Fraud Alert

I had one heck of a wakeup this morning.

I check my bank accounts online when I woke up and noticed around 800 dollars worth of charges that were in the "pending transactions" column on my account. WHOAH.....RED ALERT!

I called my bank and found out that someone/some "business" from Tokyo got my Visa debit card number and racked up over 800 dollars worth of charges.

I went into my bank this morning and filed "dispute paperwork" The woman said that I was the second person this morning to report a fraud and the 8th in the past 2 weeks! Insane

So they cancelled my debit card(have to get a new one) and now's when all the fun begins. All of my bills come out of my bank account automatically every month. Some come right from my checking account and some come out from my Visa debit card.

Now I just have to figure out what comes out how and make the necessary changes.



Moral of the story.....

check your bank account balances online at least every day. You never know when you will become a victim

You might want to consider immediately signing for an identity fraud protection service like Life Lock.

http://www.lifelock.com/

If they got into your debit account there is no telling what other pieces of identity information they might have stole from you and if they intend on using that information for more than just stealing from your debit account.

Its quite possible that they also have your Social Security Number, Phone Number, Address, ect .... and even though you had your debit card canceled they could potentially use that other stolen info to open lines of credit in you name, have ID's issued to illegal immigrants with you name on them, ect....

This could only beginning of you problems.

Would not hurt to protect yourself for a while with something like LifeLock till your sure your safe.

We've been dealing with this for the past couple of months. I can tell you from experience, it's a REAL mess! I don't curse it upon anyone. This is the 2nd fraudulent activity we've had in the past year.
The first one happened over the summer at a local movie theater. A 16 plex. Not a lil hole in the wall. It's estimated a couple thousand people in the area got nailed on that one. Some how the individuals hacked into the computer system forcing anyone who wanted to purchase a ticket to use the ATM. They had something hacked into the ATM and were able to duplicate cards. We are in Colorado, and the perps ended up being in California. Debit card/credit card fraud is typically pretty easy to take care of. Generally all they have is the card info and make fake cards. They test em out at places they know photo id's or signatures probably won't be required. Usually a call to the bank and cancelling that card settles that. Still a pain, but compared to what we are going through now it was a walk in the park.
When someone hacks into your bank account, that's when you got troubles...Big time.
Things like Life Lock are ok. Many homeowners insurance companies offer the same types of protection for cheaper. Thing is, if you are checking your bank account at LEAST once a day like you should, you will know about as fast as any service. Not only that, but by the time someone has your information and decides to use it, it's to late. These services usually only pick up unusual activity.

I check my accounts every single day, mainly because I have a very tight budget and it is easy to get overdrawn by using a credit card without thinking. It only takes a few minutes each time.

It must be terrible to have your identity stolen. Hope you have no further attacks on you, Rooster.

Ten years ago a neighbour's son stole my credit card and sold it on somewhere and although I only had a $500 credit limit on it they racked up over $2000 by going from gas station to gas station and buying a chinese meal for nearly $200. In the end it only cost me $50, thank goodness. It seems no one looked at the name on the card which was obviously a female name and also I doubt if anyone ever looked at the signature.

My own problem at the moment is that I have discovered that my 2010 tax return has apparently not been filed by my tax preparer so my discount on senior's medication was not applied to the stuff I bought this morning. I must get back to him and asked again if he has filed it. I expect it will take a few weeks to catch up and I hope I get a refund. I need it for MM.

The woman at the bank told me that my bank account isn't in jeopardy anymore because my Visa Debit card was cancelled. However I still don't feel totally relieved. Maybe something like lifelock is something to look at.
It was suggested to me that I get a standard Visa Credit Card if I plan on making online purchases. Fraudulent charges are easier to resolve with them and if there's a credit limit of, let's say, 500 dollars, then there couldn't be any charges higher than that. With a Visa Debit card, the thieves can take out as much money as you have in your account.

I have a car payment due on Monday and thankfully I have an overdraft limit of 1000 dollars and because of that, my bank will allow me to make my car payment. By the end of next week, after this is resolved, I should have the money back into my account and everything should be ok.

Now I'm not so sure I will use my Visa Debit Card for anything that I can't physically hold onto the card for. I will not give out my card number to do anything online, or over the phone.

Tokyo seems to be a popular spot. I had charges on my credit card from Tokyo in Jan. Had to cancel it. As you say, check your account every day. Fortunately my bank had already put a fraud alert on the second charge pending a call to me. I have to alert them everytime I go out of the country or even I can't get a charge through.

Kay

Guess I need to be more vigilant with checking my accounts!! Thanks!

walshevak wrote:Tokyo seems to be a popular spot. I had charges on my credit card from Tokyo in Jan. Had to cancel it. As you say, check your account every day. Fortunately my bank had already put a fraud alert on the second charge pending a call to me. I have to alert them everytime I go out of the country or even I can't get a charge through.

Kay

The woman I spoke to on the phone earlier today gave me the names of the websites where these purchases were made. For the heck of it I went to the one website and it's a computer parts website. It's written in Japanese but I could still see pictures and some prices.

I don't remember if I mentioned this, but I got an email from my bank earlier this morning(it's actually what started the investigation) saying something like my "Verified by Visa" password has been changed and if I didn't change it, I should contact them by clicking on a link in the email. I clicked on the link and the web page that popped up look legitimate. The email I got looked totally legitimate, and the link looked legitimate but the phone number that was listed on the webpage(the one I should call for verification) was bogus. I did an internet search for it and apparently it comes from Japan.

Just be aware of what you think may be "official" email from your financial institution.

Well what I thought was a bogus email from my bank turned out to really be from the bank......I just confirmed that it was.

