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So my debit card was defrauded last night!

We have two bank accounts at the same bank. One we put money in as needed and use it right away. We use the card on this account for online purchases and to pay bills. We have a card for the other account, but rarely use it. All of our income is direct deposited into this account. We can transfer funds from one account to the other on the banks website. Also, just because your card is canceled does mean that you can not go food shopping. You can go to the bank and withdraw funds from your account.
 
My bank won't allow me to draw funds over the counter without my card and nor will my wife's bank. It might not be the same in all UK banks though. Worth checking out :)
 
Autistamatic said:
My bank won't allow me to draw funds over the counter without my card and nor will my wife's bank. It might not be the same in all UK banks though. Worth checking out :)
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It could be that the banking laws in the US are different than those in the UK. We can withdraw funds with a picture identification to prove who we are. My wife and I have two accounts at the same bank. We both can access either account. You are right, it would be worth checking to see if all banks in the UK are like that.
 
Crossbreed said:
If you can, pick a different image for your new card. It makes it easier to tell them apart.
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That is a good point. We tell ours apart by using a different sleeves. We keep all four cards (two with my wife's name and two with my name) in sleeves to protect the magnetic strip.
 
Crossbreed said:
I keep an account/debit card just for high-risk transactions (including internet). I normally keep $5-10 in that account and add whatever I intend to spend. If someone tries to charge an additional transaction (beyond my $5-10 buffer), it is declined.
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I do the same thing but at a totally different bank.

Before that I was compromised once. Someone bought a kid's outfit from a store in the UK and had it shipped to me in the US, using my card info. My bank refunded me the purchase, but made me ship it back, so in the end I still lost a bunch of money.
 
Title of post: I just lost two toes in a tragic wood-cutting accident.

The Tortoise comes along and rates it friendly. ;)
 
Today I spoke to the local Wetherspoons to see if anything untoward had happened there on Wednesday as I checked my PayPal account earlier and the last transaction was there on Wednesday tea time, they said to contact PayPal so I googled their UK customer service number and rang 'em up (Grr I hate those damn automated so called "help" numbers, let me talk to an actual human!) and got nowhere.

Anyway, I will keep an eye on my statements to see if it happens again.
 
Mr Allen said:
Today I spoke to the local Wetherspoons to see if anything untoward had happened there on Wednesday as I checked my PayPal account earlier and the last transaction was there on Wednesday tea time, they said to contact PayPal so I googled their UK customer service number and rang 'em up (Grr I hate those damn automated so called "help" numbers, let me talk to an actual human!) and got nowhere.

Anyway, I will keep an eye on my statements to see if it happens again.
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I hate those automated voices, too. Telephone hell. Please let us know if you ever find out who hacked your debit card but don't lose sleep worrying about it. The bank has taken care of it for now, for this time. Always review bank account statements for accuracy!

I appreciate your posting about your experience. It's a timely reminder that we are all vulnerable to hacking so I'm going to change all my passwords today, especially PayPal, while I'm sitting around lazy doing nothing in front of the TV. The weather is getting bad here so I'm not budging from the couch for awhile anyway.
 
Mr Allen said:
Grr I hate those damn automated so called "help" numbers, let me talk to an actual human!
Click to expand...
I am a semi-retired systems analyst.

If you want to talk to a real person, do the following,

When you are prompted with, "How can I help you, today? You can say the following..."
Answer in a deliberately garbled response. Keep doing that until you get a real person.
full
 
Crossbreed said:
That seems hard for adding funds in real-time.
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It is, so I keep a little more at the same bank, in a savings account that is not accessible by the card. Still just a fraction of my main accounts. I can transfer by phone quickly if needed. Or if I really had to, pull it out of one ATM and deposit it 1/2 mile down the road at the other one. I rarely shop as it is, even less online, so it works for me. Just my way of not keeping all my eggs in one basket.
 
I was defrauded on my debit card about fifteen years ago. Thankfully the charges were not that large ($300?). I assumed it was going to be like a credit card where I wouldn't be responsible for the fraudulent charges. I was concerned to find out that wasn't necessarily the case. I had to fill out about 6 pages of forms at my bank and submit a request that the charges be reversed and the money put back in my account.

