topic Re: Credit Card Fraud in Credit Cards

Credit Card Fraud

AndySoCal — Tue, 11 Nov 2025 06:03:44 GMT

This post is a just a reminder to stay vigilant in watching your credit card accounts. I logged into my SDFCU account this morning to verify my payment had posted on my credit card. I saw there was a charge from Amazon Prime Services for $6.99. The problem with that is I do not have Prime. I double checked everything verified I do not have Prime on my account. Checked my purchases nothing. I ran a report showing my transactions nothing. My conclusion was that someone has my credit card account, I called SDFCU and requested that they close the account and reissue me a new card. It was in that process I learned of the learned of the two additional charges. The most recent one was in pending status from yesterday. I will see how the dispute turns out.

When I use the card on line I use Apple pay or PayPal as much as possible. The card is not out my possession ie someone else has the card to complete a transaction. I do not have any ideas of or where the card was compromised. I have a feeling that these small charges went undetected there would be a large charges that would have followed.

Re: Credit Card Fraud

Tdatb64 — Tue, 11 Nov 2025 07:40:58 GMT

Happened to me a couple weeks ago:

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/Keep-an-eye-on-your-PenFed-cards/m-p/6845473

Re: Credit Card Fraud

pinkandgrey — Tue, 11 Nov 2025 13:56:24 GMT

Good reminder. I had a random unknown charge pop up on my Fidelity Visa a few weeks back.

I chatted with customer service and they immediately locked down the card, sent me a new one, and removed the charge.

Re: Credit Card Fraud

TrapLine — Tue, 11 Nov 2025 13:57:00 GMT

Amazing the hacking! In my world I had a credit card hacked that had not ever been used. Also, Debit Card getting hacked.

Vigilance is the answer (watching your accounts). Do not carry or use Debit Cards due to putting checking account at risk and the banks may or may not permanently return the funds. Also, why not earn greater rewards.

There are several banks that encourage 10, 15 or 20 swipes a month ... really wonder if people would do that for the real return they get? Safety ... for me is job #1. Having been hacked I know it sucks!

Re: Credit Card Fraud

Cowboys4Life — Tue, 11 Nov 2025 15:37:11 GMT

I have had it happen a couple of times over the years. The first I got notified by CITI that a transaction for $1.79 was being attempted at a vending machine in Manhattan NY. Was it me? Ummmm NO! While on the phone with the CSR rep reporting the fraud and getting the card shut down they tried to purchase over $400 worth of stuff at Ross in Manhattan. They did the same thing the small charge to see if the card they cloned is active and if noticed then hit with the real fraud before they can be stopped. Fortunately I caught it immediately and they got nothing from my card. I traced the "clone" of the card to using it at a gas station where I live owned by some not so honest guys from the Middle East. Within 6 months the station was busted for cloning and selling a LOT of people's credit information.

The 2nd one was worse. Notified one Saturday evening was I trying to buy a $1200 mattress online with my Discover card. Nope. The good news is even the website was suspicious of the transaction and had paused the order without verifying credit information with the "customer" who placed the order. Again on the other side of the country from me. Discover shut the card down and replaced it but it didn't stop there. Over the next month I got 3 calls from dealerships in Virginia telling me I needed to unfreeze my credit reports (done after the Discover incident) so they could do the financing on the car(s). I told all 3 they needed to call the cops because it wasn't me they were thieves. Of course cops weren't called or didn't show and they walked away. Then the big one hit: the letter from the IRS stating I wasn't getting my refund that year until I came to their offices locally with a 2 inch stack of paperwork proving my identity because they also filed tax returns in my name and social! Now have a special code the IRS sends me for when I file so they know it is ME filing. I filed police reports, FTC, and any other legal document you can think of but the cops in Hanover VA said it was my problem and the cops where I live said it was theirs. I don't think even the IRS went after them.

Now I have very complicated passwords that I change 2-3 times per year. I check all accounts diligently and my cards are in a protected wallet that prevents scanning the digital information from the chip. I don't insert to pay ANYWHERE. Not even the grocery store and use virtual card numbers when paying on line. I figure eventually these criminals will find a way around all of that too.

Re: Credit Card Fraud

AndySoCal — Tue, 11 Nov 2025 18:22:43 GMT

@Cowboys4Life Your account of what you have been through in regards to fraud is quite a story.

This the second card of mine that has been compromised. My Discover card was compromised for over $1000.00 over a decade ago maybe two ago.

The other thing that is not helping potentially is all the data breaches my name has been involved with.

@TrapLine My debit card is basically an ATM card only about 99% of the time.

@Tdatb64 The only thing you can do is secure your accounts and your personal information including social media.

Re: Credit Card Fraud

unsungivy — Tue, 11 Nov 2025 18:34:04 GMT

@AndySoCal wrote:
[...]
The other thing that is not helping potentially is all the data breaches my name has been involved with.
[...]

The data breach thing is out of control. I swear I get a new letter from some major financial institution roughly every 3-4 months. Luckily most of them seem to come with a free year of some sort of credit monitoring or ID protection... so far I've been ok. I check all my accounts on a VERY regular basis, however, since I find it soothing and part of my morning routine on my phone apps!

Re: Credit Card Fraud

bs1234 — Tue, 11 Nov 2025 18:59:41 GMT

@unsungivy wrote:
@AndySoCal wrote:
[...]
The other thing that is not helping potentially is all the data breaches my name has been involved with.
[...]
The data breach thing is out of control. I swear I get a new letter from some major financial institution roughly every 3-4 months. Luckily most of them seem to come with a free year of some sort of credit monitoring or ID protection... so far I've been ok. I check all my accounts on a VERY regular basis, however, since I find it soothing and part of my morning routine on my phone apps!

Of course we, I mean people I know, I mean people i don't know: steal your credit card info, take over your DNS and spoof your bank apps. But as long as you think everything's OK, we, I mean they, continue to enjoy your credit.

So possibly the next level up to check your accounts is to go into a branch each day (closely checking it really is THE branch and not a spoof store front), and hope that their systems aren't too badly hacked

Re: Credit Card Fraud

unsungivy — Tue, 11 Nov 2025 20:23:49 GMT

@bs1234 wrote:
@unsungivy wrote:
@AndySoCal wrote:
[...]
The other thing that is not helping potentially is all the data breaches my name has been involved with.
[...]
The data breach thing is out of control. I swear I get a new letter from some major financial institution roughly every 3-4 months. Luckily most of them seem to come with a free year of some sort of credit monitoring or ID protection... so far I've been ok. I check all my accounts on a VERY regular basis, however, since I find it soothing and part of my morning routine on my phone apps!
Of course we, I mean people I know, I mean people i don't know: steal your credit card info, take over your DNS and spoof your bank apps. But as long as you think everything's OK, we, I mean they, continue to enjoy your credit.

So possibly the next level up to check your accounts is to go into a branch each day (closely checking it really is THE branch and not a spoof store front), and hope that their systems aren't too badly hacked

Truth.

Re: Credit Card Fraud

AndySoCal — Tue, 11 Nov 2025 20:48:05 GMT

@unsungivy @bs1234 Going into a branch what is that? LOL I have for the last five years or so used internet banks like Discover or Ally. I am member of several credit unions see soggy. The credit card that was compromised was not where my checking account is. All my credit unions do 2FA after user name and password. The credit union and bank apps on my phone Face ID. All credit bureaus are frozen along with Chex Systems. The IRS has an IP PIN that must be included with tax return in order to file it. Social Security I have an account with a user name and password plus they do 2FA after the log in creditdentials. At home I have 2 firewalls one hardware and one software. I will take another look to see if I can find any holes.

Re: Credit Card Fraud

TrapLine — Tue, 11 Nov 2025 21:04:38 GMT

@AndySoCal

Food for thought? Do you achieve additional safety by the use of a Dynamic IP versus a Static IP? Change mine regularily.

One other thing, I do as you do, the Debit Card is my ATM Card. Otherwise, it is stowed.

Re: Credit Card Fraud

Tdatb64 — Tue, 11 Nov 2025 23:02:05 GMT

@AndySoCal wrote:
@Cowboys4Life Your account of what you have been through in regards to fraud is quite a story.

This the second card of mine that has been compromised. My Discover card was compromised for over $1000.00 over a decade ago maybe two ago.
The other thing that is not helping potentially is all the data breaches my name has been involved with.

@TrapLine My debit card is basically an ATM card only about 99% of the time.

@Tdatb64 The only thing you can do is secure your accounts and your personal information including social media.

My accounts should be secure - especially the one that was only ever used for a bank-to-bank transaction. I don't have any social media presence, (unless you count a handfull of fora like this one,) - never have & never will. I don't use digital wallets. The only way for anyone to have used my PenFed Gold was for them to have gotten the info from PenFed, the bank I did the BT from, the company that makes the cards for PenFed, (if they use an outside contractor,) or Chase, (the account I made my payments from). The card was never used for anything else. It's mostly unlike my replaced-annually-due-to-fraud Quicksilver (3 times - 'though one of them was after I activated the new card but before I had ever used it). That card now only gets used to create a virtual card for a bi-annual online purchase to keep it open. I don't even keep the card apps on my actual phone - they're on a phone that has no SIM and only gets used for those apps and is disconnected from the internet except when checking those apps. It never leaves my bedroom. No one has physical access to my cards but me.

I guess the gist of it is that no matter how careful you are, you're gonna get get hacked one way or another. Your info exists out in the ether and someone will find it. All you can really do is keep close track of your transactions and act immediately if one you don't recognize pops-up.

Re: Credit Card Fraud

AndySoCal — Wed, 12 Nov 2025 00:53:05 GMT

@TrapLine Sorry I did not make myself clear in my previous post. What was referring to is this

https://www.irs.gov/identity-theft-fraud-scams/get-an-identity-protection-pin

Re: Credit Card Fraud

Cowboys4Life — Wed, 12 Nov 2025 14:50:31 GMT

@AndySoCal wrote:
@TrapLine Sorry I did not make myself clear in my previous post. What was referring to is this

https://www.irs.gov/identity-theft-fraud-scams/get-an-identity-protection-pin

That is what I get ( a new one each year) ever since the criminals filed tax returns in my name 3 years ago.

Re: Credit Card Fraud

TrapLine — Thu, 13 Nov 2025 00:43:30 GMT

@Cowboys4Life wrote:
@AndySoCal wrote:
@TrapLine Sorry I did not make myself clear in my previous post. What was referring to is this

https://www.irs.gov/identity-theft-fraud-scams/get-an-identity-protection-pin
That is what I get ( a new one each year) ever since the criminals filed tax returns in my name 3 years ago.

A good post and certainly an eye opener. Did not know.

Re: Credit Card Fraud

crystal626 — Fri, 14 Nov 2025 01:40:46 GMT

@Cowboys4Life wrote:
@AndySoCal wrote:
@TrapLine Sorry I did not make myself clear in my previous post. What was referring to is this

https://www.irs.gov/identity-theft-fraud-scams/get-an-identity-protection-pin
That is what I get ( a new one each year) ever since the criminals filed tax returns in my name 3 years ago.

I decided to sign up for a PIN after seeing this post just to protect myself.

Re: Credit Card Fraud

Total_Synergy — Sun, 23 Nov 2025 03:23:04 GMT

Yes, I am going to explore this IRS IP PIN too. Thanks!

Re: Credit Card Fraud

IcyCool7227 — Sun, 23 Nov 2025 04:03:49 GMT

I just had fraud happen a few days ago too! On the 20th on my Amazon Prime Store Card by Sync, there were 4 $1 charges and a huge over $4265 something charged on Amazon. Then hours later after I had them give me a new card, there was another $1 charge and a $735 something charge! So now I have that account frozen until I need to use it and two physical cards are coming in the mail though I think thats only necessary for Whole Foods stores and the 2 Amazon retail locations in Seattle and NYC. I also reported this to Amazon and they said someone on another account was using my card as the purchases did not come from my Amazon account. Very scary!

Re: Credit Card Fraud

AndySoCal — Sun, 23 Nov 2025 04:53:45 GMT

@IcyCool7227 If you log in to your synchronny Amazon account can you see the full 16 digit account number ? If so change your user name and password on your account ASAP. Also set up two factor authentication on your account if possible on all your accounts.

Fraud is at a very high level. If you have not already done so lock your credit reports and Chex. Set up an account with social security doing so will help prevent other bad things as well. Scan your computer for viruses etc.