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Identity Theft, Theft & Credit Card Skimming

Discussion in 'Fred's House of Pancakes' started by hycamguy07, Dec 23, 2007.

  1. hycamguy07

    hycamguy07 New Member

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    Greetings~

    I wanted to take a moment, and remind People about Identity Theft & Credit Card Skimming, during the holiday seasons & throughout the year. (This is becoming one of the largest & most costly crimes of this century).:(

    Want to know the perfect X-Mass gift for seniors, our parents, and loved ones ? A good Confetti style paper shredder. This way they can shred those old bills, and credit card offers and also clear up some of that clutter around the house...

    It seems strange to see those people that pull up and throw your garbage in the back of their car, just to get your credit card offers and bank info.. All I can say is Shred, shred, shred..

    Skimming; My family has fallen victim, to this twice in one year.
    1st) I gave my card to a waiter at a restruant, and he returned it to me. then two days later persons unknown to me charged 1k on my card in Mississippi, before the credit card company red flagged the card.
    2nd) My wife made a debit purchase at a local Mall, and they charged $200 at another store in another mall, 2 hours after she had left the first location. I had to get a police report for both times as I was the custodian/holder of the card, Visa & the bank were the actual victims, because it was their money..
    ***********************************
    Another Ploy:
    If you lose your wallet / purse, report the loss to your credit card companies immediately! As the bad guys/girls may be spending your credit to the max.
    Do you ladies leave your purses in the shopping carts and turn your backs on the cart to get an item? well this is a new deal for the bad guys/girls they walk by and snatch your wallet and leave the purse. by the time you report it the bad guys/girls are spending your money with the plastic.......
    ************************************
    ( Filing a report shows the bank & card companies that the theft was real. The credit card companies know if you file a false police report, then you go to jail, its kinda like proof that it wasnt you making the purchases).

    Now I do not let my card leave my sight, no matter what.

    If you feel youve been a victim of skimming call and cancel the card and have a new account opened. Same goes for your bank debit card. (remember the card companies have a fraud departments that investigate the thefts & they press charges on the guilty parties). I would suggest that you contact the credit monitoring companies also.

    The black strip on the back of the credit/debit card holds your name, bank account # and pin #.

    Remember knowledge is power, Its time to arm/protect your selves.....!


    See the video links below, its shocking how easy the skimmers do it.. (you may have to copy and paste these to view them.

    Card Skimming:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sexUus0igWs

    ATM Skimming:
    http://www.identitytheftsecrets.com/videos/bankatm .html
     
  2. hyo silver

    hyo silver Awaaaaay

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    I've pretty much stopped using a debit card altogether, and only use a credit card where the card reader is either kept safely behind the counter or affixed to it. The old adage "if you can't pay cash, you can't afford it" is even more important now.
     
  3. moxiequz

    moxiequz Weirdo Social Outcast

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    Don't forget to check your credit reports regularly as well. You get 1 free report from each of the 3 major credit agencies every year. And - as I found out when I went to check my report prior to buying the Prius - this is a 'once-per-365-day-cycle' deal. The clock doesn't automatically reset on the first day of the new year.

    www.annualcreditreport.com

    You can get all three at once or space them out however you like.
     
  4. hobbit

    hobbit Senior Member

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    Last time I tried to use annualcreditreport.com, it was a total
    nightmare of javascript crap and didn't work for me at all.
    Pretty ironic considering that it's supposedly something to help
    with personal privacy, and yet encourages poor practice on the
    client side.
    .
    It was also impossible to raise any response [including finally
    obtaining a yearly report] via snail-mail, which they claimed
    was an alternative option.
    .
    _H*
     
  5. galaxee

    galaxee mostly benevolent

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    we had issues with the website too. i got one of my reports by calling and requesting it, and we have yet to bother to assemble the ID and proof of address for DH's remaining report.

    at the end of each year, i like to have our finances all properly arranged so we can start fresh the next year. also makes it easy to keep an eye on all the credit stuff, since this time of year i bet ID theft is more prevalent than usual.
     
  6. sulman

    sulman Introspectator

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    I bought one for my wife for Christmas. Who says the romance is gone?
     
  7. daniel

    daniel Cat Lovers Against the Bomb

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    I've had two fraudulent charges on my credit card, each in the one-to-two-thousand-dollar range, spaced more than a half a year apart, and both for purchases at the same company, Mary Kay Southern in Texas. Each time I reported it to my bank, and each time my bank promptly made a provisional credit to my card account, and after a couple of months made that credit permanent. It was assumed that the first time was a phone agent accidentally transposing numbers. The second time my bank canceled the card number so it cannot be used again.

    The fraudster had the expiration date of my card, but not my name or the three-digit security number. Mary Kay Southern does not bother to check to see if the name given with the order matches the credit card number. So it appears that they got my number at random.

