Stolen credit card

I was looking thru my online back statement early this morning. There was a 127.00 purchase made at Walgreens. I called the Walgreens in St Paul and they said it was an online purchase for a beard trimmer. I didnt order anything from them. The walgreens lady gave me the jerks information. He used my email account and just changed it from gmail to a @stpaul.gov address. He had my phone number as well.

Im guessing my information was hacked from one of my online purchases in the last week. The shipping address is two miles from my work. The transaction date was 9/16. I feel like knocking on his door today.

I cancelled the card with the bank. 25 bucks to have in shipped overnight. The cherry on top of my day…my car has been in the shop since yesterday and I still havent gotten an estimate. I think Im going to start using cash as much as possible. Hell, might even write a check or two.

Just had to vent. Check your statements folks! Im assuming these crooks make one or two small purchases to stay off most victims’ radars and move on to a new card after selling the stuff to a pawn shop or fleabay.

Keep in mind with most fraud protection plans, your relatively safe with a credit card transactions. Most can be cancelled and your not liable. If you use a check card and your pin number is used, your most likely screwed. Using the pin # is equivalent to a signature. You always see them state to protect your PIN…and that is why. If your PIN # is hacked, your could be at a total loss.

File a police report and see if they would be able to accompany you to the delivery address. It would be awesome if the guy answered the door wearing a freshly groomed beard :-)!!! Ya, I’d call the cops…RR

Yeah. Im trying to figure out if its worth my time to go down to the precinct and write a report. They dont take em over the phone

My credit card company is very vigilant about fraud. In fact, Just about a week ago I get a call from them. They say there has been a purchase which did not fit my pattern and asked me if I had indeed made such a purchase. I told them, No I had not. They cancelled the card on the spot and set me up with a new account and a new card is on it’s way.

They called with-in the hour of the “suspected fraudulent purchase” and the purchase was for less than $50.00, really satisfied and amazed in how quickly they spotted this and took action.

Huntindave wrote:

They called with-in the hour of the “suspected fraudulent purchase” and the purchase was for less than $50.00, really satisfied and amazed in how quickly they spotted this and took action.

This is fine until you travel, and they lock your card because the multiple gas station purchases across multiple states is out of the short term norm. I carry two cards now, just because of the almost overly tight security placed on the cards. The one time I was in Iowa, little cash, and my card got locked…. I called the CC company, and they couldn’t unlock due to computer problems. Never left home without a second card again.

This all said, I use a credit card for 99% of everything I purchase. As has been said, very safe, and much more so than a debit card, in my opinion. Always check your statements, and call if in doubt. I’ve had a new card issued a couple times due to theft – just part of the new world, but I have never been asked to pay for something that wasn’t right. Last time was a new Terrova trolling motor shipped to a nice guy in Florida, and they had a bunch of my wife’s info from some hacked account.

It’s the world we live in. Financial fraud is RAMPANT these days and you did the only thing you can do–watch your statements like a hawk.

Yes, absolutely report evyerthing to the police. Do NOT go to the address yourself.

It’s unlikely, BTW, that the address is really where the item was delivered. A similar thing happened when my father’s credit card number was hacked or stolen, lots of good ordered to one address. Turned out address was non-existent, the perps know how to work a scam. They just go to the main package depot for UPS, Fed Ex, whatever to claim the package and say the address was keyed in wrong.

Checks aren’t any safer than anything else these days. I had checks lifted out of the mail and re-inked for thousands more two years ago. The cops actually caught the perp! I couldn’t believe it, but report it, you never know.

There is justice in the world. The perp that stole our checks finally got busted and he’ll be getting special treatment for his trouble. After he get’s done with 3-5 in the state pen, he’ll be met at the gate by the Feds. He stole the checks out of our mail, so he’ll be a guest of the Feds for 6-10 for felony theft and mail fraud. Didn’t see that one coming, did you perp?

