Someone got access to my bank debit card

[meegbear]

Sunday afternoon, I go online to check what's in my checking account before going shopping. Money's there; everything's fine. I go to a store and pick up a couple items - $15. I give them the card and TRANSACTION DECLINED. That's weird. I had the cash, so I paid and walked out.

I am a member of a credit union, and there is no 800 number to call if there is a problem. So I went to an ATM and select withdraw $20. TRANSACTION DECLINED and the card comes out. I put it back in and select balance inquiry. TRANSACTION DECLINED and the card comes out. So a sashay home and goto the bank website. I log in and get a Login Declined message. Oh Oh.

Monday morning I'm hearing about the economy and start thinking 'Did my bank go under?', so before work, and before the bank opens, I go to it and see if there's a notice of something. There's nothing, so I do a balance inquiry at the ATM. YOU ARE NOT AUTHORIZED TO USE THIS CARD and it spits it out. Around 8:30, about a half hour before the bank opens, I get a call from my bank. My card has been shut down and my accounts disabled because a series of charges from overseas came in and the system shut my accounts down (Tip: If you are going overseas and plan to use bankcards, call your banks telling them you will be there, or they think they are stolen and shut them down).

My account was re-enabled and I went online. There was a charge for $119.75 from C28.com a "Christian Bling Store" (really) in California. That was the only charge I didn't recognize. I went to the back and they had me fill out a form and my account was credited back the money that day. My card has been deactivated and I will get a new one in a few days.

So I call C28's customer service line. I spoke to the rep and told them what happened and she stopped shipment on the purchase. She said that several purchase attempts where made with my card, but only one was processed. She asked if I would like a copy of the transactions and I said yes. She faxed me a printout of the card transactions - only one got through, when it was declined, they tried a different name.

I am going to call the bank today and see if they contacted the credit bureaus; while making an online purchase, I have never given my SSN, but I want to make sure all's well.

Meantime, I am fucking pissed and upset. I got about 4 hours sleep and feel, for lack of better words, violated. But I'm glad my bank did what they did and for a two branch operation, they acted better than a place like Bank of America would hands down.

[terrya]

1. I'm sorry to hear about your problems with your debit card.

That's awful...and sadly, too commonplace nowadays.

I've got identity theft protection on my bank's (Washington Mutual...yes, the bankrupt one) checking account. So far, I haven't had to use it, but I suspect that there will be a time when I go through the same kind of experience as you.

I hope all turns out ok for you.

[meegbear]

4. I think I'm OK ...

if they don't have my SSN, which they shouldn't, and the fact that the charges were overseas, someone probably hacked a site a made a purchase on and grabbed it.

[Midlodemocrat]

2. Boy that sucks. We had a similar issue with AMEX several years ago.

Someone in Arizona charged a car, yes, a car!!!! to our AMEX card. It went through, but the amount was, obviously, significantly higher than any other month and so they stopped approving charges.

It was all worked out, but what a pain in the ass. Nothing says deadbeat louder and more persistently than having your card declined. Ugh.

[meegbear]

7. That sucks!

And with the "no spending limit tag", you really could've been nailed.

I'm glad I don't use my regular credit card online. It has a $9000 limit and even if I'd be responsible for the first $50, I don't need that shit.

[Midlodemocrat]

14. I've been using one of those shop smart cards online

When I go to the website for my bank, I can get a 'shop smart' card that isn't tied to my real card's number, just the available credit.

Good for 24 hours. It's worked out beautifully. Even when I needed to return something. I highly recommend it.

[stuntcat]

3. "violated"

totally.. This stuff is scary.
People are so wrong, I think it's only Luck keeping this kind of thing from happening to us.

I'm glad you've straitened it out and the bank helped.

[mikeytherat]

5. Purchasing "Christian Clothing" with a STOLEN debit card?

Methinks Baby Jesus is no longer weeping, but opening up a can of whoop-ass.

mikey_the_rat

[MorningGlow]

6. Completely scary

So glad it worked out the best it could for you, Meegbear.

I've never had my bank card shut down, but I did get a call from my bank (HSBC) a couple of months ago, questioning a transaction made online to someplace in Australia. You're right--the minute they see an overseas transaction, the alarms go off. It turned out it was something Mr. MG purchased online, so all was well, and all I had to do was call them back and say so. Even though the amount of surveillance that's possible these days is kinda creepy, I appreciate it when the bank watches my account for me.

[mwooldri]

8. If you don't plan on getting any new credit in the next 2-3 years...

... I would highly recommend placing a freeze and fraud alert with all three credit reporting bureaus. It gets a bit of a pain in the backside if you then want to apply for credit because you have to contact the bureaus and ask for the freeze to be lifted. This will at least ensure that if they have your social security number and other details that they just can't open up a new account for you.

I work as a call centre coach for a major CC Co, and I can tell you that my coachees don't like taking fraudulent transaction calls very much. We do recognize the inconvenience you have to go through and yes that you do feel violated and we do get the calls asking whether we're going to get the f*#kers who did this. On the other end of the scale we get people calling in not even realising that they have a fraudulent transaction, saying it's something that they just don't recognize making. We look into it further and figure out that their card may have been cloned and they were in NY at 9:10 buying a coffee somewhere, and at 9:15 in SC filling up with $100 worth of gas - pumping right to the pay-at-the-pump limit. Somewhat impossible, so even just for that one transaction - we may have caught the rest before they hit the account, or did a deny on the second suspicious transaction that they gave up at that decline - they have to go through a fraud case and have a new card sent out to them. At least we'll overnight it or if they're near an office that's equipped with a card making machine we can make a temporary card for them at the office.

However with these fraud guarantees that are on credit and debit cards, what happens when you declare transactions to be fraudulent is that the "victim" shift from you to the credit card company. They make you whole by crediting them back, but then they're out the money and they want someone to pay. They will prosecute, and if the merchant was in any way lax in their processing methods and not taking enough safeguards (or maybe just in their contract), it's the merchants that pay. The biggest problem area I have is when a family member fraudulently uses someones' credit card and the credit card owner calls in stating these transactions are fraud, knowing exactly who made the charges. This is when things get really messy... but that's for another time.

You did good in contacting the companies that processed those fraudulent transactions. Don't expect the bank to tell you what they found out and whether they prosecuted or got them... it's out of your hands now.

Have a good sleep, do something fun.

All the best, Mark.

[meegbear]

9. Thank you for the information Mark ...

next year, around this time, I am hoping to buy a new car. I was planning to get a loan through my credit union, so I hope nothing else happens.

[Beer Snob-50]

10. i recently had a trojan infect my computer

that gives a popup whenever i try to purchase something on line with my credit card. a box comes up that says "advanced card verification" and my screen froze. before that happened a box popped up asking for account verification and asked for account numbers , passwords, and the security code on the back of the card. i put in all false numbers hoping to just get around it.

[meegbear]

12. Nothing like that happened ...

I buy cigars and suppliments online; I'm willing to wager one of them got hacked.

[graywarrior]

11. Man, that has to be the worst experience.

And thanks for the reminder that this can happen so easily. I seriously pity the poor bastard if you ever got your hands on him/her.

[mwooldri]

13. MSNBC had a programe about this some time back:

Dateline: To Catch an ID Thief.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17822386/

Worth watching/reading transcript.

Mark.