God Dammit! My card got skimmed!!

[wooly110]

I got a call today from my bank's fraud department. There was suspicious activity with my debit card. We went through the past 2 days worth of swipes (which wasn't a lot) and there was a withdrawl from my funds (which I never withdraw from our shared account.) 7 minutes later there was a purchase (which I verified as mine) that was 100 kms away from where the withdrawl was from. Hence the alarm bells going off.

Now without going into detail, I have been able to figure out (although the fraud department won't tell me who it is. And yes, they already know) where the skimming took place. There's a VERY narrow margin of places that this could have possibly happened at. And I frequent this place all the time. And NO it has nothing to do with the hobby! lol.

I'm being re-embursed for the funds. I now have to go back over 2 mons of swipes and verify our purchases.

I'm really quite pissed at this. I really want to go and bust some heads with a bat. But we all know that's not a good terbites way of doing things. (But, the mental images are appealing. And, I only want to bust the head of who's involved. Not the whole lot of them...unless that's the case. lol) I want to make sure that my bank's fraud department is in contact with the police over this.

I don't expect them to bust anyone over this one specific incident, but, if they don't get any info, they'll never have a chance to make a trail, or build a case, IMO. I'll give them another piece, and they can figure out the puzzle.

 

[kbluejayk]

There seems to be a lot of that going on these days...You need to be so careful of who is swiping and how...

Incidently, its a good idea, if you are going down south or travelling overseas, to let your card companies know ahead...otherwise they get suspicious at all the activity away from your home town and may put a 'hold' on your card! A public embarrassment if you have just entertained at a restaurent and the waiter brings your card back to your table with the bad news. You fumble for another card and try to reassure everyone that there must be some mistake!

Some jerk at the card company has frozen your credit, when all they had to do was have the merchant bring you to the phone and identify yourself!
It happens a lot in Florida due to the high level of fraud going on...

 

[jbar]

Ummmmmmmmm... sorry about your experience, but how about a clue as to where this happened. Terbites help other Terbites.


Cheers

 

[james t kirk]

Yeah, my debit card was forged and someone drained out a pile of money.

I have NO IDEA who or how.

First, they went to national Money Mart and purchased something, I assume a money order for $1,995.00. Then they withdrew just under a grand from my line of credit, then they tried to make another ABM withdrawl 5 minutes later and RBC hot carded it and shut them down.

Long story short, I got my money back from RBC, but I had to jump through a lot of hoops and swear to Christ that I didn't take the money myself.

I only use my debit card at major stores - CTC, Home Depot, Loblaws, Costco, etc. Somehow, somebody busted the card.

I now cover the damn key pad with the card when I typ in the PIN.

 

[Fritz96]

This happened to me too last month. According to my bank manager (who had her card skimmed 3 times) it usually happens at gas stations.

 

[LancsLad]

There was a fraud ring that got busted in York Region last year, that used gas stations. It was run by a fellow who had all of his operatives get jobs at gas stations, not just the indies but Esso and the like. They skimmed a lot of card info for him before they were caught.

 

[rcw]

Both of my kids got their accounts stolen. The only similar purchases they made were thru I tunes. Not sure, but possibly a dishonest employee. Not sure though. Fortunately they both caught it on time.

 

[OnTheWayOut]

a few tips

this may help someone avoid some trouble .....

if you have a choice of swiping your card yourself or having the cashier do it, ALWAYS swipe yourself. The reason for this is simple, you can't check the cashier's slot for a 2nd magnetic read head WHICH SHOULD NOT BE THERE ...........

look at the slot where you slide the card through, there should be ONE AND ONLY ONE shiny magnetic read head visible right in the middle of the slot ...... if there are 2 shiny heads DO NOT SWIPE, the 2nd one is illegally recording your card # and most likely a hidden camera is trying to get a video of you entering your PIN .... if you see 2 heads look straight up and see if there's a tiny hole in the ceiling, that would be the PIN cam ..... DO report this to the police and/or the corporate head office if the place is a franchise or brand name place, they want to know ....

a few simple tips that could save you a lot of trouble and if you find one and report them, you'll save countless others trouble too! be safe out there ....