    My bank asked me to phone the merchant first, when I called them about the charge. But Mary Kay Southern refused to make any attempt to investigate when I phoned them. (I have never bought anything from them.) They told me I'd have to file a claim with my bank. I called the bank back, told them what Mary Kay had said, and the bank initiated a claim. That gives the merchant two months (???) to respond, and Mary Kay did not respond, so the charge was reversed. (I had already received a provisional credit when I filed the claim.)

    Apparently, after the first incident, Mary Kay did nothing to investigate the purchaser, or to prevent a recurrence. They still make no effort to determine if the name given by the purchaser matches the name linked to the card number.

    The only disagreement I have with the OP is that I'd suggest a crosscut shredder rather than a confetti-style shredder. A patient person might be able to piece together the long strips from a confetti machine, but even the CIA would have a hard time with crosscut. Especially if you don't dump it until you have a full bin. Or use it as packing material.
     
  8. hyo silver

    hyo silver Awaaaaay

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    ...or feed the strips to the worms in the compost bin. :D
     
  9. Godiva

    Godiva AmeriKan Citizen

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    I use a cross cut shredder.

    And I've been a victim.

    Charges on my credit card. I have an account that has both a Mastercard and a Visa. I never use the Mastercard. Yet that is the card that the fraudulent charges were on. When this was finally discovered and in talking with the credit card people, they said it may simply have been a matter of someone with a card similar to mine getting one number wrong or reversed. These were all purchases over the internet. Now you'd think the merchant would have noticed that the name and address on the card was different than the name and address of the purchaser. But they don't care, they just want to make a sale. That's why there are code numbers on the back of the card and a consciencious merchant will use them.

    BTW I only make credit card purchases in person or over the internet. I never fax them or do phone orders. There was an article a while back about companies using prisoners for phone orders for catalogs. So no more phone for me. I use a Mac with either Firefox or Safari so I'm not concerned about the insecurity of Internet Explorer.

    Another thing I'd be wary of is allowing anyone that is not a policeman or CHP officer to swipe your driver's license. I've had a few grocery stores ask to do this when I write a check. I refuse. If they don't like it, I walk out and leave the groceries to reshelve. They have no right to swipe my driver's license. I don't know what's on there, but they don't have a right to access it.
     
  10. DaveinOlyWA

    DaveinOlyWA 3rd Time was Solariffic!!

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    i had a disputed charge from Target two weeks ago. when i called them to find out what items were purchased, Target said flat out, unless its a target charge card, they dont provide any information on purchases.

    so i called my CC company and they removed the charge from my account and started an investigation. guess it will take a few weeks to find out what was purchased...
     
  11. galaxee

    galaxee mostly benevolent

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    wow, that makes me want to cancel my target card just to piss those people off.

    and these stories have me digging out the credit cards i never use to double check that there are no transactions on them...
     
  12. DaveinOlyWA

    DaveinOlyWA 3rd Time was Solariffic!!

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    tell me about it. when i reported the charge, the investigator admitted that many retailers are not very cooperative and makes the investigations hard to conduct. in these cases, its either

    forgotten purchase (and this could be the case, because SO good at spending money, very bad at remembering and its 10 times worse at xmas)

    double charges (items scanned incorrectly)

    someone with cloned card. iow, signature is different, name on card is different, but card number matches mine.

    in the latter case, its important to resolve quickly to prevent further fraud. but because stores make it difficult, then can take 2 weeks to get store paperwork. pretty pathetic since target is all digitalized. should be able to get info in hours not weeks
     
  13. galaxee

    galaxee mostly benevolent

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    yeah, the target card's gone as of now :p i consider it a part of my downsizing. i only use one card anyway.

    hope they get everything worked out for ya Dave.
     
  14. daniel

    daniel Cat Lovers Against the Bomb

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    A shredder will only protect you from garbage thieves. There are plenty of other scams out there.
     
  15. TummyMan

    TummyMan Tummy Man

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    I know all about ID theft, I moved to No. AZ seven years ago, in that seven years I have had my identity taken seven times. My credit score went from 810 to 652. This has cost me thousands of dollors in attorney fees to try and get out from under this.

    At one point I had over 17 accounts opened for me that I knew nothing about. This included someone buying a new car.
    16 accounts in credit cards alone.

    I have had my bank account (checking) drained twice, I have had to have all my credit cards re-issued four times. I have had to close two savings accounts and reopen them.

    I had someone try and get into a money market account.

    I have police & FBI reports to go with it all.

    I lived in the LA area for 43 years without any trouble. I can not explain it.

    This last year it has only happened one time. I feel lucky.

    Thanks for reading all this I hope it never happends to you.