01-03-2013, 03:20 AM
This happened to me here in Hilo (I believe) in September. The only time I used my newly re-issued CC was at the mall. Two weeks later I was in WA State, using it to buy friends dinner and it was declined. I called my card number as soon as we returned to the hotel and the same thing happened as TomK - my card had been flagged due to possibly fraudulent charges. We talked through them on the phone (about 3k worth of electronics at newegg online). We also talked of how my info could have been scammed. It seems one method that is taking shape more and more is proximity swiping. The perp simply walks by you with a prox scanner and grabs all the info off the magnetic strip. (They don't get the 3 digit #.) I looked around on the net and there are certainly many instances of this, many ways to do it if a person is carrying a card in their pocket or wallet that is unprotected/unshielded.
Anyways, my card was never out of my sight when I used it, and I use safeshop when online, so this seems the easiest and most probable route of acquisition, in my particular case. I was not charged, and was sent a new card asap. I now use the shielded card slips for all my magnetic cards, which prevents prox scanning. Office Max/others carry these.
And I paid my wife back for buying dinner.
-- rainshadow
Anyways, my card was never out of my sight when I used it, and I use safeshop when online, so this seems the easiest and most probable route of acquisition, in my particular case. I was not charged, and was sent a new card asap. I now use the shielded card slips for all my magnetic cards, which prevents prox scanning. Office Max/others carry these.
And I paid my wife back for buying dinner.
-- rainshadow
-- rainshadow