# Credit Card Compromised



## Ryan (Aug 23, 2011)

So, I kind of had the weekend from hell. Short version is that the basement flooded because of a heavy thunderstorm that parked over my house, just before the Mother-in-law arrived (via Amtrak from Newport News). As I'm returning home from the store to get cleaning supplies, the wife is on the phone with someone, and as soon as I walk in I hear "Here he is now, hold on a second".

Crap.

It was Chase, someone went on a shopping spree in Rio on my dime. Since I was obviously not in Rio, as I had just used the card in Maryland, Chase agreed that the activity was fraudulent, wiped off the charges from Brazil off of my card and then suggested that we close the account and reissue cards with a new account number. I agreed, and the agent assured me that all of the points that I have earned would be moved over (I joked with him that he could leave the balance behind), and offered to overnight replacement cards to the wife and I.

They just showed up and I've activated them, but overall I was very pleased by the experience. Chase picked up on the fraud amazingly fast, and made the whole experience as painless as possible.

I have no idea how the card was compromised, but you may want to keep an eye on your accounts (it's good practice anyways), and make sure that your contact info is up to date (including your cell phone) so that they can contact you if there are any issues (and if you're on vacation they can reach you and you can confirm that the charges are valid so you're not stuck with a nonworking card).


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## jis (Aug 23, 2011)

Another thing to do if you are legitimately traveling to a high risk area is to pre-notify the card issuer that you are going there and give specifics of where you will be. They are very good at tracking such things and such pre-notification avoids getting stuck with your own charges getting blocked by their fraud detection system.


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## Bob Dylan (Aug 23, 2011)

Glad it worked out for you Ryan! Do you suspect Amtrak is involved in anyway since you use the card for Train Travel so much?? I too have found Chase to be prompt and professional when dealing with discrepancies/disputed charges on their Credit cards! ("Hello my name is Peggy" doesnt apply to them! :lol: )Since its an AGR Affiliated Card, not sure how it got to Brazil (does Amtrak run there? :giggle: )but there seems to be more and more of this occuring as the hackers and cyber thieves multiply and technology marches on!

Personally I dont use my Cards for on-line charges, nor do any kind of financial transactions except for Amtrak Trips/Point purchases! Of course there are a million ways these crooks can get ahold of your info, think its incumbent on the issuing Financial Institutions to come up with Safer and more protected technology so ID theft doesnt become am every day thing! Buyer beware!


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## jdcnosse (Aug 23, 2011)

Good to know! I'll think about them if I ever get a credit card. lol Right now, All I use is prepaid debit cards. Yeah I pay a little bit of a fee ($3 each load) but I rarely load it. I typically only load it up with just a little over what I need, and then it's only if I want/need to buy something online (ie Amtrak tickets, I'd buy using it, and if the ticket is $142.60 then I'll put $145 on there to make sure it goes through, but I also like them because if there's not enough, it won't go through.


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## MrFSS (Aug 23, 2011)

I recently had my Chase Marriott Rewards card have the same thing happen. Only the charges were in India.

They wiped the charges and I had a new card in a couple of days. They called me and alerted me.

Very professional!

I think this is becoming more and more common out there in the world today.


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## amamba (Aug 23, 2011)

Glad you had such great customer service. Sadly this is becoming more and more common as not just online places get hacked but legitimate brick and mortar stores like the TJX companies (tj maxx, marshalls, homegoods) and Staples are two recent examples. Somehow thieves were able to hack into the system and electronically steal card numbers.


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## John Bredin (Aug 23, 2011)

I find it amusing that some people still won't do online transactions but are perfectly fine going into a sit-down restaurant where they give the waitron their actual credit card and he/she actually walks out of sight with it for a couple of minutes. :blink: :huh:


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## Shanghai (Aug 23, 2011)

I had my AGR credit card compromised by two Deutsch Bahn charges in Germany.

When I received the call (on my cell phone) I was in a taxi going to board

a cruise ship for a two week holiday. Chase offered to express mail me a

new card, but then the customer service lady saw that I had another Chase

credit card (United Airlines) and said she would make that card an unlimited

credit limit. I was impressed and a new card was waiting for me when we

arrived back home.


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## the_traveler (Aug 23, 2011)

amamba said:


> Sadly this is becoming more and more common as not just online places get hacked but legitimate brick and mortar stores like the TJX companies (tj maxx, marshalls, homegoods) and Staples are two recent examples. Somehow thieves were able to hack into the system and electronically steal card numbers.


Don't forget the Stop & Shop fiasco - where hackers replaced the *ENTIRE* credit card reader at many stores!


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## Trogdor (Aug 23, 2011)

This is just one of the reasons why I refuse to use debit cards anywhere except at ATMs phyisically located inside a bank. Then again, even there I was burned once by a skimmer, but it's still more secure than anywhere else.


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## jdcnosse (Aug 23, 2011)

the_traveler said:


> amamba said:
> 
> 
> > Sadly this is becoming more and more common as not just online places get hacked but legitimate brick and mortar stores like the TJX companies (tj maxx, marshalls, homegoods) and Staples are two recent examples. Somehow thieves were able to hack into the system and electronically steal card numbers.
> ...


I was actually just going to say this lol

It's easy enough for the person WITH the card to just slide it through what we (the consumer) think is the credit card reader but in reality is a skimmer set up to steal our info.


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## Ryan (Aug 23, 2011)

Trogdor said:


> This is just one of the reasons why I refuse to use debit cards anywhere except at ATMs phyisically located inside a bank. Then again, even there I was burned once by a skimmer, but it's still more secure than anywhere else.


Agreed. The situation was MUCH easier to sort out when my checking account wasn't drained.


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## Trogdor (Aug 23, 2011)

Not really related to the main topic of the thread, but it does remind me of one time a few years ago when I was traveling in France, and used an ATM to withdraw money.

The ATM happened to be run by the post office (to which it was conveniently attached).

This was one of the older style machines where you had to fully insert the card, and the machine kept the card for the duration of the transaction. Well, the card slot was damaged slightly, and when it tried to spit my card back out, the card got stuck, and so the machine just kept it. Since it couldn't give the card back, it also decided not to give me the money I asked for (the genius of the design is that it wouldn't spit out money until you removed your card, to prevent people from forgetting their card).

So, there I was without cash, and now without a card that I would need to obtain said cash. Fortunately, the post office was open (and since it was, I believe, a Thursday, they weren't on strike), so I went inside and explained the situation as best I could in my broken French. They told me to come back the next day and they'd have my card (I guess that sort of thing happened often enough that they had a standard procedure for dealing with it). As I left the post office, another guy who was traveling in our group was running inside because the same thing just happened to him!

I came back the next morning and provided ID, and they did return my card, which I was able to use to get cash (which was very important).

I've had similar things happen in the US with those machines (one time, the ATM computer crashed, complete with BSOD, just as I inserted my card), and the bank had to reissue the card. I'm lucky that didn't have to happen when I was overseas.


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