Quote:
Originally Posted by The Mountaineer
I got a $4,179 charge on my credit card the day after using La Bodega Shell Circle K for gasoline fillup. The skimmer, which electronically gives the crooks your credit card number, might not be there because I also used Publix with my credit card, but I'd keep an eye out after your transaction for any use of a hand-held skimmer.
Fortunately, my credit card fraud alert stopped the charge, made online with Apple for an electronic sale. But that means that card number is blocked and unusable forever and I'll get a new number and card. Which means I'll have to go through the hassle of notifying all the businesses where I have automatic payments set up, a real pain.
I know because I had my number hacked several years ago in New York City by a McDonald's employee who turned my card over to read the security number. Next thing I knew, parking charge and Wal-Mart charge appeared on my bill.
These scumbags just skimmer everyone because they know all of them can't get caught. In this case, they tried for too big a bite at one time. In New York City, they stayed under the $500 automatic fraud notification.
Anyway, you've been warned. Skimmer crooks re everywhere. When I called the Sheriff's Department to alert them about my credit card purchase locations, the officer said: "They're all over the place, but not at this location so far."
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While right to give warning, this is causing undue alarm. When our credit cards have been used fraudulently a few times, the credit card company calls and tells us
they DECLINED a purchase for that amount, and the
amounts were for internet purchases, not brick and mortar stores/retailers.
Also, the credit card companies have told us that particular businesses where you used your card are not the likely culprits, as most are
internet fraudsters who simply run numbers till they hit one that sticks when making a trial, small purchase
online. The card companies' fraud detection units can find the culprits by going directly to the IP number of the computer used online.
Mention of Apple online for electronic purchase also adds in complexity most people don't understand and don't need to worry about getting or not getting. The credit card companies themselves have spent billions on fraud detection, and this is also why many are going to the embedded chip card encrypted credit cards most businesses are getting the card readers for.
In the end, the best way to go with a mastercard or visa
debit card is to run it "as credit" thru the system, and
not with debit pin number, because master card and visa protection covers any fraudulent charges that
might get approved.
At a gas pump I use either bank credit card or AMEX credit card, or better yet, a Marathon or Shell gas credit card.