Posted on 09/25/2025 7:46:35 PM PDT by exDemMom
Well, I feel obliged to post this here because I have now been the victim of fraud three (possibly four) times in the last month.
The first and second incidents took place in Dallas at the end of August. I did not know until I looked at my bank statement that my debit card had been used at a Dallas area restaurant. My husband's debit card had been used at a different Dallas area restaurant. We live in San Antonio, so it's not like we were in the Dallas area and forgot that we stopped for bites to eat. My husband has never used his debit card, and I only use mine at grocery stores. Our bank refunded the fraudulent charges and issued us new debit cards.
The third incident of fraud involves someone trying to use my phone number to sign up for California LifeLine four days ago. I had never heard of this entity, but when I looked it up, I found that it is a CA state program to supply phone service to people who can't afford it. I found out about this because I received one of those access codes that you get whenever you try to sign in to an account. I sent an email to report the fraud, but they told me I have to call to discuss the issue. I will call tomorrow.
The fourth and last incident happened tonight. For some reason, I was looking at my email trash and saw two emails from Walmart there. They never came into the inbox, but went directly to trash. Apparently, I had ordered something, and then Walmart cancelled the order within a minute. This is strange, as I have not ordered from Walmart in over a year. So I went to open up my Walmart account and could not because my password was wrong. Then I used the change password option and was able to get into the account. It showed five street addresses that are not mine. It showed the last four digits of a phone number that is not mine. I immediately contacted Walmart and talked to their representative in India, who closed the account for me and gave me a lot of advice on avoiding fraud. I told him that I do all that, but somehow still was the victim of fraud. He said that I should be able to open a new account with the same email address and correct phone number.
A few months ago, I received notice through my antivirus program that my email is out on the dark web. I checked and found that there were hundreds of unsuccessful attempts to access my email. Maybe that's related?
Ok.
I like the idea of using virtual cards and of setting up a limit for the charges. These days, you can’t be too careful.
The only time I carry cash is when I travel outside of the US. Most people in third world countries can’t take credit. Even in Hawaii, we needed cash. But I’m really nervous about carrying cash at home, as it alerts every mugger around that we’re an easy target.
I’ve seen Mafiosos who weren’t afraid to carry huge amounts of cash...it seemed like they were using big rolls of cash to show off. I don’t want anything to do with Mafiosos.
There is no way anyone could have physically accessed my husband’s debit card. Our younger son lives with us, our older son lives a few hours away, and there is no one else around. Our relatives are in other states. We are not outgoing people.
I suspect the issue developed when a scammer called my husband to claim that there were fraudulent charges on our Chase card. The scammer tried to get Zelle information, at which point we realized he was a scammer and hung up. I think he might have been able to get our debit card info. I’m not sure how. I did change our bank password.
Mom, I fell very sorry for you. I had a secretary about 30 years ago who had her identity stolen and it made her life pure hell for a long time trying to straighten it out. I hope you are going to have the same problems.
E. Pluribus Unum suggested immediately freezing your credit at all three credit bureaus. I second that. You should do that RIGHT NOW.
Carriage Hill gave solid advice, too. Never ever pay with an ATM card — it’s a direct link to your bank account.
I had a LOT of credit auto-pays set up (about 40) and our cc was stolen. I got a new card and had to update all the auto-pay accounts. It took about a day and a half to fix all that.
Less than a year later, the new cc number was stolen again and another day and a half wasted fixing all the auto-pays for another card number.
I researched solutions and found both Visa and Capital One offer what is called a “virtual credit card.” I chose a Capital One MasterCard because of much better features and superior ease of use.
You get a master cc number and the bank provides you with a physical card with that number. You can keep that card in your wallet for use in stores. Now here is the slick part. Under that master card, you can create subsidiary virtual cards that only exist as data, not a physical card. You can create any number of virtual cards. All payments made on the virtual card roll up to your master card number and you only get one statement for the master account. The statement does not even show that a virtual card was used.
You NEVER use that main account credit card number for any online transaction. For every new merchant you pay online, you create a new virtual credit card number. It only takes a few seconds to create the new virtual card. You can do it in their mobile app or on the web.
The virtual cards have special features: 1. they can be used only at one specific merchant; 2. you can set them for one-time use; 3. you can set an expiration date; and 4. you can turn off the card and turn it back on when you need it.
