leiladylei54

SVS it happened to you. It happened to us. $1500.00 taken out of our checking account. I believe they caught the guys and they have been extradited to Hawaii for court. I've been watching the news all the time. Evidently these 3 guys came from California, rented a two sliding back door van, went to a couple of gas stations, installed their phishing machines (or whatever they are called), went back to California. They returned 2 weeks later, rented another one of those vans, and then retrieved their machines. Then went home and started to get all the info off the cards, make new ones and started going to different towns in California and take money out of peoples accounts. Not sure if it was 2000 people here who's accounts were compromised. I hope they go to court and are found guilty and they lock them up and throw away the key. It was a nightmare to think that they could have also opened up false loans and such and really done a lot more damage to our credit. Make sure you check your credit rating. We have notified the different credit rating agencies to not allow any loans be authorized or such. You just never know. And you're right....I was very worried about using my new debit card after this happened and started writing personal checks. Same with PayPal....always worried about that, too. BGF's son's PayPal account was hacked and all his checking account money was stolen from someone in the Philippines. So am leery of using PayPal nowadays, too.

CAS49OR

It is nice to go online and immediately see what is happening with my account. When I saw that withdrawal I knew something was up. I never did hear back if they had busted anyone for the theft of 100s of people.

On a more basic level, even when you are at the ATM at your own bank -- shield the keyboard with one hand while you punch in your pin. There are devices that can see your pin that thiefs will glue above the keyboard.

CAS49OR

While we are discussing theft. On another thread someone mentioned the Paypal phishing emails. Do not respond to a Paypal email asking you to go to the site to verify your information.

Do NOT click on a link sent to you in an email to take you to place where you do any business. (banks, ebay, paypal, etc.)

Open your web browser and check in to them like you always do, and see if anything has changed.

In fact, I've received phishing scams from Centurylink and ebay also.

galvestonangel

I got a bill from one CC and it had a charge of more than $500. to Oshmans online. I called Oshmans to see what had been purchased, it was some kind of electronics, ask them where it was sent to. Before she answered, she ask is this fraud, I said I think so, she would give me no more info and told me to make a police report. My husband blamed me for my online purchases but it was his card. His card had never been activated and was still in the envelope. The CC people really shut us out, I believe that their files had been breeched.

Another time, someone put a change of address card in for my daughter. She made a comment she wasn't getting very much mail. The people got her bank info, her pin number sent by the bank and deposited a $3500.00 bogus check in her account. They started going to different ATM's and drawing money out. The bank called her and said the $3500. check came back, and we laughed because we thought it was a mistake because she had not deposited a check of that amount. We had dealt with this bank so long they did not question the check when it was deposited. A few days later she got a call from a friend that the wedding invitation they had sent her was returned and it had the address it had been forwarded to. That's when it hit the fan. Police report was made, her account was brought back to normal, but I do not believe that any action was taken, even though they had an address and pictures from the ATM machines. However the post office started asking for proof you lived at that address before allowing you to put a change of address card in.

gale

This is why we won't have debit cards. I'm sure that someday we'll have no choice but until then, no way. We use credit cards for everything and pay it off each month. If someone steals our number and charges something, our account balance isn't in jeopardy. While it's being resolved we aren't out the $$ and no worries about checks bouncing.

annthreecats

Glad to hear it wasn't more serious. Good for you for checking into your account.

The same thing happened to me last August except they emptied out my checking account and even used up my overdraft cushion. I had to go to the bank and fill out paperwork, and then go to the Sheriff's department and file a complaint so it could be investigated. The bank replaced all lost funds within 5 days. The banker mentioned that using my debit card at a gas station and inputing my pin number was probably how it happened. The thieves install card readers over the gas station card readers and they gather information that way. The gas stations never check their pumps so they don't know what is going on. I now only use cash or my card as a credit card at gas stations. Once they have your pin they can do anything.

Be careful out there.

CherryPie

It happened to me on both my debit & credit cards. Someone was downloading music using my debit card. I filed a police report and then I went to my credit union. They cancelled both cards immediately. On the charge with my credit card, the CU had me write my signature 5 times. I was lucky and rec'd all my money back. I never did hear if they were able to locate the thieves. I was lucky enough that not a whole lot of money was stolen and luckily I caught it in time. My heart goes out for those who's accounts are totally wiped out. I know I shouldn't be using my debit card like I do but I do not like to carry a large amount of cash on me.

CAS49OR

We always use credit so we can get reward points. Nevertheless, they were able to get the debit info off the machine.

greenini

I make sure that the debit part of my bank card is not activated, it's strictly an ATM card so I can get cash out of the machine. I use some cash for under $15 say and the rest goes on an Amazon credit card as we apply the points to the amount due on the credit card and pay it monthly. I feel like this is about the best protection I caan get.

We got caught up in one of those things where info got out and have had Experian monitoring our credit cards and accounts, but it's about to expire. I don't think I'm going to renew, it seems pretty expensive since it should all be covered, i hope.

greenini

I make sure that the debit part of my bank card is not activated, it's strictly an ATM card so I can get cash out of the machine. I use some cash for under $15 say and the rest goes on an Amazon credit card as we apply the points to the amount due on the credit card and pay it monthly. I feel like this is about the best protection I caan get.

We got caught up in one of those things where info got out and have had Experian monitoring our credit cards and accounts, but it's about to expire. I don't think I'm going to renew, it seems pretty expensive since it should all be covered, i hope.