The bank person told me up front that while it was possible that my money would be given back to me, it was also possible that the money would not be given to me. Unlike a credit card, that money that was taken from my account was actually my money. Thankfully the charges were given back to me but after that I vowed NEVER to use a debit card again and I never have. The fact that the debit card links to my actual account and links directly to my money is far too risky in my opinion.

Since then I use a credit card like a debit card. Meaning, I ALWAYS pay off the monthly balance to zero and never run up any balance on the credit card. That way I pay zero interest.
 
Magna said:
I was defrauded on my debit card about fifteen years ago. Thankfully the charges were not that large ($300?). I assumed it was going to be like a credit card where I wouldn't be responsible for the fraudulent charges. I was concerned to find out that wasn't necessarily the case. I had to fill out about 6 pages of forms at my bank and submit a request that the charges be reversed and the money put back in my account.

The bank person told me up front that while it was possible that my money would be given back to me, it was also possible that the money would not be given to me. Unlike a credit card, that money that was taken from my account was actually my money. Thankfully the charges were given back to me but after that I vowed NEVER to use a debit card again and I never have. The fact that the debit card links to my actual account and links directly to my money is far too risky in my opinion.

Since then I use a credit card like a debit card. Meaning, I ALWAYS pay off the monthly balance to zero and never run up any balance on the credit card. That way I pay zero interest.
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We do not have debit cards for that reason. We use credit cards and pay them off every month, too. I don't even have an ATM card! Very old school of me but I haven't been defrauded, either.

BTW, yesterday Apple announced an emergency software upgrade for their smart phones and devices and urged everyone to immediately download their patch to prevent hacking. It took me about 40 minutes to do that yesterday for my cell phone.
 
Gisses, this is more common that I thought. And very scary. I think I'll stay with my notes and coins for another while, no matter how safe the bank claims cards to be (I mean, they are wrong in everything else they say about cards anyway). Sad that the bank offices don't want money anymore.

When the new tap or blipp function was introduced, the tv news showed how easy it was to, from several metres away, read the card info. Very scary. I want to be robbed if I'm going to be robbed at least. Is that too much to ask for?

I've never heard anyone I know to get their card or identity stolen, and maybe we have safer systems in Sweden (lets hope that), but it seems very easy to loose your money or identity, at least in the US. Like no matter what you do, you'll loose it.
 
Magna said:
I was defrauded on my debit card about fifteen years ago. Thankfully the charges were not that large ($300?). I assumed it was going to be like a credit card where I wouldn't be responsible for the fraudulent charges. I was concerned to find out that wasn't necessarily the case. I had to fill out about 6 pages of forms at my bank and submit a request that the charges be reversed and the money put back in my account.

The bank person told me up front that while it was possible that my money would be given back to me, it was also possible that the money would not be given to me. Unlike a credit card, that money that was taken from my account was actually my money. Thankfully the charges were given back to me but after that I vowed NEVER to use a debit card again and I never have. The fact that the debit card links to my actual account and links directly to my money is far too risky in my opinion.

Since then I use a credit card like a debit card. Meaning, I ALWAYS pay off the monthly balance to zero and never run up any balance on the credit card. That way I pay zero interest.
Click to expand...

I had this happen, except that I hadn't used my debit card. (I have one, my bank requires it and uses it for ID purposes at branches. Though to be honest I haven't tried telling them I don't want one.) My CC and debit card from the bank were both stolen around the same time, and my CC from a different bank was untouched.

My suspicion (which will never be confirmed) is that someone hacked my bank's systems.

I caught the charges before they had posted but was told that I had no choice but to let them clear (the money had not been removed from my account) and then go to the branch, fill out forms, wait, be told that I'm getting a "conditional credit" but if they find that the charges are legitimate they'll come after me, blah blah blah. My entire pay check was spent at a Dollar General in a state I've never set foot in.

Going forward I keep very little money in my checking account. Only what I need for bills etc (which I pay immediately). They can't steal what isn't there. I also only use my CC for purchases.

People worry so much about online shopping but most fraud happens at physical locations - systems hacked, readers placed, waiter takes your card at a restaurant and scans it through a reader for later use...etc. I pretty much just assume that my CC info is going to get stolen every couple of years. I have two different cards from two different banks (one of these banks is pretty famous for credit cards and that's pretty much all they do) so if something happens to one, I still have the other. It's pretty much just "OK, cut up the card and we're sending you a new one".
 
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