One of my friends, who happens to also be a loyal reader of this blog, had something terrible happen to her. While she was out at an event, somebody grabbed her purse, rifled through it, and took her debit card. Then they went shopping at Wal-Mart and other places. Before she knew what happened, her account had been cleaned out completely.
She had the foresight to contact the police immediately, and also did her own detective work – she got in touch with Wal-Mart, who is currently helping her by reviewing the security tapes of when her card was used. She also contacted her bank as soon as she could, so that her account could be monitored, and eventually her money replaced. The bank is also working with her to find the lowlife who took her card.
Personally, I have very little use for lowlifes who take other people’s credit or debit cards, either by physically stealing the card and using it, or by going online and poaching the information through any number of sources. I know how frustrating this is. Because it happened to me about two months ago.
Saturday, March 13. I was in Buffalo, photographing a Premier Basketball League event. At that very same time, some Internet punk thought they could compromise my bank credit card by doing two tiny internet purchases on it – purchased of less than a dollar apiece. Once those went through, they were going to clear my bank account out in nothing flat.
However, at that very same time, my bank’s credit card monitoring company happened to observe the transactions being made, correctly assumed them as fraudulent, and shut my card down that very day.
There’s just one problem.
The bank didn’t tell me they did that.
And the only reason I found out was because, on Wednesday, when I wanted to take $40 out of the ATM, my card was rejected.
Now granted, the mag strip on my card has lost much of its adhesion, so I assumed that maybe the card had just gotten “too old for use” and that I would need to get a new card. So I went into the bank, and asked a representative what was the problem with my card.
She looked at the error code that came out of the ATM. “Oh, Mr. Miller, I’m afraid your card has been canceled.”
Really…
I mentioned that this card was attached to my bank account, as was my wife’s debit card. Was hers canceled as well?
“No, Mr. Miller, according to our records only your card was canceled.”
Okay… Granted, I haven’t bought anything out of the ordinary lately – at least nothing that would have cost me my marriage.
No, it turns out my card had been compromised – it wasn’t taken out of my wallet like my friend’s card was, but it may as well have been. These twerps get a card number somehow, they try to buy either tiny things to see if it works, or they’ll order something online through a service like ecampus.com.
Eventually the card was replaced and an investigation was made. Or at least my bank told me they were investigating. For all I know, they may have just issued me a card and told me to go on my merry way.
But back to my concerns.
Ecampus.com is a textbook purchasing site, and you can order either paper-and-binding textbooks to be mailed to you, or you can order downloadable PDF textbooks that can be sent to your account. And since textbook ordering is basically using your parents’ credit card to get that macrobiology book for your upcoming class, ecampus.com doesn’t care where the money comes from, so long as they get paid.
Thieves also know which stores to go to when they’re purchasing stuff with stolen credit cards. How many times have you gone to sign for a purchase and have been told, “Oh, you’re not required to sign if the purchase is under $50.” I don’t care if I”m buying a candy bar with my credit card, I expect to be able to sign for it and I expect the merchant to look at the back of the card and check my signature.
Some people write “SEE ID” or “CID” on the back of the card. I do both – I sign my card and write “SEE ID” on the back as well. Yet when it comes to places where the merchant does not know me as a regular customer, more often than not the merchant or cashier does NOT ask me for my identification. Again, a dangerous breach of security, especially when I ask for a security measure on my card.
I’ve even considered adding a security question to one of my credit cards, just to make sure someone actually looked on the back and asked me for my ID. The security question would be taped to the back of the card, and read like this – “MERCHANT: Please compare my driver’s license ID to my signature on the back of the card. Also, what is your favorite Walt Disney movie?”
Now when I’ve put my card back in the wallet, I will ask the cashier or merchant if they remembered the security question on the back of the card, and if they can answer the security question. Usually they at least know the question, and they give me a quick story about why they like Beauty and the Beast or Pinocchio or 101 Dalmations.
If they can’t answer it, then I need to go to their manager and explain that in the past, I’ve dealt with identity theft and that I am extremely hyper-vigilant about protecting my credit cards and my bank card. And I also mention that if the manager doesn’t counsel the company’s staff about the importance of this, I will not shop at that merchant ever again – and I will recommend that my friends not shop there, unless they pay in cash.
