PPRuNe Pop

My debit card was cloned!

It happened about 8 miles away. A fair bit of money was taken out of my account in Miami, at Citibank on Biscayne Drive - on 1st August.

On the same day at just about the same time I was shopping with Mrs PPP. The bank smelled a fraud and realised I could not have been in two places at once and called me at 8pm on Saturday night.

The bank cancelled the card instantly so no further cash could be removed and even ordered a new one. The money will be back in my account by tomorrow.

My bank have behaved professionally. This from a bank who are still arguing over £750 taken from my credit card account 4 months ago! That's another story.

After that I destroyed my credit cards.

When you think the ATM you are using is not cloned - look again! The bank say it is VERY hard to spot.

PPP

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Cool Mod - Here, and was there.

Background Noise

Do you reckon you know where/when it was cloned then? I had my credit card 'cloned' - not sure where, but the fraudulent use was in Washington DC, and since I had just visited DC I assumed that's where it happened. Strange thing was though that I never used my PIN in the states as everything was (and maybe still is) swipe-and-sign. Yet the fraudulent use was with a PIN apparently - the bank said that a card can be copied and a new PIN assigned - so how does that make it secure?

I try to check my online statement at least every couple of days now so hopefully will spot anything amiss soonest. I have had that automatic bank stopper as well which can be annoying for those of us hopping around internationally, but quite welcome when cloning happens.

PPRuNe Pop

BG, yes they do know where it was cloned, which begs the question why they didn't act more quickly. Still, I am lucky I 'proved' I was here and you can't be in two places at once.

Is nothing sacred anymore?

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Cool Mod - Here, and was there.

Telstar

Very good system I have with a "furrin" (Foreign) bank, in the fraud capital of Europe is a system whereby when my card(s) are charged, I recieve an SMS very shortly afterwards. So If suddenly I start getting a wave of SMS messages I know something is amiss and can call the bank promptly. Good system and I bet it pays for itself.

StaceyF

A few years ago I used a gold card for the very first time in a Chinese restaurant just up the road from here.

I was going through a phase of collecting them at the time and so, because I had quite a few, it was the only time I ever used it.

It was skimmed and my account debited by around £3k; all purchases made in Hong Kong, electrical equipment mostly but also car hire and some restaurant usage.

Now RBS were as good as gold in refunding the money but they never followed it up; it was obvious where the card was skimmed seeing as it was the only time it was ever used.......the Chinese/Hong Kong connection was another layer of evidence but, to this day, the restaurant is in business and still accepting Visa.

Makes you wonder if the banks are that bothered about stopping fraud.

Jimmy Macintosh

My wifes debit card was charged two weeks ago, in Louisiana. We've never been there, and are puzzled as to how they even managed a clone. I don't think I've ever seen her use her card, mines the one with all of the wear and tear.

I like the idea of the SMS for every transaction though...

BOAC

Welcome to the 21st centuy, Pop! 40 million credit cards fraudulently cloned in the USA recently.

My Barclays Connect card hit 6 weeks ago for £1800 (refunded). My Mastercard reissued this week due to being on some 'at risk' list.

Yes, I am careful. However, we type in numbers/ 'last 3'/ PINS, we give dates of birth and mother's maiden names etc and it ALL relies on someone not selling the info. or hacking into the systems.

Blues&twos

Mrs B&t had her brand new debit card cloned (it's one of those CHIP & PIN things). The bank realised something was up and cancelled the card before we were even aware there was a problem. In fact the first we knew about it was when her card wasn't accepted for an online transaction. No money was shown as having been taken out of her account, but the bank told us that someone had spent £400 in Germany only a couple of hours after she'd bought petrol at home here in the UK.

Basil

As mentioned elsewhere there's an ongoing Sri Lanka / Tamil Tigers scam running at petrol stations.
I now pay cash - yes, I know: more risk of skimming at ATM

Itswindyout

recently, and had a "suspect" transaction on my Visa card.

So you dont need to go the "Shell" after all....


In UAE with HSBC, you get a SMS for each ATM transaction, actually received the SMS before I had actually removed the cash.... neat idea,

windy