And my bank is putting the stolen money back into my account. I checked a few minutes ago and my account is showing that the money that was taken is being added back in.....should all be in by tomorrow. I wasn't too worried about it. I would've gotten my money eventually(could've been 10 business days) but because those bogus charges were still "pending", I am able to get it back quicker.

I don't want to sound like a broken record, but I HIGHLY recommend that EVERYBODY checks their account balances on a daily basis....more than once a day if possible.

I'm a state revenue agent and we have been seeing this more and more. The state actually put in a ton of new security measures this year flagging thousands of tax returns as 'potential' fraud making the people call in for identity checks. They had to get so strict about it that even when it is the genuine person they sometimes need to take it twice because they dont pass the test.

I pretty much just deal with business sales tax and employee withholding so I dont run into it much but I've had business owners talk about getting hit personally with it. The way everything has gotten with the economy and what not is just making it worse. More people/criminals are willing to do it.

All I can say is I completely agree. Check your accounts constantly, keep up with your records, and do not give out any personal information without first making sure who your talking to is legitimate!

I was wrong. The bank did not give me the money back. 3 of those 5 charges are out of "pending" status and have now officially been taken out of my account. So in addition to the bogus charges, the bank is hitting me with over 120 bucks worth of overdraft fees.
Now that the charges have posted to my account, it probably will take up to two weeks for me to get my money back.

What happens again in two weeks? That's when my monthly bills come due.

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

GG

Goosegirl wrote:GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

GG

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR is right.

However, I may have found the origin of this cybercrime. It's a Dunkin Donuts I was at in NJ last Friday morning.

We have a specific account & card for buying things .. no money is ever left in it , we transfer the exact amount to cover the purchases being made . It clears in a few hours and we then make the payment out. No one can ask for payment from the account.

We never use fuel stations that are not owned .. ( not franchised ) by the big national players for they do not have spy camera set in the ceilings above the card readers .. .. we have also had to ensure that we cover the key depressions with the spare hand , for we got hit by a franchise fuel station using the pin number that they had viewed me using on the reader from a hidden camera in the ceiling.

What has annoyed me is that lots of UK banks use India , China etc.to process new accounts and some of the thieving toe-rags with high level access to the data have syphoned off zillions of peoples details and card info . They are available on line for as little as 25 pence (a few cents ) per name if you buy 100 or 1,000 data sets.

Believe me, I'm going to make some changes to my spending habits. One of them is to use cash whenever possible and if I need to withdraw money from an ATM, then I will only do it from bank I'm familiar with. I will not use my Visa Debit card to purchase anything online anymore and if I do need to make online purchases, I will use my Visa Credit card that I hope to get in a week or so.

So far this whole fiasco has cost me close to 1000 dollars.

When ever I use my bank card I always make it a credit transaction, which offers a bit more protection. You really can't beat cash. This whole thing stinks for you TTT.

camprn wrote:When ever I use my bank card I always make it a credit transaction, which offers a bit more protection. You really can't beat cash. This whole thing stinks for you TTT.

No....you really can't beat cash but then there's always the risk of losing the cash. At least if you lose a debit card, you can always report that right away and since most people carry a cell phone, that cancellation can happen immediately.

However, I am more inclined to use cash now. It's been ages since I lost any money.

I don't feel quite so paranoid anymore for having a prepaid mastercard for online purchases and using cash for everything else. I didn't even have a bank (debit) card until two weeks ago on a 8 year old account. I haven't used an ATM in years... thankfully my credit union is open late.

In fact, the last time I bought something online I sent them a money order that they had to sign for. I'm much too young to be so paranoid

I hope everything works out in the end for you TTT, that really sucks :/

eflan wrote:I don't feel quite so paranoid anymore for having a prepaid mastercard for online purchases and using cash for everything else. I didn't even have a bank (debit) card until two weeks ago on a 8 year old account. I haven't used an ATM in years... thankfully my credit union is open late.

In fact, the last time I bought something online I sent them a money order that they had to sign for. I'm much too young to be so paranoid

I hope everything works out in the end for you TTT, that really sucks :/

Thanks eflan....it will work out but it could take a few weeks.

Your bank really, really, really should not charge you overdraft fees for things that bounced due to fraud. Maybe they can, but that doesn't mean they should.

I don't feel quite so paranoid anymore for having a prepaid mastercard for online purchases

They say this is the best way to go. I know it sounds crazy, but credit cards are your best protection.

TTT, if your bank isn't helping you on this and waiving all charges, you need to find another bank. Especially these days. I know it's a pain, but everything has to go through (charges) and you should work with your bank daily, making sure they are covering all costs and overdraft charges. The bank will typically tell you they are taking care of everything. It's your responsibility to make sure they do.
Hopefully by now you've contacted all the credit bureaus as well...

I did speak to the bank manager today and she did tell me that all of the overdraft fees will be waived, even the overdraft fee they hit me with when I made my car payment yesterday. I only made that car payment because the woman told me I could and it will be covered by the overdraft protection I have on my account.

I'm a member of equifax and so far nothing negative has turned up.

Well I got the money back into my account through my bank's provisional credit. Basically that's all of the money that was lost. I got my money and it's pretty much a done deal. Chances are the thieves won't get caught and the bank will wind up losing that money.

At least I got my money back.

I was looking at my online statement the other day and it's not just a simple matter of a thief using my card info to buy something. Here's a breakdown of all of the charges for just one of those purchases:

1) $182.60 for initial purchase
2) $5.48 for international purchase fee
3) $39.00 overdraft fee for purchase
4) $39.00 overdraft fee for international purchase fee

So that one transaction actually cost me(really now it's the bank's responsibility) $266.08.

With everything that's happened in the past week I just have to say that my bank has been really really great through all of this. Other than having to run into the bank twice to fill out the fraudulent charges paperwork, I didn't have to do a thing to get my money back.