Goddamn credit card thieves

[jro]

I'm curious if this shit is as common for everyone else as it seems to be for me.

Got my credit card number stolen a couple years ago. Some asshole stole the number and then started charging it on the opposite side of the state, luckily my CC company flagged the charges and didn't hold me liable for them.

Then today my card gets declined again, so I call and yep, it was used at a King Soopers in Denver, twice, not me. CC company flagged the first charge then blocked the second one. Didn't bother to call me, I didn't find out until I called them to see why I was getting declined.

Has this happened to pretty much everybody at some point? It's kind of a sad commentary on the state of society.

 

[dspoonrt]

I believe it's happened to me once on my personal card and once on my work credit card. It seems extremely common. It's been years since I've heard someone say, "I must be one of the lucky ones, because it's never happened to me."

At least it's a pretty minor inconvenience nowadays.

 

[Day_Man]

Yeah it's pretty common these days it, 3 out 5 people in my immediate family it's happened to.

 

[smokehouse]

I have a Visa debit card and a Mastercard actual CC...the debit has been stolen at least twice, the CC, once. My wife has had her debit stolen once, her CC stolen once.

At worst, it's a massive time suck and pain in the ass. I never costs me $$, but it always costs me time. My card is immediately killed...I have to wait a few days to get the new one, then I have to fix anything that was on autopay.

 

[RAZO]

Yup. It's happened to me once and to my wife twice.

 

[Dr Shroom]

Nope.

 

[Morden]

This has never happened to me, but it's bound to happen soon. For years I've been using a service my bank was providing, which was virtual credit cards, good for one transaction only, and for a specified amount of money. Using this, I was never afraid to be buying things from shady Chinese sites, or other weird online stores. I figured that in the worst case, I'll only lose the money allotted to that purchase. And I never have.

Two months back, my bank started phasing out the service, because why should they keep it now, when we buy more stuff online than ever before? They have some bullshit system that's supposed to protect me, blah blah blah ... but I am now forced to input my real credit card info, and if Sony can be hacked and have all credit card info and personal data stolen, how can you feel safe?

That virtual credit card thing was the best. It would generate new number, you'd specify how long the card would be valid for, etc. Now I'm seeing third parties starting to provide something similar, while charging for it. It's probably some bullshit arrangement, when the bank kills the service, but has some affiliate company make an app with fees for the same thing, so that you have to pay for something that was a part of your online account, for free.

 

[Ip Man]

never happened to me, but it is a big fear of mine.

 

[fake]

It's happened to me multiple times. One time my CC, address, and social were all stolen. I had a pay-as-you-go phone for a decade. Three years ago I decided to get a big boy phone with data and everything. I added the iPhone 6 and the cheapest plan to my account, checked out, and immediately got a receipt from Verizon for an iPhone 5, belt clip, case, etc., and an unlimited plan. I never received a receipt for my own plan and iPhone 6. I called Verizon and they said that it must have been someone internal who stole my data as soon as it came through.

I'm pretty averse to handing my life over the my phone, but linking my credit cards (I have one for normal purposes and one for traveling) has made monitoring for stolen cards so easy. I get an alert every time a card is swiped and can check my charge history whenever. It's good for keeping track of how much I've spent, too. The only bad part is that every time I use a card, my phone vibrates and I think someone is going to ask me to hang out but it's just the credit card company telling me I have less money now.

 

[jro]

I have a Visa debit card and a Mastercard actual CC...the debit has been stolen at least twice, the CC, once. My wife has had her debit stolen once, her CC stolen once.

At worst, it's a massive time suck and pain in the ass. I never costs me $$, but it always costs me time. My card is immediately killed...I have to wait a few days to get the new one, then I have to fix anything that was on autopay.

Yeah, I suppose it's pretty lucky that that's all it usually is. Would be a lot worse than an inconvenience to be on the hook for however much $ and have nothing to show for it.

My bank told me okay, card will be sent from Omaha on Wednesday, then take 5-7 business days to reach you. I wanted to say holy shit are you delivering it via horse-drawn carriage?

 

[Igakajook]

I wanted to say holy shit are you delivering it via horse-drawn carriage?

It's probably the best way to keep it from getting stolen.

 

[IcBlUsCrN]

i haven't had a credit card in 10 years but just before they started chipping the new card my atm card number was apparently stolen and someone attempted to buy something from best buy . luckly got a text and i could reject it , think it was skimmed at a gas pump. trying to buy a house now and tying to build up some sort of credit so ive been using credit karma about 2/3 times a month to see whats on.

