Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Please be aware. . .

Please be aware of your bank statements and account balances.  I found an unusual amount on my dear hubbys' debit card.  I called the bank because, I was pretty sure it was not him and sure enough it wasn't.  The charge was to a store out of state.  While I was on the phone to the fraud department of my bank whoever has the number tried to us it again in another store, same chain, and same state but down the road in a different town.  The bank was able to block that transaction, thank goodness.  My husband still had his card in his possession so, someone stole the number some how.  He does not use his card online so I am not sure where the breach of the number occurred.
This was a national chain so, I looked their corporate information up and sent them an email to let them know this had happened.  The chain was very cooperative and has been very helpful in getting the security tapes to the County Sheriff.  If I had not been so OCD about checking our balances and checking our accounts this could have been so much worse.  As it stands, we are still out over $200 and it is still under investigation but, they only used it once and not numerous times as I am sure they intended.  
Please keep your eye on your accounts, I don't want anyone to have to go through this.

2 comments:

Beth Cotell said...

Oh no!!! Glad you are so OCD!

How does that work, though? If your husband still has the card, how are they able to use it at a store? I can understand if they were trying to buy something online but how can they buy something with his card at a store when they don't have the card????

Pampered Mom said...

There are gadgets that just run numbers till they find one that is active. When they have that number they create a new card with their information on it and what ever number is active. I believe whoever used our card bought it from someone else, higher up on the criminal food chain. To do this you have to have the device that runs the numbers, access to credit card blanks, and a machine to press the info on the credit card blanks.