Have you or anyone you know ever had your money stolen from your bank account because someone got your password, probably from malware on your computer, and then made small bank transfers until it was all gone? If so, what did you do about it?
My son had his bank account cleaned out when his debit card was copied. The banking code in the UK requires banks to reimburse customers for all real and consequential losses unless the losses came about as the result of gross negligence on the part of the customer (sharing your PIN number for example). My son got all his money back, though not without considerable inconvenience. I believe that is the most usual outcome.
I’ve had a credit card number compromised (probably hackers in the bank computers) and we had our debit card number stolen (probably from a restaurant transaction).
On the credit card, the bank caught it and froze it when a questionable transaction came through. I didn’t have to pay anything, and they issued me a new card.
On the debit card, the idiot started to use it over Memorial Day weekend. I caught it on Sunday and froze it. Unfortunately before I froze it they took over $4000 US out of our account for various charges. We got it all back, but it took anywhere from a week to a month before it was all reimbursed. I’ll never have another debit card (it wasn’t mine, it was Tom’s). At least with a credit card you have a “waiting period” and the money doesn’t come out of your account immediately.
I also have had a credit card number compromised. Fortunately a good bank will notice the odd activity (online gambling sites in my case) and intervene quickly.
Online account access, otherwise, is something that I’d be extremely careful with. I would not, for instance, enter passwords using a public computer. If I had to for some reason, I would do it by copy/paste, rather than keyboard. Then you must always always always sign out and close browsers.
One of the merchants that I bought something from had their server hacked and all the credit card numbers were stolen. Unfortunately, this kind of event is quite common.
I was issued a new card. The old card has small charges with strange names for online services. Someone not paying attention might not even notice. The names changed every month. With this background, it seems to me to be an organized racket and likely nets the thieves many millions of dollars every year. They get a pro to hack into servers. Set up some other online shell companies to receive payments, with a few legit, most not. Ring the register, every month, forever or until the stolen card gets canceled. Even when I got a new card number the bogus charges still occurred. It was a mess untangling it.
Be careful out there. Identity theft is a profitable and booming business. My case was mild, and I think the thieves know that by stealing a small amount every month, prosecutors and law enforcement, and the victims will not take the time to follow up. Even if they did, the amounts are so small for each individual it would be no more than petty theft. To prove the bigger case would require more manpower and expertise than law enforcement has.
I’ve never been able to understand how banks managed to establish the belief that when the bank gives money to the wrong person, it’s not their money they just wasted, but ours.
We PAY them to keep our money safe, and their employees design, create and operate all the security features. If they screw that up, it’s their problem, IMO. If I borrow money from the bank and someone picks my pocket fifty feet from the door of my branch, I can’t go back into the bank and tell them that somebody just stole their money so I don’t have to pay off the loan after all.
Well, the poor man thinks that it had to do with file sharing software. He kept a file of passwords. He’s probably screwed. He spent a whole day getting new accounts at all his banks and closing all online accounts.
That is precisely the problem with “Cloud Computing”.
We’ve had people trying to buy expensive articles on our Credit Card, from places like Singapore. The Credit Card company rang us up for confirmation, or, in our case, denial. It took a while to sort out, but it did get sorted out.
Not had that kind of problem with a bank (yet), touch wood.
I’ve not had my details stolen but i did once have my card processed twice for one transaction at a restaurant in Dubai. Accidentally or deliberately I don’t know but the second transaction was readily reimbursed. This was some years ago when it was still common practice to let your credit card out of sight when payment was taken.
This is still common practice as far as I’ve observed.
Not over here in the UK. Now payment is taken at the table, on a portable device, in front of the customer. usually on something that looks like this
I’ve never seen that before, but I wish we had it around here.
My only incident with this stuff is when someone got my Paypal password last year and bought $600 worth of server space. Took a month to clear that up, which really sucked since that money came out of my checking account. I never got around to getting my account unlocked, and probably won’t.
