Fradulent Credit Card Use?

[Voldine]

thank you for throwing that one out... though I am irritated someone beat me to it.
Cash- once it's stolen, it's gone tough luck
Debit- if they also steal your pin number... you're fd ... you lose everything in your account assuming the theif is smart enough to use it quickly.
Credit- you pay the first $50... the bank deals with the rest.

Personally... I'll take the pay $50 and be done with it option.

Tip for debit cards: Get a 6 or 8-digit PIN (Do not use birth date for either) instead of a 4-digit if your bank allows it. Make it a seemingly random sequence that is easy for you to remember so that you don't have to write it down.

Most people assume that a PIN can only be 4 digits long. Even if they do not assume this; the permutations of a 6-digit pin are vastly more complex than those of a 4-digit, and any 4-digit number they try will be rejected.

I just wish there was a simple way to make my card restricted to ONLY PIN-based transactions, that way I would never have to worry.

[Yfandes]

I dont know if its true anymore, but for a while my debit card would only work in overseas ATM's if it had a 4 digit pin - so I kept it at 4 digits.

My worry isnt someone guessing it, but using something like this. So if its a card reader at an unfamiliar POS, I use the credit option or cash.

That said - every time my card info has been stolen - it has been a case of "internal fraud" at my bank....

[katie kaboom]

Once, I get work and a regualar paycheck, I will then have my check direct deposited onto the card.

That's the way i do it. It makes life so much easier.

[taxguykarl]

Anyone else seeing a rise in fraud and cheating by customers?

Not credit card-related, but I we are seeing more scammers. Every day there is a broadcast e-mail about at least one.
Economy related: I have definately seen more unemployment 1099's.

[tamezin]

Yeah, I've seen a bit.
We have this woman up here who's a fricken mastermind at check fraud. If she didn't piss me off so much, I'd have to applaud her for coming up with it.
What she does is she has several ID's from various states first of all. Then she opens accounts, gets the checks, and then closes said accounts. Since she never uses the same account for long, TeleCheck doesn't have a chance to pick up on them and decline it.
This past Thanksgiving, she came through my store, bought a bit over $300 in groceries. She left and then came back a few hours later and bought over $200 in gift cards.

Why haven't they caught her?

[TimmyHate]

thank you for throwing that one out... though I am irritated someone beat me to it.
Cash- once it's stolen, it's gone tough luck
Debit- if they also steal your pin number... you're fd ... you lose everything in your account assuming the theif is smart enough to use it quickly.
Credit- you pay the first $50... the bank deals with the rest.

Personally... I'll take the pay $50 and be done with it option.

Related to Debt - I'm not sure of the specifics in other countries of how your banks work, but in my New Zealand bank i keep the majority of my funds in an account i can only access via Phone or Internet banking - and just transfer across amounts as i need.

Also just to restate: the $50 only applies to Signed or CNP (Card Not Present) transactions - if the thief has your pin on your credit card you are liable as anyone else having your PIN is a breach of your T&C's - technically even your parents/partner/kids knowing your pin is a breach (This applies to Debt as well)

[wagegoth]

My debit card was lost. I reported it as soon as I knew, unfortunately, not for about 36 hours. The person who found it used it as a credit card. They were able to buy groceries and some other items, but Land's End rejected an attempt they made to order from them, I think because I was already a Land's End customer and they required certain information to make changes in an account. In all, they spent about $275 dollars.

The good news was the bank replaced all the money. They charged it back to the merchants because I had signed my card and the merchants apparently did not verify the signature. They pulled the signed receipts and the signatures were obviously different.

[calulu]

Someone hacked my son's Paypal account and started making a lot of online gaming purchases. The Paypal account was linked to his debit card. Paypal was beyond useless but our bank shut it down quickly and put the money back into his account. I also emailed the merchants explaining the situation so that they canceled the purchases immediately. We still haven't heard from Paypal.

I think because we discovered it quickly, within a few hours, it worked out being merely irritating. We found out because one of us checked out family checking accounts daily online.

[TimmyHate]

My debit card was lost. I reported it as soon as I knew, unfortunately, not for about 36 hours. The person who found it used it as a credit card. They were able to buy groceries and some other items, but Land's End rejected an attempt they made to order from them, I think because I was already a Land's End customer and they required certain information to make changes in an account. In all, they spent about $275 dollars.

The good news was the bank replaced all the money. They charged it back to the merchants because I had signed my card and the merchants apparently did not verify the signature. They pulled the signed receipts and the signatures were obviously different.

This here is why i'm VERY glad i live where i do. Where I am there are 3 kinds of cards

Credit
Debt
EFTPOS (Electronic Funds Transfer at Point of Sale)

EFTPOS is by FAR the most used card type - it is pin only, no sig and cannot be used over the phone or internet, must be swiped at a terminal. Debt by contrast is a prepaid visa card - almost all of them are chip. Almost everyone has an EFTPOS card, as well as a debt or credit card.

I think the American equivalent is EBT. However from my knowledge, its nowhere near as used as EFTPOS is in NZ and Australia.

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

As a Canadian transplanted to the U.S., there's something I do miss about the whole separate debit/credit card system Canada uses. It's taken me time to get used to the concept of a VISA branded debit card that can be used as a credit card but not in the sense that it offers a credit limit or anything like that.

I've seen a lot of instances where people are using other peoples cards to make purchase (Wife using husbands, daughter using mothers, friend using friends, etc) and I get repeatedly bitched at when I inform them I can't accept someone else's card. I don't care how well you claim to know the person. I won't call them for you to verify they said it was okay to use their card, that doesn't magically change our policy on this.

Sadly, most stores don't really put up a fight on it which is probably why I get so much lip, because I'm one of the few willing to call them on their fraud.

I even had one lady say to me "It's not fraud since I know the person who owns this card!"