Never let your card leave your sight

[Mousey]

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It's bad enough that theives are making 'fake' card scanners (with little cameras so they can grab your PIN -- always cover the keypad even when you use the debit card yourself) and putting them in stores and gas stations....

Stores and banks want everything to be electronic... but it's just so freakin' unsafe!

 

[harrys99]

Geez it's really hard to believe she had only bought it that same day-and her reasoning to increase her frequent flier miles

censored

 

[taysh075]

I kinda doubt it was for my frequent flyer miles but rather for some cold hard cash. If it was for more miles, then she is totally stupid It seems hard staying safe with so many dishonest people in the world. Even when it financial trouble, I would simply not steal from someone. I'm the type of person to find a wallet and hand it in with all the cash still in it. Taking it would not be worth the bad karma and sleepless nights from feeling guilty.

 

[LHofsdal]

2 years ago, just after Christmas, my hubby and I were going through our credit cards. I got a letter in the mail from Discover stating they were increasing our credit line. Now the credit line was 6 figures. I was like NO WAY do we want a card with that high of a credit line. So I called them, we had to close our account and open a new one because for some reason they can not decrease the credit limit only increase it. So we closed that account and got another card with a 4 figure credit line. Now mind you we have been with Discover for over 10 years, and never carry a balance on it.

After the account was closed and we were waiting for our new credit cards with the new account to arrive, I get a call from Dell computers thanking us for our purchase. I asked what purchase, we didn't buy any computer. SO I asked my hubby to pick up the other phone, and the CSR was getting the details of the transaction for us. They had said it was purchased the day before using our Discover card. I was like that is impossible, we closed our account and opened a new one that has not been activated yet because we have not received our card. She put us through to their fraud department. With this department they put us a conference call with Discover. Discover did confirm that our account was close 4 days earlier and a new account was made and the cards were on their way but was only mailed to us THAT DAY. There was no way we could receive them.

Dell put a stop on the charge and computer. Discover was looking into this. About 3 days later I get a call from Discover, telling me we were victims of fraud, not done by us but someone else. They encouraged us to file a complaint with our local police department to start the process of prosecuting the individual. We did that with our lawyer. About a year later we got a call asking if we can testify. I said hell yeah. We flew to California at Discovers expense only then to find out it was an EMPLOYEE OF DISCOVER that was making these charges, and we were not the only ones he was doing it too. This guy was going up for a Felony because the total amount was over 100 grand. This guy was getting authorizations numbers and waiting for the cards to be activated and manually putting the charges on the accounts. Very clever if you ask me.

Ever since then I always check our accounts every morning on line. With all accounts you can see what charges are pending, and if there is something I do not recognize, I call right away. We barely use credit cards, we pay for everything we can with cash, and when this happened to us, made both my hubby and I very leery of having credit cards. We only have 2 now and our debit card. But we do keep a close on them.

LH

 

[jetset]

Kudos for being prepared to testify against this crook, LH.

I hope that when frauds like this are committed by an employee in a position of trust in a financially senstive industry, the punishment imposed by the courts is heavier.

My bank has a really cool optional service on credit cards; on transactions over a certain amount (set by the customer) the bank sends an sms warning that a transaction has just been completed.

 

[Mousey]

Kudos for being prepared to testify against this crook, LH.

I hope that when frauds like this are committed by an employee in a position of trust in a financially senstive industry, the punishment imposed by the courts is heavier.

My bank has a really cool optional service on credit cards; on transactions over a certain amount (set by the customer) the bank sends an sms warning that a transaction has just been completed.

That's a very good option... I need to check my banks and see if they have this.

As an aside, on a local scam related to debit cards. ..... Without getting too long winded about it, an employee at a local grocery was some way clicking 'cash back' on some debit cards used by customers - without their knowledge or consent, of course -- and racked up a 6 figure 'take' all told before she was caught. Poor security on the store's part (it was the manager's grand daughter LOL), and on the card scanner vendor's part as well.

We are all in such a hurry and sometimes don't look at our receipts immediately, and it's quite a hassle having to eyeball all accounts everyday... but we've got to stay on the alert. I don't watch my accounts as closely as I should. I've only recently begun using my bank debit card for local odds and ends (groceries, gas, etc.) ... and I'm not sure I like it.

Stores don't like checks because they can't trust the customer, I don't like using cards for incidentals because I don't trust the stores. LOL