I never thought it would happen to me :(

[MissMolly]

This morning my phone began blowing up with one text after another from Discover Card alerting me to $200 gift cards being bought through PayPal for Ebay. I was on the phone to Discover as charges were still coming through. They immediately closed my account and escalated it to the Fraud Division, I then called PayPal and alerted them. The girl in the Fraud dept told me she had never seen anything like this and they will escalate it to the Fed level. There were over 50 transactions @ $200 each - more than $10,000. What a mess!

 

[Bir48die]

Join the group. Happens all the time. That's why fees are so high.

 

[Greencheese]

I just found out my company had a data breach and within minutes people were getting hit with bogus charges. It's scary how fast they can move, and they'll likely never be caught.

 

[Big_Hitter]

Yep - I had my identity stolen and $180K wired out of a heloc.


There are worse things that can happen.

 

[EvrClrx311]

Curious... what is the best defense to this? Seems the normal advice is always just to do your part to hide your information, but these days it can get hacked or leaked even if you are diligent. I spent some time researching LifeLock and wasn't impressed enough with their services to sign up. Maybe I should?

 

[catotx]

Yep - I had my identity stolen and $180K wired out of a heloc.

That's scary. Were you made whole?

 

[old woman]

Good Golly Miss Molly

 

[Big_Hitter]

That's scary. Were you made whole?

it was a heloc we had paid off but the bank never closed it; it was their fault for sending the wire


I jokingly offered a strip search for the $180K.

 

[EvrClrx311]

it was a heloc we had paid off but the bank never closed it; it was their fault for sending the wire

I'm sure someone got fired over that one... wow

 

[Souschef]

Thank you for the heads up. I just got a bunch of texts on my cell with no subject, so I deleted them. I went to my PayPal account, and all is OK.

 

[JoeWras]

It is surprising that Discover let that many go through. My card will be put on hold if you do 3 or 4 quick transactions from similar retailers.

 

[easysurfer]

Guess I don't feel so paranoid now after installing the paypal mobile app on my phone, then thinking this could be a major security risk, then uninstalled the app.

 

[spncity]

Don't know how one can keep the info from being stolen when there are so many data breaches.

Depending on the choices the credit card company or bank has, I set up alerts.

For CC the one I like best is ... getting an alert for any transaction where the physical card is not swiped.

But not all companies have that option. For those, I just have them send an alert for all transactions so I know when anything starts getting weird (like OP).

 

[MissMolly]

It is surprising that Discover let that many go through. My card will be put on hold if you do 3 or 4 quick transactions from similar retailers.

It all happened so fast. My phone started going ping ping ping as texts and emails came in one after the other. I've never heard of anything like this happening.

 

[psweath]

Yep - I had my identity stolen and $180K wired out of a heloc.

I had a similar situation. Thieves had my SSN and my account number and tried to wire $100K out of my HELOC account at the credit union. Red flag was raised because the guy didn't know the name of my first cat, and transaction was denied.

So don't let those "silly" questions annoy you, and pick or create ones that are very specific to you, as opposed to "favorite color", "first instrument learned", etc. - obviously too easy to guess at.

Pete

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Happened 2 days ago with my Amex. First was a charge for 1.99 at a gas station in California. Within 2 minutes, I had 7 charges through an AT&T prepaid outlet place in Oregon. While on the phone with amex, 2 more came through. It's like HFT for credit card thieves.

Sent via mobile device. Please excuse any grammatical errors.

 

[HadEnuff]

Yep - I had my identity stolen and $180K wired out of a heloc.


There are worse things that can happen.

what is a heloc?

 

[REWahoo]

Home equity line of credit

 

[Rosie]

The best thing you can do is check your account often, and set up lots of alerts to go to your cell phone & email.

Amex is very good at catching suspicious charges; DH and I have had our Amex card numbers lifted 3 times in the last few years (his twice, mine once). In each instance it was most likely due to a hacked gas station card reader. And in each instance, Amex immediately closed the affected account and sent out a new card. A bit of a hassle, but not too bad for us.

 

[MissMolly]

Yes. Discover immediately closed the account and is sending a new card. My emails from PayPal show the email of the person the gift cards were sent to. Is there anything I can do with that info?

Sent from my KFTT using Tapatalk HD

 

[pb4uski]

I assume that the authorities have that email address and will chase the culprit down?

 

[Tadpole]

I was in the opm thing and the opm second thing and the home depot thing and .... and .... Right now I am getting reports from multiple watch programs set up by a variety of entities. That's scary enough but these "lifelock" types always say they will spend up to $1M dollars to solve a problem. So you get into trouble and one week later someone declares the $1M is spent and no results - tough luck. OR what

 

[pb4uski]

I know I have a rider on my homeowners policy for "Identity Theft Expense And Advocacy Services Coverage" but admit that I don't know what the benefits are. Cost is $27/year.

 

[MissMolly]

I assume that the authorities have that email address and will chase the culprit down?

I assume so....

Sent from my KFTT using Tapatalk HD

 

[harley]

Curious... what is the best defense to this? Seems the normal advice is always just to do your part to hide your information, but these days it can get hacked or leaked even if you are diligent. I spent some time researching LifeLock and wasn't impressed enough with their services to sign up. Maybe I should?

As far as having a credit card number stolen, there's nothing you can do other than not have credit cards. Identity theft-wise there are a few things you can do to limit it (credit freezes, alerts, checking frequently, etc.), but not really that much to stop it. Lifelock and it's kin are a waste of money. I wouldn't recommend them. It's just life on the wild frontier of the internet.

Yes. Discover immediately closed the account and is sending a new card. My emails from PayPal show the email of the person the gift cards were sent to. Is there anything I can do with that info?

I assume that the authorities have that email address and will chase the culprit down?

They may have the email, but I doubt anything will happen regarding catching them. I got my credit card number stolen once (many times, actually, but this is one example). I was able to see where the packages were delivered, and found the name of the owner of the house which matched the name on the shipping address for the iPads. I turned all of that information over to Discover, but as far as I was able to determine nothing was ever done about it other than giving me a new card number. The credit card companies would have to work with the police to actually catch the thieves, and I don't think most police forces want to spend the time on such a difficult to prove crime when it's easier to catch people for drug and traffic violations. I think the credit card companies just build the losses into their costs, similar to insurance companies. If I'm wrong about this, I'd love to hear it.