weird credit card thief...

[seez52]

my Discover card was stolen about 2 months ago. Thief went to Walmart and charged 900 some dollars, then tried to charge 600 more, that's when I was sent an email. The 600 was declined. A few minutes later they filled up their tank at the Pilot station down the road from Walmart. I never go to that station so I know it was not me. Plus I was sitting on the couch when it happened. They are still investigating but have temporarily credited my account. I filed a police report and they came up with a photo of the culprit. A middle aged white guy wearing a mask, hat and all long sleeves. It will be interesting to see what Discover Card eventually does. 

[Scotty]

I just got hit for a random 3 charges from Mexico. 

Uber eats subscription: $99.97

Then 3 Uber eats meals the next three days. I didn’t notice because the wordage and dollar amount and date was so close to the name of another financed furniture payment. Only noticed when Amex sent me an email saying “you used a line of credit but paid it off”.

It was from a small secured credit card with an $800 limit from a local bank that was my first credit card to build credit for a house. Called and they clearly saw I hadn’t charged anything in 5 years to it. I’ve been waiting for them to close it without closing it myself and taking a credit hit just in case. That’s the kicker, five years and they didn’t close my card. I shredded that thing and tossed it in three separate receptacles years ago. 

I keep my debit card locked at all times and only manually unlock it when someone doesn’t take Amex. Usually have cash but if I ever get in a bind it’s piece of mind to just unfreeze and make a transaction and then lock. 
 

Coincidentally I logged into my iCloud and it said my password may be compromised. Here’s to dealing with tomorrow with trying to erase a digital footprint I purposefully try to make small. Will freeze everything with the big bureaus, even though I think I still have that frozen since when I bought my home.  This is the only visibility I have on the internet. What a pain. 
 

Im a big fan of Amex, and would never enter any info online without that card. There’s a fee with it that I normally make back every year but the ease of calling and getting a representative coupled with an extended warranty is worth the peace of mind. Usually speak to a rep in 2 minutes, the investigation is mailed out and closed in under 2-3 weeks. 
 

 

 

 

[threeshot]

See my post regarding how I setup alerts to detect fraudulent activity on all my credit cards, my financial institutions and each year I renew the fraud alert to the credit report companies.

The key is to activate both text messaging and email alerts for any type of activity.

The sooner you can notify yourself to fraudulent activity, the quicker you can contact your credit card company or financial institution to proactively stop as best you can the fraudulent activity.

In my case, during three different years they first tested my credit card with a small transaction. Due to my text and email alerts, I contacted the credit card company to avoid the criminal's being able to make more expensive purchases, close the account and send me a new credit card.

I have the customer service phone numbers saved in my cell phone for all credit cards and financial institutions in case I am not at home if I receive an activity alert that I did not perform.

[NoBanStan]

13 minutes ago, threeshot said:

See my post regarding how I setup alerts to detect fraudulent activity on all my credit cards, my financial institutions and each year I renew the fraud alert to the credit report companies.

The key is to activate both text messaging and email alerts for any type of activity.

The sooner you can notify yourself to fraudulent activity, the quicker you can contact your credit card company or financial institution to proactively stop as best you can the fraudulent activity.

In my case, during three different years they first tested my credit card with a small transaction. Due to my text and email alerts, I contacted the credit card company to avoid the criminal's being able to make more expensive purchases, close the account and send me a new credit card.

I have the customer service phone numbers saved in my cell phone for all credit cards and financial institutions in case I am not at home if I receive an activity alert that I did not perform.

100% on notifications. That's smart. The only time it becomes a problem is around birthday's and Christmas, but the wife and I are adults so we just agreed to get over it.

[Darren7732]

Yes. This has happened to me as well. I'm not sure what happened with the idiots who did though. 

[hipower]

I've been lucky, or maybe simply blessed to not have had only a few small problems like this. I've had a couple of charges on my bank Visa questioned and returned to me. Of course a new card at each time.

However, years ago, in my comic and toy selling days...I had Discover calling my home and my cell because of 6 identical charges within an hour at a ToysRUs.

I was out on a search run for Power Rangers...yeah you can laugh. I went into the Cool Spring store and found a display of Pink and Yellow Power Ranger figures. Limited to one each per customer. I went in and out 6 times before the manager spotted me. Got banned from the store until after Christmas. 

Anyway, Discover was on it immediately. I heard the laughing in the background as I explained what I was doing.