Posted: 3/14/2005 5:04:58 AM EDT
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My 16 yr old son has an after school job and wanted to open his own account at a local credit union . No problem , he knows the drill . Can't spend what you ain't got . He gets a debit card so he can access his account on the weekends , etc . Everything was fine for a week and a half . This weekend he gets THREE calls from the VISA fraud people saying that someone is attempting to use his card number in another state . Well , the account was suspended immediately and now we have to deal with straightening this mess up . How does this shit happen so quickly ? He never used the card except at local merchants and the ATM machine . Warn your kids about identity theft . It happened to a 16 year old ! |
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my visa check card was Identity stolen at an Ace hardware store. Aparently the "computer" was down and the clerk (theif) had to run it manualy ,carbon copy, stupid me I didn't get the carbon as I was in a hurry and on the clock at work. all it takes is one time you let your guard down, live and learn, but it's bound to happen to everyone eventually, unless you only trade in cash. 
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A scam that pops up from time to time is when someone goes to an ATM and sticks up a false panel on the front of it with his own card swiper and number pad. People come up to it and think the bank has put in a new ATM machine. They swipe their card, enter their pin, and the ATM just sits there. Thinking it's broken, they leave. Thief comes back later and takes fake front off and retrieves recorded card and PIN info. If it's your son's first ATM card, he might not be familiar enough with how an ATM is supposed to look to spot a fake front. Just a thought on how it might have been stolen. BTW, I've never seen a legit ATM with a card swiper. All the ones I see have you insert the card fully into the ATM through a slot. If I saw an ATM with a swiper, I'd go to another one. |
I got my first checking account when I was 9 [I was in 4H and also had a $1000 loan for my steer]. Kids need these things while under their parents supervision to protect themselves when they're adults. I've been told though that the debit card is the most vulnerable card you can carry. It's unfortunate because it's so simple - but I tend to only use it for groceries and cash at my local bank. Patty |
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Quoted: It happened to a 16 y.o. because you gave a 16 y.o. a bank card. If he never used it then he probably must have told some else the pin number or left it laying around where someone GOT the number and used it as a CC. Does it have a Visa symbol on it? He only had the card for a week and a half . He knows better than to leave it where anybody else would have access to it. The same thing happened to his mother and I a year ago and he knows the consequences of identity theft . I'm sure there are many parent's here that have kids with bank accounts . My intention was to encourage them to educate those kids about the dangers of ID theft . Save your criticism for another thread . |
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He needs to trace back the stores and try to figure out what happened. There's also a scam involving ATM's, where they have a card reader attached to the real card reader on the machine. As the card is sucked in, it is read by the fake reader first. The crook stands not too far away with binoculars and reads the keypad as you key in the PIN. Now asshole has the data on the card and the PIN. Other than something like that, the likely way it was taken was by an untrustworthy cashier wherever he bought some stuff. |
In Illinois theres a lot of legit bank atms that have the card swipes. I never thought of a fake one though. Thanks for the tip. |