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noxious.sunshine
08-01-2013, 05:23 PM
Soooo we're all excited to get paid yesterday and go grocery shopping and do laundry and all that -fun stuff-... But then.

My BF goes to the gas station to pump gas in the roommate's car so I can drive his and his card doesn't work. WTF?

Welp. The bank tells him that his account's been compromised or whatever. No freaking wonder his checking account's been winding up negative the last little while or so.. And here -I- was thinking it was because I'd overspent and then a bill got paid automatically making it all go in the red. It got fixed, though. The bank has to mail him a new debit card and switch the account over to a new one. This is the 2nd time it's happened to him.

My ex in Phoenix stole my driver's license, social security card, and birth certificate, but it's not like anyone can actually buy anything in my name anyway 'cuz my credit is completely shot.

Has this ever happened to you?

Spuuky
08-01-2013, 05:34 PM
Nope. I'm a very low-risk target (high difficulty, low reward) so I doubt it'll ever happen to me.

However, my father (extremely low difficulty, moderate reward) has had it happen twice.

rubah
08-02-2013, 02:33 AM
stop using debit cards to purchase things. keep track of your expenditures and use a credit card to make purchases; there's a lot more protection that way. Someone goes on a spending spree with your card, you get a call that day and they send you a new one. The charges are dropped and your cash is safe.

Has there been a spree lately? Yours is the third story I've heard this week!

Quindiana Jones
08-02-2013, 02:37 AM
Someone stole my Runescape account once.

Laddy
08-02-2013, 07:40 AM
That's more of a personal favor.

Synoptikal
08-02-2013, 08:12 AM
I've had my World of Warcraft account hacked once.

Oh, and I'm also on my 4th credit card...

noxious.sunshine
08-02-2013, 11:21 AM
I actually have a very sick feeling that like maybe I -did- overspend... And they've chalked it up to identity theft. IDK where he spent his money before I moved in or what he spent it -on-. And he works a lot, so maybe the extra spendage triggered the account?

I also think that'd be really hilarious, but it's not.

But that doesn't exactly add up either. He tells me what our budget is, and I stick to it almost to the letter.

Quindiana Jones
08-02-2013, 11:22 AM
That's more of a personal favor.

Aye. Devastating at the time, though.

Iceglow
08-02-2013, 11:50 AM
I once had someone clone my bank card when I used an ATM. Was fun, not! £300 gone like *snaps fingers* I got the funds back, apparently the guy cleared every account using that ATM in a 24 hour period.

I deal with lots of fraud claims all the time in my job. To be honest most of the time it's customer's stupidity they do shit like sign up a duplicate acct on their xbox they have no idea exists because it's linked to the email on their xbl and they don't check that one. Or some shit like that. Most notoriously though they give their card to a field sales agent and wonder why they were signed up. If you didn't want to buy, you really shouldn't be giving a random person on the street your debit/credit card.

Shlup
08-03-2013, 08:14 AM
That's happened to BJ twice. My husband, who's always Mister Caution and scolds me because he thinks I'm careless, has had this happen to him twice. And I don't let him forget it!

Shorty
08-03-2013, 08:49 AM
Twice in the past I've had my account information stolen and crazy ridiculous purchases made to my bank statement. My bank is incredibly good at spotting what appears to be fraudulent activity, though, and both times the charges were cleared before they were even posted. By the time I contacted the bank, they were pretty much like "yeah we suspected identity theft don't even worry about it". I'm pretty careful about using trusted sites online, so it must have been spyware or some trout on my computer.

Additionally, my wallet was stolen in 2008 when I was at a party. In it was my social security card because I am an idiot and kept it in there from when it was needed upon starting my job. That, my license, my bank card and my credit cards were all stolen. The bank and credit cards were used, of course (all charges were cleared, naturally), but I haven't had any strange things pop up on my credit history since then, so I don't think they attempted to use my social in any way, thank god. Still freaks me out that it may be floating out there in Godknowswhere Phoenix, but it was years ago and if something does pop up, I'll deal with it then.

Pumpkin
08-03-2013, 08:55 AM
No, I have never had this happen, which is amazing considering how easily I lose things.

