Woke up to fraudulent charge on my bank card.

[TwiceOver]

Great, out of nowhere $260.10 to B&H Photo. Filed claim with bank and cancelled my card. I think someone may have just guessed it though as I haven't made on online purchase with it in MANY months and I shred all of my mail.

From a quick Google search looks like B&H is plagued with this kind of thing and also pretty crappy business practices. I have never purchased anything from them or even remember browsing their site.

Guess I better run a credit check also. And yes, I changed passwords everywhere that I can think of.

UPDATE 5/19: B&H called to verify that I ordered an IPOD... Ohh hell no. Cancelled order, they would not give me the shipping information for the person. My bank is calling them to get the information.

 

[Zim Hosein]

Originally posted by: TwiceOver
Great, out of nowhere $260.10 to B&H Photo. Filed claim with bank and cancelled my card. I think someone may have just guessed it though as I haven't made on online purchase with it in MANY months and I shred all of my mail.

From a quick Google search looks like B&H is plagued with this kind of thing and also pretty crappy business practices. I have never purchased anything from them or even remember browsing their site.

Guess I better run a credit check also. And yes, I changed passwords everywhere that I can think of.

That sucks to hear TwiceOver, but how do you suppose someone might guess your CC info?

 

[ICRS]

Thanks for the new Camera.

 

[Kaido]

I use MyFico's Score Watch service:

http://www.myfico.com/Products...Watch/Description.aspx

A little pricey at $89/year but I've had my debit card number stolen twice (I also keep good financial practices, so it wasn't because I wasn't being careful) so I feel it's a worthy investment. I get an email update any time my score changes or something happens with an account under my name.

 

[TwiceOver]

Originally posted by: Zim Hosein

Originally posted by: TwiceOver
Great, out of nowhere $260.10 to B&H Photo. Filed claim with bank and cancelled my card. I think someone may have just guessed it though as I haven't made on online purchase with it in MANY months and I shred all of my mail.

From a quick Google search looks like B&H is plagued with this kind of thing and also pretty crappy business practices. I have never purchased anything from them or even remember browsing their site.

Guess I better run a credit check also. And yes, I changed passwords everywhere that I can think of.

That sucks to hear TwiceOver, but how do you suppose someone might guess your CC info?

That's where I'm also confused. The card is in my wallet, I shred my mail, haven't posted any online transactions to it in months (usually use my real card for fraud protection).

Either they guessed it and B&H has rather loose CC processing (they do from what I have read) or someone at a business I stopped at copied it and purchased something from a known internet cess pool of a company.

 

[Baked]

Do you eat out? Easy to just copy down your CC# and use it for online purchase.

 

[Bignate603]

My wife just had that happen, but it was at a local best buy and home depot. They charged about $1200 on her card. They stopped payment on about $750 of it, and the bank finally gave us back the rest.

 

[xanis]

Originally posted by: Baked
Do you eat out? Easy to just copy down your CC# and use it for online purchase.

Yeah... I always feel paranoid about that.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: Baked
Do you eat out? Easy to just copy down your CC# and use it for online purchase.

I have a careful approach to financial security now. Basically:

1. Debit card - only for emergencies
2. Credit card - for in-person purchases
3. Paypal account - online purchases (virtual CC generator available for non-PP sites)

The CC and PP are funneled directly to the bank account. I have access to online records for all three accounts and check them at least weekly. I keep the phone numbers for all three accounts along with associated information in a starred email to myself in Gmail as well as on my cell phone in case I need to call on any of them quickly. I also have a MyFico Score Watch account to notify me of any changes to my score, plus account changes. So coupled with scanning my accounts online at least weekly and keeping a daily purchase log on my computer, I have a pretty good idea of what goes on. Doesn't take more than a couple minutes a day, either.

 

[TwiceOver]

Updated. Anyone that knows me knows that I wouldn't ever order an IPod.

 

[Injury]

Originally posted by: Baked
Do you eat out? Easy to just copy down your CC# and use it for online purchase.

I caught a guy putting the store's copy of the receipt on top of the card and pressing the paper in to the numbers to make an impression of it once.

I asked him for that copy of the receipt... he said the store needed it.

I told him it doesn't matter which copy the store gets.

I asked for the manager, got the copy of the receipt and found out the next time I went there the guy got fired because he always had missing credit card receipts from his drawer.

 

[Demon-Xanth]

The way I do it:
Debit card: if it stays in my hand.
Credit card: if it doesn't.

It's really easy to deal with credit card fraud these days. But a debit card issue will really hose you.
$2k balance on your CC for a month: easy to deal with
$2k missing from your checking: can't get ramen.

 

[jaqie]

Originally posted by: TwiceOver
Updated. Anyone that knows me knows that I wouldn't ever order an IPod.

Heh, same here.
And purchasing online is actually safer in general then shopping in stores in person with a card.

 

[Ramma2]

Should have said yes then have them confirm the address, then cancel it.

