Victim of CC fraud tonight

[llecs]

Someone stole my BofA CC number and attempted to charge a combined $330 between two transactions at two different CVS stores on Staten Island. BofA sent me an e-mail asking for my card number this evening. Thinking it was a phishing e-mail, I logged in via a new browser and saw the same message. They asked me to verify who I was and asked me about stuff on my CR via multiple choice. It then asked me if I made those purchases this evening (I'm in VA) and selected that I didn't make those charges. They then revealed that the charges were declined. It offered CVS store numbers and that's how I found out their location. I then called BofA and verified that the card is closed and made sure that these were the only two transactions. Kudos to BofA this time for catching this right away. I just paid down a big chunk of CC debt and they could have spent quite a bit there in NYC.

How did this happen? I dunno. I kept the card locked away in my office at home, hidden. In fact, I physically had not used it in a few months, but did use it recently for some advertising via FB and also paid the last of DW's medical bills from June. For those bills, I did write my CC info on them and mailed it. In hindsight, maybe I shouldn't have done that. That very likely could have been the source if someone found those records in the trash if the doctor's office(s) didn't shred them. Other than that, I did use the card in NYC, but that was in December.

Posting this as an FYI. Despite my own misgivings of BofA, they did good here. Unfortunately, they'll send out a new card and this card is younger than my AAoA, but only by a little.

[haulingthescoreup]

Glad they (and you) caught this.

Someone stole my AmEx Gold info several years ago, and I had to go through the same rigamarole. It was comforting to have it handled professionally.

What a PITA to have a replacement card affect your AAoA. I understand why it happens, but still...

[Watchmann]

It happens.  I've had my Visa card from my CU compromised twice in the last couple of years.  This is the card I use extensively to buy stuff over the net; eBay, Amazon, you name it.  Both times Visa shut the card down and verified  which charges were mine.  Eventually you'll get a new card with a new number and you can start over.  It's a hassle, for sure.  The stealing was probably done outside out of the BoA network so you can't blame them.  This is the price we pay for being able to use cards in all sorts of different ways.  They should send you a new card but with the same AAoA of your old account for they are only changing the account number, not opening a brand new TL for you.  That's what Visa did in my case.

[Anonymous]

AmEx did the same thing, but issued me a new card number and overnighted it to me for free.  I used the card that day to buy credits on a website (which I did receive), two hours later someone booked two airline tickets and a hotel stay in Europe on it!  Lesson Learned. I called the airline to try and advise them that whatever tickets purchased were fraudulent, only to be told that it was not their problem and hung up on me. Very rude, seems like they were in on it

[haulingthescoreup]

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@Watchmann wrote:

... They should send you a new card but with the same AAoA of your old account for they are only changing the account number, not opening a brand new TL for you.  That's what Visa did in my case.

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This is correct, but what happens is that both the compromised card and the replacement card report for two years. If the age of the card is shorter than your AAoA, it will lower your AAoA. Conversely, if the card is older, the duplicate card will actually increase your AAoA for the two years that both report.

Alas, no one's old cards ever seem to get stolen!

[Anonymous]

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@haulingthescoreup wrote:

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@Watchmann wrote:

... They should send you a new card but with the same AAoA of your old account for they are only changing the account number, not opening a brand new TL for you.  That's what Visa did in my case.

---

This is correct, but what happens is that both the compromised card and the replacement card report for two years. If the age of the card is shorter than your AAoA, it will lower your AAoA. Conversely, if the card is older, the duplicate card will actually increase your AAoA for the two years that both report.

Alas, no one's old cards ever seem to get stolen!

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I have the feeling that depends on the bank. My oldest card is from WF, and I had that cc number fraudulently used three times in two years (the third time, they were much less friendly than the first two times ). Each time, they gave me a new card with a new number, but AAoA stayed the same, as the new card just replaced the old one with all other data except account number the same. Technically, there was an overlap of a few days, but it was very short.

