As you know, we follow the cash envelope system in our home. But, I was still carrying around my debit card. I end up using it a few times a month, usually for small purchases.
This morning I logged on to my online banking to pay some bills and found that I was missing about $240.
I don't know how it happened, but somebody got hold of my debit card number and used it to buy movie posters and vitamins. Luckily, I caught it right away (within 12 hours of the charges being made) and was able to get the charges reversed. I've filed a police report and really want this person caught. The vitamin company was even able to give me the IP address and the ship-to address. It's local...and since I live in an area where very little ever happens, I'm hoping this means that they will be able to catch the person.
My retail manager husband was telling me about these "Swipers" that crooks are using. It could have been that I gave my card to someone to pay for dinner (we used it at a restaurant in the last week) and they swiped it in one of those "swipers" before charging my card.
Am I saying that if you use a debit or credit card that you will certainly be the victim of theft as I was? Of course not.
But if I had paid cash, the worst thing that could have happened would have been being shorted on my change!
Heather
I'm sorry that stinks! Thats why I check my account all the time. I buy a bunch of stuff on line too. But the envelope system is the BEST.
Heidi @ GGIP
What restaurant was this? I hope they get caught! Keep us updated.
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Celeste Fland
I have heard about that too. There are after market attachments for blackberries and waiters can swipe your card into the blackberry. The blackberry stores the number. I have a co-worker that worked at a chain restaurant and 2/3 of the waiters there were doing that. They were arrested as a group.
DianeScraps
Oh yuck! I had heard about the ones that were happening just a bit East of us, at the California Pizza Kitchen.
I hope they catch them. I really try not to use my card anywhere that I have to 'hand it over' but sometimes it seems unavoidable. (Course I don't carry much cash)
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tiffanie
this happens more often than you'd think. i worked as a loss prevention manager for walmart and would have local (and not so local...) police calling for me to research video tape on certain days and times that cards were used through the "swiper" method. a lot of the time it's hard to catch, so i'm glad you've got an address and IP address...should make things 100% easier. good luck.
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rjleaman
I think that kind of theft might feel as much of a violation as having your purse stolen or your home robbed - even more than being all about what you lost (though of course that does matter!), there's the fact of losing a bit of the ability to trust. We hand those cards over to a restaurant server with so little thought and so much trust - no wonder so many places are putting in policies where the servers etc. have a handheld card machine to bring the card machine to your table, so the card never leaves your sight.
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