Debit Card Fraud - By: Sherry Tingley

Using debit cards to buy things has become a way of life. You can use debit cards at almost any establishment.

A recent debit card fraud was discovered by careful review of expenditures on a daily basis. The thief purchased Chinese food and pizza. These purchases looked like normal transactions and may have gone undetected until larger amounts of money was spent. No one had even been to these restaurants in a long time.

So how did this happen?

It took a visit to one of the restaurant to shed some light on the problem. The manager examined his receipts and was able to find all three transactions. The manager remembered the person who had come in to pick up these orders. The thief then came in to pick up the order and all he did was sign the receipt. No one asked him for a card and no one cared that the signature was basically not readable.

Because the person had ordered food at the same place three times, the manager remembered him. He also had access to photographs of the person that were on his security camera. These were fraudulent tranactions.

Apparently someone who worked at a fast food restaurant had written down the card number and then used it. It was amazingly uncomplicated.

Protect yourself from debit card fraud by always keeping your card in your sight. It should not go out of your sight because writing those numbers down doesn't take much effort. It just takes a minute. Make it a habit to either pay cash at the drive through fast food restaurants or make sure that you can see your card at all times.

In this fraud case, the debit card owner was checking their banking activity daily so the purchases were caught early enough not to do significant damage, but the consequences were that the card had to be cancelled and reissued with a different number. That can be a major inconvenience. Then there had to be a report filed with the bank that required disputing the charges and signing paperwork to that effect. The bank handled the rest of the dispute and reimbursed the money to the card owner.

So how common is this?

A bank teller recently said that there are at least two to three people a day that come in to dispute purchases that were not made by them. These purchases mostly involve unexplained Internet purchases and not debit card fraud. Debit card fraud is not as common, but it still happens and that should alarm anyone who uses debit cards on a regular basis. To protect yourself from this happening to you, take care when using your card and don't let it out of your sight for any reason.

Use a debit wallet register

Tracking your expenses with a debit wallet register will help you quickly identify any unauthorized charges to your bank account. Protect yourself by keeping good records.

Copyright (c) 2009 Sherry Tingley

About the Author

Recording expenses can help you prevent debit card fraud. You can easily record your expenses in a debit card wallet register. If you don't have one yet, be sure to check them out.

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