Credit Card Fraud (strongly suspect local gas station involved)

kenboy said:

The one just north of exit 98, by any chance? Because I'm pretty sure that's where mine happened. 

daveturnley said:

Same here except the gas station was off the Parkway. Two days later, fraudulent activity in Connecticut. 

 I don't think so but can't say for sure since I wasn't there. (It was my wife who had the car.) Based on some quick research I think it was in Clark.

People use cards for lots of reasons. I get rewards with mine, for example, and I'm also not comfortable carrying a lot of cash around. Fortunately the credit card companies are pretty good about dealing with fraud, so it's just more hassle than anything. (Not to be confused with identity theft which is a whole other nightmare)

This is me. I don't like carrying a lot of cash and depending what I need to do that day, I may have to carry upwards of $300+. Also, some things we purchase can be written off on our taxes and I need those purchases on my statements instead of a simple paper receipts. 

Chase was very, VERY good about issuing me a new card and explaining the fraud. 

TarheelsInNj said:

People use cards for lots of reasons. I get rewards with mine, for example, and I'm also not comfortable carrying a lot of cash around. Fortunately the credit card companies are pretty good about dealing with fraud, so it's just more hassle than anything. (Not to be confused with identity theft which is a whole other nightmare)

So, now where supposed to use cash at gas stations to prevent credit card skimming? Thanks credit card companies. I like using my credit card. I get 3% off.

Its their fault. In Europe credit cards were converted to EVM, those encrypted chips, 20 years ago to prevent skimming. Magnetic stripes are not used there.

Here we're just starting with EVM. Last week I received a notice from Discover to expect new cards with EVM in the mail.

I use credit, and trust in their consumer fraud protections, which shift most of the risk and enforcement to the issuing company.

We've had to replace our number three times that I can think of.  Based on the timing of the fraudulent charges, I believe our number was stolen once by people who did work on our home (perhaps out of spite because I didn't take them up on the discount for under-the-table cash payment), and once by a staffer in a major department store. Once a card was lost and we replaced it just to be sure.

I prefer to do things on credit to cash, for the rewards, the ability to carry less cash, and the ability to track where the money is going.

I avoid debit cards, simply because the consumer fraud protections aren't nearly as good as credit.  

limited rollout EVM doesn't solve the problem of someone photographing the card and using the number to create a new magtripe card.    Or using the number for a phone or internet order.

We just had to replace a card.  The CC company denied the fraudulent purchase and contacted us.   I had just used my card at the Walgreens by Ivy Hill... so we think that was where the theft of the number occurred.

Speaking of "real identity theft", I recently took one of my boys to an Urgent Care center. As I filled out the paperwork, I skipped, as always, the space for a SSN. We walk up and hand in the paperwork and then shortly, I'm called to the desk. The woman asked if I knew my son's SSN. "Yes, I do." Then she asked that I put it on the form. I told her absolutely not. Our insurance company has all of that info and not having his SSN listed on this form won't deny us coverage. She looked at me with saucer eyes and I just turned away and sat down. WTF?

When medical offices ask for a ss#, I either leave it blank or provide just the last 4 digits. In fact, I rarely provide more than the last 4 digits under any circumstances.

kibbegirl said:

Speaking of "real identity theft", I recently took one of my boys to an Urgent Care center. As I filled out the paperwork, I skipped, as always, the space for a SSN. We walk up and hand in the paperwork and then shortly, I'm called to the desk. The woman asked if I knew my son's SSN. "Yes, I do." Then she asked that I put it on the form. I told her absolutely not. Our insurance company has all of that info and not having his SSN listed on this form won't deny us coverage. She looked at me with saucer eyes and I just turned away and sat down. WTF?

And with all of this worry about protecting our SS#s, what does the US government use as one's Medicare coverage number? Yep - your social security number, with a letter appended. When will they ever learn?

I recently read that Medicare will be phasing out the use of Social Security numbers for Medicare--how long this might take was left to my imagination.

krnl said:

I recently read that Medicare will be phasing out the use of Social Security numbers for Medicare--how long this might take was left to my imagination.

 yes, I read about that in the NY Times recently..here's the gist of it:

"Medicare officials have up to four years to start issuing cards with new identifiers. They have four more years to reissue cards held by current beneficiaries. They intend to replace the Social Security number with “a randomly generated Medicare beneficiary identifier,” but the details are still being worked out."

full article here

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/21/us/new-law-to-strip-social-security-numbers-from-medicare-cards.html?_r=0

susan1014, is it true that debit cards still don't have equivalent consumer fraud protection? I thought I heard that improved, but I could be remembering wrong.

Tom, it is possible that it has changed since I last looked into it. 

Here is what LifeLock says -- if current, the differences are still pretty major.  So I don't use my ATM/debit card anywhere other than the ATM.

http://www.lifelock.com/education/your-money-and-finances/debit-credit-card-protection/

I read the NYTimes article, too, but if you already have a Medicare card, it could be 8 years before you get a new one that doesn't have your SS# on it - given the number of people currently on Medicare, that's a large exposure for fraud caused by stealing a SS#. The pace of any sort of replacement system is going to be glacial, I fear.

We just had a $1 charge that Chase alerted us to. Waiting, once again, for the new cards to arrive. Now have to remember what is a recurring monthly charge on that card, like Netflix, etc. and I just realized I ordered books for my son through school and they don't charge until it ships. Darn it..

blackcat said:
We just had a $1 charge that Chase alerted us to. Waiting, once again, for the new cards to arrive. Now have to remember what is a recurring monthly charge on that card, like Netflix, etc. and I just realized I ordered books for my son through school and they don't charge until it ships. Darn it..

I just lost a card recently (totally my fault this time!), and American Express sent out a reminder with all of the charges that they detected as recurring charges to give me heads up to update those. Also, most services have gotten better about giving ample reminders before shutting off since cards going bad has become a normal part of life.