Identity Theft

[Jinx]

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~*~]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

My Neopets account has been stolen a couple of times. Bastards

[Rebellious Eagle]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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!