Debit card unauthorized use.
 

We have our US debit cards and we never use them for purchases. We only use them for withdrawing cash from ATMs.

Yesterday $222.50 was withdrawn by an online retailer (forever21.com) on our account. Our cards are in our wallets, we never shop online with debit cards and we don't shop at forever 21.

Wells Fargo was great, shut down the accounts immediately but we won't get our money back until an investigation and more paperwork. I then called Forever 21 and explained the situation - the cancelled the pending order and said under law, they could only tell me it was being sent to Accra, Ghana.

F21 would not refund my money, but said its now with the bank.

We realized that for the first time in the whole 2 years that we've been here that the cards were out of our control is...now, I-751. My husband did the photocopies himself at work and his company doesn't archive what is photocopied. Three days ago I got the confirmation of our package being delivered in Vermont. I had remembered to ink out the credit card #s, but did not ink out the debit card numbers. And now this.

No suspicious activity on the credit cards (I closed them immediately as well.)

We have zero banking via USPS. Its all online.

Our package had every single bit of personal information about us, including bank statements. We are a bit worried.

Re: Debit card unauthorized use.
 

Don't worry, not much you can do about it. Chances are, your card was skimmed when you used one of those ATM's anyway.

Re: Debit card unauthorized use.
 

We use Wells Fargo ATMs at their branches.

Still unnerving!

True, we could have had it skimmed at these...but the coincidence of timing made us worry.

Re: Debit card unauthorized use.
 

Inside the branch or inside the little atrium type entry way? Easy enough for someone to stick a skimmer in over night either way.

Re: Debit card unauthorized use.
 

gas stations are also an easy mark

Re: Debit card unauthorized use.
 

While chip and PIN cards aren't perfect they do add an extra layer of protection against fraud. Why the US banks continue to be behind the curve ball on this I don't know?

Re: Debit card unauthorized use.
 

I'm no expert, but my guess would be that the cost of implementation is huge, and the fraud savings don't justify it.

Apparently 50% of credit card fraud is CNP (Card not present - online, phone purchases etc..) - which Chip and Pin does nothing for...

Re: Debit card unauthorized use.
 

That's what the US banks say although the European banks don't seem to have had that problem.

Re: Debit card unauthorized use.
 

My bank called, texted and emailed me about suspicious charges on my debit card one day. I logged on shortly after and found 3 x $100 charges at gas stations in a different state. Called the number back, said "you called about suspicious charges, I confirm they are suspicious".

They immediately cancelled card and "temporarily" refunded the charges. I got a new card in 2 days, and a letter in mail to sign and confirm the disputed charges. A month later they wrote that the investigation was complete and the temp refunds were permanent.

Very efficient I thought.

Card was obviously skimmed/cloned somehow but the places i use it are limited and it was likely they can trace similar events to get the culprits.