Check Your Bank!

[DailyDi]

You know that security breach they have been talking about in the news where only email addresses were accessed? Thats total BS. My mom's debit card just got hit for $2,200 and she never uses it online, so it came from one of the affected catalog companies.

Bank caught it and shut the card down so we didn't loose a penny. But keep an eye on your bank accounts!

[AutieAB]

It was a email/newsletter company that was breached, wasn't it? Why would they have financial details?

Good job the bank caught it though

[DailyDi]

When companies share data, they tend to sell ALL of it, so likely the middle-man has a lot more info about you then you would suspect. Either that or there's another breach about to be announced. She has only used the card once in the last 90 days, and that was a in-person swipe.

[lil_baby_wet_n_squishy]

I only received notices from about half of the companies I do business with that were effected by Epsilon... Reflects poorly on Citi and Chase for trying to cover it up.

[beallucanb]

The card I use only online got hit a few years ago, when I got my statement there were about 500 in charges I never made, I called and had the card cancelled it never cost me anything.

It pays to look at your online statement once and a while so you can catch these things before they go too far.

I only use 1 card for all online purchases.

[Creepymouse]

Those in-person swipes can be dangerous too, DD. I'm sure you've heard about the ones that have been cropping up, recording your info and pin while passing the info on to the scanner, looking altogether too normal.

[LuvsGurl]

I get notices by e-mail and text message anytime I make a transaction over $100. So if some stunt like that is tried I would get immediate notification.

Thanks for the heads up though. We really need tougher laws protecting consumer information. However, since the banks own the govt. and the govt. makes the laws I doubt it will ever happen.

[Bettypooh]

.... had the card cancelled it never cost me anything....

....I only use 1 card for all online purchases....

Using only one card for a given place makes it easier to discover who/where the data was taken I use a pre-paid online so there's little to be taken; the bad guys know this and block the prefix numbers of pre-paids because it's not worth their time

Your first premise is wrong though They didn't take the money from your account directly, but as with anything else, somebody somewhere has to pay for it all If a merchant sells an item to a crook and the bank pays the merchant, the bank is out of the money If they don't pay, the merchant is out of the money If you don't discover the theft in time you are out of the money If the loss is insured, somebody has to pay for the insurance premium No matter which, in the end the consumer will foot the bill as the cost gets passed along, so in reality you were charged for the loss- along with me and everyone else who had nothing to do with the cause of the loss

To look at this logically, the point of loss was where the stolen card or data was accepted- and that is the person who failed to exercise due caution insuring that the payer was using a valid card/data; thus they are also the person who should be held fiscally responsible for the loss But it doesn't happen like that- the crook got the goods and you and I were made to pay for them somewhere. People see this kind of theft as being victimless, but it isn't, and just like your car liability insurance you are being forced to pay for other people's mistakes even when you make no mistakes of your own If we hold the people who make the errors responsible, then we won't have to pay. I for one think that is the way this kind of thing should be handled. After all, in everything else this is how it is done and it is considered proper- so why is this different? It isn't- it's just that those with power have set things up to make us pay for their errors And we're letting them do it, because like beallucanb, they didn't charge you directly so you thought you weren't paying even though you really were.

They've got a nice scam going too, don't they?

Bettypooh

[KittenAB]

I got lots of things hacked recently. LOL Something is just in the cyber wind I think.

[AutieAB]

When companies share data, they tend to sell ALL of it, so likely the middle-man has a lot more info about you then you would suspect. Either that or there's another breach about to be announced. She has only used the card once in the last 90 days, and that was a in-person swipe.

I don't think I'd be using my card in that one place again then; they must have got the number from somewhere so if she's only used it once recently.... Occam's razor. In-person swipes are not necessarily any less dodgy just because the card doesn't leave your hand. Look at the Aldi thing from a couple of months ago where card terminals with modified code were discovered all over the country:

http://www.aldifoods.com/us/html/company/12502_ENU_HTML.htm?WT.z_src=banner&WT.ac=Banner-without-Alt-Tag

The terminals were recording the mag stripe data (name/number/expiry) and the pin... :? (considering the code that these terminals run is supposed to be signed to detect tampering, you've got to wonder how that could happen)

[BabyJune]

Checked with my bank and they told me that all my money has been transferred to Saudi Arabia the last time I filled the cars.

[Fulldiaper]

There have been numerous breaches of cardholders company and information, starting with a VA employee that misplaced a federal laptop that had vet social security numbers in it. There was two or three breaches on some secondary credit card issuing companies for about 20% of the banks in the US that issue debit Visa/MC cardss through. There was a credit processing company that was breached in Arkansas that handles department store and high end sale items via the internet last year. I have had three email alerts about breaches in the past two years from my credit card companies like Citi, Shell, Phillips 66, and a few others. To date, that have been no discrepencies in my account.

[timmyc]

you should be checking your accounts regularly anyway, whether there is a recent breech or not.

[LILJIM]

Checked with my bank and they told me that all my money has been transferred to Saudi Arabia the last time I filled the cars.

True so true!!!!

[BabyGizmo]

i know a bit about computes (not to brag) but i know enough to tell you this.

to steal your card and pin from a swipe in person would only take a small 256 mb chip on a pass through connected to the cable. this can be smaller than a dime. but that is a swipe.

using a card with a chip make it alot harder to steal, but not imposable. the way to do this is actually requiring the taking apart of the reader, and installing memory chip with recording software like above, but requiring direct access. so, avoid shady looking privately owned places.

now as far as online goes, avoid phising, avoid anything with passwords less than 8 characters or made of words (alpha numeric is best, example being something like H2a205B313) and for the biggest tip, do NOT under any circumstances let your computer memorise your passwords if you use it for more than one thing. have as many passwords as possible, and change them every 3 months if possible

this is just some information i have gathered over my years, and being an overly protective of my stuff, i like to be in the know.

[dl_ashlee]

Funny I am a computer engineer and was never worried until someone broke into my gmail account.

Soon after I realized I needed to get secure, but needed to not have to remember lots of random passwords.

Just so people know I am no way advertising or affiliated with this company, but it has allowed me to have one secure password I memorize and have access to my passwords anywhere that I have online access.

You can even have one time password logins for when you need a password at the library or school computer or something.

If you want to go even further they have a usb key that has to be in the computer to access your passwords.

Anyways if you want to be secure I highly recommend this as it even has a password generator for when you need to create a new password on a site you are registering on.

The site is lastpass.com

Of course do not use your master password anywhere else and if you want to be really secure change it every 3 months. Also I would make it randomized letters/numbers that is not pattern such as qwerty12345. Also would recommend it being 12 or more letters/numbers long. As it gives access to all your passwords make it the most secure password you can memorize.

Of course be sure to log out of your lastpass.com if you have others who use your computer.