Grouse

Chuck Melcher wrote:

This is fine until you travel, and they lock your card because the multiple gas station purchases across multiple states is out of the short term norm. I carry two cards now, just because of the almost overly tight security placed on the cards. The one time I was in Iowa, little cash, and my card got locked…. I called the CC company, and they couldn’t unlock due to computer problems. Never left home without a second card again.

If you call your credit card company before you travel and let them know, they won’t lock your card. When I travel internationally, they always want to know where I will be traveling, where I have layovers, etc. and they put it in their system so you don’t have issues.

I’d file a report since you have all that information from Walgreens. It doesn’t mean the police will bother with it unfortunately, but it is worth a shot, since you have more to go on than most cases.

I made a big purchase for the move online and it got cancelled because I failed to confirm it by calling a number. It was a little hassle, I had to reorder, but I appreciate that card companies are cracking down and monitoring things.

The problem is these crooks know large purchases are flagged, so a lot of them now make several smaller transactions. So yes, you need to constantly check your statements.

Chuck Melcher wrote:

This is fine until you travel, and they lock your card because the multiple gas station purchases across multiple states is out of the short term norm. I carry two cards now, just because of the almost overly tight security placed on the cards. The one time I was in Iowa, little cash, and my card got locked…. I called the CC company, and they couldn’t unlock due to computer problems. Never left home without a second card again.

True, but an easy fix is to get the app the companies offer.

My Amex card tripped the fraud alert as soon as I got into Canada this year. Tried to pay for gas, the card was declined.

Ding! My phone went off. Opened the Amex app, clicked accept, the transaction went right though on the next swipe. I also was able to set an “accept” range for Canada for the next few weeks right from the app.

And the app does not have card info, so even if my phone was stolen, they can’t see the card info or get any other access. The app turns off if the card is ever turned off.

Grouse

John Schultz wrote:

If you call your credit card company before you travel and let them know, they won’t lock your card. When I travel internationally,

I travel every weekend (midwest) so it wasn’t out of norm for me, that was my complaint with the lock out. Not to mention, the kid at the crowded gas station gets on the PA, and says “sir please come in, your credit card has been declined”. Felt like 2 feet tall, I wanted to punch the kid…. obviously that part is what really made it worse, that and not having a way to pay for gas to continue across the corn belt.

Never heard of the app… I use an Amazon Visa (Chase) most of the time, I’ll have to check on it.

Chuck Melcher wrote:

I travel every weekend (midwest) so it wasn’t out of norm for me, that was my complaint with the lock out.

Well, then I would be pissed at my credit card company as well.

John Schultz wrote:

Well, then I would be pissed at my credit card company as well.

You are 100% correct. Cancelled it that next week…. too many good options to work with a crap company.

A side note, my wife and I are now helping our parents with their statements. What they say about seniors being bigger targets for different types of scams and just accepting extra hidden fees sure is true.

The only thing a police report is useful for is if you need for an insurance claim; which in this case you don’t, so why bother wasting your time, gas, and effort? Even if you DO have the crook’s REAL address, they’re not gonna go knock on his door.

I got an email yesterday, my credit card is being disabled on monday and a replacement sent out…. evidently I used it the Home Depot recently and all their customers have been compromised. Even bigger than the Target scam that was all over the news earlier this year. (I didn’t hear a word about the Home Depot fiasco, until the CC company emailed me)

Couple years ago this happened to me too. Small $5 charge went through in Michigan then 2 large purchases were declined….thankfully since it wasn’t me.

The person at the bank said that with everyone having camera phones these days even if you lay your card on a table at a restaurant someone walking by could snap a pic and have your card #. Never thought about that but it makes sense. Now I always hang on to my card and give it directly to the waitress or hide the #s under the bill, that way the waitress can see the card but the #s are protected. Just thought I would share…..just another way ID thieving scumbags can make our lives miserable.

Since then my bank has called me if there are any charges outside my normal areas and I just let them know it’s me on a fishing trip. Last time was a call after buying bait at the River Rat between Grand Rapids and Deer River….guess a name like River Rat raised some red flags. LOL

What he said.

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