Credit One Fraud Charges

[MRsolis]

Hey guys,

I watch all of my accounts like a hawk. All of them. Every day I log into each account and check the balance/transactions even if I haven't used the account in months. I do this to make sure everything is up to par.

Anywho, I have not used my Credit One card in over a month and today I logged in to see 3 pending transactions from "PEEBLES #5265 CLARION, PA". I Googled it and it looks like it is a department store in the Central and East coast of the US but I live in California. The transactions were small maybe about $6 total but this worried me and here is why. I know of two people who have had a card with Credit One where within the first month or so they had fraudulent charges appear and I did a search and found that some others have had this happen.

This is the first time in my life that I have had to closeout an account for fraud. I already called Credit One Bank and they are going to cancel my card and mail me a new one and investigate the transactions. I am wondering how this affects credit? Do they close out the old one on my credit report and start reporting anew account? And will the comments state that the account was closed due to fraud?

As of now I am stopping all credit activity which includes applying for credit and asking for CLI and I think I will be placing a freeze on my reports for some time.

Thank you for the help guys

[NichelleN]

Hi.

  Unfortunately in this day and age, I've had a number of incidents of fraud. As a matter of fact I called BofA today to get a replacement card since my current one is pretty worn. The first thing I was greeted with was a recorded message stating that I was being mailed a new card due to a data breach at a retailer. A few months ago while on vacation in Hawaii I noticed two small authorizations on my US Bank card. They were from a hotel on the east coast. I called US Bank who let me know that the card had already been flagged and shut down that day due to the authorizations. They stated that there are usually a couple of small authorizations before larger ones. They'd shut the card off before someone tried to send through major purchases of a bunch of airline tickets in another country. I have many other examples.

  In any case, none of my accounts have reported any differently. The card numbers change but the accounts report as usual. Good on you for keeping up with your cards.

[2b2rich]

It's really getting harder and harder to protect your credit cards and identity these days.  People think that I'm paranoid too much because I would rather walk up to the gas station attendant and pay cash than take a chance with all of the skimmers popping up on gas pumps everywhere.  I will probably always remember this article where the hotel clerk was stealing guests' credit card info and racking up huge charges playing games on facebook.

The later reminds me that it doesn't take a criminal group who makes their living off crime, to steal from me.  I imagine the hotel clerk was just addicted to online games and it drove her to criminal activity.  Both though, are just that, criminal acts!

http://fox8.com/2012/06/29/worker-admits-stealing-card-racking-up-4k-on-facebook-games/

[NichelleN]

 The hotel case sounds very similar to a McDonald' one that I recall. The employee had a skimmer at the drive thru window. He was skimming dozens of cards a day which was caught on video. A customer had a new debit card that he'd only used at McD's. It was pretty eash to narrow down the culprit. Then, there are the data breaches, particularly with online shopping that present more opportunities for theft.

 Like the OP, I regularly watch my credit cards and pay particular attention to any new authorizations. And I try to avoid using my debit card at all.

[Anonymous]

Sorry to hear about the fraud.. This  -This is the first time in my life that I have had to closeout an account for fraud. I already called Credit One Bank and they are going to cancel my card and mail me a new one and investigate the transactions. I am wondering how this affects credit? Do they close out the old one on my credit report and start reporting anew account? And will the comments state that the account was closed due to fraud?

This does not affect your credit.  What will happen is they will close your card and send you a new card with new numbers.  They just update your credit profile and it won't be shoiwing as a new account..

[MRsolis]

---

@NichelleN wrote:

Hi.

  Unfortunately in this day and age, I've had a number of incidences of fraud. As a matter of fact I called BofA today to get a replacement card since my current one is pretty worn. The first thing I was greeted with was a recorded message stating that I was being mailed a new card due to a data breach at a retailer. A few months ago while on vacation in Hawaii I noticed two small authorizations on my US Bank card. They were from a hotel on the east coast. I called US Bank who let me know that the card had already been flagged and shut down that day due to the authorizations. They stated that there are usually a couple of small authorizations before larger ones. They'd shut the card off before someone tried to send through major purchases of a bunch of airline tickets in another country. I have many other examples.

  In any case, none of my accounts have reported any differently. The card numbers change but the accounts report as usual. Good on you for keeping up with your cards.

---

I got curious so I called the exact store number that appears in the transaction and spoke with a manager and asked them if it maybe was possible that they made the transactions online and they said that the only way the actual store number would appear is if they were in that store maiing the purchases. The store manager seemed very helpful and willing to help more but I didn't want to interfere with my CC investigation.

Thank you all for the information. I am mainly glad that this wont cause an account to be closedout and opened on my credit.

