Stolen Information

I had my credit card information stolen. Thank God Bank of America is on top of things, there had been four fraudulent charges put on the card. They called me immediately and asked about the charges after they had shut the card down. We verified together the charges were not made by me, they closed the card out and issued me another one.

How does this take place it is very aggravating to go through this process.

I have the new version of google toolbar installed with auto fill, is this causing a problem. What can I do if anything to help prevent this?

Thanks,
Reid

 

Sorry you had this happen to you I'm sure it's quite disconcerting.

I highly doubt the Google toolbar with auto fill caused this tho. Unless you picked it up fraudulently from someplace other than Google.

When you think about the number of people who have access to your name and credit card number, every single employee has access at any restaurant you dine at. Pretty much anyplace you use your card can be open to abuse by someone withing the establishments employ.

I'd be willing to bet its more a possibility I just mentioned. That is provided of course you didn't just come out of the virus & spyware removal forum where the system was fully compromised, I didn't check.

All you can really do is guard as much personal info as you can. I know that just recently, a law was parsed that even my ISP can no longer ask for the last 4 digits of my SS #. But I'm not sure to what extent in the business world this goes, I'd not heard about it until I had to change my primary password and the customer support person told me they couldn't ask for that anymore.

 

Reid,

I have been using what CITI MasterCard calls "Virtual Credit Card Numbers" for 5 or 6 years now without a hitch. Each time I make an on-line purchase, a random, one time use, credit card number (virtual) is generated to give to the merchant. It shows an expiration date of the following month and you can manually insert a time limit and/or $ limit on the number.

The virtual number is tied to my real credit card number but the merchant never sees the real one. I have only had one time when the number was rejected and that was when the merchant waited over 30 days to process it. I have no hesitation to order on line now because I feel that my credit card information is safe. The merchant may be a sleaze who fails to deliver the product but at least he won't have my credit card information.

To use this feature, I had to download a small program and the icon resides on the task bar next to the clock. Whenever I get ready to order something, I simply open, insert my User Name and Password, and have it generate a number.

I just went to the Bank of America website and had a live chat with one of their reps who told me they offer a similar feature called "Shop Safe ". You might want to check into it.

 

Thank you, that is wonderful information, BOA is one of and I think the best bank I deal with, I will look into this.

Thanks and have a happy new year,

Reid

 

Thanks for the heads up on Bank of America - Shop Safe. Below is the link and description on how it works (we're signing up ASAP)!

http://www.bankofamerica.com/privacy/index.cfm?template=learn_about_shopsafe

 

Poor Security on Credit and Debit Cards

Thanks for the information on the BOA card.

It is amazing to me that my gym card is more secure than either my credit card or my check cashing card.

When I go to the gym and swipe my card a picture of me appears on the screen along with my membership status and expiration dates.

Normally the computer will say, "Have a nice work out.â€

If the card is expired it will say you need to see a member of management immediately.

There are numerous improvements that could be made but which the banks choose to ignore. Some of them are:

1. Your picture on the on the front of the card.
2. An encrypted scan of your finger print on the card and the ability to compare it to a scan read by a scanner at the store. The encrypted finger print could also be conveyed to the merchant in an on line transaction.
3. The use of PIN numbers with all transactions for both credit cards and debit cards.

As it stands now a well trained drunk monkey can take my debit card and buy a tank of gas. The banks just write off the losses and charge them back to the consumers in high rates and fees.

Visa has a program called Verified by Visa which allows the use of a pin number for on line purchases. However, my experience has been that most merchants don’t use it and it is obvious that Visa does not require any one to use it.