Have you used your card anywhere locally? This happens constantly where you hand your credit card to a cashier and then, the fraudulent charges start to rack up because they cloned your card. And in January, my credit union called me to tell me that my debit card number had been "tested" online. It had been used at a marriage counseling website to see if the number was good. They recommended that I hot card it and get a new one, which I did. I asked the rep if there had been charges. She said no, that it had just been tested. When I asked what that meant, she explained that someone had been trying out a series of card numbers to see if any would work. It didn't mean anyone had my card or access to my numbers, just that they were randomly trying numbers.

I do almost all of the fraud claims at my bank. I know the stuff that happens and how easy it is to have your atm card compromised. Still, this situation surprised me.

Red

Am Ex has an Alert feature that will notify you by email or text to phone whenever your card number is used to make a purchase over the phone or online. You can enroll for that on the AMEX site.

...........Notes: This Alert is provided to notify you when a transaction is made on your account when the actual card was not presented as part of the payment process. This is usually the case with purchases made online or over the phone. You may also get this alert if manual key entry was required to complete the transaction at a physical merchant location..........

My Visa gave me an option to have an email sent for every transaction - payments, credits, charges. Since I check my email often it's so easy to verify any purchase that way.

I don't think AM EX does that yet.

Sorry it happened it's such a pain.

Maire cate, thanks for that information! I just updated both my Visa and AmEx. I wasn't even aware that these protection services were available for free, I thought there would be a charge for them. Delighted to feel more in control!
Thanks again!

I have a card that I use just for online purchases - with a smaller limit. That way if it is compromised in cyberspace, I can still use my regular cards without the hassle of replacing them and also can see if my# was stolen online or (if your regular #) in-person someplace.

Citicards has software I use. You run the software from your PC or online via their website. Log in, generate a virtual account #. Always with an expiration date the following month. (If I created a virtual # today, the card "expires" 4/11.) It's 'single use' only, by website. So if you make a purchase at one site, then immediately want to go to a different site to buy something, you have to generate a new virtual number, the first one has become invalid & won't permit subsequent merchants to charge to it. I've had zero issues when using it.

Years ago when I had my old "online" CC registered at Ebay tho, it was hacked & $500+ put on it by some guy who hit a lot of people. I call it my online card because that's all I used it for. (And the one in my wallet never got used online.) On the card that was hacked I kept a really low credit limit on it, too, with a written request it never go over. But they kept raising it & I got tired of requesting they lower it back down again. It was closed out after the ebay deal. But I still keep one strictly for online use only that I never carry in my wallet.

Red, I've never heard of cloning a card in a store, good grief! I'm going to have to google & read up on that one.

Thanks for all that info. I am going to use that alert feature. Amex no longer does the virtual cards. Another charge showed up at a brick and mortar store in Florida. I'm in the PNW but I was in Florida in Jan. So maybe it got compromised then but why so long till they used it? It creeps me out.

This has happened to me 2X on two different cards both a couple of weeks after I had made a payment to my son's soccer club (some video game site and a prom gown site). I never accused them of being responsible for the breach but it seems so strange that after 100's of online purchases that the only time it would happen would be after transaction with the soccer club. I pay them by check or cash only now.

You run the risk when buying from an online company you might not be familiar with, this happened to me with my purchasing card at work. The cc's fraud department caught it right away when the thief ran it for a $1. That $1 charge is a red flag, and unfortunately it can cause you problems for a legit purchase you are trying to make--sometimes gas stations must verify the card for $1, and this has caused me problems when we used our old cc, they were a little too cautious and caused us too many inconveniences--we've switched to another company. (We alerted them to a trip we were taking in Europe, and yet, when we got there and tried to use the card--it wouldn't work and we had to call them...from Europe--we were on a cruise!)

Also, the newest thing we are hearing about is having your card photographed while you are holding it. Today's cell phone cameras are really good. Always keep the number down if you have it out of your wallet to pay for something, it is really easy to take a photo.

I had several $1.00 charges to iTunes as they checked the card to see if it was still working. I see the $692.00 has been removed today. Yay Amex!

I thought it was really suspicious that when my sister called my dads credit card company to tell them that he had passed away and to close the account.....the next day there were charges to purchase commerative coins ont the card. I'm am guessing that the person who took the call was less than honest.

I also don't like when you go to the doctor and they ask you to fill out forms and they always ask for your social security number. They have enough information on those forms to apply for credit, and you donb't know what employees have access to the forms.

ya'll jinxed me

Just spent some time calling the bank for my work purchasing cc. There was a charge to an online casino on it.

I found the charge because I was doing my week end postings. And there it was. Didn't trigger any fraud alerts because it was for more than the $1 that has been used in the past, but less than $10.

Nevertheless, pita because now I need to wait for new card to be sent. I do a lot of online shopping for work. This stinks. Grrrrr

at least I caught it.

