Why you should check your Bank Statement online weekly.....
By CatVegas
@CatVegas (709)
United States
January 3, 2007 2:43am CST
About a year ago we ordered a Pizza from Pizza Hut, and you can order it online and even pay for it online with your Debit/Credit Card. We have done this many times for over 2 years at the same Pizza Hut and never had a problem. But the last time we did we had our Debit Card number stolen and used.
What happen was we ordered a Pizza I gave my Debit card number as we have 2 cards. My husbands last 4 numbers are the only different so when the delievery guy showed he asked to see the card number. My husband gave him his not thinking that I had paid for it with mine when I ordered it. The guy copied it so they could compare it to the order. They have always done this in the past with no problems.
Now a week n a half later I was checking my Bank Statement online and there was a $300.00 purchase, so I called my husband and asked what he got on the way to work. He said nothing...I quickly called the Bank they told me someone had paid on a Cable Bill or ordered movies from our local Cable Company. I had already paid the bill which wasn't $300.00 2 weeks earlier so I told the Bank to put a stop on it fast... Well I was talking to the Bank the person who had the card number called a Pizza place and ordered $50.00 worth of pizza.. Now I was home, hubby at work no way we ordered a pizza and it wasn't from Pizza Hut....The Bank stopped that one also right away...
What we found out once we called the Police and also the Bank reported it that the man who delievered our pizza saved the copy of the Debit Card number and was using it over the phone. But it also opened a big can of worms as when the FBI checked into the local Cable Company they found out more people were being scammed and busted a ring of Debit card users.
How they caught them was 1. They ordered Cable and gave a address for it. (Not ours) 2.They ordered a Pizza to be delievered to a address also....
Like the Bank told me it is good to always check your Bank Statement online as it is faster to catch someone using your account. If we would of waited for our statement to come in the mail (about a month)it would of been harder to prove that someone used our Debit Card. We got our money back in 3 days, but it took a bit of time to catch all the people in the ring using Debit numbers but they did get them...
Has this ever happen to you???
5 people like this
13 responses
@Willowlady (10658)
• United States
3 Jan 07
Thankfully, this has not happened to me. I do check on line frequently since we are pretty paycheck to paycheck right now. If something would go wrong I know my bank would be good about righting the ship. Hoping this discussion alerts people to check their banking on line whenever they think about it since bad guys never sleep it seems.
@CatVegas (709)
• United States
5 Jan 07
The bad guys are always looking for a easy way to use other peoples money. The thing is that we had order pizza from there for over 2 years and never a problem. But it was a new driver that we hadn't seen. So it is just best to be careful, we will still order pizza but will pay cash from now on.
@Perry2007 (2229)
• Philippines
3 Jan 07
This discussion is very helpful, although I do not use debit card to purchase on line or on the phone, It is a good thing I read this one already so that I get the advice before hand. Thanks
2 people like this
@nzinky (822)
• United States
5 Jan 07
My granddaughter had same problem when she order something from internet....Some one charged over three thousand dollars on her credit card......They order it from QVC..The credit card people called her to let her know.......They canceled the card and issued her a new one.........They also are investigateing it and when they find out who did it they will be looking through bars to see the outside world.....
@nibory (177)
• United States
7 Jan 07
Very good idea. I haven't had a problem yet either, but I do check both my credit cards online regularly. I don't use a debit card, but if I did, I would check that as well.
Two days before Christmas my son was robbed of his wallet at gunpoint and they got his copy of my credit card. I waited a couple of days before I canceled the card but I kept checking online and the theives didn't use it for anything. The credit card companies seem to be very good about helping us be safe from people using our cards and I was very happy when they offered to overnight new cards to me at no charge.
1 person likes this
@anonymili (3138)
•
19 Sep 07
I check my bank account online at least 2 or 3 times a week as it's just so easy and quick to do. Nothing wrong with making sure there's no fraudulent activity going on as you just hear so much of it these days. I would rather be safe than sorry... Good post you started here, I hope more people take note :)
@ossie16d (11821)
• Australia
9 Jan 07
Yes the same thing happened to us but we do not know how they got the information as the details had never been given online and nor do we do internet banking. It took months for the bank to sort it all out, so I think you were very lucky yours was fixed in days. It was like we were the criminals for a while there and to make matters worse we do have an unusual surname.
Also it happened to our son when he was overseas but his was his credit card, which he still had with him at the time. They believe the card had been skimmed or something similar. He does have online banking, and one day decided to check his account when he saw all these transactions. Immediately phoned me and I contacted his bank about it. This fraud had taken place over about a week, so thankfully he did check it online, and was neither here in Australia or anywhere that he had ever visited. Also it turned out that these people also had other ID belonging to our son, and he still had it all on him. When the police told us this, we had to cancel everything in his name and then it wasn't reissued until he returned home some 6 months later. The only thing was his passport and he has never had any problems with that, but that is possibly because of the extra security features built into the Australian passport.
Not much fun at all and people should be really careful who they give their private information to. We were careful but still got defrauded, or should I say our bank was because they had to pay it back to us.
@Lydia1901 (16351)
• United States
7 Jan 07
Thanks for sharing that, we'll do that from now on. Thankfully that didn't happened to me.
@The_Eagle_1 (1121)
• Australia
7 Jan 07
Part2...lol..even though this is not a laughing matter,
I do not do internet banking, and begrudgingly view a statement when necessary. There are specific instructions left on our accounts that any increase or large withdrawral be made in person only. Once again limiting the ability to be manipulated!
@The_Eagle_1 (1121)
• Australia
7 Jan 07
Hi Cat, the instances you have mentioned only scratch the surface of what these thieves are capable of. One bank had a worm placed into all of it's off-shore accounts and 93 million dollars later lo and behold Interpol nab the thieves!! This is not an isolated incident!
Never leave your mail in your letter box or throw your mail away intact, as you can have your identity stolen like that!
I have a special debit card, which is different to a credit card in as much as the credit card works on credit extended to the bearer, and if someone has the right information they can extend the credit limit and max it out!! A debit card works soley on the money available in the account that the card is linked to, I prefer the card account isolated and not linked to any savings or other accounts, thus making it that much more difficult to manipulate an increase in the limit or transfer funds from another account into it.
@emeraldisle (13139)
• United States
16 Feb 07
That is a very good suggestion. One never knows what could happen once you give out information. I know I've seen scammers before who have racked up the bills before one can know and it might be as you said a month or more depending on how they do it. One needs to be diligent when it comes to information like that. It's way too easy for these theives to get the information and once they have it use it quick to take in as much as they can before you know it. Most will be smart about it and do it in such a way it's harder for the cops to catch them, they sell the cards to others basically. That way proving they had it to begin with is harder. You were smart to call the cops. Some don't and until they know they can't do much about it. That's great that you got your money back and they caught them. That's really good to hear.
@bkfuels (1603)
• Canada
12 Mar 07
I never do any banking on line I simply do not trust it, I use telephone banking I find it simple so I do not feel the need to have another alternative in banking. Seems any kind of banking now a days is suspect what ever happened to just standing in line and talking to a real person?
