Bank says my CC info might have been stolen

Could it be that waiter at the restaurant? :)

[Habtom]

How did I end up my credit card information being stolen :)

Waiters, people at the gas pump . . .

Do they all have hands on this?

[cmarshall]

I was at a gas station, and I watched the guy take my card into the booth. I watched him flip the card over and quickly write something down as it was processing.

Sumbitch wrote down my CVV. I canceled the card as soon as I got home.

[Dabrowski]

The other week I tried to spend over 1k on my business debit card. The payment declined for some unknown reason.

Called the bank and they had blocked the transaction as it was a large amount. I asked them 'Since when is £1,500 a large amount for a business to spend on stock?'.

Sorry, that was a bit OT.

I did have a credit card once, I cut up the card as I wasn't using it, to pay off the balance. They called me a few months later and asked if it had been stolen as they thought it strange that it hadn't been used!

[edited by: Dabrowski at 5:06 pm (utc) on Nov. 18, 2007]

[jsinger]

Do they all have hands on this?

Of course, and tiny card scanners can be bought online for about $200 that can hold data from several hundred credit cards. There is a legitimate use for them; for example, for scanning cards at a flea market.

Waiters in tourist places are high risk. They know customers will likely leave town, and many waiters, themselves, are just passing through, work for a few weeks and move on. Always triple check your CC statements after a vacation.

Recent trend is for customers to scan their own cards which eliminates risk at the cash register (and saves the store some labor)

Again, your financial risk is almost zero. I guess everyone should have two or three cards if one is disabled.

[wheel]

I had my debit card double scanned at a local gas station a couple of years ago. The bank locked my account, but soon unlocked it. And they refunded all the money. I never found out for certain where it was double swiped, but I'm about 99% certain it was the gas station.

I assume the bank gave me back my money in order to protect their records. If they hadn't, I assume I could have gotten a court order to access their records - and I bet they're willing to go to any lengths to stop that. I guess that's better than the alternative where consumers are getting ripped off.

[jsinger]

I had my debit card double scanned at a local gas station

Heck, we've done that by accident with an online charge. No sinister plot by us, gas stations, or banks. Very, very rarely a crooked employee may pull off a scam at a gas station or restaurant.

Court order? How about asking Congress (if in US) to appoint a special prosecutor to get to the bottom of this OUTRAGE! (an election year is coming)

Hey folks, your risk is tiny!

As for banks, they make mistakes every hour. Most banking work is done by part timers making just over minimum wage. Over the years we've found a number of banking mistakes which were always corrected by them quickly.

Relax! (and reconcile)

[Dabrowski]

Very, very rarely a crooked employee may pull off a scam at a gas station or restaurant

Yeah, like this one:
[news.bbc.co.uk...]

Incidentally, that was the same 2 guys that were kicked off a plane in Ibiza for acting dodgily and being suspected of being terrorists. One didn't speak English.

I had an incident, at a restaurant chain here in snowy England. The first time they put the card through it said 'Card removed, transaction void' after I entered my PIN. They put it through again, no problem. But it showed up twice on my bank statement. I called my bank, they refunded the erroneous amount (they can actually recall this from the people who did the transaction).

Hey folks, your risk is tiny

I agree, well said jsinger. Remember, your bank works for you. If you have a dodgy or mistaken transaction, and you have reasonable proof, they will happily refund your money.