The worst I had happen was I lent my ex my debit card to pay for a taxi and a taxi only (I was very clear about this) and he went on a spending spree. Well I knew he would, so after I recovered from my extreme stupidity I called my bank and told them to cancel the card and that I would pick up a new one. They even offered to replace the money he spent, but I didn't feel right doing that because the money wasn't stolen, it was gone because I was dumb enough to let someone immature and irresponsible use my card.

Sure enough he couldn't afford the taxi (since I cut off the card before that point) or the extra large pizza, 24 case of beer, and bottle of booze he was about to buy him and his friends, and he actually got pissed off at me for "embarrassing" him, after I told him he wasn't allowed to spend what little money I had and I was just lending him my card for a taxi.

Shorty
08-03-2013, 08:57 AM
You should have let them replace it. It technically was stolen because you didn't authorize those charges.

CimminyCricket
08-03-2013, 10:15 AM
What Shorty said! I've never been the victim of identify theft, but my father had someone in Texas steal his identity. Nothing came of it since they weren't doing too well when it happened. It must have sucked for the guy who stole it. xD

Unbreakable Will
08-03-2013, 02:44 PM
I don't use banks.

Not that I have any money to put in them, almost 75% of my pay goes to rent/electricity/internet. The remaining goes to gas/food/baby stuff and various activities that I can barely afford.

:G

Jinx
08-03-2013, 04:20 PM
Nah. And the probability of hit happen won't increase for some time. Because of some bad choices a few years ago, my credit is pretty shot. I don't have much money at the moment, so anyone who goes through the effort of stealing my identity would have very little payoff.

~*~Celes~*~
08-04-2013, 04:06 AM
my husband's card number was stolen a few months ago, i think back in March. We got all the money back but it was scary.

Mirage
08-05-2013, 11:00 AM
stop using debit cards to purchase things. keep track of your expenditures and use a credit card to make purchases; there's a lot more protection that way. Someone goes on a spending spree with your card, you get a call that day and they send you a new one. The charges are dropped and your cash is safe.

Has there been a spree lately? Yours is the third story I've heard this week!

I don't understand this though. Don't you need to input a code each time you use debit cards in the US? Isn't it possible to have a debit card that only works at card terminals in stores, and not on for example the internet? Even using my debit visa on the internet requires me to input a code from the code generator my bank gave me.

No one has ever ID thieved me, and I've never been incorrectly charged. I didn't use the debit visa when I was in Japan though. Well, I did, but only on 7-11 ATMs and then I used cash everywhere else.

noxious.sunshine
08-05-2013, 05:45 PM
stop using debit cards to purchase things. keep track of your expenditures and use a credit card to make purchases; there's a lot more protection that way. Someone goes on a spending spree with your card, you get a call that day and they send you a new one. The charges are dropped and your cash is safe.

Has there been a spree lately? Yours is the third story I've heard this week!

I don't understand this though. Don't you need to input a code each time you use debit cards in the US? Isn't it possible to have a debit card that only works at card terminals in stores, and not on for example the internet? Even using my debit visa on the internet requires me to input a code from the code generator my bank gave me.

No one has ever ID thieved me, and I've never been incorrectly charged. I didn't use the debit visa when I was in Japan though. Well, I did, but only on 7-11 ATMs and then I used cash everywhere else.

If you're at like a gas station or grocery store or something or eating out, you can run it as credit, you just have to sign the machine or credit card slip as opposed to putting in a PIN number.

Hollycat
08-05-2013, 06:45 PM
A few months ago a guy on KOTOR (or some other star wars mmo) tried to use my credit card to buy $500 worth of... something? I don't play the game and the purchase was made from Florida, so I have no idea how they got my info.

Mirage
08-06-2013, 12:50 AM
stop using debit cards to purchase things. keep track of your expenditures and use a credit card to make purchases; there's a lot more protection that way. Someone goes on a spending spree with your card, you get a call that day and they send you a new one. The charges are dropped and your cash is safe.

Has there been a spree lately? Yours is the third story I've heard this week!

I don't understand this though. Don't you need to input a code each time you use debit cards in the US? Isn't it possible to have a debit card that only works at card terminals in stores, and not on for example the internet? Even using my debit visa on the internet requires me to input a code from the code generator my bank gave me.

