I Was an Idiot With My Debit Card

Geez!!!
Well, I was working from home a little tonight and I got this call on my cell from 205 area code. Didn't pay a whole lot of attention as I didn't recognize the number. I usually will let it go to voicemail if I am working.
About a minute or so later an email comes through from my bank at debit card monitoring.com. The email gives me the usual jargon of odd activity doesn't match my habits, etc.
I wasn't too awfully worried as I can have some odd spending habits (I suppose to some) at times...
Anyway, I call the number on the email and the rep tells me that someone attempted a purchase online at walmart.com.
Needless to say, my card had been stopped and the purchase denied. They are sending out a new card.
It is a little scary. I mean not now as the card is cancelled but, it really could have been worse! What the heck was someone trying to buy and the worst part is, I will never know who...
It could have been someone overseas or someone in my town...someone at work!
I truly can count on one hand the places I do/have used my card online. All were secure sites or so I thought (naively). I never save that info on any site.
I work my buns off and someone else could have gotten a new anything on my dime...just pisses me off!
I even thought back to all of the stores I had been to lately...
The S.O has a debit and credit cards so of course I tell him he better watch out more carefully than even before...

I'm glad I have the bank I do though...so it ends on a happy note...still unnerving...still feel violated and just stupid!

a reply to: TNMockingbird

You we're had Its that easy. There is no real security on the net either. Even that you looked at incoming mail....without opening...went back to them as Received...and they knew....

a reply to: mysterioustranger

You're right.
Sure does suck!

a reply to: TNMockingbird

If possible I would find out where the attempted purchase originated from. I say this because it's infinitely more easy for somebody in your real life to get the card number than for someone online. A clerk in any store or fast food chain could skim the number quickly where, online, it almost always would involve a major hack, breaking strong encryption - or both.

In the big picture, the convenience of a debit / credit card always carries the risk of somebody snagging the number. The fact that you got called does show that one of the security measures in place seems to have worked. Your "secret question" or the three digit code from the back of the card probably.

Sorry that this happened to you! Happy that it got caught before you lost money!

a reply to: TNMockingbird

Yeah....not funny. I get incoming about my Yahoo email box is full...and it's coming From AOL....also I get incoming from my wife to me....from her maiden name....20 years ago!

Take care!

Best......

you called the number on the email? was that wise,mean how do you know it was your bank you were phoning if you just called the number from an email you were sent,i would never do that in a million years.

a reply to: Hefficide

You know, I asked them about where it originated and they said all they had was it was an attempted "online" purchase...I may go to the bank tomorrow and see if I can find out just a little more info.

I DID think it MUST be someone local or even in my own house...sad to think that but, I DO have 4 teenagers almost 5 and although I would never dream that they would ever do something like this...kids are kids.
And we do have a lot of weekend traffic too...

SMH

a reply to: sparky31

I know that seems not wise AND they did cancel the card. and they knew all of my past transactions so...

But, once you have been violated (or almost in this case) you are wary and skeptical...

Happened to me recently as well and my bank did the same thing, emailed me immediately. They also have an option to "flag" this sort of stuff on my online account. I did call them, but I also went online and by the time I got to talk to a human I had already taken care of it. They axed the card and sent me a new one in a couple of days. With my accounts I am not liable for fraud activity.

It is kind of uncanny how well they have scoped out my habits. This was for a couple of online items from an "outdoors" store in Texas, and they pegged them as not me and stopped payment before I even entered the picture. Yet I buy online all over the country all the time.

I don't mind them doing this in the least. It's a partnership as far as I'm concerned. Neither the bank nor I want any sort of fraud activity.

a reply to: TNMockingbird

Crap. That sucks. All it really takes it a portable card reader and someone has your info. I prefer cash.

a reply to: TNMockingbird yeah you were told they cancelled your card? con artists are going to tell you that so you don,t go stop it and they can spend,spend,spend.

if i was you i would be going into my bank as soon as possible and be making sure i haven,t just been conned,NEVER just phone some number you got in an email.

a reply to: schuyler

That is kind of wild how they know our "habits" so well. We vacation and this year were in Florida through Alabama and Georgia, etc. S.O. used his cards (don't know which ones) and I used my debit card a lot. Guess the things we bought on vacation seemed "normal" but, walmart.com didn't? I don't know how it worked but, I am just very happy it did.
They wouldn't have drained me and I wouldn't have been left homeless but, dang...

a reply to: Skid Mark

Portable card reader...I do get distracted sometimes when I'm out with all of the kids...

You know, the phone rings, kids chattering, just hand the card over...pin number or just sign sometimes...
This is a small town so it is odd...
I'm sure just thinking about everywhere I've been recently and going over it in my head will provide hours of sleepless entertainment...
LOL!

a reply to: sparky31

Yes, definately going to bank tomorrow...
Thanks!

a reply to: TNMockingbird
It's as easy as someone having an RFID reader in a backpack walking by you. You wouldn't even know until you get charged for stuff you didn't buy. It's enough to give a conspiracy theorist the screaming mee mees. Wrap that sucker in aluminum foil. It's supposed to block readers.

My credit unions security firm is hyper sensitive and I am glad. At least once a month we get an automated call to call them back and verify my last purchases. They never ask for identifying info or card info. I have to call from my home phone or any number registered to my account. It is comforting that I gots people against the bad guys.

a reply to: TNMockingbird

I live in Miami and have been hit 8 different times since about 2002.
The bank has always mostly caught it though.
I think the bank has phoned me 3 times to tell me they are sending out a new card as they think someone has compromised my details which was probably nothing to do with where i shop with my card but a data breach on their side.
I have had 2 phones purchased on 2 different cards,the last time it happened was on a work Purchasing card which i have to pay corporate bills on,i traced it down to the person as well who had done it and it was a secretary of an agency i hired staff from.
The last time it happened was somebody had been bought some items for a prison in Texas,i phoned them and told them so the prisoner most likely got reprimanded.
Other purchases included some lunatics buying up groceries like there would be a Zombie apocalypse.
Never once had my debit card been lost so there are some major scam artists down here.

Never, ever let your debit card leave your hand. Dont hand it to the kid in the drive through window, the waitress at the restaurant... no one. Also, choose credit, so you dont have to key your pin number in. Crooks use skimmers to swipe your card data, and they have various ways to get your pin # via hidden camera or keypad overlays. Use cash in situations where you have to hand your card to someone else.

a reply to: TNMockingbird

Op, it is very easy to get card numbers, all you need is a laptop and you can scan the numbers of everyone that walks by, while it is in their wallet or purse.

In America we don't use the cards they use in Europe that have a chip in them.


Hell you can put a device on a gas pump late at night, and come back in a week an get it. You will have the info from every card that got swiped at that pump over a week.

a reply to: TNMockingbird

This has happened to us a few times. Recently, the bank contacted us to let us know that 17 online purchase attempts had been made. Of course, we cancelled the card and everything was fine, but it's scary. You weren't an idiot.

There's not much to do about security if you use it online, but you can prevent people from scanning your card. Just put aluminum foil in your wallet between the scanner and the card.

A regular wallet does not provide enough shielding to prevent a card from being read by a remote device, but secure sleeves are not the only protective option. The same principles that apply to a secure sleeve also apply to aluminum wallets, impregnated nylon wallets, or even wallets that have a piece of tinfoil in them. According to an article in Popular Mechanics, all of these tricks and devices can block RFID scanners equally well.

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