The other annoying thing about all of this is banks reliance on call centers and robo dialers when they try to contact you about possibly fraudulent activity.

I use nomorobo, very effective at dealing with telemarketers and other unsolicited calls but has the bad side effect of blocking my banks as well.

That's bit me on the ass on a couple of occasions.

Someone just tried to hit me hard.. $3310 at BestBuy, $150 at Bytesquad? $109 at Papa Johns.... $323 at Autozon


Who the Eff would buy $109 worth of anything at Papa Johns?...

All were denied but my card was cancelled :mad:

I bought gas in NY near my hometown, literally seconds before someone tried to buy a bunch of Electronics from Best Buy, and some crap from Papa Johns... In Minnesota!!

I do work in some sketchy areas in Crooklyn, and NYC... but this is the second time this year someone harvested my card info..

Really need a RFID chip card...

That's what alerted me... someone called me saying they are from So and So, and represent CapitalOne Bank.... The woman tried to get a bunch of info from me, and I told her the call was over and hung up....about 10 minutes later I got a text telling me me debit card is cancelled due to suspicious activity...


So I then call the bank, and we reviewed the suspicious charges... and determined which were fraudulent...

I pissed me off a bit that a third party representing a bank got involved..

Dunno about the mega banks, but I suspect many use a 3rd party cc/debit service provider...my CU has for a long time.

So my credit card company has a policy that if a charge comes in on the account that is not from my usual trading area they refuse the charge. That means that if someone in Hungary tries to buy a washer & dryer with my card number (actually happened) they don't get to scam me or the CC company.

The down side was the CC company didn't tell me this till I was trying to buy $600 worth of tools a couple years ago in North Dakota. Good thing I had cash.

So I have to call them if I'm doing a road trip to let them know. Like yesterday. After giving them my cvc number and the correct answer to a couple security questions I told them where I was going and when I'd be home the girl offered me a free increase of my credit limit. I told her jokingly unless I could buy a new truck with my card I wasn't interested. She said "Oh, we can do that"

Imagine being able to spend $60,000 at once with only 22% interest. :)

My kid got hit. His CC phoned him and asked if he was buying a washer & dryer in Hungary. They denied the transaction.

Got an interesting email from Discover the other day.

We were out at dinner last week with another couple.

Came time to pay the bill I tossed my card in and they tossed in cash.

I took care of the tip since it was 3 of us and 2 of them so the tip appeared extremely generous compared to the charge.

Discover sent me an email asking me if that was what I had actually tipped.

I thought that was cool of them to verify.

I was hit Tuesday. The particular CC is allied with an Airline and that is the ONLY place it is used. Hasn't been used in 6 months. And I've received a new card in the past 6 months. It means either CHASE was hacked or UNITED was hacked.

I'm sent a new CC about once a year for security reasons.

My AmEx card is only used for flights and I was just sent an email that a new card is on the way and to discard the old one.

Please don't put this in the racist bin - I'm just stating a fact.

I used to work for a credit card company and helped out in a few fraud investigations. We found 19 out of 20 credit card frauds were done by Chinese restaurants.

No biggie, It's the same advice that a Vietnamese/ethnic Chinese friend gave.

A few years back I received a fraud call from Am Ex; some dirt bag had bought Yankee tickets with my card number. I told them it was not me. They gave me the number of the place that sold the tickets and I called them directly to discuss. He was a great guy..no nonsense New Yorker.
He gave me the phone number the scum bag gave him when he bought the tickets...well, you know where this was heading. I harassed the scum bag for days by calling him all times of the day and night. Told him I was coming for him, watching him, etc. I had a ball doing this until he finally had his phone disconnected.
Am Ex took care of everything and I had a new card within 24 hours of the initial phone call from them. I realize it is going to happen again in the future but there is not a lot anyone can do to stop a thief...harassing them does feel really good though.

My United Club card was hacked about 2 months after I got it, the teller at a Walmart in Katy flagged it because they had used the card number and CCV and such, but put it on a generic card, and the teller knew the Club card was a steel card...

The nice thing about Chase and their higher end cards is they contact you immediately via several methods, and don't just cancel the card. Both of my high end Chase cards were hacked, both were blocked before the charges hit, and both were replaced in my hands within 24 hours. When I call, I have a person answer immediately, not a robot.

Mike, this was also the Presidents club card.

I've had the same experience. My number has been stolen 3 times this year. First two I believe were probably from some database, and someone made a fake card. Denied at the first transaction. The last time (over the weekend), I think a server at a restaurant stole it. I go out to eat a lot. They made on on-line purchase for a trip in Europe for $600. Wasn't flagged, and not unusual for me. It was the 2nd one for $400 that flagged it, and an e-mail was sent to me. Called up, flagged both transactions, and they were removed in 3 days. New card arrived the following day of my call, overnighted.

That said, my Chase card gets hacked 5 times since I've had it, and my Citibank card once in 23 years. I use them both fairly equally, except Chase mostly at restaurants.

^^^^Couldn't they send cops to the airport to arrest them?


Sent via Jedi mind trick.

It was for a cruise in Amsterdam. Probably didn't happen yet, plus..overseas.

They likely sell for pennies on the dollar and won't actually use themselves.

About two hours ago I received a call from my CC company. Someone tried to do something on Facebook for 125.00 using my card number. Seeing that I am not on Facebook the CC company denied the attempted charge. So they closed my account and will be sending me another card. I wish these scammers would get real jobs :mad: .

I like my bank (credit union)--USAA. They've turned my card off on me a couple times because I've forgotten to let them know I was travelling. Easy to fix, though. 5 minute phone call and the card's back on. They've stopped a couple fraudulent purchases in their tracks and immediately made me aware (immediately as in called me at 10pm at night to let me know what was up). A couple months ago, I took the family on a road trip up to Utah from SE Arizona. We stopped off in Flagstaff (which is still in Arizona) to get gas. Within minutes of pumping the gas, the bank called, texted AND emailed me to confirm it was me making the purchase. They're vigilant, and I love 'em for it.

I have a USAA Platinum card. I get the same service you mention. They really try HARD to provide service. They have my limit set at a silly high number for whatever reason.

A few years ago I had a CC that was my secondary "backup" card that I only used once every 6 months to keep it active. They sent me a letter changing the agreement. They were going to start charging a fee for the honor of doing business with them. I called them up and told them I would not accept that change in my agreement. The lady used a snotty tone and said I would have to pay the card off immediately and it would be canceled and I could hear lots of key strokes on her end. She said your current balance is... um zero. I said I agree. I will shred the card now. My credit union was happy to issue me a no fee card.