Credit card scam
Local authorities have received a number of calls as credit card information from Emporians is being used for purchases and charges in the Chicago area.
Authorities believe the credit card information is being obtained in Emporia, according to Emporia Police Chief Gary Smith. The credit cards have not been stolen, so it seems the information is being taken from cards when they are being used for a legitimate purchase locally. Anyone who has been a victim of such a theft and who has not reported it, should contact local law enforcement immediately.
Anyone with information about this or any other crime should call the Emporia Police Department at 343-4200 or Lyon County Crimestoppers at 342-2273.
madpoet (anonymous) says...
This is exactly why you need to be very careful when you give your credit or debit card to a server at a restaurant from the table. You can buy scanners that will read the magnetic strip on the card and record the information. It takes just a second for it to be done. I try never to let my card out of my sight. I bet some crook is working at a local establishment and doing something like that. Hopefully the police can find a common thread with all the victims and narrow it down to one place to check out.
September 18, 2008 at 3:19 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
toofast (anonymous) says...
My wifes credit card info was taken off of her computer and used by an employee of an Emporia computer repair business. They tried to use it to do a wire transfer on Western Union and we were contacted by the credit card company. The police were notified but nothing was done about it.
September 18, 2008 at 5:27 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
justthefacts (anonymous) says...
Why did the police say nothing was done about it? Or did you ever follow up?
September 18, 2008 at 6:11 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
slipandslide (anonymous) says...
i dont know how long ago its been, but its possible the police are still working on it.
September 18, 2008 at 8:55 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Bjnemp (anonymous) says...
Geez. Another scam to worry about. As if the proposed smoking ban wasn't scam enough to deal with. It's always somethin'.
September 18, 2008 at 11:51 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
create (anonymous) says...
toofast, you need to follow up right away to find out if the police are still working on that. That person needs to be arrested. You must press charges. In the very least, that person should have lost his job.
Years ago, before we could swipe our own cards at check out stands, my credit card information was stolen by an employee at Wal Mart. He used it to buy merchandise online from Eddie Bauer by using a computer terminal at Emporia State University library. He was having the merchandise delivered to addresses where houses were in the process of being built. He knew exactly what time of day deliveries were made.
Thank God for Master Card and the Emporia Police Department. In less than ten days this was all solved. First of all, Master Card contacted me by telephone to ask about large, unusual purchases at Eddie Bauer, an establishment I'd never used before. When I told them I had not made these purchases, they acted immediately to save my money. I lost nothing. Then Master Card detectives contacted Emporia Police right away and worked with them on capturing this thief. The good news is that they organized a sting and got the guy. I pressed charges. He was an ESU student who had been working part time for Wal Mart. He was getting credit card numbers off cash register information. Of course we are protected from such a thing now because we now swipe our own cards and numbers are transferred electronically.
toofast, and everyone else: If this happens to you, don't let it go. Insist the police work with your credit card company, and for goodness sakes, press charges no matter who the culprit is. This hurts all of us.
I'm wondering if these computer repair places are bonded against such occurences? If not, we should insist that the only way we will do business with them is for them to prove that they are bonded against this kind of criminal activity.
September 19, 2008 at 11:56 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
glarson (anonymous) says...
Create,
Thanks for the good advice. I've noticed some restaurants in town still have old machines that print my entire card number on the slip I'm supposed to leave behind. It doesn't give the 3-digit code on the back, but still, the first 16 digits are bad enough.
I sign and leave the copy behind that doesn't include my card number, or I strike through the card number completely on the copy.
I hope those establishments also are working on upgrading their equipment to the ones that print just the last 4 digits.
Gwen
September 19, 2008 at 1:26 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
neighbor (anonymous) says...
I got a notice from my Mortgage provider this week that all my personal mortgage and credit information may have been included with all the other data an employee of theirs had sold to an unauthorized third party. Nothing is safe and secure anymore.
They provided us with a 2yr. Service Contract with a credit monitoring service for their involvement in this mess, which is a good start but does little to ease my concerns. I signed up today after seeking legal advise and got my first glance at my report thru the service. There was an alias and a place of employment listed on my report that was incorrect, so I filed a dispute. The aka had not applied for any credit or an account in my name, but I still demanded it cleared from my report.
Everyone should check their credit report often to watch for fraudulent activity, monitor their bills closely for unauthorized activity, and take immediate action should anything occur. I look for more of what is happening with the credit cards in Emporia to take place as cash and checks become a thing of the past.
I predict that once checks are obsolete and you are required to use credit or debit cards only, there will be a fee added to your bill for processing the sale, mark my word.
September 19, 2008 at 1:55 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
josiesbar (anonymous) says...
