first day on a minor purchase and the bank immediately blocked the card number and issued a new card.

And I there are only a few places that I would trust with a CC number over the phone.

But no matter how careful you are, there are risks with credit cards online or in stores, and checks IMHO are even more open to fraud and theft since the account info is visible to everyone that handles them.


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## Oregon_Camper

CamperAndy said:


> Same here!! From my BofA account (Alaska Airlines card)
> 
> Had this happen on Dec 3rd....


It was my Alaska Airlines card also. Maybe that is where the leak occurred.
[/quote]

Did yours get charged by "KEURIG" for $212?


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## Todd&Regan

Glad to see that no one here has reported debit card fraud. When making any purchases over the internet, ALWAYS use a credit card. It is much easier to dispute a charge on a credit card than it is to get your money back from a fraudulent debit card transaction.


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## CamperAndy

Oregon_Camper said:


> Same here!! From my BofA account (Alaska Airlines card)
> 
> Had this happen on Dec 3rd....


It was my Alaska Airlines card also. Maybe that is where the leak occurred.
[/quote]

Did yours get charged by "KEURIG" for $212?
[/quote]

Two charges were attempted. One for about 7.50 for a data service (wifi) in Germany and the second one for $1,150 for an airline ticket on Emirates Air. I am a world traveler but I do not go to the middle east and have no plans on going there.


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## john7349

CamperAndy said:


> Same here!! From my BofA account (Alaska Airlines card)
> 
> Had this happen on Dec 3rd....


It was my Alaska Airlines card also. Maybe that is where the leak occurred.
[/quote]

Did yours get charged by "KEURIG" for $212?
[/quote]

Two charges were attempted. One for about 7.50 for a data service (wifi) in Germany and the second one for $1,150 for an airline ticket on Emirates Air. I am a world traveler but I do not go to the middle east and have no plans on going there.
[/quote]

Hmmm... I have the Alaska Airlines card too. I do watch it daily, but really on guard now....


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## KTMRacer

CamperAndy said:


> Same here!! From my BofA account (Alaska Airlines card)
> 
> Had this happen on Dec 3rd....


It was my Alaska Airlines card also. Maybe that is where the leak occurred.
[/quote]

Did yours get charged by "KEURIG" for $212?
[/quote]

Two charges were attempted. One for about 7.50 for a data service (wifi) in Germany and the second one for $1,150 for an airline ticket on Emirates Air. I am a world traveler but I do not go to the middle east and have no plans on going there.
[/quote]

From what I experienced and what CC told me, and paper articles, this is a common approach. First they charge an item for a few $$ to see if the #/card is valid, and if it goes through then they hit immediately with a big $ item. In my case about 5 years ago, they charged a prepaid cell phone card for like $10 and when it went through they tried to buy multiple cell phones. But I caught it before they could do that.

And, the advice to not use a debit card online is a good idea.

Now charging an airline ticket on a stolen CC seems like something really stupid to me. Easy way to get caught or traced.


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## clarkely

Nothing against Canada ....... But i go up in the winter snowmobiling ...... and every year or two ......... my numbers end up getting used .....usually they wait a year to try to repeat the same time i was there the previous year ...... so patterns look the same...... this year they used them in the first week of november...........

I try to use only one card whenever i go out of country ... i also try to use only 1 card for shopping .......... actually i only use two cards - 1 work and 1 personal ........... i feel it is the easiest way to stay on top of checking them for fraud.


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## raynardo

There was a breach earlier this year with Alaska Airlines VISA card

For me it was just one of my VISA cards. I have a credit monitoring service which noted that there was a entry in my credit report about this.

I contacted VISA, but they were very tight lipped, and simply sent me a new card. But that's a PIA when you make many automatic payments via my credit card. You must contact every one of those merchants and change one's credit card information.

Why would anyone use their credit card to pay their regular monthly bills? Simple, on one of my saving accounts I get a measly 0.10% APY interest, and on another I get a paltry 0.75% APY. But my credit cards are paying me anywhere from 1% to 5% on my purchases, so I do much better with my money spending it than saving it - anywhere from 10 times to 50 times better.....of course I religiously pay off every card before the monthly due date so they don't collect any of their atrocious interest rates FROM me.

I've used my credits wisely this holiday season, buying gifts for my family without any out of pocket expense.

YMMV


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## ftwildernessguy

Interesting. Not long ago my Capital One card was charged with an airline ticket from LA to Alaska on Alaska air lines. Was caught by Capital One and cancelled out before I got a bill. The only reason I knew is because I check the account online regularly.


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## hoodscoop

I too am anal about my credit charges. I have done and am doing just a couple things to ensure its safety;

Because I am from Maryland, one of the state's that allow it, I have "frozen" the DW and my social security numbers with the three credit card companies. This completely stops anyone from opening an account or another credit card using our good credit scores or s.s. numbers.

The other two daily pratices I employ is to check the balances daily, really only takes less than two minutes, and secondly, I never let the card out of my sight. If a person must take it out of my sight, i.e. a restaurant, I pay cash.

P.S. one other item that might be helpfull, we don't sign any of our cards on the back, we write in, "ask for identification" instead.


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## raynardo

hoodscoop said:


> P.S. one other item that might be helpfull, we don't sign any of our cards on the back, we write in, "ask of identification" instead.


One thing you need to remember, these folks hardly ever steal your actual credit card. They just need all the information from the card then buy items online where there's never a real ID required. Sure there are instances where they make a duplicate card, but it's not the norm, because that could require a face-to-face transaction and maybe even a camera or two.

These crimes are rarely prosecuted since a large percentage of these perpetrators are overseas, with no fear of prosecution, so it becomes the price of doing business for the banks. It's one of the reasons they pay you 0.01% APY and charge 24.99% - a 2500 time increase - so they're well covered....

Sad but true.


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## clarkely

another good practice is to have a photo copy of all of your belongings of your wallets and credit cards for those who carry a lot of them....... when i was younger i had this card and that card .... and when my wallet was stolen out of my jeep .......... i had to go through statements for cards i never used to discover which ones i had in that ole wallet....


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## Stance

KTMRacer said:


> From what I experienced and what CC told me, and paper articles, this is a common approach. First they charge an item for a few $$ to see if the #/card is valid, and if it goes through then they hit immediately with a big $ item. In my case about 5 years ago, they charged a prepaid cell phone card for like $10 and when it went through they tried to buy multiple cell phones. But I caught it before they could do that...


My CC co. told me the same when I topped off the gas in a rental (~$7 total). They called me afterward to verify I charged it.

I've had my CC stolen twice in the passed 4 years. The first time, someone tried to spend $5k at a "woman's clinic" in TX. My CC co. told me that some of these thieves don't have any information from you at all. They just try to use random numbers hoping one works.

In this day and age, stolen CC's are just a price to pay for the convenience of using them.


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