Honeynga

Went to local Publix this a.m. to get fresh veggies for my stir fry tonight and attempted to pay with Debit card..it was denied...tried again, denied, wiped it on my shirt, denied, tried credit, denied ! Left my veggies there (didn't think of paying cash of all things, all I could think of was my debit card and account balance !) Came home and verified that I had money in my account...called Cust Serv # and talked to a very kind patient person and she verified my last transactions and I verified all but the SIXTY NINE CENT purchase in BRAZIL and the $33 purchase in TN, all on yesterday, 10/6 !

Glad that my bank, Wells Fargo's security system is sensitive to these issues. It meant that I had to spend a few minutes on the phone completing fraud charge files; had to go to local bank (luckily it is open until 2 on Sat) to get replacement debit card and now will hassell (sp?) of making sure my auto deduct for my car insurance remains intact, etc......

Note to all, we need to be aware and very careful of our banking accounts, even if it means to monitor daily. Since I'm retired and live on a very limited income i really can't afford for folks to get into my little bit of money.

The card has not been out of my possession nor site whatsoever; I do very little on line transactions; the last on line transaction was to pay for a mag subs for a quilting magazine ! I do pay my power and cable bill on line but guess I'll just start writing checks again !

Be careful !

AlwaysQuilting

Wow. I'm sorry it happened to you but glad you caught it so fast.
I hate writing checks. I don't want to show my acct. number to anyone so I've been using my bank card (as a credit) for everything for years.
I don't feel safe doing either one now.
thanks for the warning

athomenow

The little charge in Brazil was to see if you were watching or had fraud alert on your account. The larger one was building up to taking you for everything. I had this happen and have Chase fraud alert on my card. Shut everything down and got new cards within 48 hrs. My charge was $3.00 at a gym in Puerto Rico!

Honeynga

I think you are right......about the minute charge just to see if I was watching. Sadly I had fraud almost a year ago that drained my account of several thousand $.....that fraud was from a family member ! Sad but true. Still trying to get that money back without filing a police report !

I'm wondering if because my account already had FRAUD ALERT on it would they have caught it so quickly. Interestingly I was at bank on Friday to cash a whopping $20 tax refund check and they went through all the hoops of checking my ID, etc. in order to cash the check, which was ok with me !

Say what you want about our day of computers but guess it did look unreasonable, even to a computer, that I wasn't in Brazil and TN on the same day !

My youngest had her account "compromised" a couple of years ago by someone in CA withdrawing over $500 from her acct; she got it back but the pain and aggravation !

Thank you for your concern. Us quilters need a shoulder form time to time !

QUILTNMO

thanks for warning so sorry that happened to you

Painiacs

Isn't it scary!!!

Scotlass

Yes it is scary what people have dreamed up to do to scam others out of the hard earned money. Another consideration is you really should have a shield on any cards in your wallet that have the logo that looks like (3 curved lines) indicating that it has a chip that can be read from a scanner. People can walk by you and scan your card information without even touching you or your wallet. I made a little pouch out of tinfoil for the only one I have with that chip and they also make metal like folders for your cards that you can buy and wallets that shield your cards.

raedar63

I have thought of going to an all cash system, and using money orders, I had isentity theft before it was so common, took 8 years for my credit score was decent. This was back befoer all the id theift insurances. It is a terrible thing to go through.

Krystyna

Absolutely check all of your accounts every single day. A couple of months ago one of my vendors told me she charged me the wrong amount for some supplies and would charge the additional. I went into my account to check and saw there were several charges on my Paypal business card for close to $1,000! After they checked it out, it was revealed that my card with my name and address was used to purchase computer equipment and ship it to an address in another state with nothing changed except that they added my last name to theirs! Paypal gave me a "provisional" refund, but I called the police in that town and filed a case. Once Paypal found out about it, the refund was permanent. How they got my info, I'll never know.

feffertim

I had the same thing happen to me last month. I check my account on line frequently and saw a $70 charge that I knew was not mine. Turns out someone signed up for an online dating service using my debit card, and then the next day for Napster. The card has not been out of my possession, so don't know how they got my info. Got my money back and got a new card but still it's scary. So glad I can check my account on line