Credit Card Theft

Good Luck, You are Screwed

As we are all aware, credit card theft is rampant and being carried out in larger volumes everyday. Many third world countries have teams of hackers doing nothing but illegally accessing data banks, looking for credit card and other information with which to access your credit.

They do this because it pays, and because they have nothing to fear from being caught or prosecuted. They collect so many card numbers that they can sold for just a few dollars each on the so-called black market. If you have 2 or 3 cards the odds are great that at least one of them will be compromised this year.

Your credit card company probably 'protects' you. When (not if) a fraudulent transaction occurs you can call them and get the charges erased, eventually. The merchant(s) who took the stolen numbers will go on as usual, taking more stolen numbers, and nothing will change but your life.

I have run businesses in the past and it was necessary to accept credit cards. I was able to collect credit information on the internet, in person, or over the phone. I once ran a charge from an internet customer which turned out to be fraudulent. When I became suspicious and back tracked to the issuing bank to report the theft they put measures in place to revoke MY ability to accept credit cards.

Based on my recent experience I doubt any merchant accepting a fraudulent card will be notified, much less penalized. The brain dead 'customer support' I contacted had no idea how to deal with fraudulent charges and completely confused the issue again and again. The gangster-in-training who used my stolen numbers purchased some gaming software from Zynga (whose management has admitted fraud in the past) and bought a VoIP calling card from IDT SPAWAR who specializes in Internet Cafes in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Balkans.

When hackers and end users are caught with the goods they always have many pages of double spaced credit card numbers and associated info. They never ever have just one or a few numbers.

What this means is that your numbers could have been hacked months ago and are now in the system to be processed by the ultimate purchaser. My advice is to assume you will be abused, find out what to do about it and do it quickly. Check your credit card and checking accounts on line daily. Stay informed about your financial dealings which are in the hands of so many other entities who don't particularly care about you as a person.

It's the latest sign that computer hackers continue to target hotel networks to obtain sensitive guest data, which they can then use to purchase stolen goods. Earlier this month, Hotel Check-In reported that hotels had become hackers' No. 1 target last year, hitting hotels even more than banks and other financial service company sites.

Hackers broke into computer systems at Wyndham Hotels & Resorts recently, stealing customer's credit card information, according to an IDG New Service article on CIO.com. Wyndham operates chains including Days Inn, Ramada, Super 8 and Howard Johnson.

Russian hackers recently (December '09) got into CITI Bank's data and stole tens of millions before being discovered. The ripples from that wave are still being felt around the globe.

Luckily (or not)I caught the abuse to my card before it amounted to very much, and reported it. I found it is a waste of time to report to the merchants because they have so many abuses that they have given up and given in. Just call (don't email) your credit card company, wade through all the crap to get to a human, and get assurances that only charges you have authorized are credited and that your card is closed. They will email you an explanation of what they are doing for you. You will receive a new card in a week or so.

In my case I made my own luck by checking my accounts at least daily. I have since set up alerts on all card accounts. You should too. Remember, the card companies don't really accept any loses, they simply pass it along to you in the form of high interest and fees.