Unauthorized use of my Discover Card

[jackio Gold Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close jackio]

I received a call from Discover tonight leaving a message that they need to talk to me about suspicious use of my card. I did not call the number they left, but instead called the # on the back of the card. They said that there was a flurry of activity yesterday, purchases on Microsoft XBox Live and Netfix and something called Rosie Wong. Total was less than $100. The system flagged it and rejected all further attempts. There were a few other attempts but they stopped after a couple of rejections. The purchases were done online and not with a card. We did not lose our cards; they are still in our possession.
I'm not sure how our account was compromised, but I have to praise Discovercard for its quick identification of the fraud and quick action.

[Glitter Brunello Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Glitter Brunello]

I received a call from Discover tonight leaving a message that they need to talk to me about suspicious use of my card. I did not call the number they left, but instead called the # on the back of the card. They said that there was a flurry of activity yesterday, purchases on Microsoft XBox Live and Netfix and something called Rosie Wong. Total was less than $100. The system flagged it and rejected all further attempts. There were a few other attempts but they stopped after a couple of rejections. The purchases were done online and not with a card. We did not lose our cards; they are still in our possession.
I'm not sure how our account was compromised, but I have to praise Discovercard for its quick identification of the fraud and quick action.

Glad they caught it. I'm not used to hearing about a lot of activity on a stolen number like that, usually just one or two small purchases to start out.

[dougp26364 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close dougp26364]

Sopmeone either swiped your CC information into a card reader, then made their own copy of your CC to use, you somehow got scammed into giving out your CC information online or your CC information was comprimised (stolen) from another site/business.

This has happened to us twice in the last 10 years or so. In our case, the CC's were swiped and copied into some sort of reader and stored. These reader/storage units are very small and can fit into the palm of a waiter/waitresses hand. With times running hard, I can see a rouge wait staff making a little extra money on the side collecting credit card information.

[IreneLF Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close IreneLF]

Sorry to hear about this Jacki but nice that Discover caught it and notified you right away.
We had similar, but WE were the ones who caught it l

Did see a program whree a guy with a card reader could get numbers frorm people just walking close by to them in the street. Pretty scary.

[ArtsieAng Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close ArtsieAng]

Sorry Jackie, but at least it was caught before a large dollar amount was charged. Kudos to Discover Card!

[wackymother Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close wackymother]

We had something similar happen with a Visa--they called us one Saturday morning and asked if we were in Illinois (we weren't, we live in NJ). It turned out someone actually had a physical card with our number and they were buying things at Payless Shoes, Kmart, and Walmart. We don't usually go to Kmart, we never go to Walmart, and I guess we don't ever go to all three in a row. I thought that was pretty good analytics!

Visa shut the fake card down while the thief was trying to buy something at Walmart. It's pretty Big Brothery, but I was happy they caught it.

[tonyg Goomba & Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close tonyg]

Discover is very good about fraud and resolving problem issues. Now if they would only not be so annoying with their marketing calls I might get another card with them.

[timeos2 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close timeos2]

Discover is very good about fraud and resolving problem issues. Now if they would only not be so annoying with their marketing calls I might get another card with them.

Right on! They are a very good, well monitored card but those sales calls are nearly as bad as timeshare resales!

[bnoble Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close bnoble]

I tried to cancel a card with them that I hadn't used in years. It took a 20 minute conversation that *was* very timeshare-esque, now that you mention it. ("Your credit will be ruined if you cancel this card!")

[T. R. Oglodyte Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close T. R. Oglodyte]

This has happened to us twice in the last 10 years or so. In our case, the CC's were swiped and copied into some sort of reader and stored. These reader/storage units are very small and can fit into the palm of a waiter/waitresses hand. With times running hard, I can see a rouge wait staff making a little extra money on the side collecting credit card information.

DW was out at a dinner one evening at local sports bar type restaurant with about six other ladies. They were each paying on separate checks.

Within two days, everyone of them had fraudulent charges on the cards they used. Since they were all co-workers, it was obvious the credit card info had been swiped at the restaurant.

That was a police investigation that took almost zero time.

