I never thought this could happen to me!
On Saturday, some &%**#@!* thief hacked my debit card information and tried to place a bunch of charges on my bank account!
They had a grand old time surfing the internet planning their shopping strategy. First they went to Old Navy and attempted to rack up $200.00, then they hopped over to DSW Shoes and tried to get away with another $200.00 worth of items, and then they zoomed on over to JC Whitney and tried to force $280.00 onto my bank account, but it didn’t go through, so they tried again. When that didn’t happen, they lowered their expectations and tried for $175.00 worth of charges.
Thankfully, after the %&$#**! thief made those first two attempts at DSW and Old Navy, to have a fun shopping spree at my expense, my bank got wise and suspended my account for suspicious activity, which shut down the %$*@#%! thief from trying to rack up anymore charges.
Also, thankfully, this particular account is mostly static, and I only use it to transfer small amounts of money into it just for online shopping. It rarely ever has more than $50 in it, but I shudder to think what could have happened had I not used an account like this one and instead used my main account for online shopping. Yikes!
Still it makes you wake up and smell the coffee, knowing how vulnerable we are while shopping online. Online stores and businesses can be hacked into at any time and personal information stolen. In fact, just last month, we received an e-mail alert from Sony, a company that we have bought video games from in the past, telling us that they had been hacked and all of their customers were at risk for having their personal and financial information stolen. Scary.
What saved me from losing even my small amount of money was that something told me to check my accounts late Saturday night, even when my eyes were heavy and I really just wanted to shut down my computer and go to sleep. I had just checked it that morning and all was fine, but I’m glad I re-checked it again, because the %$#@&*! thief had been up to no good, probably figuring that no one would notice if they did their dirty online-shopping late on a Saturday night. I’m grateful that my bank is a 24/7 operation and I called them right away. And I’m thankful that the 6th sense that God gave me, told me to check my accounts just one more time.
Be careful online. You might believe you’ve covered all your bases and you’re safe from the bad guys. You might think it can’t happen to you, but it can and probably will. Be prepared.
25 comments :
That is really scary! I am so glad you had that 6th sense, boy what a mess. That is really smart to use a separate account like that, I do plenty of online shopping, I am going to set that up tomorrow. Great idea! Thank you for reiterrating how easy it is to get hacked.
Thank goodness you checked and that your bank was able to respond immediately. I must admit the thought of being hacked crosses my mind occasionally, but aside from normal caution, I don't do anything special. I like your idea of a separate account just for online shopping and may do something similar.
Thanks for sharing your experience.
How scary! Hope there are some repercussions for the thief. Using a separate account is a smart idea, I'm glad it wasn't worse!
I'm glad that you checked your account, and that the bank was on the ball. It's a scary world we live in, sometimes. But, I have to tell you, when I saw the title, I was scared something had happened to the chicks. I was afraid to open your blog.
I only have 1 credit card that I use for online shopping. But, your story is a good reminder for all of us. Somebody got my regular bank account debit card number and racked up $200 in FLORIDA (I live in California) and another $200 in OHIO and by the time I caught it and informed my bank, it was several days. I believe my card was compromised while I was buying gasoline, so now I just use cash. We all have to be careful.
Are they going to investigate?
Ugh, it's a horrible feeling isn't it? I've had it happen to me twice. I do a lot of online shopping for the boys' home school stuff. The first time the jerks did some kind of test on it see if it was a valid card which alerted my bank, then they tried to charge $1200 worth of video equipment and the bank stopped it. The second time it was a tiny little $19 charge but my husband caught it online and we canceled the card. The bank said that was typical operations of a thief; a small purchase to make sure it is real and then a biiger one after that. Luckily the bank contacted the business and told them it was a stolen card so they probably didn't get their merchandise!
Well done. We had our identity stolen back in the mid-80's before computers and internet were so common. It was a hassle, but we didn't lose any money.
Dan
Eeek! Glad you caught it. I know around here there were fast food joints people would come in and stick a chip on the debit thing and when people used it, their info was wired back to the scammers.
We had someone try that with our account too. They used $300 of our money to buy stuff on line. Our bank gave us our money back. All we had to do was file a police report. I'm glad it all worked out for you!
I don't shop on-line but I still had my identity stolen! How could that happen? It occured the same time someone hacked into my email account. I don't keep personal info on my email account so I am still at a loss at how they got my personal info. Fortunately I discovered the theft before any money was stolen. They had opened a bank account and debit card in my name. What a crazy world.
I know how you feel. Last month someone hacked my AMEX account and charged over 7,000 to a Gucci store in aruba. AMEX called me within 15 mins of the first transaction. Me and Gucci does not go together. Keep your eyes in your accounts.
How Awful! We have run our business online since 1996, and never been hacked. Yet still, people are worried about security, so we slowly moved everything over to Amazon. Now our customer's payment information never comes to us, Amazon handles it all. But if THEY ever get hacked, that will be a LOT of payment information lost - just like Sony, Citybank, and others that have been hacked lately. Good idea to have a special card for online and to keep a low balance in it. That's probably the best way to protect yourself!
Yikes! That is not cool. More and more though, you're right, companies get hacked. Even when we think we're safe we're not.
Last time I had my accounts compromised, someone stole my house insurance check out of the mailbox, "washed" it and rewrote it at Walmart. I caught it, but they never caught the thief. I don't even know how these criminals do it these days. Way more sophisticated than me...
Glad you caught it quick and it wasn't a main account.
Yuck! The way everything is done online with accounts both paying and spending does frighten me but I'm not sure how to get away from it. The small etsy sellers worry me but them I've received notification too that a big wig has been hacked too. Once again, Yuck!
That is scary and sucky :(
Scary is right , I had that happen a while ago with my bank. They held the transaction and called right away , but wow ! It is scary
Some banks let you create a "temporary" credit card to pay for stuff online. I haven't used this service yet but now I'm thinking I should. Glad your story didn't have a bad ending. My husband's brother "stole" his identity and defaulted on a loan we knew nothing about. It's been a nightmare to clean up that mess - and his own brother!
That is so scary! So happy that you caught it in time!
I have had outgoing mail stolen and some nice lady found my empty envelope and turned it into the post office. The thief had stolen my check and threw out the envelope and credit card statement. The post office sent it back to me and I had to call my credit card company and change credit card account numbers and close my old checking acct and reopen a new one. It is such a pain! But thankfully there are good people out there, only wish there were more!
Identity theft really scares me. It can totally ruin someone and their credit. Very unfortunate.
So very, very scary!!!!!
We get calls from time to time from our credit card company's saying that someone is trying to charge on our account, but have never had anything got through. I have never ordered online with a debit card...that does seem a bit more riskey to me cause there is money that can be taken easily!
Thanks for sharing this. I never thought of having a separate account for online shopping. Good idea. I'm glad you found out in time.
That's smart to have a special account just for online shopping. I'm so paranoid about identity theft. I'm glad that your intuition was in good working order.
Yikes!!! I only trust two places for online shopping B&H Photo and M-PIX..:-))
I switched to cash and Paypal mostly.
Post a Comment