I've been compromised...

Wife asked me to print off a statement on her checking account. First item that appeared, charged that morning, was a $5.10 debit from a strange vendor, that neither of us had ever heard of. She had other business later in the day at the credit union, and brought it to their attention. They checked into it, and there were actually TWO different charges, the second one being declined. Said it was out of Singapore! They were from my debit card on her account. Now, get this, I have NEVER, not even once used that card. Don't even remember the 4 digit PIN number.

CU credited us with the $ charged, issued me a new card with new numbers, and a new pin.

My take on this I'd that some critter was fishing, and got very lucky. Probably they tried the small charge, and when it went through, they attempted to drain the account, and over shot, thus the decline.

My advice to all of my YT friends, is to check your accounts regularly and often. I'm doing ours daily now. Only takes a few minutes, and could save you a whole bunch of embarrassment. Don't know how this would have come out if a large amount of money had been involved. Don't like debit cards, never have!

The only time I ever use a debit card any more is at an ATM machine if I have to take out cash and I do very little with cash anymore. Banks don't have to fix a problem on debit cards unless they want to. There are a lot better protections on credit cards and we've had our card hacked a couple of times in the past. Each time fixed by the credit card company, first time they even called me about it before we saw it. Concerning those small charges, I've seen that on credit cards too. Crooks think you won't see it or its too small to bother with and they can nickel and dime you out of a lot of money that way. I won't do the debit card thing at gas stations where they will give you money off a gallon using their card with is normally a debit card.

That is WHY i do not have even one Card in my wallet . You want to deal with me then it is C I F , that is CASH IN FIST . and Face to face . Plum refuse to use a self check out . Call me old fashioned , you are 100% correct . Now the wife she has a couple cards and yup they have gotten her a couple times now , one evening while at one of her girl scout meetings a couple towns away she bought dinner and paid with her card and at the same time 200 miles away someone was buying a big T V set on her card and the battle was on . We have had several battles over the CARD and ya can't even trust your banks anymore .

I don't have a debit card.
On a few occasions my CC was hacked. My cc company sent me an email and called.
CC company has always block charges before they paid anything.
My CC is not from a Bank.
I feel blessed and lucky.
I got my first CC in1967.
I never had a fraudulent charge to pay or paid a late fee.
CC company takes good care of me.

YIKES Scary glad it worked out YA GOTTA KEEP YOUR GUARD UP. Since I travel nationwide in the RV a Credit Card is a must, no way I'm carrying huge sums of cash. I audit it daily or more and have all sorts of travel and other instant alerts and notifications if any red flags or other caution parameters Ive set up happen. PLUS I never pay interest as I keep it paid in full PLUS I get 2% cash back on EVERY purchase, works for MY situation and the CC has its own protection in play for unauthorized purchases WHICH IVE NEVER HAD TO PAY FOR.

Take care everyone watch out and do what works for YOUR situation and suits YOUR choices, there's no one size fits all and no right or wrong answers when it come to our financial choices.

John T

If you carry that card in your wallet, that's probably how they got the card number. Card scanners these days can be quite small. In fact, you can download an app for many smart phones that allows the phone to act as a card scanner. All they have to do is keep their phone in their pocket and simply walk near or bump into people (accidentally, of course!) and they can gather hundreds of card numbers every day without the card owners being none the wiser.

Best thing you and your wife could do is to invest in wallets or card holders (we use BOTH) that block those scanners from penetrating. They're sold on Amazon and probably in your local Walmart as well. Look here:
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=rfid+blo...+blocking+wallet,aps,224&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=rfid+car...rfid+card+blocke,aps,216&ref=nb_sb_noss_2

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=rfid+cas...prefix=rfid+case,aps,209&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

Each link above is for a different type of protection. I've never seen the 2nd link before, but the wife uses a case (3rd link) and I use a wallet (1st link). I've actually checked my wallet out inside a store (with the cashier's permission, of course) and it works!

You've got that right Ray. I wrote a check a year ago to a small business in Greenville for over $960, I won't say what or who, but when I checked, they had cashed the check twice. It was cashed once by taking a picture of it with a smart phone, then again that same day at the counter. I had to go to the bank and sign a form to get one of them put back.

Several years ago I had one just like you said, a charge of a dollar and something on my debit card. We were having lunch with one of the bank tellers and I asked her what was going on? She said somebody was phishing and ran a small charge to see if it would go through. She told me to cancel the card right now, so I did.

Life has been made way too complicated. Scoundrels definitely have the upper hand in being able to rob you from sci-ber space, or where ever.

I'm with T.V. I like cash never have to chase it and it doesn't bounce. Ready to spend when you get it. I like paying in cash too. Only places I have been told no cash is Fastenal Nutrien and another place I can't think of right now. I quit dealing with Fastenal over it. And Not sure just what to do about Nutrien on this. Thier invoices and billing is so complicated and screwy I hate dealing with it. Not anybody close by to deal with for those inputs though. I do deal with another party for some of my fertilizer though. Big issue is spreading to Grid samples without the equipment for the program. Don't have that option on the fertilizer spreader either.

I've had the same experience as you, George. Never have had to even argue about a fraudulent charge, let alone pay for one, and the credit card company contacts us right away when something pops up that looks suspicious. The few times over the last 20 years when something was fraudulent they promptly cancelled the card and got a new one in the mail to us that same day. No complaints at all about the service we've gotten.

iHAD a GM credit card which provided a nice extra$ on the purchase of a GM car. However, GM decided to switch providers from Capital One to Goldman Sachs. I had an alert on the card for any purchase over $100. During the switch-over period an email arrived regarding an almost $2000 purchase of tickets to an Elton John concert in Florida. I immediately called Goldman Sachs - a miserable experience- all they did was start a fraud investigation which thankfully eventually eliminated the charge. They could have cancelled the charge which had not yet processed, but that wasn't bank procedure, i guess. They had just sent me new cards which i had not yet activated and they are still sitting in the desk. Be careful. Sadly, there are lots of sneaky scammers. KCM's shielded care holder sounds like a great idea.

Capital One just about ruind me, luckly my local bank managder got things straghtened out about a card I did not want.

Unless you keep every dollar to your name in cash in your mattress, it can happen to you.

What I would suggest is if you are the one that discovers it, FIND A DIFFERENT BANK ASAP. Your bank should be contacting YOU about fraud.

several years Mrs 730's daughter put 600 dollar withdrawal on our checking account I don't know how she did it. I went to bank closed all of our accounts opened new ones.
when to different bank did the same process I was gone about 6 hours NO FOOD and was mad as wet hen.
Mrs 730 called daughter I don't know how that happen Mom Honest. At the same time she fired form her job for chasing her pay check for same amount of money she was trying rip us for.

I've never had a debit card because debit cards don't pay me a rebate. Currently one card I have just shy of $300 in rebates and another card is shy of $100 in rebates.
All my CC are auto paid from checking the day they are due and ZERO late fees.

I think of my rebate $ as free Christmas money..
A double win.

Each year I have a minimum of $500 in Christmas money thanks to rebates.

I had $1200 missing a few years ago. I called the bank and they said it was a cash withdrawal at the counter. My cousin's grand daughter works in the book keeping department, said she'd check. She called me right back and said the teller had given it to my brother. His name is right below mine when they pull it up on the screen and she highlighted mine and clicked it by mistake. Same thing happened recently with my son and another of my brothers. Again, one name right above the other on the computer screen. Over $3400 went in to my brothers account by mistake.