Electronic pickpocketing

That is simply amazing.Nothing seems safe anymore. I checked my cards and none have the RFID symbol on them

FWIW, my business card number has been stolen at least 6 times in the past 3-4 years with many thousands of dollars in off shore charges racked up. Each time it was the fraud department of my CC company who contacted me to ask if I had made those charges. Charges were made to offshore casinos and to purchase theater tickets in London England. The CC fraud department said that more often than not, the credit card info is stolen usually when the card is given to a waiter at a restaurant to pay for your meal. The card is swiped to pay the bill but also to get the card info. Each time, even though I didn't make the fraudulent charges it took 3-4 months to expunge the problem from my credit info (which BTW was done) and each time I was expected to pay the charges and/or the interest due on those charges until the information was cleared from my card at which time the interest paid was credited back to me

My problem was my ATM reflected charges I did not make. Be especillaly careful if you have a joint card. They were charges in my neighborhood similar to charges I usually make. it was unlikely I spent three nights in a row in a motel in my neighborhood. I just assumed the joint card holder made the charges. it's a good idea to go on line and check your account regularly. You rich guys may not miss a couple of hundred dollars from your balance. you will recognize charges you did not make. if you see a ML CLX charged on the east coast just ignore it.

I've represented quite a few people who have been charged with CC crimes. The first group of people manufacture their own cards (usually but not always in Asia) by the box load. Since these cards are not stolen, per se, it takes quite a while for the CC companies and banks to catch on. The second group of people are stealing the CC card numbers and the 3 or 4 digit code on the backs of the cards. Restaurant employees are the typical offenders, but it can happen almost anywhere, to state nothing of the fact that many times one has to give out both the CC number and the 3 or 4 digit code when making purchases either over the phone or on line. Then there is a third group of people who are actually stealing the cards. Usually this occurs when a post office employee is in on the scheme.

An anecdotal personal story which happened about 10 years or so ago. My wife calls me in my office and tells me that she was looking out the front of our house and sees a guy walking away from our front porch, holding what appears to be our mail (which, often times, is just left on my front porch. In particular she sees an envelope with what she thinks is a Discover Card return address. I whip out my wallet, look at my card and, sure enough, it was about to expire. Given my experience in these matters, I conclude my replacement card very well might have been in that envelope, so I call Discover and tell them what happened. They immediately cancel the replacement card and process an order for a new replacement card to be mailed to me. Literally 45 minutes later I get a call from a security officer in a Sears department store about 3 miles from my house. The officer asks me whether I had given the card to that person in his office who claimed to be my cousin. I had a good laugh out of that one. I'm sure that guy was shocked when he got caught within an hour of stealing my mail.

I've seen it all. A guy had his own credit card machine. They can get your pin number form the ATM machine. They can make a key using your vin #. These are the guys getting caught. Home equity loans are available without ever seeing the customers face.