[haulingthescoreup]

So you didn't have two tradelines reporting, just one?

That's the way they ought to do it, or at least, there should be some sort of code directing the scoring algorithm to ignore the compromised card. I can see why it would be useful to have the original one reporting, as well, to show that there's a problem card out there. But scores shouldn't be affected just because some desk clerk somewhere decided to go shopping with your CC info.

[Anonymous]

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@haulingthescoreup wrote:

So you didn't have two tradelines reporting, just one?

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Indeed. I guess I would have had 4 tradelines from one card reporting then at some point, given a two year stay . Fortunately (or unfortunately given it was my oldest tradeline?), that was not the case. You could see two tradelines for only a very limited time on each occasion.

[Uborrow-Upay]

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@llecs wrote:

Someone stole my BofA CC number and attempted to charge a combined $330 between two transactions at two different CVS stores on Staten Island. BofA sent me an e-mail asking for my card number this evening. Thinking it was a phishing e-mail, I logged in via a new browser and saw the same message. They asked me to verify who I was and asked me about stuff on my CR via multiple choice. It then asked me if I made those purchases this evening (I'm in VA) and selected that I didn't make those charges. They then revealed that the charges were declined. It offered CVS store numbers and that's how I found out their location. I then called BofA and verified that the card is closed and made sure that these were the only two transactions. Kudos to BofA this time for catching this right away. I just paid down a big chunk of CC debt and they could have spent quite a bit there in NYC.

How did this happen? I dunno. I kept the card locked away in my office at home, hidden. In fact, I physically had not used it in a few months, but did use it recently for some advertising via FB and also paid the last of DW's medical bills from June. For those bills, I did write my CC info on them and mailed it. In hindsight, maybe I shouldn't have done that. That very likely could have been the source if someone found those records in the trash if the doctor's office(s) didn't shred them. Other than that, I did use the card in NYC, but that was in December.

Posting this as an FYI. Despite my own misgivings of BofA, they did good here. Unfortunately, they'll send out a new card and this card is younger than my AAoA, but only by a little.

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If I had to bet, I would put money on the medical payments via credit card as the source.  

In the last several months, I've seen first hand how personal and financial info passing through some medical offices is handled, and if I was a criminal type looking for an easy score, I'd be hanging around in waiting rooms whenever I needed a few extra bucks or a new big screen TV.  

You'd be amazed at how much info can be gleaned from the stuff the office staff just leaves laying around in plain view, including mailed-in payment info. Some facilities batch process these mailed-in payments only at specific times of the month, so the slips just sit there until it's time for them to be processed.  Any employee who can physically get behind that front desk without causing concern, even the guy who sweeps out the place, has a goldmine of info at his fingertips.  He doesn't even have to write anything down, because you already did.  All he needs is that slip, whether it's been processed or not. 

I'm paranoid about this stuff anyways.  To save my sanity, I frequently use virtual account numbers for certain payments, but especially for medical.  Citi offers these virtual numbers, as does Discover.  If anyone else tries using those numbers, they just won't work, and the source of the fraud can be targeted immediately.  And since I'm not using my real credit card number in the first place, in the case of fraud, the card doesn't need to be cancelled or replaced. 

With that said, your NYC trip could have been the source of this too, llecs.  Lots of skimmers in the city reading the magstripes on legit cards, then duping that info onto new plastic for easy swiping later on.  The victim is long gone from the bright lights of the city, and even if he remembers where he used his card, that won't help.

I'm still betting on the med payments, though. 

[musikklvr]

The same thing happened to me a couple of months ago with my BofA card. I'm in Florida and the charges were in New Orleans. BofA texted me and called me asking if I made those charges. Almost $400 worth at an Express clothing store. I had just gotten that card because it expired and this was the new one and I hardly EVER use it. I looked up the Express store and called and they told me some man tried to use it and it prompted to ask for ID. That's when the man said never mind and left.

It looks like someone is getting BofA information somehow. I'm glad they alerted me.