Credit card fraud

[Easy Mac]

So it seems I am the latest victim of the dreaded credit card fraud. I happened to check my balance of my check card this morning, not really expecting to find much money. To my surprise, I had a lot more in there than I thought, but looking at it, I noticed I had done my math incorrectly.

However, upon further inspection, it seemed I should have more money than I had in there. In the span of 2 days, there was $100 total in charges to my card to an internet address I had never heard of, all for the same amount of money. I looked around on the net for the site in question, but I could not find it in existence. I then checked the holds on my card. There was a $55 hold to digital river. Now, I haven't bought anything on the net in about a month (barely had any time to be on it lately), so I knew these were bogus.

So, now the bank put a hold on my check card and are investigating the charges. I have no idea if I'll get the money back, since I do often buy things online, and even though the sites are highly suspect (except digital river, which does old school e-license, correct), I don't know if they'll see it my way. So I cut up my debit card, and no longer have one for now (they said they'd send a new one). I may just close the account and open a new one (I was thinking of doing it anyway).

So, how did this happen? Was this card just one of the unlucky 40 million stolen a month ago? Did they randomly put in numbers until one finally worked? Do I have a virus (altough no spyware or viruses were found on my computer when I ran them all last saturday)? I don't visit illicit sites, and never open unsolicited email, so I doubt that can be it. So was it just dumb, random luck that I got hit? It seems they tried to keep the charges relatively small, hoping they would fly under the radar (and they could have if I didn't randomly check). Should I just cut my losses and open a new account and just transfer the money over? Seems to be the safest way right now to make sure they don't completely screw my credit. Perhaps get a free credit report just to make sure?

[Draft Dodger]

there are so many ways someone can get your credit card (or personal info for identity theft), it's almost not worth it to bother. the bank will no doubt reimburse you, though, so I wouldn't stress too much

[Radii]

This happened to me a coupl of years ago.. most charges(esp internet sites) will list the phone numbers for support/service... I'd give them a call and explain the situation and find out exactly what the charges were for.

When this happened to me the fuckers charged $100 to nhl.com, bought a real.com subscription and a subscription to a porn site. I called them all to cancel charges to the card, explained what happened and all of them gave me all the information about the subscriptions/purchases, telling me the name of the person that the items from nhl.com had been shipped to, and the address(which was in Russia somewhere). I wrote all this down and put it on my claim w/ the bank.

I don't know if it helped the bank at all but it certainly gave me peace of mind.

[Mac Howard]

A few months back someone bought an item on ebay in my name for $187 - I've never had an ebay account but, hell, did it prove difficult to get the money back. The cc company was of little use. In the end ebay refunded the money but I don't know if they ever found out who'd opened an ebay account in my name and with my card.

On a more serious note, a case against an alleged peodophile has collaped in the UK because of cc fraud. The evidence against him came from the list of 7,200 numbers found with a child porn operation by US authorities and sent to the UK. However, the guy who ran the site has a record for cc fraud and the alleged peodophile was able to show that his c-card record shows he was apparently in the UK and the US simultaneously. The case has fallen through and it's thought that many others may now follow suit.

[Peregrine]

Personally I never use my debit card online, I don't mind potential credit card fraud since it would be sitting on my credit limit, but if my debit card got screwed up then stuff like my mortgage autopay might start bouncing, much worse in my opinion.

[Izulde]

The big difference between debit card fraud and credit card fraud:

Credit card fraud you aren't liable for any costs if you get defrauded. It used to be you were liable up to $50, but they changed that to zero a few years ago.

Debit card fraud, you're screwed and have little to no protection.

It's why I don't ever use a debit card.

[Peregrine]

Actually that's wrong Izulde, most debit card issuers have been offering full or close to full protection for some time now, I know mine does. It definitely used to be that way, though.

[Icy]

You can call the bank and chargeback that paymens, if i'm not wrong you got up to 3 months after purchase to do the chargeback. Your bank will return you the money without doubts. About how it happened, well as some said, there are tons of ways to do it, the only protection is to watch your card stastement from time to time and call fast your bank if you have any doubt.

[Samdari]

The big difference between debit card fraud and credit card fraud:

Credit card fraud you aren't liable for any costs if you get defrauded. It used to be you were liable up to $50, but they changed that to zero a few years ago.

Debit card fraud, you're screwed and have little to no protection.

It's why I don't ever use a debit card.

Where are you getting your information?

First of all, if you use a Visa Check card, you have exactly the same protection as other Visa cards - no liability for fraudulent charges.

Secondly, if someone uses a regular ATM card of yours, at an ATM or at a POS terminal, it is exactly the same as someone walking into the bank, and using your account number to withdraw money - the bank cannot give your money to someone else, and then tell you its gone. They are responsible if they let someone else use your card, just like they would be responsible if they let someone withdraw money at a branch from your account.

Where you may be screwed is the time - they can investigate claims of fraudulent use before refunding the money, so if you get your account cleaned out, and have no other source of funds, it could be 60 days before you get it back.

Now, get your ass back to the Adger dynasty and give us an update.

[Coder]

This happened to me almost exactly one year ago.. and I posted here about it too. Someone opened an account at William Hill Online charging my debit card for about $400. Luckily, I got my money back about a week later, because that was my entire vacation-savings.

http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~fof/forums/showthread.php?t=27978

Is where I posted about it.