*****

The only other time that we had an issue that I can remember was apparently another swipe of DWs card, most likely at a clothing store. We were alerted when the Visa called us to let us know that they had put a hold on the card because of a purchase made from a clothing store in Paris. We then looked at our statement and identified about six other charges, all women's clothing and accessories, made during the last three or four days.

In contrast to the waiter at the restaurant, we thought the person who swiped the card at the clothing store was clever to use it only at stores similar to the clothing store where the info was presumably stolen. That way their purchases didn't seem out of ordinary for the cardholder. They probably could have gotten away with it for a while longer had they not attempted the purchase from France. But then, they probably figured their use of the card was going to end soon, so they decided to just try it and see if it worked.

[MargeS Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close MargeS]

Just before Christmas 2009, I got a call and message from VISA fraud. I also did not call the number given, but called the one on back of my own card.
I was immediately transferred to fraud division. An actual card was being used all over AFRICA!!
Never did find out if VISA was able to determine where they got my account number from (but they said making actual cards is pretty common...)

[jackio Gold Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close jackio]

Discover had a promotion where they gave you $250 if you spent $1500 each month between Aug - Dec. We used it for every thing - purchases, car insurance, etc - for those months, so we have no idea where it may have been lifted.

Also, when I owned Dikhololo I used to pay the maintenance fees by credit card, and I always called them up prior to let them know that there will be a charge coming from South Africa so that they would not reject the charge.

[StressCadet Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close StressCadet]

I had this same thing happen right before Christmas. First I received an email and of course thought it was a scam or fishing then I logged in to my AMEX account (outside of the email) and saw red writing everywhere that my account was not active and that I should call. Even still-I used the number from the back of my card.

Mine were like yours-online things. Mostly little dings of a dollar waiting to see if it would be caught so they could go in for the big kill. AMEX shut it down before I even knew...and I'll tell you what, they had my new card to me in less than 2 days. Guess they were fearful I'd stop shopping. LOL.

[dougp26364 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close dougp26364]

DW was out at a dinner one evening at local sports bar type restaurant with about six other ladies. They were each paying on separate checks.

Within two days, everyone of them had fraudulent charges on the cards they used. Since they were all co-workers, it was obvious the credit card info had been swiped at the restaurant.

That was a police investigation that took almost zero time.

*****

The only other time that we had an issue that I can remember was apparently another swipe of DWs card, most likely at a clothing store. We were alerted when the Visa called us to let us know that they had put a hold on the card because of a purchase made from a clothing store in Paris. We then looked at our statement and identified about six other charges, all women's clothing and accessories, made during the last three or four days.

In contrast to the waiter at the restaurant, we thought the person who swiped the card at the clothing store was clever to use it only at stores similar to the clothing store where the info was presumably stolen. That way their purchases didn't seem out of ordinary for the cardholder. They probably could have gotten away with it for a while longer had they not attempted the purchase from France. But then, they probably figured their use of the card was going to end soon, so they decided to just try it and see if it worked.

The last time our CC information was stolen, we spoke with the person investigating and had an opinion on where the original theft may have occured. What we were told was that they were getting a little smarter and storing information for several months before begining to use it, making it harder to track the initial theft.

The first time it happened it was pretty easy to track. That particular card had been used in only two places. One was to rent a car and the other was as a security deposit at a timeshare stay.

[dougp26364 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close dougp26364]

I tried to cancel a card with them that I hadn't used in years. It took a 20 minute conversation that *was* very timeshare-esque, now that you mention it. ("Your credit will be ruined if you cancel this card!")

A few years ago I canceled several department stored cards that were inactive. Most gave the speil about damaging our credit but, JC Penney was the worst. Not only would getting rid of their card ruin my credit but, I'd never be able to apply for their card again. I was unmoved other than to not shop at JC Penney's again.

I had read all the bad things about canceling lines of credit and, despite that, dumped around $15,000 of open credit lines that day. I checked my credit score a couple of months later and, while it did drop it a few points it was nothing like what the warning said it would be. I'm pretty much convinced that all the hype over credit scores comes from someone that has something they want to sell me, such as credit monitoring services.