Credit Card Breech

14 years ago

I am so bummed as my amex card was breeched! Someone tried to charge close to 5K on my card and thankfully amex declined and suspended my account. Amex left a vmm on my home phone to call and at first I thought that was a scam. I then checked my account online and saw that it had been suspended. I called and someone tried to charge airline tickets and something on Travelocity and a book from Kaplan. I suspect the book from Kaplan @ $20 was to see if they could do it. I'm thankful that amex reached out right away but this really infuriates me. I went to a convention recently and used my card and I suspect one of the vendors then used the number. I don't use my card very often and now I know that when I use an unknown vendor I will pay cash. I am so mad and feel vulnerable and violated. I try so hard to be careful with my cards and then this happens. Just wanted to give a warning to everyone if you use an unknown or small vendor, just be careful. I'm not saying that every vendor is a crook but still we should all be wary. What a world we live in.

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Comments (9)

abundantblessings
14 years ago
Oh, Deb, so sorry this happened! What a bummer, but you may want to alert the organizers of the convention so that they will be aware of a possible bad apple and perhaps change their screening methods. Even if you used your card with more than one vendor, still let them know as perhaps others had a similar experience and by sharing this info you can help identify the fraudulent vendor. Wouldn't it be great if they catch the crook!
goldgirl
14 years ago
Glad Amex caught it Deb! They're really good - we've had it happen twice now. A few years ago we were walking around an art fair and DH got a call from them to say that someone had charged a bail bond LOL.

Had to cancel another card when a unrecognized $1500 charge came up. When we called, they immediately took care of it - sounded like there had been a widespread problem.

Everyone should regularly check their statements to catch any weird charges.
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pammyfay
14 years ago
It's good that you could figure out the likely suspect (you never know, but it seems you have it pinned). My credit card company would never tell me how my account was breeched--I wanted to know which vendor it was so I could protect myself in the future, and it was very discouraging to not be able to get that info.
kgwlisa
14 years ago
Someone recently stole my Visa number too! Only they were really stupid - they bought this butt ugly hat from Cabela's and since I have ordered from Cabela's before, they had my info on file and sent it to MY house. This hat arrives and DH is asking me if I ordered anything from Cabela's and I'm insisting no (I am kind of dippy nowadays but come on - I would remember ordering from a place I only ordered from ONCE before!) and just as I say that maybe someone stole the number the phone rings and it's the fraud department from Visa.

The interesting thing is that they were not calling because they suspected the card was stolen - they were calling because it was used at a website known for making unauthorized charges (you buy something for $9.99 and they charge $79.99 or you buy something one time and they put you on their subscription and automatically bill monthly - they sell diet supplements). There was only the hat and the diet supplements and a $1 to ebay so far so it looks like we caught it before the "big one" was attempted.

It's an unfortunate byproduct of living in a digital age I guess. Anything that makes it easy for the owner to purchase something also unfortunately makes it easy for other people to abuse that information.
squirrelheaven
14 years ago
That's horrible, Deborah. Using credit cards is such a natural thing to do, anymore, instead of carrying cash. Especially since those ATM fees came into play. I do worry sometimes when I have to actually hand the card over to someone these days. There are so many devious tactics out there, new ones come up every day. I always remember the one where the thieves have hidden cameras above to record keypin strokes and then do a re-swipe of the card (to a hidden card reader). They actually hock the card's information so they can make duplicates from blanks (the scenario was ATM cards, used at the gas station). So be wary if someone needs to swipe a card twice!

It does make one feel violated when someone steals like that. We're lucky the cc companies are on the ball with this stuff. They must have to spend a fortune on both the policing effort and in trying to keep ahead of these crooks.
lido
14 years ago
You are right - that's a royal pain. Thank goodness Amex caught it.

A few years back, this happened to one of my co-workers. The crook then purchased enough musical instruments to outfit an orchestra....but had them all sent to our workplace! Yes, it was one order. And no, none of us played the tuba.
User
14 years ago
That sucks, but how wonderful that they caught it! We've been very fortunate (so far) but we've paid off all our cards and only keep 1 active for emergencies. However, the problem is becoming so widespread lately I've been tempted buy some of those credit card gift cards and use those when we go to the flea market, restaurant or something. If it can guarantee our ATM or Credit Card won't be hijacked it's worth the 5 bucks it costs to buy and/or activate them.
Sueb20
14 years ago
This has happened to us before, too. Fortunately Amex is on top of things!
deborahnj
Original Author
14 years ago
Hi all, finally had a chance to check in. I have been crabby all day over this situation. I did alert the convention planners about the situation so they would be aware. I also now realize that I have to alert several utilities because I have my cable, satellite radio and gym wired to my card so now I have to update all of those records. I'm still really angry about this and spit nails everytime I think about it.

Pammy, the customer service representative asked me several questions and identified the charges and asked if I made them and I told her no and that's how I found out what happened. However, thanks to this board and someone reporting something similar a few months ago, I immediately knew to really examine my charges and that helped me to pinpoint and narrow down my activities pretty quickly. That coupled with the fact that like everyone else, I have significantly cut down on my spending and use of this card I believe that prompted amex to raise an eyebrow about the charges.

Thanks everyone!

Credit Card Breech

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abundantblessings

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Credit Card Breech

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