Share your ID theft story

Hasn't happened to me yet but is it possible they had physical access to your card? Like a skimmer installed in ATM or a shady store copying it while you pay.

I don't have to worry about that. Because I don't even want to be me.

I had my debit card used for some uber fares in California. I live in Michigan, so it was no problem getting it sorted with my bank.

My wife got like 4 new cards in a one year span, due to various large retailers being compromised (think it was Target and others).

Generally I've seen it advised to use a credit card and not a debit card, as you have less risk with a credit card (not going to overdraft your bank account, etc).

I have 3 credit cards and I tend to use certain ones for certain things. For example I pay my online accounts with one card, use another for use in restaurants and retail stores (both a more likely source of card number theft). That way if the "Risky" card is compromised, I don't have to go in and change all of my online accounts.

If you use your phone to pay in stores, it sends a virtual credit card number so your real card number can't be stolen. Likewise online if you use Paypal or Amazon to pay, then the store isn't getting a chance to ever see your actual number.

There are services like privacy.com which can generate virtual card numbers with limits and locked to one retailer only, so even if it's stolen it won't work anywhere but the first place you ever used it. You'll need to trust privacy.com with your bank account info, though, which I don't, so I haven't used it.

Keeping a list of all of your accounts with saved cards/recurring payments is helpful so you can go in and update them all when your card expires or is replaced with a different number.

Got a tax return that I hadn't filed. Cleared up with the IRS, and now get a private code mailed to me every year (why isn't this default?). Only places I used my tax info were on one or two tax return filing sites, and possibly the credit report companies (but this was before they got hacked). Personal identity security in the USA is a joke.

Haven't had credit info stolen (yet), but need to be on the lookout for that right now, since I had a bag of paperwork stolen from out of my car recently, and I'm not 100% certain that info wasn't in that bag.

Also, +1 to people suggesting a card skimmer is likely how your info was stolen. Gas stations are a prime target for that. I try to remember to check visually whenever I pump gas, but usually forget.

Never stole any ID/Debit Card, I'm usually only going for cash :)

Pls no blacklist, I'm just joking :d, never had something like that happen to me

PayPal, about 400 euro, but got it back, PayPal was helpful in that.

Dunno how, but if you google many accounts do get leaked. Since i removed my bank account from it and only deposit small amounts.

Let me tell you about the first time I stole someone's identity. I ended up with this debit card number from some bloke in Wisconsin. I started swiping $30, $50, $130 bucks at a Pizza Hut down in Texas...

I know someone who's credit card info was stolen, probably due to using it at a gas station (it was an older gas station where they manually run your card, rather than just put it into the pump).

I used the same password at Newegg as I did at another merchant, the other merchant was compromised, and someone used that login info to go into Newegg and order $300 in gift cards. Newegg flagged it, halted the purchase, and called me to confirm, so I was able to avoid the charge. Unfortunately, that also resulted in my Newegg account being permanently disabled which means I can no longer sign into it, and can't shop at Newegg anymore or access my $40 in credit.

I now use a password manager and a unique password at every site - and with every security breach, I'm glad I do.

Ever heard of RFID and smart paiement ? You know, those devices which allow you to pay with your card without contact. Well, shady people have access to those devices too, that's why there are wallets with RFID blocking cards nowadays, because they don't even need to have access to the card physically, they can access to your card informations with that specific device. Buy a RFID blocking card, that may have been the problem.

The other day in Japan they've arrested a cashier who stole credit card info of 1300 customers by memorizing all the data (cc's number, holder's name, expiration date, ccv2)

sorry it was me. i was hungry

Opened a new business a while back. Within two weeks someone had used my newly-issued business card for a shopping spree at a luxury store in New York.

I'd only used the card 8 times, so the number of suspects is pretty small. Needless to say, nobody bothered investigating

Just yesterday we found out that my husband's paypal account had been stolen and someone bought 350 euros worth of games and game time. It probably happened when he went to this site to buy a windows 10 licence. He had checked ratings for this site and it seemed good, but I guess it was not. So far we have managed to get 80 euros back. We'll see if we ever see the rest since they were used to buy game keys.

Moral of the story: Don't try to be smart and save money or you might lose more.

Share your ID theft story

"Sharing" is what gets people in this mess in the first place.

All on-the-earth data is “impossible to escape from human eyes”┐(´Θ`)┌
At least for all digitized data.
Electronic payment?
Human alchemy to amplify virtual money and deceive and exploit people.
The card company operates the exchange market by adjusting the timing of settlement.
Big money manages small money.(exploitation)

Aside from bad jokes.

The workarounds are "Contact immediately when no card is at hand", "Check the card usage history, and contact immediately when something is wrong".
It is the duty of humankind who has signed a contract with the card company (devil).
An acquaintance who had accidentally stolen a wallet left the card company's phone number only on the back of the card, forgetting contact.
Please take a look after that.

At least all users with a “card number” can be victims.
The real thing to worry about is "contact credit card company immediately" when you lose your card.
If you are neglected to contact your credit card company, a huge amount of misfortune will attack you.

There are many "unfair justice" and "lazy police" in the world.
You will be taken to a police station detention center as part of your fake card.
Perhaps you will go to jail for atonement.

His lesson was "Leave card company contact in car, home, company and wallet."

Not my story but one of my friends dad.

Not thoroughly checking his PayPay / bank only realized that from time to time different values charged for postal services and complaining from time to time to his wife she shouldn't shop that much online. Truthfully she stated shes not shopping that much. In the end no deeper look was done and the story repeated once or twice if I recall correctly.
But then he finally took a closer look.

On a daily basis, even multiple times a day. The PayPal account was charged with E-Stamps for package delivery. So someone was shipping or selling these E-Tickets massively via this PayPal account for months.
After counting everything together they were quite shocked as these small amounts accumulated to over 5000€ stolen.

When I heared the story I thought: Ohh that might not be so easy to get it back. But a week later it was already nearly done. Without any problems PayPal payed everything back.
I would guess these companies and banks have insurances for these kind of cases so it's not their loss either in the end.

Now that I think about it, actually yes. When I hit 18 (that's when you are legally considered adult in my country) I got stopped on the street by promoters for one of our cell providers offering a 'free' SIM card. There was some special offer included and according to them it was up to me whether I activate it or not, no strings attached. Turned out it was activated automatically which I found out month later when I got a bill.

So far it would have been all my fault for signing the deal without reading it properly, funnily enough though, apparently I loved the new service so much that I went out of my way to find those guys in another city (50 miles away) the day after the first signing and signed another 3 deals with them.

One call with the company's headquarters later I was free from all 4 contracts and the fee was pardoned. I did not even get an apology though and thinking back, I should have probably sued them since faking my signature, coming from a nation-wide provider seems like a pretty big deal (even though the issue originated from some part-timers who probably do not even work directly for the provider but rather some agency).

So far nothing to report, and hope it stays like that.

Some years back, someone managed to get hold of my debit card number. (I still don't know who or how, but it happened right after I used the shady gas station. They may have written down the number while I was filling up.) It didn't take long to notice as I have very little money and the bank contacted me for the overdraft as soon as the person tried to go shopping.

Not long after, I signed up with LifeLock and haven't had any problems since, thank God. Mostly, it's been my (old) passwords and personal information that have been floating around the Dark Web, and LifeLock helps me with that. What is more insidious is when you receive phishing attempts from people impersonating a family member.

Thus far, I have not had anyone attempt to buy a house in my name and/or steal the lease to a property I already own. This is partly due to the fact that I own no property, but you still want to watch out for it. You also want to keep an eye on your social security in case someone else is using your number.