Comments on: Credit Card Skimming

By: Gene

Gene — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 08:45:08 +0000

Today i knew my card info was stolen. Total lost ammount is $2600. I think it’s skim. God. why Sears doesn’t take care to larger ammount/$1404/ purchase with whom use phony card? Now i’m afraid to pay my bill with real person!

By: Paula D.

Paula D. — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 17:02:02 +0000

I had something similar happen to me, that happened to Heather. The twist was that the thief made a card and then went to a free standing ATM and took the maximum amount of cash that can be taken in a day ($300 in this case). When they skimmed the card number, they also got the PIN number. They started on a Friday and over a 5 day period they took $1500 off me before I discovered the theft. The bank reimbursed me, but the debris from this has taken hours and days of calling various accounts to straighten it out.

I no longer use the PIN number with the check card, except for times I’m using it at the bank’s ATM.

By: Heather

Heather — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 16:26:31 +0000

My Visa check card (which is also my credit union ATM card) had its number intercepted 2 years ago. I still don’t know how the thieves got the number. The really puzzling thing about the theft is that everything they purchased was ordered in my own name and sent to my house. This made me think that children were responsible and just wanted to create mischief. Everything was ordered via the internet. Almost all of my money was refunded (about $600) but it was such a nuisance, having to return everything that came to my house and explain what happened to the companies in question.

By: Demolition Robot

Demolition Robot — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 15:07:52 +0000

Keep in mind that although your copy of the credit card receipt has only the last four digits of your card number on it, frequently the merchant’s copy has the whole thing.

It’s a good idea to keep your hands on your cards at all times if possible, and not give out your number over the phone where other people may overhear. I hear cell phone users giving out their numbers frequently, and I have a great memory for numbers. If I weren’t honest, it’d be easy to skim a credit card number that way.

My credit card number was stolen due to a foolish error on the merchant’s part. Lists of card numbers were incorrectly used for another purpose, letting my personal info out into the world of the potentially nefarious.