 

[Lukejaywalker23]

This is gonna be a long story

I travel with work so one day I was checking into a courtyard Marriott hotel. As soon as I got into the room the hotel phone rang. I answered thinking it was the dude that checked me in to see how I liked the room. The person on the other end of the phone claimed to be from the front desk and said that their systems were down and my card didn't go through and that I was welcome to come down or he can just enter my card over the phone. Not thinking twice I began to give him my name then it hit me. I said hey I'll just come down and let you swipe it , then he said ok but we have a pretty big line since everyone is down here trying to run their card again. So I hung up on him and went down stairs and ask front desk if he called. Of course he said no but said some dude just called the front desk and asked for your room number.

These mother fuckers are getting slick.

 

[smokehouse]

Yeah, I suppose it's pretty lucky that that's all it usually is. Would be a lot worse than an inconvenience to be on the hook for however much $ and have nothing to show for it.

My bank told me okay, card will be sent from Omaha on Wednesday, then take 5-7 business days to reach you. I wanted to say holy shit are you delivering it via horse-drawn carriage?

The last one, about 6 months ago, was the worst. They called it an attack theft, literally thousands of dollars of charges within a few min, from all over the world. A ton of online subscriptions, subscriptions to places like Netflix or online accounts, and tons of software purchases (mostly Microsoft)...all within about a 10 min window.

 

[ballzdeepx]

This stuff while scary, is no where near as bad as identity theft. Do yourselves a favor and freeze your credit with all 3 major credit bureaus to ensure no one can open an actual line of credit in your name.

 

[kitkit.com]

Yup, 3 times:

1) About 7 yrs ago, I bought something at walmart.com using my Chase Visa. A few months later, I found out on my statement that I was charged $600+ at walmart. I immediately filed a dispute. About a few weeks later, I got a call from Chase stating I am responsible for the charge "after an investigation". I was so furious and asked the representative regarding the details of the transaction (what I bought, picked up or shipped, shipping address, store location etc) but the lady could not answer anything. I simply told her I did not make such purchase and refused to pay. Chase eventually did not hold me liable to the charge.

For the 2nd and 3rd time, someone charged my Visa and American Express out of state at pizza joints. My CC company contacted me right away and they blocked the 2nd transactions so I was not responsible for the charges.

CC thieves are pretty common. I review my CC transactions online almost everyday since the walmart incident. I also get free credit score from my bank every month so I can spot any irregularity.

 

[F4U57]

We had it happen last month. Someone ran a minor test transaction on our card at 1am, thankfully the bank picked up on it immediately, sent us a notification text and blocked it. In doing so they bricked the card completely so we had to wait for a replacement to be issued. Annoying, but I appreciate the bank’s diligence.

 

[Syn]

I had it happen. CC company checked since charges appeared from California. I went and had to fill out paperwork at the bank as it was a debit card. Next day the money was refunded. I called to thank the manager and she was surprised but verified my money was returned. I said thanks and forgot about it.

A month later the bank sends notice that my claim was investigated and denied...wth???

 

[90s]

These mother fuckers are getting slick.

Thats the thing. I've had it happen before, but I'm never quite sure of how it came about. When its happened to me, my bank has always been on top of it and I've never been held responsible for the charges run up. I'm more concerned about any after affects like what can be done with my name, etc. So after it last happened, I purchased one of those credit monitoring services, for whatever good it does.

 

[Heinz]

I don't have a credit card but the wife does and it hasn't been skimmed, touch wood. I hate fucking credit cards!

 

[bubba966]

At worst, it's a massive time suck and pain in the ass. I never costs me $$, but it always costs me time. My card is immediately killed...I have to wait a few days to get the new one, then I have to fix anything that was on autopay.

This ^


I had one of mine stolen in the Home Depot hack. Card got used in Zimbabwe I think it was. And got the debit card stolen once too in another of those larger company hacks. And just like smokes says, not cost me $ but was a pain in the ass in time/hassle/etc.

 

[SML]

Not yet.

 

[MattBlah]

I've never had an issue, so far. Whenever someone tells me that it has happened to them I just think "What kind of stupid internet scams have you fallen for?" but it seems so common now that I'm probably wrong thinking that. It'll happen to me one day I guess, and that will change my thinking.

 

[ggallegos1]

Had my debit cards stolen a few times, usually I see erroneous online purchases I didn't make and my banks are good about refunding me. It's just a hassle to wait for a new card.

 

[NeoSneth]

It's about every other year for me. It's always been flagged immediately, and I get a text/email.
I travel about half the year for work, so it's just a matter of time before something gets stolen.

It's not your fault in most cases. Websites, restaurants, and gas stations are easy places to snag your card info.