Oh no! Didn't mean to jinx you. I am happy you caught it quickly but I understand what a PITA waiting for a new card can be.

I verify all our accounts online almost every day, it only takes a few minutes so I would spot something unusual pretty fast.

We've had frauds a few times over the years; the Visa people told us it could just as well be a small time merchant that copies your info in person and then uses it online or over the phone.

When I had a business, we used to take credit cards by phone, but I always faxed an authorization form first for them to sign before I shipped the merchandise.

Once, I had a client who contested a charge from Visa, for a painting they had carried out themselves: as a merchant, I had to provide all documented info to Visa to prove that they had signed the slip and I had swiped the card, etc.. it showed me that Visa really takes the claims seriously , there are fraudulent merchants and there are fraudulent consumers also.

Woke up to a broken coffee pot Friday; thankfully I have a spare in the basement. I was getting ready to look for one when I got an account balance low email from my bank- logging in I saw there was not a low balance; so I looked some more & noticed charges I didn't authorize. Went to the bank to get my ATM card canceled; then tried to track down the charges. Have to call the fraud department tomorrow. Turns out my daughter lost a pay as you go cell phone that someone has been using on my card. I've paid the cell phone online once; I never save my card information; & I never authorize anything to take money out of my account every month- so I have no clue how this cell phone was able to be paid with my card.

Once I figured out that the charges were linked to an old cell phone; thankfully I was able to log in online & change all of the passwords. I still have no clue how all of this happened. She stopped using the phone months ago because there was no money on it. In order to put money on it; you physically have to do it. Apparently someone stole it out of her room.

I also don't like when you go to the doctor and they ask you to fill out forms and they always ask for your social security number. They have enough information on those forms to apply for credit, and you donb't know what employees have access to the forms.

Me too. Huge pet peeve. Love my primary MD, but his office staff is pretty lax about privacy, leaving files laying visible at the counter where patients pay, medically related phone/billing conversations within earshot of waiting room, so with that atmosphere I don't like having to give my SS for my file. :/

Speaking of carelessness, I went with my DH when he test drove a car. Since it was his 2nd visit to the dealership, the salesman didn't come along with us in the car. When I get into the front passenger sear, I find a piece of paper and it's the photocopy of a license of someone else who test drove the car. I don't have a criminal mind but I thought, that can't be good that I now have a copy of this lady's license. When we returned from the drive, I handed it to our salesman and said I really don't think this should be left behind for others to find. He claimed he didn't know anything about it, would take care of it, and how that never happens. Huh-uh, it just did.

The next time we're at the dealer, I see sitting out on another salesman's desk in plain view, another photocopy of someone's license.

Maybe evil-doers can't do anything with the information on a license but it seems to me if the dealers are that careless with it, what other documents, with important financial info, might they carelessly leave accessible to anyone sitting there?

I always demand the copy of my dl back after a test drive.

I just recieved two emails about personal information being breached. Amazon and BA. This morning the national news said many retail stores on and off the net were breached due to the main company software that handles all transactions. Be ready for a lot of spam to your emails and check card use now/forever.

What surprised me most was that a single company handles the transactions and so easily hacked.

I received this in an email today. Will we *ever* be safe? ;o)

Dear Cardmember ,

Recently, Citi was notified of a system breach at Epsilon, a third-party vendor that provides marketing services to a number of companies, including Citi. The information obtained was limited to the customer name and email address of some credit card customers. No account information or other information was compromised and therefore there is no reason to re-issue a new card.

Because e-mail addresses can be used for "phishing" attacks, we want to remind our customers of the following:

Citi Cards uses an Email Security Zone in all of our email to help you recognize that the email was sent by us. Customers should check the Email Security Zone to verify that the email you received is from Citi and reduce the risk of personal information being "phished." To help you recognize that the email was sent by Citi we will always include the following in the Email Security Zone in the top headline portion of all our emails:
Your first name and last name
Last four digits of your Citi card account number
And recently to increase security, we have added your âÂÂmember sinceâ date located on the front of your card, where available.

More information about phishing is available here: learn more

Important steps that you can take to protect your security online:

Don't provide your Online User ID or password in an e-mail.
Don't reply to e-mails that require you to enter personal information directly into an e-mail or URL.
Don't reply to or follow links in e-mails threatening to close your account if you do not take the immediate action of providing any personal information. We may send you an email regarding your account requesting you contact us via phone.
It is not recommended to use your e-mail address as a login ID or password.

If you suspect that youâÂÂve received a fraudulent e-mail message, please forward it to us.
Forward suspicious e-mails to: spoof@citicorp.com

If you have any questions or concerns about emails that you may receive that look suspicious, we encourage you to contact Citi Customer Service at the phone number on the back of your card.

sushi, there is a link in the post, just isn't highlighted and it's a dot . com, so I flagged it as spam