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Card Skimming

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Stewart

Stewart

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Well I have joined the ranks who have been skimmed. All it took was one lousy transaction at a schnucks supermarket last Saturday in st. Louis MO and then someone went on one heck of a walmart shopping spree in tenn. Alabama and Mississippi to the tune of 24k. CC company didn't get a hold of me till today and finally shut the card down. I don't know why the let it go to the point they did as normally if I buy 2 tanks worth of gas and eat at a restaurant out of town they lock the card down and contact me. But buy a metric tons of goods at walmart where I never shop in 3 states I don't travel to on a regular basis no problem.

Thankfully I'm not responsible for the charges.

Watch your cards closely and check your balance often.
 
I got hit a few years ago.
$2500 worth of video games sent to Norway and Indonesia.
I don't play video games and I've never been to either of those places.
I was not responsible and any vendors who actually send out merchandise to the folks using my CC numbers were not paid.
Yep, gotta watch!
 
This side of the pond they have arrested about a dozen romanians in the last couple of weeks for attaching false fronts to the hole in the wall banks (ATM's)
news in the papers puts the amount skimmed in the potential millions
 
It happened to me in March for about $8k.... had my MC and Amex cards stolen. Did not lose a penny on my Amex as they shut it down so fast it would make your head spin. MC on the other hand let the charges at Walmart continue to build up.
Walmart seems to be a favorite of these low life criminals since the checkout person does not ask to see the card... sad.
 
Gliderman8 said:
Walmart seems to be a favorite of these low life criminals since the checkout person does not ask to see the card... sad.
Click to expand...

A lot of places are like that. But - the first time I used my business Amex card Walmart wouldn't process it unless I gave them my <span style="font-style: italic">billing</span> zip code. Well heck - our business isn't in my home-town and I didn't know the stupid zip code. I stood there looking like an idiot and feeling like they were going to detain me or something. I finally found a business card with the zip code on it.

The other end of the spectrum was a few days ago when I went to another store with the same card. Not only did they not look at it, I didn't even have to sign the receipt. They told me the "rule" now is (presumably this depends on the vendor) if the bill is less than $50 you don't have to sign.

Caution: rant coming up

A couple of big problems I've had have been with the card companies being TOO cautious (as a "service"). I've had two different cards refuse to process mail order items because they thought they were suspicious. One card didn't notify me until late the next day, another notified me at night the day of the charge - both ordered were urgent and were unnecessarily delayed.

Another problem has been the same "suspicious charge" loophole that prevented me from getting fuel in my airplane once. I was furious and ended up using my business card (which I just happened to have). Most of those self-serve pumps seem to only like Visa and Amex cards. I ended up going to another bank for a second "backup" visa card. Now I have to carry three cards in case one or two decide my charges are "suspicious".

I'm glad they're trying to look out for the consumer but it's almost a catch-22; if you keep a card for emergencies then use it, they might decline it because you don't use it much. Use it all the time then buy something out of the "norm" and they might decline it because it's suspicious. Get one skimmed and the crooks can go buy $40 gift cards at walmart for a day until it gets shut down.

Life's complicated sometimes :frown:
 
aerog said:
The other end of the spectrum was a few days ago when I went to another store with the same card. Not only did they not look at it, I didn't even have to sign the receipt. They told me the "rule" now is (presumably this depends on the vendor) if the bill is less than $50 you don't have to sign.
Click to expand...

Many stores have a limit of $25 for that-if it's less than that you don't have to sign. This is particularly true of any places that have paper CC reciepts and have a large percentage of merchandise that's fairly inexpensive. A former employer of mine implemented this policy (it was a bookstore) and the amount of paper we were using dropped dramatically.

-Wm.
 
Its the express lane at walmart that gets hit nobody to even worry about showing a card to heck you can even pickup some extra cash to boot!wonder how much in extra sales they get from this practice? it should not be allowed.
 
Wow, You got me scared!! I was in St. Louis, Mo. last Saturday too! Used my card a few times, luckily not in any retail outlets!!!
 
I was at a J C Pennies last week when a very attractive and sexy young blonde girl approached me with a sad story she had driven to the store and bought some clothes and realized she had no gas money and was almost out of gas, did not have enough to get home. She returned the purchase but because it was a credit card they gave her a gift card and she needed to sell the gift card to get cash to buy gas losing 30% on the gift card's value. I asked her where she was from and she sure enough stated she was from the county I work for. I told her I would forward her cash if she showed me ID with her address on understanding I would send a sheriff to her house if I did not get the cash. She balked at the idea but less than 10 minutes later she was back and stated she would be ok with that but the drivers lisences was a late 30 something brunette not nearly as attracive. When I asked to look closer at it she walked away.

I went to the store security and they detained her and as I was preparing to talk to the security the local police showed up after hearing the name on the liscense. The wallet had been stolen in another store in the mall less than 1 hour prior. The police explained the girl, on her at least 3 arrest, would steal the wallet and run the mall making purchases and returning them and selling the gift cards before the owner could report the lost cards. They said on a good evening they coiuld make 2-3000 dollars. They stated the people buying the cards rarely reported it because they were making out and often they would have to re-emburse the store for the fraudulent purchases
 
aeronca65t said:
Wow. *That's* an interesting scam!
Click to expand...

Not uncommon at all-much of the time a stolen credit card will get used to buy a bunch of gift certificates rather than a bunch of merchandise-it saves time, and you can go back and shop later. You also know why stores do not offer cash back on gift certificates/gift cards.

The people who get caught are usually the ones who are stupid enough to try and sell gift certificates/store credit for cash, IN THE STORE THEY JUST DID THE RETURN IN!

-Wm.
 
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