Another thing to do with your credit cards is to ask the credit card company if you can put your photograph on the front of the card. I know Capital One and Bank of America credit cards allow you to add this feature to your credit cards. It’s worth the time to do this. Then, if the merchant looks at the card and sees a 25-year-old Asian man and the person handing over the card is a 55-year-old white female, there should be some sort of alarm going off in the merchant’s head that something ain’t right.
No matter what, we have to be careful with our credit cards, whether shopping online or dining out. Because even if you can build a better, more efficient mousetrap … society develops smarter rats.
Chuck The Writer 
First of all, I’m glad that your friend was able to get everything squared away with her card. It hasn’t happened to me yet, and I hope it never will. Second, I just want to say that why would you steal a card and then go on a shopping spree at Wal-Mart? The stuff will just break and you’d get caught when you took it back. What a dumb criminal.
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I just had this happen to one of my credit cards last Friday. Someone tried to make a purchase at a mall in Colorado with my card information. I know they’re just doing their job, but you gotta love the “fraud specialists” when they’re asking you about the fraudulent charge:
“Are you sure this isn’t a fraudulent charge?”
“I’m quite positive.”
“And why is that, sir?”
“Because I’m in Albany, NY. And I haven’t quite figured out how to travel 2000 miles to Colorado and back that quickly…”
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I don’t understand how two small transactions under a dollar can lead to your account being wiped out?
Why not just go on the spending spree most crooks do.
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Because if the crooks figure out that they can access the account by purchasing a couple of small items – like a stick of chewing gum or a pack of smokes – the next thing they do is buy $100 gift cards to steakhouses and restaurants. Then they sell those to unsuspecting people for $50 apiece, and keep the vig.
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Caveat emptor, baby! The banks don’t care–it’s not their money.
As a former employee of several multiple-store retail conglomerates, I can tell you that almost anyone who handles credit-card sales like that pays absolutely no attention to the card itself. (Especially with DIY POS units like Walmart, Price Chopper, Hannaford, McDonalds, etc.) Less attention to the signature on the slip. Yup, I can and have signed as “Karl Marx” and “Dr. Strangelove” and “Ziggy Stardust” and was never once questioned about it. Amaze your friends, try it sometime!
Almost no customer-service department of any of the aforementioned major chains is going to delay every single credit-card transaction by following your hissy-fit procedure here. Time is money, especially when it comes to hustling customers out of the store. If you’re lucky it’ll get mentioned in a meeting or posted in a breakroom, and after a week or so everyone’ll forget about it & business will commence as usual. Managers are very well-trained to look contrite, smile, nod, and say whatever necessary to shut you up & get you out of their hair.
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Lots of customers use other peoples cards,…spouses, employers, whatever…when I swipe a card it calls for authorization…if it’s been compromised, or more likely, maxed out…it gets denied. I don’t check the scribbles on the back.
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D357, I am the person in question on this blog.. and I find your attitude disturbing. For over 8 years, I worked as a cashier for different companies. I ALWAYS checked the credit card receipts to the signatures, because my first job trained me how important that was to the livelihood of our customers. If someone came in using someone else’s card, I turned them away, no ifs, ands, or buts. The signatures should match, and when all else fails, you ask to see a state ID.
I am fortunate enough to have had my card stolen by people stupid enough to use their real name and address when ordering goods offline, but cashiers were supposed to be my first line of defense against the 3k someone blew of MY money at Wal-Mart. They failed, and I can’t tell you how disappointed that makes me. Just as I feel that corporations should not be held accountable for loss of theft in an incidence such as this one, I feel that they are mutually obligated to protect my interests, and theirs, by checking card signatures. Seriously, it’s not like we are talking about a pack of gum here. These people used my card to the tune of $500-$1k a pop each time. Signatures should always be checked, ESPECIALLY for purchases over $50.
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Ed- LOL. Thanks for the kind words. Seriously though, Wal-Mart and the internet company in question were great. The manager recognized the failing of not checking the signature, and has said that all store employees would be retrained, and their assistance to me and the police was really beyond my expectations. They could have said “Screw you, you’re not the cops and we’re not helping you out”, but they went the extra mile- I can’t tell you how pleasantly surprised I am by their cooperation, and I have vowed not to make fun of Wal-Mart for some yet to be determined period of time 😉
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