 

[Brainonska511]

Originally posted by: Demon-Xanth
The way I do it:
Debit card: if it stays in my hand.
Credit card: if it doesn't.

It's really easy to deal with credit card fraud these days. But a debit card issue will really hose you.
$2k balance on your CC for a month: easy to deal with
$2k missing from your checking: can't get ramen.

My debit card is only used at the bank/ATM; I use my CC for everything. The two main reasons to use a CC: 1) more fraud protections (legally only liable for the first $50 compared with a debit card, where that $50 liability only applies for the first few days, then sky rockets to something like $500 and after 30 days becomes unlimited) 2) If your CC number gets stolen, you still have the money in your hand.

 

[Demon-Xanth]

Change the order to this:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/...x2_Slide_Magazine.html

...and request signature being required

 

[TwiceOver]

Originally posted by: Ramma2
Should have said yes then have them confirm the address, then cancel it.

Yeah, hindsight 20/20 thing. The odd thing is I was looking at the card before I shredded it and the CVV code on the back is completely scratched off. The other bad thing now that I think about it is they had enough of my real info to have my phone number, or how else would B7H get it?

 

[Demon-Xanth]

Originally posted by: Brainonska511

Originally posted by: Demon-Xanth
The way I do it:
Debit card: if it stays in my hand.
Credit card: if it doesn't.

It's really easy to deal with credit card fraud these days. But a debit card issue will really hose you.
$2k balance on your CC for a month: easy to deal with
$2k missing from your checking: can't get ramen.

My debit card is only used at the bank/ATM; I use my CC for everything. The two main reasons to use a CC: 1) more fraud protections (legally only liable for the first $50 compared with a debit card, where that $50 liability only applies for the first few days, then sky rockets to something like $500 and after 30 days becomes unlimited) 2) If your CC number gets stolen, you still have the money in your hand.

That's exactly why I do it the way I do it. But the likelihood of it getting stolen from getting groceries where the slide thing is right in front of me seems really low. I've had problems with my CC getting stolen twice, one of which was when they sent me a new card and I never got it. But it was only a single phone call that wasn't even long to get it taken care of. CC companies are happy to ditch a number and send out a new card.

 

[Brainonska511]

Originally posted by: Demon-Xanth

Originally posted by: Brainonska511

Originally posted by: Demon-Xanth
The way I do it:
Debit card: if it stays in my hand.
Credit card: if it doesn't.

It's really easy to deal with credit card fraud these days. But a debit card issue will really hose you.
$2k balance on your CC for a month: easy to deal with
$2k missing from your checking: can't get ramen.

My debit card is only used at the bank/ATM; I use my CC for everything. The two main reasons to use a CC: 1) more fraud protections (legally only liable for the first $50 compared with a debit card, where that $50 liability only applies for the first few days, then sky rockets to something like $500 and after 30 days becomes unlimited) 2) If your CC number gets stolen, you still have the money in your hand.

That's exactly why I do it the way I do it. But the likelihood of it getting stolen from getting groceries where the slide thing is right in front of me seems really low. I've had problems with my CC getting stolen twice, one of which was when they sent me a new card and I never got it. But it was only a single phone call that wasn't even long to get it taken care of. CC companies are happy to ditch a number and send out a new card.

That's true. I forgot the 3rd reason I use my CC over my debit, the rewards are better.

 

[Bignate603]

I always use my credit card for a few reasons:

1. Debit cards don't help you build credit (I want to buy a house inside the next few years)
2. I get 1%-3% cashback on my card. I've got over $200 bucks from that
3. I NEVER carry a balance. If I can't pay it off I don't buy it so I don't pay interest
4. Fraud protection.

 

[ICRS]

Actually I know someone who had something similar happen. Thing is it wasn't an intentional fraudulent charge. Someone had nearly the exact same cc number as him, differing only by a single digit. The expiration date had the same month too, but were one year apart. Some how this person accidently entered in my friends cc number (remember only 1 digit off), and then placed their expiration date in it. The place they purchased it notice it didn't go through due to the wrong year, so they changed the year thinking the person entered it wrong. In the end the whole thing was one mistake after another.

 

[gsellis]

Originally posted by: TwiceOver

From a quick Google search looks like B&H is plagued with this kind of thing and also pretty crappy business practices. I have never purchased anything from them or even remember browsing their site.


UPDATE 5/19: B&H called to verify that I ordered an IPOD... Ohh hell no. Cancelled order, they would not give me the shipping information for the person. My bank is calling them to get the information.

You are wrong about B&H. They are one of the best e-tailers in the business and I use them almost exclusively for photo/video needs. I have done at least $3-4k of business with them. And as proof, they never call me to confirm my orders. They called you. Sounds like they were suspicious of the order and called the card holder directly to verify the order before final processing (the order system is automated, so it will have the hold set in.)

As for giving you the info, they probably reported it as fraud and that then gets into handing it to law enforcement. If law enforcement can do something with it, you could undo it by contacting the party directly.