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.
“[I wouldn’t] trust those fly-by-night strangers with my credit card.”
That’s not the way it works. The beauty of the system is that you never give your card to the driver or delivery person. You set up an account with the Uber, DoorDash, etc COMPANY and put your number on their corporate system. The driver never sees it and doesn’t handle your card. On Uber, the driver never even sees your last name or your rating of the driver.
When you order an Uber ride, you do it through their app. They charge your credit card and they pay the driver.
It was really weird — neither CapitalOne nor Citi tell you in advance which of their many cards have the virtual cc feature. Both companies say the feature is available on “select cards.”
The last thing I wanted to do was get a new card and find out it wasn’t a “select” one. So I spent a lot of time looking for a simple table of features and making phone calls to see if a human might know. The person at the CapitalOne credit card department even told me that they don’t have that information!
I FINALLY found a CapitalOne Venture One card with no annual fee and, buried on page 20 of the fine print agreement, was a line saying I would get a virtual card feature.
I cannot believe how hard it was to suss out that little bit of info. It’s almost like they don’t want their customers to know about this feature. Maybe if too many people use it, they will run out of available cc numbers.
Thanks. Yes, I’ve concluded it’s either the auto-pays or the small/medium size merchants where I supply my cc number.
Some of our local merchants with my card for auto-pay are small and probably easily hacked. Our water district, our local newspaper, a company that operates parking lots in town (I buy an annual pass), etc. Do they use secure payment services and only store a hash of your number? Or do they store the cc number in the clear in an unprotected database?
From now on, we are only going to use the virtual cc numbers from our new CapitalOne account.
Once you report a fraudulent transaction, the cc company shuts off the card while you are on the call! It’s over. There’s no turning it back on. They send you new cards and then the fun commences setting up the auto-pays again.
But I’ve had it! I just got a new CapitalOne card and am going to use the virtual cc feature from now on. We will use our old Chase Visa physical card for local purchases (and make sure it doesn’t leave our hands and the readers don’t have obvious skimmers).
I took my daughters to Brazil for a ten day trip about 15 years ago. Before I left, I called the cc company and said “I’ll be in Brazil from xxx to yyy,” so these transactions will be genuine.
On the second day in Brazil, we were getting gasoline and found the card had been shut off! Even though I had told them in advance of our trip!
Sorry, I only provide it for those guys needing replacement $1,000 original factory issue BMW radiator caps.
“Sorry, I only provide it for those guys needing replacement $1,000 original factory issue BMW radiator caps.”
They are really not that expensive unless you have the dealer install it.
Let us know some time next year what you think about it.
Now that you mention it, same thing happened in Chicago with our card...while buying tickets to a museum. At least it wasn’t Brazil!
The gas station and police aren't interested. I know what happened but can't prove it. This happened in October and I'm still trying to get the CC company to refund the charges. My wife returns from a short trip to NJ tomorrow. She has cash for gas.
I think dealer installation only gets it up to $700. The extra $300 is for the extended warranty.
“I’m still trying to get the CC company to refund the charges.” — wow, that’s horrible. I’ve had much better luck getting fraud reversed.
It is a LOT easier to get your money back when the card was NOT in the possession of the crook. If they can show the person had the card in their possession, then your job is a lot harder.
The difficulty has been more due to their incompetence than giving me a hard time.
Yes they work great. You can lock them after use as well.
Some things don’t add up in your post/questions...
I’ve had a credit card number compromised twice in my entire life - one was attributable to a restaurant (that was found to have an employee who was taking pictures with her cell phone of front/back and then using it to buy gift cards to send to an address in Mexico).
The other from a major retailer who was hacked and had crappy security.
More credit card numbers are “stolen” by willing consumers who fall for pfishing scams, and/or malware on their computer (or device), OR that carelessly use their devices on open wifi connections with no protection running (why I always use a VPN anywhere but in my home).
Nope, not one of those three you suggest:
1. No use of public networks for secure communications. We RARELY use public wifi networks. I access wifi via my iPhone hotspot.
2. No malware on our Macs, iPhones or iPads
3. We are far too smart to fall for phishing scams
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