My wife just had her second incident of someone using her credit card number. It looks like they tested it out at a pizza place in Texas, and when that worked they bought $900 in plane tickets. Which seems dumb and traceable, so I hope the company pursues it.
Yeah, they had those in France when I
was there a few years ago. Great idea.
The waitress I asked about them said
they can work on cell networks or over
satellite connections. So you could have
them anywhere. Don’t know why the US
has never caught on.
Actually these mobile credit card machines are fairly common here in the US as well, just not in retail establishments or restaurants. I had an older version myself when I used to do street art festivals. It hooked up with a cell phone and processed a card directly to my merchant account. To give you an idea about how long ago that was, I was still using a 3W bag phone that was about the size of 2 1/2 standard bricks (and weighed almost that much as well). Kept the whole thing in a briefcase with a charging transformer for festivals that provided us with electricity. Worked great till one show in Ann Arbor, Michigan when there were so many people plugged into the same line that the voltage dropped precipitously and the transformer inside my power supply caught fire. Those were the good days…
Wow, I didn’t know that. And I got all
excited when I heard there was an iPhone
app for processing credit cards… 
Not really robbed of money, but credit yes. Last month I discovered I was a victim of credit card fraud—the “no-card-fraud” since I still physically had my credit card. I’ve gone through all the hoops and so far all but one of the fraudulent transactions have been reimbursed (probably will be soon).
What sucks is that neither I nor the investigators may ever find out where and how the fraud occurred. I just need to keep on watching my stuff like a hawk…
Right around Thanksgiving last year, I logged on to my bank account to discover that several “international transaction fees” had been debited from my account. Since I hadn’t been out of the country, nor had I ordered anything recently from outside the U.S., I couldn’t imagine what they might be for. I also noticed a couple of unfamiliar transactions, which appeared to be with U.S. companies. I called the bank immediately, and they gave me the phone numbers for the companies (they require you to try dealing with the company first). Turns out that they were all U.S.-based call centers, and that someone had used my debit card number to order porn through them…from Great Britain! (hence the international transaction fees)
The call centers I was able to reach all refunded my money with no hassle, and also put a block on my name and card number. The bank refunded the transaction fees, and covered the charges for the companies I wasn’t able to reach. The biggest hassle, of course, was that I had to have the bank cancel my debit card and issue a new one.
Redwolf
Well, there’s a tiny glimmer of hope. He’s gone to the police and is filling out forms. Ok, so that’s no hope at all.
Someone let me know about a law in the US called Reg E that is supposed to protect consumers from the problems of electronic banking. I don’t know if it’ll help him or not. He only downloaded the file sharing software to get a Mercedes manual, and he thought he followed the instructions provided to protect his computer from unwanted access. He’s pretty computer savvy so he’d be able to follow such instructions. He’s never used the software again after trying to download the manual.
Hopefully he can get his money restored, but since it appears that these financial institutions don’t volunteer the information about Reg E. He’s kind of on his own, alone in the wilderness. Hooray for how things work to help the consumer here in the US (NOT!)
At least they didn’t get in there and steal his retirement.
I just wanted to update. My boyfriend is getting his money back!
Here’s what happened. Somehow (we don’t know exactly how) someone was able to gain access to his account. Specifically a man in Colorado who claims he was hired to do a job and didn’t know it was illegal (yeah right.) This man made wire transfers from a list he was given, supposedly to “keep them current”, to another account, which then wired the money out of the country.
During the time that the transfers were happening, they employed a denial of service attack on our land telephone line. We were having trouble with our phone. It was ringing constantly 24 hours a day. It was being used even when it wasn’t ringing. It was inoperable and we spent considerable effort trying to get it fixed. They did this because that prevented the financial institution from contacting us to ask us about the wire transfers. It also served the purpose of keeping our lives in a state of chaos to buy them more time to wire more money.
So, if you start having trouble with your phone ringing constantly with only static or recorded voices and porn on the line, go check your financial accounts quick!
Never attribute to malice what can
be adequately explained by stupidity.
Wow, a 2-stage attack. They’re getting
too clever.