Neighbor,
There already is a fee for processing your credit card. The business has to pay it, not the individual. It is roughly 1.1% of the transaction for credit cards and 0.6% - 0.8% for debit card transactions. That is why at Wal-Mart and other stores, you have to go through a few extra steps to run your card as credit rather than debit, and why Aldi's only takes debit cards.
September 19, 2008 at 2:14 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
beep (anonymous) says...
This happened to my boyfriend, brother, and I in June. They somehow got a hold of our debit card numbers and were buying loads of gas in western Chicago. I do the whole online banking thing and I check it AT LEAST twice a day, but I was out of town for a couple days without internet access and wasn't able to check it. The jerks, in that two day time span, got more than $1,000 worth of gas with my debit card. I went to the bank and canceled my card immediately. The lady at the bank did some research and found out that all the transactions were keyed in, not swiped.
All three of us got hit at the same time, and we aren't for sure where they got our numbers. My boyfriend and I went to the police station to file a report ASAP. We even called up to the police stations in the towns where the fraudulant charges were made, and one detective (with a thick northern accent) said that he has been getting a lot of calls about this and has done some investigating. From what he has found, they usually start out at gas stations to see if the owners of the cards are paying attention. Once they get away with it for a couple days, they start going to stores and purchasing expensive electronics. Luckily, ours didn't have any other transactions other than the gas stations (mine had one Family Dollar transaction around $30).
It sucked. We had to go at least two weeks without a debit card.
September 19, 2008 at 3:02 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
neighbor (anonymous) says...
beep, do all three of you bank at the same on-line bank? Shop at the same stores? Use the same atm? Would be interesting to try and pinpoint the location of the CC number thefts.
September 19, 2008 at 3:40 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
sadinemporia (anonymous) says...
neighbor: I got the same thing in the mail from my mortgage company saying an ex-employee had sold my social security number, loan number, and other personal information and for us to sign up for the Credit Protection plan for free. I was even reluctant to do that because they ask for your social security number and you never know if the letter we got was legit or not. Unfortunately, you CAN'T trust anyone. Was your mortgage company Countrywide by chance? If so, I wonder if they will be held responsible if my information is used and problem ensue?
September 19, 2008 at 3:50 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
neighbor (anonymous) says...
The Credit Bureaus have all your stuff already sadinemp, and yes it was from Countrywide. WIBW had a report about it on their news the other night, I got the letter the next day. Yes the incident and letter are legit, I called Countrywide as well. Your last question is why I sought advise from my attorney.
September 19, 2008 at 4:09 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
slipandslide (anonymous) says...
i got an email from a friend that showed a real life theft from an atm machine. someone takes a slip of x-ray type film and folds it in half, then sticks it inside the card slot. the film is the same color as the card slot. the unlucky person who puts their card in cant make a transaction and the card is stuck and cant be ejected. the thief will offer to help unstick the card, and then usually oversees the pin number the person is using. when the card owner finally gives up on trying to get the card unstuck, he leaves and the thief takes the card out and has the pin number. the email i got was a series of photos taken from a security camera of a real theft and the the thief got away with quite alot of cash. i ve also heard some stories of descretly placed cameras near atm machines where the camera owner can view the numbers someone is using. i guess it pays to watch your account
September 19, 2008 at 7:32 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
beep (anonymous) says...
neighbor,
My brother and I bank at the same bank, but my boyfriend does not, and I am the only one that uses the online banking feature. We don't use the same atm's (my brother doesn't use atm's). Yeah, we shop at the same stores, but that's because we all live in the same town. The towns that they were used at were all in Western Chicago...don't remember the names of them exactly...Maywood sounds familiar, but not sure...also another town that starts with an "R."
September 20, 2008 at 12:39 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
neighbor (anonymous) says...
What bar, restaurants, c-store, retail, grocery etc do the three of you frequent the most? Try to make a list of the most common places and eliminate those that one or more of you don't go to. I'm sure you guys have discussed or thought of this, and it's really none of my business, but I'd sure like to have an idea of where not to use my card. I rarely use a credit card, but do on occasion when I don't have my checkbook or cash with me.
September 20, 2008 at 2:56 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
create (anonymous) says...
Good advice, neighbor. They could even construct a grid, just like one used for solving logic problems. Easy to do on a computer. Also, you make a good point about identifying the place of business where this theft occurred. I too would like to have an idea of where not to use my card. I rarely use a credit card, but often use a debit card, especially for gas.
I know after my Wal Mart experience, I was very skittish about ever using my credit card again. As it happened, it was during the Christmas season, a good time to beware of scams. But for the longest time, I just used cash which is often inconvenient and dangerous too.
September 20, 2008 at 6:52 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )