topic Fraud on a new card for the first time. in Credit Cards

Fraud on a new card for the first time.

crystal626 — Mon, 14 Sep 2026 21:44:28 GMT

Guess there's a first time for everything. New BoA card came in the mail and I went to activate it. Nice big banner saying that it's been restricted due to unusual activity until I call them.

Hopefully they actually declined these charges seeing how they have a card tracker that didn't even tell me to expect my card until today and I just have to order a new card but yay for another week of not being able to use my card. I have another 30-45 minutes before they will call me back as they had a 54m-1hr20m wait when I called. Fun.

Re: Fraud on a new card for the first time.

SusanJA — Mon, 14 Sep 2026 22:34:39 GMT

You shouldn't have to pay for anything. Good luck!

Re: Fraud on a new card for the first time.

crystal626 — Mon, 14 Sep 2026 22:52:12 GMT

So not fraud. Identity verification that requires me to go a branch.

How much sense does this make?

- I have a current card

- I had to call and speak to someone to get the approval in the first place because my credit hadn't thawed when I applied, which proves that I had access to thaw my credit

- I have logged in to the website since approval and saw the card

- I have logged in on the app since approval and also saw the card, both of these situations would have pushed anyone who didn't apply for the card to call and question it

- Both the app and website have been logged in using the same IP address as my previous logins

- I called them from my phone number, the one I signed up with

- Their automated system called me back on that same number

- I read the code back to them that they sent to that same number

But no, they can't just verify over the phone, they have to inconvenience me even more beyond the more than an hour it took where I had to sit around and wait for their automated system to call me.

Re: Fraud on a new card for the first time.

ElvisCaprice — Tue, 15 Sep 2026 03:33:58 GMT

Yes, BofA/Merrill have gotten tough on security. Had some new steps to go thru for a redo on Merrill/BofA new accounts. Hit em up for juicy SUBs,again. Had 4 CC's already. Thankfully I didn't have to go into a branch. 😧

Re: Fraud on a new card for the first time.

crystal626 — Tue, 15 Sep 2026 04:23:21 GMT

@ElvisCaprice wrote:
Yes, BofA/Merrill have gotten tough on security. Had some new steps to go thru for a redo on Merrill/BofA new accounts. Hit em up for juicy SUBs,again. Had 4 CC's already. Thankfully I didn't have to go into a branch. 😧

First time I've ever had a bank require me to do it and I'm not very happy about it. If the P2 takes the car to work tomorrow, it's going to cost me $15 just to get to the branch and back plus around an hour of time inbetween getting to and from.

Re: Fraud on a new card for the first time.

TrapLine — Tue, 15 Sep 2026 11:13:14 GMT

@crystal626

For what it is worth, I had to go into a major bank for every product of checking, savings, CDs, lines of credit and credit cards. No phone, mobile cell or online. Not once.

They said they could not verify me. Finally, I took a birth certiicate, social security card, residential dwelling deed, electric bill, city utility bill, pass port and drivers license in.

They did accept all of it and I was then allowed to use normal processes after that. Note, a customer since 2010 so they had me active on various products over the years. Help me to understand this?

Re: Fraud on a new card for the first time.

Anonymous — Tue, 15 Sep 2026 11:47:53 GMT

The security measures that certain lenders are taking are definately scaling up. I'm not saying good or bad, but it is highly annoying. It's as if security has magically become a new hot craze within the banking world.

I do business with a number of banks and credit unions. All of them are easy to deal with, with exception to one. One in particular when I try to link to my other financial accounts elsewhere, they limit me until I can verify in person. In one event, the rep called into their verification hub to try and unfreeze the account. The other person on the end said something to the effect "Are they there right now? Do they have statements and verification?" All which was responded back with a yes. It's as if it was a surprise to these people, and they act as if they're new to this entire world of online security.

I definately understand the wasting my time part. If I didn't have a need for this specific financial institution, I would drop them.

Re: Fraud on a new card for the first time.

FicoMike0 — Tue, 15 Sep 2026 14:44:23 GMT

That is a frustrating issue. I had a similar problem opening a checking with truist. The nearest branch is about a hundred miles away. I was only doing it for the sub. I passed, not worth the trouble.

If you do decide to go through with it, call the branch you intend to visit and ask exactly what I D they will accept. When I called truist, they wanted my social security card. They said they couldn't accept my dl, passport or anything else.

