PenFed fraud detection keeps happening

[user979797]

A few months back I had a text and email come in asking if i made a purchase for 0.00 in a state far from me...I had never even heard of the company and i replied no. The card then was blocked and i had to talk to the fraud department. After speaking with them i was advised my account was compromised and i would need a new card. Got the new card and used it to pay my car insurance online no problem. Then a month later the same thing happened again and i went through the call again and had to once again get a new card which i got no problem. This time i decided to wait and not even use the card. Well sure enough last night the same thing happened. A charge for 0.00 was attempted at amazon and the text came through asking if it was me i said no and now i have to talk to the fraud department again and im sure they will be sending me a new card again.

I didn't use it anywhere this time so im confused how this keeps happening; but wanted to see if anyone else is having issues with Penfed cards being compromised? 

[Patient957]

Penfed's systems are all screwed up.  It wouldn't surprise me if there was no fraud at all and this is just their system acting up again.  

I have an SSL with Penfed and their system won't let me make auto payments from any of my Penfed accounts.   It just skips the payment and mails me a letter claiming unavailability of funds, which is nonsense.  After many calls to their customer service, I now realize they're not going to be able to solve it and I just use an external account, which works fine.

This isn't the only system glitch I've experienced with them.  As a result, I will keep my SSL, and probably will get another one in the future, but I will never open any other product with Penfed.  There's too many gremlins in their machine, and therefore they cannot be trusted.

I wish you luck in trying to solve this and hope your troubleshooting experience goes better than mine has.

[AndySoCal]

@user979797  Here is an article the describes valid reasons for those amounts showing up

https://tme.net/blog/visa-provisioning-service/ 

If these reasons do not apply to you. Have you entered the new card number using computer or phone into a spreadsheet bill pay or some other place. If so run your antivirus you may have a keystroke logger.  There is a reason for this happening.

[GreatLife]

Someone or something is getting the card info somehow from somewhere, and I would be determined to try finding the root cause by a process of elimination. Change login credentials for your account to make sure it's secure. Then ask Penfed to send a replacement card via an alternate courier with recipient signature required to make sure USPS isn't the problem source - this could help determine if there've been issues with the initial card mailings, during transport, or compromised by retrieval of the content during the delivery process or from your mailbox.

[Pppoolboy]

Look up "credit card tokenization." 

For some reason a persistent card token is out there which will allow charges to go through even if the card information changes.  They usually happen with recurring charges.  You will either need to speak with someone at PenFed who knows what a token is and how to remove one.  Or you will need to close that account.

I cancelled my accounts with PenFed because they have a horrible back end system. 

[BallBounces]

I can not help answer your question beyond saying it sounds like you have a persistent charge associated with the account somewhere, and I doubt it is true fraud.  But what do I know?

Actually, what I do know is that both the FRONT and BACK END systems at PenFed are terrible. The interface is somewhere between glitchy and downright incorrect, and the back end syste,s (ACH transfer timelines for example) are onerous.

If it were not for a favorable loan, I would not do business with PenFed.

YMMV

[jefree1]

I had the exact same thing happen to me with a PenFed debit card that hasn't been used in months if not years and is NEVER used for purchases (only at the ATM). A debit card transaction for $56.57 appeared on my checking account. The merchant shown is Prime Video Channels Amzn.com/bill Wa. I called the fraud department and they cancelled the debit card and sent me a new one (and eventually got around to refunding the fraudulent charge two to three weeks later).

I used the new card at an ATM machine and then was notified today that an authorization attempt for $0.00 was being attempted, again at Amazon.  So, either the ATM machine that I used has a card skimmer or PenFed's internal systems are compromised. 

@Pppoolboy Interesting idea on the token - you would think that when a new card is issued due to fraud, they would destroy all the tokens.

I told them not to send me a new card. The fact that the same issue with their debit card occured twice within 1 month make me suspect that this really is not fraud but a case of crossed wires within their systems.

[catherinebennett]

This sounds amazing as I found it very much useful and informative to be honest. Also, I have gone through this post which definitely helped me out a lot as a new member I am looking forward for more such discussions.

[NoMoreE46]

My account wasn't ever compromised but my legit charges were getting denied - I closed my Rewards card recently.

Closed my PenFed - myFICO® Forums - 6810732

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@user979797 wrote:

A few months back I had a text and email come in asking if i made a purchase for 0.00 in a state far from me...I had never even heard of the company and i replied no. The card then was blocked and i had to talk to the fraud department. After speaking with them i was advised my account was compromised and i would need a new card. Got the new card and used it to pay my car insurance online no problem. Then a month later the same thing happened again and i went through the call again and had to once again get a new card which i got no problem. This time i decided to wait and not even use the card. Well sure enough last night the same thing happened. A charge for 0.00 was attempted at amazon and the text came through asking if it was me i said no and now i have to talk to the fraud department again and im sure they will be sending me a new card again.

I didn't use it anywhere this time so im confused how this keeps happening; but wanted to see if anyone else is having issues with Penfed cards being compromised? 

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