Be vigilant in checking your bank accounts especially this time of year...

[Liz CA]

I just discovered that someone charged a Sony Playstation on my account. Nice. Let the hassle begin.

Edited November 29, 2015 by Liz CA

[Miss Peregrine]

Thumbs down. I'm sorry.

[Guest]

That sucks. I hope you're able to resolve of smoothly :(

[MEmama]

Ugh.

 

We've been getting lots of spam from "pay pal"--another thing to look out for.

 

Hope you can get that charge resolved quickly.

[NicksMama-Zack's Mama Too]

My Discover Card was hacked last weekend. $200 worth of iTunes charges. We don't have itune accounts. My husband has a notification alert up with Discover. He gets text or emails when any online purchases are made. When he awoke Saturday morning, his phone was blowing up with emails/text from Discover about the charges. We immediately called them and reported the fraudulent charges. Discover flagged then, assured us that we were not responsible for them, and they are sending us new cards. BTW, they send out cards viua snailmail and we haven't gotten them yet. Last night, we called back and they offered to fed ex them to us.I wish I had insisted that upfront.

 

The email or text alert notificationbs options are available for most credit cards. It is wise to set those up asap if you haven't already! We have them set up on our other cards as well.

 

Happy shopping!

[kewb]

Been there, done that.

2 years ago someone bought themselves a new Apple laptop. Last year someone bought thenselves an assortment of items from various stores at small price points, probably hoping I wouldn't notice. It almost worked because it is conceivable I would shop at Barnes and Noble and forget I bought something. Since I don't shop at Walmart knew something was wonky.

I do have to say that my bank was phenomenal both times. Immediately closed the accounts and set up new ones and replaced the stolen funds that day.

 

I receive scam emails almost daily from PayPal, eBay, banks. It is maddening how many crooks are out there to take advantage of people.

Edited November 29, 2015 by kewb

[VaKim]

Thanks for the reminder.

[HomeAgain]

Yep.  Thankfully no extra activity this year, but our bank is amazing.  They know our spending habits and call if anything is out of the ordinary - and we're proactive and call them if we're doing anything like spending a large amount or traveling.  They called a few years back and stopped a transaction at the checkout because it was a store we hadn't been in during the past 6 years.  All we had to do was say "no, not us!"

[lynn]

We have alert for all transactions over $100 but still check daily.

[teachermom2834]

After never having an issue in the twenty years we have been married with debit cards, both dh and I had our info stolen within a couple weeks of each other.  I suspect the gas station at the corner was the culprit as it is the only place we both have shopped, probably.I noticed that they put in new scanners the other day so maybe it has been a problem?

 

Anyways, our bank was great. They caught the first one immediately because someone used my card info several states away within minutes of my using it locally.  With dh, it was actually being used for small purchases locally but my dh was using it about 70 miles away at the same time so they caught it.

 

 

[ScoutTN]

Yes, I check our accounts online every day!

[ErinE]

Also be wary of using debit cards. Once scammers get access to your bank account, the funds are gone until the bank credits the money back to you. In my experience, credit cards have better fraud protection than debit cards.

[umsami]

Liking for the heads up, not that somebody did that to you.

 

Thanks for the warning. :(

[Paula in MS]

Also be wary of using debit cards. Once scammers get access to your bank account, the funds are gone until the bank credits the money back to you. In my experience, credit cards have better fraud protection than debit cards.

 

I haven't found that to be true.  My debit card number was used fraudulently last year, and the bank immediately gave us provisional credit pending the investigation.  Maybe it depends on the bank.

[athomeontheprairie]

For what it's worth, all of our bank and credit card accounts are set up so that I can receive a text anytime my accounts are accessed. it's a pain, when I sent my computer and do a lot of Christmas shopping at once , but that one time someone took $800 in a matter of minutes- makes all those texts worth it

[trulycrabby]

:grouphug: Thanks for the heads up!:

[mamiof5]

Thanks for the heads up! Hope it gets resolved soon

[Liz CA]

Sounds like I should set up text alerts. My bank is a smaller, local institution and they have provisionally credited my account pending investigation. I should hear from them tomorrow. The poster whose bank alerted them when something seemed odd at the checkout seems impressive service. Then there is always the fine line of how restrictive it should get versus how protective we want them to be.