No one has ever ID thieved me, and I've never been incorrectly charged. I didn't use the debit visa when I was in Japan though. Well, I did, but only on 7-11 ATMs and then I used cash everywhere else.

If you're at like a gas station or grocery store or something or eating out, you can run it as credit, you just have to sign the machine or credit card slip as opposed to putting in a PIN number.

Why would I want to sign a machine when I can just input my PIN? I dunno how it is in the US, but I can use the PIN code practically everywhere over here, both for my debit card and my credit card. Inputting my code takes like 1.2 seconds, and that's a lot faster and less worksome than writing my name.

Signing with our names is almost exclusively used as a back-up solution in case a store's internet connection is acting up.

Pike
08-09-2013, 10:28 AM
My Neopets account has been stolen a couple of times. Bastards :colbert:

Rebellious Eagle
08-09-2013, 06:10 PM
I've just started using a debit card and doing my own banking, but now I'm really paranoid reading this thread... D:

noxious.sunshine
08-09-2013, 06:21 PM
stop using debit cards to purchase things. keep track of your expenditures and use a credit card to make purchases; there's a lot more protection that way. Someone goes on a spending spree with your card, you get a call that day and they send you a new one. The charges are dropped and your cash is safe.

Has there been a spree lately? Yours is the third story I've heard this week!

I don't understand this though. Don't you need to input a code each time you use debit cards in the US? Isn't it possible to have a debit card that only works at card terminals in stores, and not on for example the internet? Even using my debit visa on the internet requires me to input a code from the code generator my bank gave me.

No one has ever ID thieved me, and I've never been incorrectly charged. I didn't use the debit visa when I was in Japan though. Well, I did, but only on 7-11 ATMs and then I used cash everywhere else.

If you're at like a gas station or grocery store or something or eating out, you can run it as credit, you just have to sign the machine or credit card slip as opposed to putting in a PIN number.

Why would I want to sign a machine when I can just input my PIN? I dunno how it is in the US, but I can use the PIN code practically everywhere over here, both for my debit card and my credit card. Inputting my code takes like 1.2 seconds, and that's a lot faster and less worksome than writing my name.

Signing with our names is almost exclusively used as a back-up solution in case a store's internet connection is acting up.

Some places won't let you run your card as Debit. Like when you go through the drive thru at fast food places or a drive-thru liquor store, it runs it as credit and you don't even have to sign anything. Dine-In nicer restaurants run your card as Credit. The liquor store we go to runs your card as credit if the purchase is under $30 - and no, they don't give you a choice in the situation.

Here, if you go into a gas station and they ask you "debit or credit?", depending on how much your total is, it's cheaper for them to run it a certain way. If it's under $30, they prefer to run your card as credit because the store will be charged $25 or so. If it's over $30, they prefer using debit because of this same charge. They still have to ask because of the way the registers are set up and you have to push a button or whatever, but yeah.

Mirage
08-09-2013, 09:10 PM
Sounds crazy complicated. Stores never ask about that here. Also, I don't have credit and debit on the same card anyway, so I'd have to physically put in a different card if I wanted to do it on credit instead of debit.

Also, stores get charged 25 bucks for $30 purchases if it's debit? Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's nothing like that here, because then there wouldn't be any stores left to go to, they'd all be bankerupt.

Jinx
08-09-2013, 10:19 PM
Today I thought I lost my wallet that had my ID, SS card, debit card, and insurance cards in there.

Yeah, I freaked out.

Relena Peacecraft
08-10-2013, 03:54 AM
What do you know. Some random person (I'm sure it was one of you unscrupulous lot) tried to buy over $2000 (three purchases of about $740) worth of stuff online with my credit card. The first two went through, but the third finally tripped the anti-fraud system, so I guess they only got their first 2 iPads or trampolines or whatever it is they wanted. I sure hope they were smart enough not to ship it to their home address! I'd guess the credit card company or retailer will do an investigation, but I'll never know the result. Oh well.

All I get out of the deal is a new card and the honor of changing my information anywhere that needs to bill it. I'm also forced to wonder how someone got the number. And if they had the CVV2 number and the correct billing address. A random leak from some business seems most likely, I guess. Doubt I'll ever find out.

Freya
08-10-2013, 04:14 AM
My job's service is actually to sell Identity Theft protection so I get it free from work. So I don't have to worry!