Schwab Debit card Fraud - first time experience

[Cortina]

Noticed yesterday , account was $1.00 less than I had remembered - Odd !.
Checked the detail - sure enough, a $1.00 withdrawal to something with "congressiona 2021 VA" in the title. Checked balances held - and yes , another $23 odd - pending !!
Alarm bells ........sent an email , but no response today , so lifted phone and started asking questions. One other $1.00 donation had been made, and lots more "withdrawals" had been attempted , but none approved and card place on hold (by them)
So , case raised, card now firmly stopped and the investigation wheels are turning ... but it seems odd that by somebody "guessing" 16 digits on a card - it can actually go so far ! (I can see their method - remove a couple of $1.00 amounts , and if no one notices .... carry on !!)

Pays to keep an eye on things. Am I alone in this ? , I never had anything happen to me like this before.

 

[njhowie]

Happens all the time. They very likely didn't guess your number. You used your card somewhere and someone skimmed it, or took a photo of it with their phone, etc.

We usually have our card blocked and reissued every few years. Seems we haven't had any issues for quite some time, so we've likely just jinxed things and it will be happening to me/us soon.

 

[Souschef]

That is one reason I covered the CVV with black ink

 

[braumeister]

Happens all the time. They very likely didn't guess your number. You used your card somewhere and someone skimmed it, or took a photo of it with their phone, etc.

Exactly. Not uncommon at all. Your card will be cancelled and you'll be issued a new one with a different number.

One thing you can do to avoid a repeat is to never let your card out of your sight. I found that handing it to a waiter in a restaurant was my most common situation leading to fraud. You have no idea what's happening to that card during the few minutes it's out of your sight. Once I stopped letting that happen, my card fraud occurrences dropped to zero.

 

[Cortina]

Exactly. Not uncommon at all. Your card will be cancelled and you'll be issued a new one with a different number.

One thing you can do to avoid a repeat is to never let your card out of your sight. I found that handing it to a waiter in a restaurant was my most common situation leading to fraud. You have no idea what's happening to that card during the few minutes it's out of your sight. Once I stopped letting that happen, my card fraud occurrences dropped to zero.

That's not it - card never leaves me. Suspect CVV not checked for a $1.00 withdrawal ?? Not worrying about it - just slightly annoying

 

[RobbieB]

Another reason I pay with cash at eateries.

 

[ShokWaveRider]

We do not used debit cards for that reasons, (The turning wheels). With credit cards, the deductions are put on hold during the wheel turning. I had one once that I did not notice for a month and it was immediately reversed when I called and reported it. New card arrived next day.

I have no idea why anyone "here" would use a debit card anyway. MMDV.

 

[badatmath]

Not only do I not use my debit card, I have it set at $1 limit. I need to keep it for ATM usage as they won't give me a different card.

 

[braumeister]

Another reason I pay with cash at eateries.

Yep. I figured this out a long time ago and haven't had one compromised since. It's so easy to always carry enough cash to pay for a restaurant meal, and gives me enough peace of mind that it more than makes up for losing a couple of bucks in credit card rebates.

 

[RetiredAndLovingIt]

I get an instant text every time there is a charge ran of $1 and above on both my credit and debit card. I have the text before the cashier has even handed me my receipt or I've logged out of the website I'm purchasing from. When I'm sleeping I hear the beep when autopays are ran, if I'm half awake I will look but most of the time I don't bother to look at these till the morning.
I have the same set up for bank access notification which is how I found that Quicken would try to access one of my banks weekly in the middle of night that was not set up for any kind of automatic updating but did have my stored password. The text said I had accessed the account. Could not get a straight answer from either Quicken or the bank as to why this was happening so had to change the password multiple times before finally removing it from Quicken altogether. It did it every Wednesday for weeks and I was freaking out, that was the bank holding most of my cash.

 

[Gotadimple]

Debit cards best practice should be to limit use to withdrawing cash from an ATM. I would never use my debit card to pay for services or goods because it is a direct link to my checking account. I have never had the situation the OP describes on my debit card, but have had it happen on a credit card. The bank allowed the charge, the card was in my wallet, the thief was a computer program generating random numbers until a charge was accepted.

 

[ncbill]

We do not used debit cards for that reasons, (The turning wheels). With credit cards, the deductions are put on hold during the wheel turning. I had one once that I did not notice for a month and it was immediately reversed when I called and reported it. New card arrived next day.

I have no idea why anyone "here" would use a debit card anyway. MMDV.

Ditto.

As a former (reformed?) banker I don't use debit cards.

And with my bank at least I can now use its phone app to generate a one-time code to access their ATMs.

So I have no need to carry either a debit card or ATM-only card.

EDIT: also pay cash at eateries since the independent ones I prefer now add a surcharge for credit cards.

 

[youbet]

Another reason I pay with cash at eateries.

+1

I never hand my CC to anyone, especially wait staff. But that also applies to any establishment. It's just too easy to have some cash along to take care of dining checks, purchases at festivals, boutiques, etc.

IOW, the only finger prints on my CC are mine.

 

[RobbieB]

And even if you're going to some high end place you can always tuck a few benji's in your wallet, they don't take up much room -

 

[qwerty3656]

Exactly. Not uncommon at all. Your card will be cancelled and you'll be issued a new one with a different number.



One thing you can do to avoid a repeat is to never let your card out of your sight. I found that handing it to a waiter in a restaurant was my most common situation leading to fraud. You have no idea what's happening to that card during the few minutes it's out of your sight. Once I stopped letting that happen, my card fraud occurrences dropped to zero.

So how do you pay your bill at restaurants?

EDIT: brain-freeze - obviously just pay cash

 

[freedomatlast]

That is one reason I covered the CVV with black ink

Same here

 

[Chuckanut]

So how do you pay your bill at restaurants?

Only eat out when in Europe and other foreign countries. They bring the portable payment device to the table, you slip the card in, tap in the PIN as necessary, and it pops out the receipt.

Alas, this process is too complicated for simple minded American bankers who don't like chip-n-pin cards.

 

[ivinsfan]

So how do you pay your bill at restaurants?

EDIT: brain-freeze - obviously just pay cash

I think if everyone paid cash people might well eat out less. That's just MHO.

 

[audreyh1]

Only eat out when in Europe and other foreign countries. They bring the portable payment device to the table, you slip the card in, tap in the PIN as necessary, and it pops out the receipt.

Alas, this process is too complicated for simple minded American bankers who don't like chip-n-pin cards.

Or even better, use ApplePay from your phone or your watch. No PIN entry, non-contact, fast. All the restaurants we visited in Europe recently accepted ApplePay with portable devices and in Europe we always leave tips in cash.

 

[RetiredHappy]

We use credit cards for everything, as long as there is no "fee" charged on using credit cards. Debit cards are only used to withdraw cash from ATMs. We get back about $4K a year in cash back or equivalents. Why leave money on the table by using cash? Credit cards have good protection against fraudulent charges although some credit card companies make it a pain to dispute charges.

 

[jollystomper]

So how do you pay your bill at restaurants?

EDIT: brain-freeze - obviously just pay cash

We see more restaurants bringing the credit card machine to the table for payment. Some now have the "kiosk" at the table for ordering, requesting items, and paying.

 

[tulak]

+1 for using Apple Pay. I never carry cash and most places support Apple Pay. I use it for the convenience, but it’s nice to know no number can be swiped.