You know they should really make an account monitoring system like they have for credit. I know they have sites like mint where you can add all of your accounts and watch them but I mean they should have a way to send fraud alerts when they see transactions from other states, countries, or online appear. Any suspicios activity from all of your accounts is either emailed or texted to you. If they do have this service already then I'd like to know the name

[MRsolis]

---

@2b2rich wrote:

It's really getting harder and harder to protect your credit cards and identity these days.  People think that I'm paranoid too much because I would rather walk up to the gas station attendant and pay cash than take a chance with all of the skimmers popping up on gas pumps everywhere.  I will probably always remember this article where the hotel clerk was stealing guests' credit card info and racking up huge charges playing games on facebook.

The later reminds me that it doesn't take a criminal group who makes their living off crime, to steal from me.  I imagine the hotel clerk was just addicted to online games and it drove her to criminal activity.  Both though, are just that, criminal acts!

http://fox8.com/2012/06/29/worker-admits-stealing-card-racking-up-4k-on-facebook-games/

---

---

@NichelleN wrote:

 The hotel case sounds very similar to a McDonald' one that I recall. The employee had a skimmer at the drive thru window. He was skimming dozens of cards a day which was caught on video. A customer had a new debit card that he'd only used at McD's. It was pretty eash to narrow down the culprit. Then, there are the data breaches, particularly with online shopping that present more opportunities for theft.

 Like the OP, I regularly watch my credit cards and pay particular attention to any new authorizations. And I try to avoid using my debit card at all.

---

 Stuff like this is EXACTLY why I watch my accounts like a hawk. I use YNAB or You Need  A Budget to track every transaction I make because I have to manually enter the transaction info so I know whether I made the purchase or not. Because if you catch the problem early enough you look less guilty. I have heard of cases where people catch the charges later on and they become a suspect by default.

What scares me even more is the increase in fraudulent tax returns being filed. I usually file my taxes within one week of receiving my W2 and other tax information. Now days alot of this is available online which is good if you want to file quicker but bad if it gets hacked. I don't know what I would do if I found out someone filed taxes for me.....I'd be furious mainly because I would then have to deal with FTB and IRS and possibly go through an audit.

[Anonymous]

Regarding showing as a new account: I think this depends on the creditor. Years ago when my HSBC credit card was compromised, HSBC reported the account closed and a new tradeline open on my credit reports. They also added the comment, "Card lost/stolen" to the closed account.

[NichelleN]

---

@MRsolis wrote:

---

@2b2rich wrote:

It's really getting harder and harder to protect your credit cards and identity these days.  People think that I'm paranoid too much because I would rather walk up to the gas station attendant and pay cash than take a chance with all of the skimmers popping up on gas pumps everywhere.  I will probably always remember this article where the hotel clerk was stealing guests' credit card info and racking up huge charges playing games on facebook.

The later reminds me that it doesn't take a criminal group who makes their living off crime, to steal from me.  I imagine the hotel clerk was just addicted to online games and it drove her to criminal activity.  Both though, are just that, criminal acts!

http://fox8.com/2012/06/29/worker-admits-stealing-card-racking-up-4k-on-facebook-games/

---

---

@NichelleN wrote:

 The hotel case sounds very similar to a McDonald' one that I recall. The employee had a skimmer at the drive thru window. He was skimming dozens of cards a day which was caught on video. A customer had a new debit card that he'd only used at McD's. It was pretty eash to narrow down the culprit. Then, there are the data breaches, particularly with online shopping that present more opportunities for theft.

 Like the OP, I regularly watch my credit cards and pay particular attention to any new authorizations. And I try to avoid using my debit card at all.

---

 Stuff like this is EXACTLY why I watch my accounts like a hawk. I use YNAB or You Need  A Budget to track every transaction I make because I have to manually enter the transaction info so I know whether I made the purchase or not. Because if you catch the problem early enough you look less guilty. I have heard of cases where people catch the charges later on and they become a suspect by default.

What scares me even more is the increase in fraudulent tax returns being filed. I usually file my taxes within one week of receiving my W2 and other tax information. Now days alot of this is available online which is good if you want to file quicker but bad if it gets hacked. I don't know what I would do if I found out someone filed taxes for me.....I'd be furious mainly because I would then have to deal with FTB and IRS and possibly go through an audit.

---

Completely agree. I check my authorizations daily. I know what I've authorized and can easily tell when something is odd. Quite some time ago I had mutliple authorizations from a store I've never visited, in person or online. I called in and they gave me the order information. Apparently, someone had ordered jeans and camping gear. It was shipping to an address in Texas. But I live in Minnesota. Customer service canceled the orders and the fraud investigation began. Then, there was the time someone attempted to purchase a refrigerator online using my account. It's just ridiculous.

I use my bank's bill pay system and just started looking into YNAB. I downloaded it last week but need to spend more time with it. I've been using Mint for the daily view of all of my accounts and transactions. Since I can see pending transactions there, it really does work well.

[MRsolis]

So it looks like all they did was issue a new card with a new card number. No changes on the CR so far but guess what? They also raised my credit limit !! out of nowhere. I started with a $400 and when I got the new card it now has a $600 credit limit. there are a lot of bad reviews about how Credit One handles things but this has been handled very well.