Don't know how, but the debit card attached to my mystery shopping bank account got hacked. I don't know how it happened, as the card is still in my possession. I found out yesterday when I got a notice that my Market Force payment had arrived and logged in to check my balance. I saw a debit at a Wendy's in Chicago for $7, so I called the bank to find out what was up. I don't have overdraft protection on the account, so if the money is not there, the card will be declined. I almost busted a gut laughing when the bank assistant went down the list of how many times the card was attempted to be used and declined. They started out trying to buy a $2000 TV, then some furniture, then some appliances, and eventually had to settle on a $7 Wendy's combo. I am still grinning imaging the frustration of the thief as they tried to steal my money time and time again! BTW, the bank is covering the fraudulent Wendy's meal.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/13/2018 12:16AM by PaulinMI.

Wow, good thing you didn't have $$ in the account. I just had a form of identity thief where someone tried to buy a Sprint phone under my account and I had a hard credit check. I think it's easy to get one's info. when your on the computer. I contacted the Fraud Dept. at Sprint and their looking into it. I also got a letter from the credit people and their removing the request.

Thanks @Irene_L.A., yeah, I don't keep much in there, it is an account I use to accept direct deposits and pay pal transfers. And use to make M.S. purchases and online purchases. But if the balance gets big (rarely) I transfer it to my primary account. Still I had to laugh at the imagined frustration of the thief as they tried again and again to buy something and kept getting declined. Glad your Sprint situation wasn't more serious.

It's not often that a serious event, like having a debit card hacked, ends up being a chuckle rather than years of pain while recovering from the misfortune. I'm so glad that your case was one of the rare ones!

Laugh a little harder: With the number of times that the thief has attempted to use the card, s/he is almost certainly on video committing the crime.

@PaulinMI wrote:

Don't know how, but the debit card attached to my mystery shopping bank account got hacked. I don't know how it happened, as the card is still in my possession. I found out yesterday when I got a notice that my Market Force payment had arrived and logged in to check my balance. I saw a debit at a Wendy's in Chicago for $7, so I called the bank to find out what was up. I don't have overdraft protection on the account, so if the money is not there, the card will be declined. I almost busted a gut laughing when the bank assistant went down the list of how many times the card was attempted to be used and declined. They started out trying to buy a $2000 TV, then some furniture, then some appliances, and eventually had to settle on a $7 Wendy's combo. I am still grinning imaging the frustration of the thief as they tried to steal my money time and time again! BTW, the bank is covering the fraudulent Wendy's meal.

Could it be from using public WiFi? I had my email account hacked and even the password changed after 15-20 minutes of using Barnes & Nobles' WiFi. When I drove home from B&N, I tried entering the password I'd had for years(?...a long time) very, very slowly over and over and over. It made no sense. I had JUST used it at B&N's using their free public WiFi less than an hour ago. Now, it says it's wrong.

I surmised that someone hacked me and changed my password. I got back in through security checks. My personal info. could have been stolen easily.

If you log into your mystery shopping company accounts (which have SS# and PayPal email in the account profiles section oftentimes) at a public WiFi spot, they are known to be hackers dens. I found out the hard way and never use them anymore.

Just a theory. But, in any case, hope you get it all sorted out and stay safe afterwards!!

Paul, I'm sorry that happened to you, but I am very happy at the outcome!

I use public wi-fi (don't know why, I have unlimited data) because my phone is encrypted. If hackers try to get into my phone, they will see a bunch of junk.

@shoptastic, @HonnyBrown. Thanks for your replies. I don't think public Wi-fi was the cause of the card getting hacked. There is no way to tell for sure, but I imagine more than likely it was a skimmer at a gas stations or something. Like I say, I still have the card. Sometimes I use it online, so that may be it, but 90% of the time I shop online I do it through paypal. And the weird thing is, I haven't been to Chicago in over a year. I'm in the process of collecting records from the bank on when and where the card was used and will follow up with law enforcement, but I doubt they will do much. I'm just really glad I keep separate accounts and try to limit the exposure of the primary one.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/15/2018 01:17AM by PaulinMI.

Oh, and thanks you as well @MFJohnston, I hope they can catch those thieves!

Likely from a skimmer, just like you thought. In the Fall of last year, I used a credit card at a take-out restaurant in my area and about 2 weeks later, someone tried to use a duplicate of my card in a neighboring city--only the card they copied had a chip so it wasn't accepted at the Target where they tried to use it. I tried to use the card and it was declined, so I called my cc company and they asked if I had tried to make a purchase at Target for a few hundred dollars, and no, I hadn't. I called the police and had a policeman come out, explained to him that the only place I had used the card in a few months was at this take-out restaurant and I was pretty convinced that someone there used a skimmer or otherwise copied my card. I wanted someone to investigate this restaurant.
He said that I could file a report if I wanted but the detectives in my area were pretty busy dealing with major crimes like murder, rapes, and major robberies, and since I actually wasn't a victim since they were unable to use the card, my case would take weeks for anyone to get around to looking into...plus he tried to make the case that there are multiple other ways that hackers can get a hold of someone's card number to duplicate a credit card and use it across the country...at which time I pointed out that the attempted use was in a city about 12 miles away. He said, "Yeah, but still, you aren't out any money and your credit card company would take care of it even if you were." He seemed very disinterested and made it clear that it was not a priority, so I just dropped it.

Yeah @JASFLALMT, my card has a chip as well. When I called the bank, they didn't specify exactly why it was declined, but at the time it was being tried to be used, there was literally maybe $20 bucks in the account. That chip alarm obviously didn't go off, as they eventually were able to buy a Wendy's. If they had tried all this just 24 hours later, they could have gotten a bit more, as my Market Force payment came in that night.

But I will add this to the story, as a word of warning an caution to everyone. Back about 2007, I moved my family from Michigan to Texas for a new job. I threw out a bunch of junk, and some of that junk was old check registers that had my routing and account number on them. This was the duplicates. There was so much trash, I never imagined anyone digging through it. Sure enough, someone did. I seem to attract the dumbest of criminals, as they paid their cable and electric bill at their house, and had a remote control helicopter they bought online delivered there as well. The Michigan state police did follow up and prosecute. I don't know wht the final penalty was though. Lessons learned.

Just last night there was a story on NPR business report about a new set of criminals that hack small bank data on debt cards and Pins, make fake cards for hundreds of account and then fan out across the country and drain millions all from one bank. One bank in VA was taken down completely by such a scheme last year.

@HonnyBrown wrote:

Paul, I'm sorry that happened to you, but I am very happy at the outcome!

I use public wi-fi (don't know why, I have unlimited data) because my phone is encrypted. If hackers try to get into my phone, they will see a bunch of junk.

HB - I'm interested in this encryption thing.

Did a surface-level Google search just now. But wouldn't mind learning more from someone who already has it.

Do you just download an app or something to encrypt it? Do you take it to a phone service provider to have them do it? Is it free?