Back off Fraudsters!
Admittedly this is a “depressing” topic– and so early for my blog!? But the reality is everywhere, not just for travelers, and that is: fraudulent credit card abuse.
I’ve felt a bit sheltered from aggressive attack only because of my unusual name – but that is a false safety net. Names are just names and don’t belong to any one person, and provide little, if any, shelter.
Here’s my story – and it isn’t sad, because I have the eagle eye when it comes to bank statements AND because credit card companies are equally on alert, when you are.
First, was a Visa card issued by Chase. My statement probably looks like many others: Fred Meyer, Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods (a guilty, and a once convenient, pleasure), Safeway, Rose & Thistle, Rite Aid, Zappos (OK, another “guilty” one). In a glance, everything lines up, but upon closer evaluation I noticed ONE of the Fred Meyer purchases was in Troutdale. And, what, the Safeway. . . this one is in Tualatin??
“WAIT, those locations aren’t the merchants I frequent??!!
Second, was a GIFT CARD I received as a going away gift; the perfect gift for a person on the road. When I went to use it the third time, it was all used up.
“Wow, that went fast. . . I know we’re loaded down, but we’ve
only fueled up twice, something’s up??”
No, I wasn’t given a partially used-up gift card. . . it was another credit card breach! A Walmart in Southern California?!
WHO are these crooks?
During my career, I’d hear of these breaches often – but was never a target. Now a target, I plan to beef up a few things. Here is where I’m starting: I have downloaded an app called My LastPass. This app creates extremely strong passwords and holds it in a “vault” – you launch any of your sites from LastPass, and LastPass takes it from there, auto-populating username, password and you’re running. Additionally they provide document storage and important “notes” – such as the combination to our storage SmartBox.
Since my computer will be with me everywhere I go – if my computer goes missing, I do not want my browser remembering my passwords, and welcoming the thief in!
The other tool is purchasing a VPN, a virtual private network. This is a way to use public wifi as though it’s a personal and private network. A VPN will encrypt my data and routes it through remote servers, keeping my banking, or other activity private. The service I went with is Hide My Ass – lovely name, huh?
After I spend some time with these additional security measures, and as I learn more – I will report back! In the meantime, if you’ve taken extra security measures, I’d love to hear them, or maybe you have a “I’ve been there!” story? We can learn from each other!
Boy, does this topic hit home. We’ve had this happen too many times, usually because our card was involved in a data breach at some big company like Adobe, TJ Maxx, Target, Home Depot…Usually a new card is issued before any fraudulently activity occurs, but we have had a couple of instances where charges were made. Both times however we received notification from the fraud department of the credit card company. The last trigger was someone purchasing a $5 pretzel at Mr. Pretzels in Richmond followed by a $300 purchase at Macy’s, not sure what algorithms banks use to determine fraudulent behavior but apparently $5 pretzels raise eyebrows. Keep an eye out for iTunes purchases too, usually used to test the waters on whether a card number is valid.
We did have our debit card comprised several years ago. Not sure how since we only use for cash at bank ATMs (skimmed?), I noticed on our statement a withdrawal in Chicago followed shortly by five $80 withdrawals from a convenience store in Russia! The killer was with each of those we had non-ATM transaction fees, currency conversion fees and foreign transaction charges. The good news, we were not liable for any of this.
I think your protections are good, especially since you’ll be accessing a lot of open Wi-Fi networks. We also setup alerts on our accounts for transactions out of the norm and reduced amounts available per withdrawal and per day, check statements a lot and use credit monitoring which is usually free after a data breach. Other than that hope the companies you do business with protect your data!
We are enjoying your posts! Cheers!
JEFF, thank you for these tips! Setting up alerts, and establishing reduced values are officially on my “to do” list~
Good info