Posted on 12/28/2022 11:03:23 AM PST by ProtectOurFreedom
We do a lot of online purchasing from large merchants like Amazon to small independent merchants. We have about 20 auto-pays set up on our credit card.
Our credit card number gets stolen and we get fraudulent purchases on our card. This used to happen every 18 to 24 months, but it happened September 2022 and again December 2022 (this time Uber and DoorDash)! We watch our account closely and report fraud immediately, so we have never had to pay for the fraudulent purchases. But it is a huge pain to reset all the auto-pay accounts with the new credit card number. It takes me about four hours every time this happens.
I'm looking for ways to get off this merry-go-round. We do all the normal protective things -- don't let the physical card out of our possession, look for skimmers (chipped cards have helped here), check our machines for viruses (all clear -- just did scans), use complex passwords, never open suspicious mails or texts, don't click on links, check for identity theft, etc.
While looking for solutions, I came across "Virtual Credit Cards" and this looks promising. You have a single credit card number and you get a "virtual" number that links to your main card number. You use the virtual number for online purchases. You get a single statement with all your purchases aggregated from the virtual numbers. If fraud occurs, you turn off that virtual number (which is only good for one merchant); you do not have to cancel your main credit card.
I understand it works like this. Suppose your main cc number is "10." For online purchases, you get virtual "11" for Amazon, "12" for your utility company, "13" for your water company, "14" for your Walmart, "15" for the gym, "16" for Home Depot, etc. Those virtual numbers are only used for the online purchases at that one merchant. You get a single statement for the "10" account that aggregates all the purchases from all your virtual numbers.
Think about it. How many felons are employed by those outfits because they cannot find traditional employment? How many felons seek jobs with those app-driven companies just to get access to credit cards they can filch?
I say, don't expose yourself to the riffraff.
I’ve used Discover here and overseas for decades with no problems. Recently I made an unusual purchase while on a trip and call a text from Discover asking me to verify it was really me. I get a report from them every month, here’s the last one:
Great news _______! We didn’t detect any new activity that would have triggered an alert.
No new accounts on your Experian® credit report
No new inquiries on your Experian® credit report
No Social Security number found on the thousands of Dark Web sites we monitor
Interesting. Thanks.
Have you tried turning it back on?
I use one credit card for all my auto pay transactions. I use a different credit card for online and in-person transactions. All my cards now have a chip and tap to pay and I haven’t had any fraud issues in years now.
My autopay credit card has never had any fraud issues. It's my primary card that has had all the fraud issues, but that all stopped when the current card came with a chip and tap to pay.
(I think he's visiting his folks in Bay Area, so he should be within 50 miles of there while he's "out on $250M bond", which cost him nothing.)
I use them Daily. My Credit Card number was lifted at a Sports Bar near SDSU in San Diego. They purchased over $400 worth of Pizza delivered to the University housing, Game devices and expensive shoes. All within minutes. All of my monthly charges had to be updated. One of the charges was from Microsoft for gaming items. I cancelled that and put a block on it. Well they have a deal with VISA and about 3 weeks later they were able to charge my card again. This happened 4 times. Capital One had to make some kind of official request to VISA to stop this and block all Microsoft charges in the future. So Virtual cards are saving me the aggravation of using credit cards on line.
Capitol one has this. When you pay for something online, they give you a number that is only good for that one purchase. I don’t know if it would work on a reoccurring payment. I would think not.
can you pm me your CC number ?
I have a few BMWs and really need some parts
Thanks
I use Discover. They spot this kind of stuff immediately........................
Our AA airmile card is thru Barclays Bank. They have been right on every single fraud attempt for the last 25 years or so. I don’t know if they offer virtual cards...but that sounds interesting. They also have a great online card dashboard. You can get a free card or an annual fee card (better airmiles). At least, that’s the way it used to be.
The first time I had fraud on my card years ago was $650 of BMW motorcycle parts.
You sign up for it and it’s posted directly to the Dark Web.
It took a lot of digging, but I found that the "CapitalOne Venture One" card has no annual fee and provides the virtual card feature.
I found this new article on CardRates.com that has the CapitalOne Venture card rated #1 for virtual cards: Best Virtual Credit Cards of 2022, December 23, 2020. It says "We rank Capital One on top because its Eno browser extension allows you to create a virtual number for any online merchant."
I called and talked to several people at CapitalOne asking which of their cards has the virtual card feature. I was told that they don't know the answer to that; you find out after you get your card! I was pre-approved for six of their cards and nowhere does the summary page say if that virtual card feature is offered on the card! This seems to be an obscure feature that the card companies are not telling the world much about. You have to learn about it on your own and really dig in to find a card that has it.
I also found out that Chase doesn't offer virtual cards, but the Visa company does through the "Click to Pay" service that was introduced in 2019.
That’s great you identified the one gas station where the fraud happened. Did you contact the station owner?
Oregon also does not allow you to pump your own gas. You can give the card to the attendant and he will put it into the gas pump. Or you can get out of the car and do it yourself.
My wife says we got 20 fraudulent Uber charges spread across about 10 days. Why in the world are the fraud detection systems so bad that they cannot spot that? I use Uber maybe once or twice a year.
I just thought how negligent Uber is in this:
Say I’m Fred and cc number 1234567890. My unique account and unique cc number are tied together.
Crook Bob steals my cc number and pays for an Uber ride. Shouldn’t the Uber system say “You can’t use that cc number, Crook Bob. It doesn’t belong to you.”?
For that large number of crooked Uber charges to happen so quickly, the crooks must be selling the cc number to a number broker.
About 30 years ago, the clerk at the Empire State Building gift shop did not return my card. Within an hour, there were dozens of overseas phone calls charged to the card. The crook sold the number and the buyer had lots of people ready to get “free” calls.
Thanks. Good to hear your experience.
I just got a CapitalOne Venture One card. Now I’ll start using those virtual numbers on my auto-pay accounts and other online merchants.
Virtual credit cards are useless for chopping a line of coke.
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