Here’s the sweet part. If a virtual card number gets stolen, it’s really of no use to anybody since it’s tied to a single merchant. But it only takes seconds to make a new virtual card number. If your master cc gets stolen (which happened to us), Capital One issues you a new master physical card AND all of the virtual cards you created get moved to that new master physical card.
It is a really sweet system and it isn’t widely known. I HIGHLY recommend it.
Oh, one other nice thing. If you call Capital One for support, you get a HUMAN being, not a useless and obnoxious AI bot AND you get an American who speaks AMERICAN English! Their support is top-notch!
All credit cards allow you to set up transaction alerts for transactions above $X. I set X to zero and get a text message for every transaction. I usually get the text message for the transaction a couple of seconds after tapping my card at a POS terminal.
Hats off to Wells Fargo for our banking, too. I’ve gotten several calls and text messages from them asking if a particular transaction was really authorized by me. Their fraud-detection algorithms have gotten a lot better.
Good luck, Mom!
I
Those addresses and a police report need to go the State Attorney General's office. If the criminals are doing it to you, they're doing it to others and you know their pickup point.
They don't likely live there but live nearby and "steal" the packages from the porches they get the items delivered to.
Leaving Amazon boxes at those addresses with actual items in them but also hidden trackers may expose an entire network of thieves.
Thank you for that great advice, Protect!
I do have a Capital One card and I have used the virtual card at a few merchants.
I was subscribed to a service that I no longer wanted. I tried to cancel it, but it kept charging monthly fees on my credit card. I was able to go into my virtual card and set an expiration date, and the service was no longer able to charge my card.
It seems that I should use the virtual cards more.
That's a good idea, and my son said the same thing. Unfortunately, I did not save those addresses before I called Walmart to close the account.
At least one of the addresses was in Virginia. That's all I remember about them.
I want to thank everyone who contributed advise and useful links in this thread. It’s getting late now, and I can’t stay up any longer. I’ll definitely be making use of this information in the morning!
I am sure they haven’t been able to get into the gmail account, I use multifactor authentication on everything (including the many dormant gmail accounts).. but they are definitely sending email TO that address (by spoofing gmail), thinking I will open and click.
I can’t even imagine how many victims fell for it.
BKMK
“It seems that I should use the virtual cards more.”
Absolutely!
BTW, you don’t have to set an expiration date for a virtual card. If you want to stop using it, just turn it off. Or delete it Either way it won’t be usable any more.
You've actually seen Mafiosos?!
Do you work in Law Enforcement? Or in olive oil export/ import? In what social circles do you travel?
Regards,
Never, ever use a debit card. I use either a credit card or cash. And I pay my credit cards in full each month. A debit card leaves your bank account vulnerable. Fraudulent use of your credit card has a $50 limit per fraudulent charge, which I’ve never been charged. I had a friend have his entire bank account wiped out due to debit card fraud. Sure, he eventually got his money back, but his account was unusable until that occurred.
Better yet, don't get a debit card at all. I have an ATM card that only works with an ATM machine and you need to have the physical card. And it works all over the country with no withdrawal fee, which is really handy when traveling. If you're withdrawing money at the teller window you don't use a debit card, you just tell the teller how much money you want.
"send me an email for any charge over 1$"
I look at my CC account on line daily and have caught unauthorized charges several times. It is a pain in the but because it akes 2-3 weeks to get a new card. I have caught all the bad charges while they were still in “pending” and have been assured that those charges were never paid in the first place. Once I found 7 charges at gas stations from Bakersfield to LA. I called on them the same day they were made and posted to pending.
I’ve had Life Lock for about 18+ years now. They’ve caught fraud.. ID theft for me a couple times and one was my SS number that turned out to be an error on a loan application not an actual fraud.
I only use AMEX, no other CC and it’s paid monthly in full, never a balance. They’ve caught fraud several times and I never pay a dime.
RFID skimmers are used all the time by criminals. They get close enough they can scan you CC in your wallet, pocketbook etc. Use an RFID protectant cover for your CC.
Change email passwords often 16 or more random characters.
Put credit freezes on all your credit bureau accounts and leave them there.
Never use a debit card for daily transactions...that’s a direct line to your bank account.
There’s a lot you can do but nothing is perfect.
Nowadays you can get a card you can manage online, setting a withdrawal limit and/or locking the account. Fidelity Cash Management is very handy. And if you travel overseas, you can get currency wherever there is a VISA ATM.
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