I love the convenience of my cards, but I am trying to work myself up to going back to cash.
It just happened to me this week and I’m working on getting it resolved now.
1st step call the bank and make the card number no longer valid.
Employee at Macy’s swipes the card twice, once on the machine for Macy’s, then they bend down and swipe it a second time on their Square or similar card reader. The number was probably sent out instantly, fed into a list of stolen numbers, and then imprinted onto hotel keys (or dead cards).
The newest trick is to put the information on an empty gift card (lift a whole stack of those from the local market.) If the company asks for ID, you show them it is a gift card, and away you go.
All that said, please make sure that you triple check your bills for the next couple weeks.
Did you call Macy’s to alert them that one of their employees might be doing this? That would be interesting, if nothing else.
My only experience with this type of thing is very minimal. Had a single charge in another state at a Target store, for less than $100 of normal merchandise. I think it was a scanner error, or a cashier manually put the number in wrong (this was a few years ago, when that was more likely to happen).
Good luck. Hope you are able to get the problems resolved quickly.
The same happened to me with Discover. $10,000 worth of HVAC stuff, I believe it was, well, 2 5000 dollar charges. I told them I wanted to pay by mail now and they don’t even have a payment envelope. Oh well, I fill out my envelope and still won’t use their crap site. They didn’t like me telling them to start sending my bill again, either.
Funny we both got 10,000 in charges and both Discover.
I haven’t been a victim personally, but I was responsible for credit cards given to some staff where I worked. A lot of times it’s the store clerk, waiter, etc. that steals the info. One time someone stole the card info, did a lot of shopping on the home channel (including several BBQ grills), then rented a storage to put it in. After I located the storage unit, I showed all the info to a policeman, that thanked me but said that they usually don’t have time to go after people committing CC theft.
Probably one of our future fellow citizens (present ‘undocumented aliens’), they are skilled at skirting the rules and gaming the system to their advantage all the while claiming victim status.
I travel quite a bit. I’ve met very few travelers that haven’t had their credit card security compromised at some point. I’ve had my credit cards cancelled and reissued while out on trips 3 times in 10 years. Someone at the restaurant or hotel gives your info to someone that uses your info to make a purchase. Twice my bankcard company has called me the same day it happened and caught the person at the hotel (major chain) where I was staying.
why didn’t Lifelock contact you first? I thought that was the point.
let me know how they help. I’ve considered getting it.
Amateur! It’s happened to me four times, twice this year, twice in years past a while ago, when (in years past) my keyboard stroked had been captured. This year, I dunno why or how, nothing via my puter, I’m certain, suspecting a compromised gas station pump (via a skimmer). Relatively small charges every time, nothing like your case, and no cost to me or, surprisingly, to my credit rating. And no reason for me to start an FR thread, but I’m not flaming you, it’s all good.
The worst part has been getting on the mailing list of a computer company from whom a thief in L.A. bought $200 worth of memory, but from whom I never bought anything, and now receive daily spam.
Did the cover letter for the new card explicitly state that your card had been compromised? Did the new card have a different account number?
If not, it's probably just a coincidence. If Discover doesn't think you are using your card enough, they will send you a new one out of the blue, even though your old one hasn't expired, just to kick-start you into spending mode. IOW, it's strictly a marketing ploy, not a security issue.
It's happened to me more than once. The new card has distinctively different aesthetics, but the same account number and expiration date. If you read the mag stripe, it will be the same except for an incremented sequence number.
This has happened to us many times,unfortunately. We have never lost our cards, nor have they been “stolen” officially, but the card numbers have been hacked — and it can happen anywhere now: locally, online. It doesn’t seem to slow the thieves down either way. It’s an inconvenience but no, you don’t owe anything. We also have LifeLock, but I’ve found that they don’t really do anything on these issues since you already have zero liability on CC fraud. Good for you for being so pro-active, though! You did more than we have. It’s just so common these days, sadly. Sorry you had the hassle!
Yes. Maybe 10 years ago.
Someone got my number on my Visa. Changed the mailing address to a PO Box in Brooklyn, NY. After a while, they started making the minimum payment and started making purchases.
I noticed that I didn’t get a bill one month. Went to the bank. They cancelled the card and told me I wasn’t responsible for any of the charges.
I asked if they were going to investigate. They weren’t interested in catching the criminals and simply dropped the matter.
If the thieves physically recreated the card, that’s more sophisticated than just stealing the info to use in online purchases.
Somebody had a mechanism to read and store the info from the magnetic strip and reprogram it onto a blank.
Never hand your card to an employee to swipe for you. Of course this doesn’t mean they can’t hack the store’s card reader, but it’s more likely that they are using a smart phone to capture the info.
Someone probably used a skimmer in order to re create the card and make it their own. Your not responsible for the charges, but DAMN 10,000 good Lord someone went on a shopping spree..the problem is many of those stores don’t ask for ID otherwise they would not have been able to purchase those items..whoever the thief was is smart, he/she knew where to go where it was less likely to get caught
I’ve had credit card fraud on two different cards. The charges were very small, and my card companies questioned the fraud early. One was a gas charge in Mexico, where I had never been. I’m having a problem with the fact that Discover allowed that much to be charged on your card in such a short time. You obviously haven’t used your cards like that in the past, so the amount of fraudulent purchases you describe should have alerted Discover that there might be a problem early on. I used to have credit cards with Bank of America, and if I was going to purchase a large ticket item, I would contact the bank ahead of time to alert them. I also used my cards overseas, and always notified the bank of the countries I would be visiting, and the dates I would be gone.
Credit Card companies work to eliminate fraud. It’s in their best interest.
The only credit card I have ever had “compromised” was a Discover account 15+ years ago - and it was used to “buy” some kind of services in Russia... We never figured out how someone got the account info - as it had never been used outside of “brick-and-mortar” stores...