 

[hoser1970]

Canadian Bankers Association tips for avoiding this:

http://www.cba.ca/en/ViewDocument.asp?fl=3&sl=308&tl=310&docid=546

In a nutshell, completely cover the keypad with your hand when entering your pin number and you WILL be safe. It doesn't matter how many copies (swipes) of your debit card's magnetic strip the bad guys get, if they can't record you entering your PIN number, your card is safe!

 

[hoser1970]

My rant about this topic!

You know, it absolutely amazes me how many times when I am standing in line and the person ahead of me pays by debit card, that they make no attempt to cover the keypad!

I have actually been able to SEE their full pin number as they type it in. I would guess that far more people make little or no effort to shield their PIN numbers when using an ABM or debit terminal than those that do.

I always have 2 automatic thoughts that enter my head:

1) should I tap them on the shoulder and TELL them what their PIN number is or;
2) should I follow them and try and steal their wallet, lol.

Of course, I never do either, but I always wonder why people don't protect their PIN number more carefully? I guess they figure if they get skimmed, no big deal, the bank will reimburse them. But as the OP pointed out, it can still cause a hell of a lot of inconvenience. Plus, what if a cheque, or mortgage or rent or car payment bounces before you discover what has happened? Now you have to deal with that too!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, it is so EASY to protect yourself just by taking a few simple precautions. I use debit cards and ABMs all the time (like most of us) and have NEVER been compromised!

 

[lookingforitallthetime]

Weird.

I went to use my debit card last night and it said it was cancelled.

I called the hotline and was told there was suspicious activity on it. We went through the purchases and sure enough, I got dinged for $1500. I used my card over the weekend so this is how they flagged it. I believe the criminals do this on long weekends in the summer because there is less chance of people using their cards and less chance of them getting caught.

Bastards!

 

[GlavaMan]

Gas stations can also be a bad place if you 'pay at the pump'. Crimminals can sit in the parking lot with a WiFi laptop & steal card information.

 

[Mao Tse Tongue]

What I do when I can't easily cover my PIN is air punch a few more numbers so the security cam in the sky will record me hitting a few extra numbers before hitting "enter", and because of the angle they can't tell I'm not pressing down on the numbers.

 

[Keebler Elf]

I had a similar experience on one of my credit cards. To make a long story short, I had a card that I very rarely used and had only put one transaction on it in the past 2 years.

I got a call from the cc company inquiring about a spurt of expensive charges all over the world. They reversed the charges and sent me a new card with a new number.

Lo and behold, the next month I get a new statement (with the new card #) with new charges that again weren't mine.

Once again the cc company fixed the problem (it helped that it was obvious that the charges weren't mine) and gave me a new number.

I haven't had problems since and the cc company has redflagged my card so hopefully they'll be right on top of future fraudulant charges.

 

[Hockey_MLnut]

My card got skimmed at Dominion one time everything was straightened out the next day.

 

[blackmoon69]

my card got skimmed in an esso station thats located in railside and lawrence i paid thru my bank card and the next day i notice that they have have withdrawn $100. so lesson no. 1 always watch out where they swipe the card and the guy who is standing in the register. now i go to the same gas station that i know. just to be safe.and always cover your pin.

 

[someone]

I’ve never understood why people use debit cards in situations where they can use a credit card instead. I would rather keep my money in a bank earning interest and just pay off my card before the free interest period ends. In addition, you can usually get some sort of rebate or points for spending on a credit card that you can’t on a debit card. Thus, I rarely use my debit card, except to get cash at an ATM.

 

[drlove]

I’ve never understood why people use debit cards in situations where they can use a credit card instead. I would rather keep my money in a bank earning interest and just pay off my card before the free interest period ends. In addition, you can usually get some sort of rebate or points for spending on a credit card that you can’t on a debit card. Thus, I rarely use my debit card, except to get cash at an ATM.

You took the words right out of my mouth. Imagine the cash rebate a person could get if they used a cash back credit card as opposed to their debit card.

 

[Dodger]

Hey Wooly that sucks man and not in a good way either. At least it is good to know that the banks are trying and tracking history, oops maybe that isn't all a good thing. Thank goodness I have my seperate CC for my extracurricular activities.

Now if you want some old atrophied muscle to go and whoop these guys into shape you no where to reach me

 

[stinkynuts]

How many people, when reading the title saw: "God Dammit! My cat got skinned!"

Am I alone?