Re: Fraud on a new card for the first time.

crystal626 — Tue, 15 Sep 2026 19:38:08 GMT

Well I got my butt in there and got it done. I didn't have access to the car today so it did indeed cost me $15.

Thankfully the place was dead and the guy who helped me was very apologetic and worked to get me out of the door ASAP.

He did say that I'll probably run into this with any card I open as he's seeing it more and more now so if I don't want to deal with it, not to get another BoA card.

At least it wasn't fraud I guess.

Re: Fraud on a new card for the first time.

crystal626 — Tue, 15 Sep 2026 20:32:19 GMT

@FicoMike0 wrote:
That is a frustrating issue. I had a similar problem opening a checking with truist. The nearest branch is about a hundred miles away. I was only doing it for the sub. I passed, not worth the trouble.
If you do decide to go through with it, call the branch you intend to visit and ask exactly what I D they will accept. When I called truist, they wanted my social security card. They said they couldn't accept my dl, passport or anything else.

Thankfully the rep yesterday did give me a list of acceptable things so I went in with my drivers license, a credit card with my name on it from another bank, a utility bill that I printed since we do e-statements, and a piece of regular mail with my name and address in case they wouldn't take the e-statement from the utility bill. I don't take my Social Security card out of the safe unless I have no other choice because I think I'm on my last or second to last lifetime replacement.

I thought I might have problems with the drivers license since I didn't want to renew it when we moved so I just updated it with the DMV and added a sticker with the new one the back as the DMV advised but he took it no problem.

Re: Fraud on a new card for the first time.

TrapLine — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 08:07:24 GMT

@crystal626 wrote:
@FicoMike0 wrote:
That is a frustrating issue. I had a similar problem opening a checking with truist. The nearest branch is about a hundred miles away. I was only doing it for the sub. I passed, not worth the trouble.
If you do decide to go through with it, call the branch you intend to visit and ask exactly what I D they will accept. When I called truist, they wanted my social security card. They said they couldn't accept my dl, passport or anything else.

Thankfully the rep yesterday did give me a list of acceptable things so I went in with my drivers license, a credit card with my name on it from another bank, a utility bill that I printed since we do e-statements, and a piece of regular mail with my name and address in case they wouldn't take the e-statement from the utility bill. I don't take my Social Security card out of the safe unless I have no other choice because I think I'm on my last or second to last lifetime replacement.

I thought I might have problems with the drivers license since I didn't want to renew it when we moved so I just updated it with the DMV and added a sticker with the new one the back as the DMV advised but he took it no problem.

Glad you got it done. It only took me eleven years with the one bank. Problem, no one ever explained my situation until one day I wanted a CD and called in to a branch where a bank representative looked me up and said you are not verified. I said what does that mean? Explained to me and I brought everything they could possibly want in person into the branch and finally was cleared. Today no sweat as I can telephone, online, mobile app, mail or text and yikes, the modern world!

The part I read on the MyFico and it applied to me, over the years as I added products that made no difference in getting verified. Beyond me.

Re: Fraud on a new card for the first time.

ElvisCaprice — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 00:57:29 GMT

I got a message from US Bank the other day with a congratulations about applying for a new chk & savings account and to contact them if it wasn't me. It wasn't.

Contacted them by phone and fraud rep said the accounts were denied. Said they pulled checksys and that someone had my info. They didn't say why they denied these aps. Which wouldn't be hard to do considering I have an account with them with 3 CCs. Surely there was a difference in contact info.

What do you do? I already had all 3 bureaus locked down. Went and locked checksys after this occurrence. I'm sure US Bank will make my next checking account churn difficult after this. They were already over the top on security before this fraud attempt

Re: Fraud on a new card for the first time.

crystal626 — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 01:41:27 GMT

@ElvisCaprice wrote:
I got a message from US Bank the other day with a congratulations about applying for a new chk & savings account and to contact them if it wasn't me. It wasn't.
Contacted them by phone and fraud rep said the accounts were denied. Said they pulled checksys and that someone had my info. They didn't say why they denied these aps. Which wouldn't be hard to do considering I have an account with them with 3 CCs. Surely there was a difference in contact info.
What do you do? I already had all 3 bureaus locked down. Went and locked checksys after this occurrence. I'm sure US Bank will make my next checking account churn difficult after this. They were already over the top on security before this fraud attempt

When the Equifax breach happened I froze all three credit bureaus as well as Chexsystems. I wasn't taking any chances.