I have never used my debit card / atm card for a purchase. I only use it to access my bank account. I find out today, that about a week ago my debit card was used to purchase three tanks of gas in an area in my county that I am never near. How could someone have gotten my debit card number? Isn't a pin needed to use it?
I recently got an apartment and had to provide my bank account number to the brokers (one of whom was Remax). Could they have somehow accessed my account?
2006-08-16 04:18:12 · 15 answers · asked by me 2 in Business & Finance ➔ Personal Finance
Watch those atm machines. People can attach fake readers to those atms. (I wish banks could prevent this). Besides reporting your debit called comprised. You might want to tell them to check out all the atm machine you may have used. I think you need to get you checking account number changed. I never heard of brokers requiring a checking account number.
2006-08-16 05:59:42 · answer #1 · answered by webworm90 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A debit card can be used on the outside pumps without the need of the pin (a debit card can be used either as debit or credit card) So somehow someone had got a hold of your number and is using it. Call your bank and dispute the charges right away. I would advise you to open another account and transfer all the money there, make sure you don't have any outstanding checks that are not paid yet.
2006-08-16 05:19:10 · answer #2 · answered by fasb123r 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I hope that you have called your bank by now and reported the problem. The faster you report something like this, the better it is. Why did the brokers ask for your bank account number? And why did you give it to them? That's like handing them a pad of blank checks to use.
As for PIN, they can just tell the bank that they have forgotten the PIN and ask for a new one. This is only possible if you have not reported them.
Debit cards are often disasters waiting to happen since it gives people direct access to your checking account. When my bank sent me a debit card, I called them and told them that I did NOT want a debit card and would they please send me a new ATM card. They did so with no problem.
2006-08-16 05:02:00 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Identity thieves are sneaky!
You don't need to use a pin for a credit card transaction if it is used as a credit card instead of a debit card. A gas station would be the easiest place to get away with it because it's automated and there isn't even a person involved to check the card.
Call your bank right away and contest the charges. They are required by law to refund your money if your card was used fraudulently.
2006-08-16 04:26:01 · answer #4 · answered by Tamborine 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋
I remembered having a call from a credit card company saying that my card was being cloned and was used to charged for 3 tanks of gas as well. The culprit must have cloned my card while I handed my card to the waiter when I paid for a dinner in a restaurant 3 days ago. I didn't personally go to the payment counter you see. Normally I insist to go to the counter and witnessed that my card was being swept once and signed on the sales slip on the spot.
The credit card company automatically suspensed my account and informed of the matter and re-issue me another one the next 2 days.
They asked me whether my family member have access to my belongings and the possibility of them using them while I was not around plus other questions which is common when there is a card fraud. However, the possibilities of your suspicion is high as well. I was asked to filled a form to dispute the charges and the credit card company reversed the charges.
Try talk to them. They will have a way to detect whether the charge is a genuine one. Hope it helps.
2006-08-16 04:41:55 · answer #5 · answered by Ms G 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Please call the bank that issued your debit card immediately to report what you suspect is a bogus transaction. They should remove it from your account, but more importantly they should immediately cancel your card and issue you a new one.
Let them know if you have any reason to suspect anyone of having used it without your permission, and also let them know that no one knew your PIN number other than you. This information might be important should they be able to track down the source of the bogus transactions.
There are many ways to get your card number so its not necessarily the real estate agents you gave it out to.
2006-08-16 04:26:44 · answer #6 · answered by DR 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
You never mentioned if you still have the debit card.
You still need a PIN number to use the debit card and I'm sure you didn't provide that to Remax.
If the card never left you and you never gave out your PIN number, something is very odd.
Call your bank....PRONTO.
2006-08-16 04:26:53 · answer #7 · answered by Jessica 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
at a pay at the pump, sometimes the gas station owners get cheap and allow the debit card to be used as a credit card, it costs them less per transaction. Ummm, someone could have swiped yourcard info, that is a small machine that records the data from your card and stores it. Machines that press credit cards are avaiable on ebay for around 600.00, it doesnt take too much to do it.
2006-08-16 04:27:06 · answer #8 · answered by Thumbs Up Fairy 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Absolutely! Quite honestly anybody can steal anything these days. Let your bank and/or credit card company know what you just said here. They have investigation departments and/or security departments that can look into these things. And by the way are you or were you in the military? Some computers were stolen from the VA and other places that had personal data on them so......
2006-08-16 04:27:00 · answer #9 · answered by poojally 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You don't need a PIN to use a debit card if it has a visa or mastercard logo on it; you can use it just like a credit card. If anyone got a hold of your card, or wrote down or photographed your card number, they could use it.
2006-08-16 04:25:00 · answer #10 · answered by Christina 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