Watch your money!

Welp, to put it simply...fraud got me sometime between Monday and now. The bank noticed yesterday but I guess could not get ahold of me (yea right). My checking account is utterly wiped out, more than $1,000 overdrawn. I got lucky in that the one check I wrote to an SMF member went through before I was totally wiped out yesterday. I'll of course have to deal with the sheriff's department. They will try to find these people, and have a better than 50% record on domestic ID theft according to them. I guess that's one reason to pay your taxes.



Thankfully I pay the four or five bucks a month for fraud protection so Monday I will start that claim and identify the fraudulant purchases, get a new debit card, new credit card and so on. I dunno what goes on in Florida...but someone went on a best buy and Ashley furniture spree. They bought a 70 inch led tv and the store down there LET THEM PICK IT UP IN STORE without checking an ID or anything....can you sue companies who fail to check this stuff?

For the purposes of SMF, business as usual, my paypal account was quite obviously untouched and it does have a balance on it now. By the time I finish what I have outstanding I will have everything sorted. About the only thing that wont get paid on time is Time Warner.

For me, I plan for this stuff, but still it's an inconvenience and throws everything out of balance. For others identity theft if the largest criminal industry apparently in this country. I suspect one of the usual businesses to be hacked like Home Depot let my card get ate up by hackers. Amazing how that happens.

Glad to hear you have fraud protection , sorry for your loss and Inconvenience . Hope it all gets resolved quickly for you .

hate when that happens. wife and I bothgot hit last year her for 6oo me for fifty I pay for a watch on my bank acc. $5 per mo.

They are supposed to watch it for free, the fraud protection(after I spent the last half hour reading the terms of the service on the USAA website) means I can itemize all the fraudulant charges and have it refunded to my account, with all fees incurred in 2 business days or less.

Totally dodged a bullet. And I changed my phone number for the account so that problem is solved...it was still my old number from Louisiana...how I dunno I swear I changed it.

Sorry to hear you got hit, hate a freakin thief.
USAA has always been great with my credit card, they see the slightest thing out of line and they call to make sure everything is ok. We just switched to them for our banking so hopefully we get the same service as with the credit card.

You will, entirely my fault about the phone. I had been sent a email to which I responded yes I had been to best buy. (Which I had) But in my ignorance I never followed up, the next series of charges in a different state locked down my account but it was too late by then I guess.

I believe I read that credit card thieves can now walk behind you and with this little scanner (which is the size of a cellphone or so) have it in their hand and pass close behind you and the scanner will pick up your code off your card.


"Some blank credit cards, a $50 RFID reader and $300 card magnetizing device: all a hacker needs for contactless credit card fraud." Thank you Forbes.

Hacker's Demo Shows How Easily Credit Cards Can Be Read Through Clothes And Wallets - Forbes

Both paypal and bank accounts send me emails for every transaction. Since my phone has email and notifies me each time an new email arrives I do stay up on whats going on with my accounts.

After reading your experience I don't believe I my "security" precautions would have helped much. I do have the low level "Life Lock" but am not recommending it to anyone. Other than paying the bill for "Life Lock" I have never gotten a notification.

I have considered an insurance policy that is advertised by Dave Ramsey on his radio show. For those who are unaware Dave Ramsey has a radio show where he gives advise for getting out of debt. His system of getting out of debt is does not involve borrowing money only following a budget with defined goal.

Sorry for making this so long but this subject has been a concern of mine for long time.

Onto the scanning of your credit/debit cards there are wallets for sale that shield your cards. I need a new wallet and I think I am going to look for one. Mike

Army, I'm sorry you had to go through this. Last year I got a letter from the post office telling me someone had gotten my personal info from when I had gone in for a dog bite on one of my routes when I worked for them. They got everything so I've been on pins and needles waiting for the hammer to drop but so far it hasn't.

Actually, they make wallets with copper mesh built into them making it impossible to snag the card. Look them up on Amazon I own one.

If you want a real scare...you dont need all that stuff to lift card info. You can do it with a LG G1 or Samsung Note 3, S4, S5 or active. They all have the built in hardware to operate like that when jailbroken. Worse still these phones are all full HD or better video cameras so there isn't much they cannot do to lift even your pin number.

I actually use the new google wallet. It skips the idea of being able to steal the card number and it's paired to a serialized chip on a device meaning it cannot physically be stolen and over the counter handheld hardware doesnt yet exist to make duping possible.

There is zero reason to use any card attached to real money period. Debit cards are dangerous for you and your account. credit cards offer you protections from having your bank wiped out because they are not attached to your account. They may be from the same bank but you must authorize them to remove money from your account. Debit cards have the credit card logos but offer no protection to you from theft. I have had many compromised credit cards and I have never been responsible for the charges and they have never reached my bank accounts.

As a business cheques and debit cards are just not safe. If you need to send a cheque then you can use your bill pay from your bank.

Sorry this happened to you!!

Eric

etack your absolutely right, most of the time I use my usaa credit card but if im honest I hadn't been paying attention which in a way (especially in this day and age) is my own fault.

In the future I'll hide my day to days behind the credit card and paypal card.

Originally Posted by etack

There is zero reason to use any card attached to real money period. Debit cards are dangerous for you and your account. credit cards offer you protections from having your bank wiped out because they are not attached to your account. They may be from the same bank but you must authorize them to remove money from your account. Debit cards have the credit card logos but offer no protection to you from theft. I have had many compromised credit cards and I have never been responsible for the charges and they have never reached my bank accounts.

As a business cheques and debit cards are just not safe. If you need to send a cheque then you can use your bill pay from your bank.

Sorry this happened to you!!

Eric

Recheck your information, debit cards have the same protection as credit cards. Mike