had debit card number stolen after using vape websites

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Kaedinsdad

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May 26, 2013
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hey all. after buy some items for i thought trusted vendors i had my bank account cleaned out my someone that stole my debit card number. now im not saying it was those sites but its the only thing i had used my card for in about a week. just wondering if anyone else had a problem like this? I used got vapes and okc vapors.
 

Train2

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Probably not helpful to you, but to anyone else - you should NEVER use a DEBIT card for online purchases.
At least in the U.S. one of the defining differences between a credit card and a debit card is that most credit cards include a "fraud protection" clause - and you will not be held accountable for purchases made with a compromised number or stolen card...
 

patkin

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If you are going to use a debit card, there's nothing wrong with it if you do it safely... that is:

1. Have two or more unlinked (meaning no overdraft protection) checking accounts. Most banks offer a no-fee small account if you already have a larger one.
2. Maintain only a very small balance like less than ten dollars in one of them and only use it for online purchases.
3. Transfer only the amount of your purchase into it from your other bigger account(s) right before making the purchase... you can do it on your cell phone with most banks now so you can have the vendor checkout page up on your computer as you make the transfer.
4. Set up email or cell phone alerts on all the accounts you have but especially the small one. There are multiple types of alerts.
5. Make the transaction alerts for anything more than .50 since thieves often make just a 1.00 hit to see if its alive.
6. Set up the same type of alerts on your larger account just so you know if a bank employee has accidentally put overdraft protection on your other accounts or there's a system glitch that has. There's an alert for transfers.

Sorry to hear this happened to you. Its happening to way too many people.
 
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I just had the same thing happen to me, only the crooks didn't get anything. My bank stopped two attempted transactions coming from Romania at 4:40am on the 11th of this month. This first transaction was for $0.83, then another for $33. They killed my card and now I'm waiting on a new one.

In the last two weeks I've placed multiple first time orders with various ecig sites (that I probably shouldn't list). I figured my card info may have been snagged as a result, but now that I see it has happened to someone else, I feel much more certain that is where they got my info. I'm also certain it's being intercepted from a US based site, as the 4-5 international orders I've placed in the past two weeks (damn you fasttech and your ridiculously good deals) have all been paid via paypal instead of my debit card.
 

mightymen

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    No you can't
    Very important you might have a keylogger installed on your computer, do not use the computer for any purchase/payments until you check it out for a logger. For those who don't know what a logger is. Someone watchs what keys you type in and then they have your passsword/ID they go into your account sometimes change password which will keep you out of account.
    It might not be the vendors problem but yours!
     

    Thanks for the link. Lots of good information in there. I certainly hope I didn't sound like my card info being intercepted was in any way the fault of a vendor. I was saying I felt certain it had to be intercepted while purchasing from US sites, since only those I used my debit card with. I was thinking that had to be the only time my card info was being transmitted.

    Admittedly though, after reading the info you linked, I'm doing several big no-no's, and now I'm paying the price. Lucky for me the cost is in time and inconvenience and not money. It's time to rethink my online shopping habits. I especially liked the "Virtual Card Number" bank card idea. That sounds perfect.
     

    Coastal Cowboy

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    The vendor is probably as much of a victim as you are. ID thieves don't target individual accounts because it's too time consuming. Instead, they go after vendors and gateway services who haven't spent the necessary time and effort to protect customer data from determined thieves.

    See if your bank offers a prepaid card service, preferably one that allows you to transfer funds to it online. Many larger banks do--I'm using one to make sure my college age daughters have gas money and I don't transfer anything more than the cost of a tank of gas and a can of Red Bull. If they lose the card or if it gets compromised, I'll toss it and get a new one.

    Also, don't think PayPal is safer than using a bank or credit card. A client of mine had thousands wiped out last summer when he used PayPal to pay for equipment and supplies from overseas. To date, PayPal has still not made him whole.

    Edit to add: It makes sense to make sure your PC is as secure as possible. Never, ever, EVER us MS Internet Explorer for online shopping. In case you missed it--never, ever, EVER. Use FireFox or Google Chrome, both of which are light years ahead of MSIE.

    Get yourself a good antivirus/malware protection application. There are many good ones that are absolutely free for personal use and are as good or better than Norton or Symantec. Norton is better than nothing, but not much better. Symantec is better than Norton. My favorite is LavaSoft's AdAware. It's free for download and free for personal use, with a reasonably priced upgrade to additional features.
     
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    Caridwen

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    This was interesting-

    The other compromised banks and financial services providers were Aon Hewitt, Automated Data Processing Inc., Electronic Payments Inc., Fundtech Holdings, iPayment Inc., Nordstrom Bank, PayPal, TD Ameritrade Corp., the U.S. Defense Department’s Defense Finance and Accounting Service, TIAA-CREF, USAA and Veracity Payment Solutions Inc.
     
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