Fraudulent activity on debit card

[kuduman]

Who uses a debit card in 2023? Virtually zero protection from fraud.

If you're forced (like most everyone) to have a debit card with some Visa/MC payment option on it, as you say-- no fraud protection.

Call the bank and get the credit limit set to zero. You'll have to do this every time you get a new card (since they expire, thank you George Bush!), but it does prevent the card's use without requiring the PIN.

 

[kuduman]

You can disable the RFID and NFC functions with a strategic hole punched through the card. Instructions can be found on the internet. Card will still work for swipe and chip.

 

[Talos]

I've never used a debit card. I tell people all the time, get a credit card. With a CC you're not spending your own money so if there's an issue you're not out of pocket.

 

[lostchild]

Having a debit card seems as unwise as using ATMs.

 

[41mag]

I used to feel the same way. I'd tell people,"I don't worry about identity theft because who the hell would want to be me." Then I realized there's always someone with less who is willing to take what little you have.

Yeah, you are probably correct.

 

[kuduman]

If they would invoke some public Sharia Law style punishments for identity, CC and Debit card theft this **** would go way down. I have no problem with them carving up a POS for stealing a CC # and then using it to buy a pizza or a Ferrari. Hacking off body parts is a great crime deterrent.

You don't need to go that far.

Most credit card theft (in person) would stop if merchants required the PIN to go with the chip card, like in the rest of the world. For some reason, merchants here choose not to require the PIN. It's on a per-merchant basis too-- any merchant could choose to turn that feature on today, and stolen credit card usage is a thing of the past. But no US merchant has done so. The rest of the world ended this kind of fraud a decade or more ago.

There's online fraud, of course, but a lot of CC fraud is someone skimming your number, then printing up a fake mag-stripe card, from another CC or heck a hotel room key. Etc. Then off to the weave store and gas station for free stuff (that's where the criminals went that got my wife's number from a Mexican restaurant in Decatur). We think they were selling discounted fill-ups within two hours of getting her number. Police of course not interested, so there's really no risk in doing this.

Again, that is immediately stopped if businesses require chip-and-PIN. After all, this is WHY chip-and-PIN was developed. But in the US... they're happy with fraud and 30% interest rates to cover it. You should be mad about this-- we are all victims of this, but the merchants and the banks do not care.

 

[87KJH]

When the loss to the banks from credit card fraud exceeds the cost to implement chip and pin, we will see chip and pin as the "new" standard in the US as it has been in Europe for almost 2 decades.

 

[lostchild]

You don't need to go that far.

Most credit card theft (in person) would stop if merchants required the PIN to go with the chip card, like in the rest of the world. For some reason, merchants here choose not to require the PIN. It's on a per-merchant basis too-- any merchant could choose to turn that feature on today, and stolen credit card usage is a thing of the past. But no US merchant has done so. The rest of the world ended this kind of fraud a decade or more ago.

There's online fraud, of course, but a lot of CC fraud is someone skimming your number, then printing up a fake mag-stripe card, from another CC or heck a hotel room key. Etc. Then off to the weave store and gas station for free stuff (that's where the criminals went that got my wife's number from a Mexican restaurant in Decatur). We think they were selling discounted fill-ups within two hours of getting her number. Police of course not interested, so there's really no risk in doing this.

Again, that is immediately stopped if businesses require chip-and-PIN. After all, this is WHY chip-and-PIN was developed. But in the US... they're happy with fraud and 30% interest rates to cover it. You should be mad about this-- we are all victims of this, but the merchants and the banks do not care.

Yep, they could call it the Panacea Card. Makes you feel good but actually accomplishes nothing.

 

[spencer60]

Chip and PIN isn't 100% foolproof. Just look back to my ATM story above. There's lots of ways to get someone's PIN.

That being said, it would be more secure and cut down on a lot of fraud.

 

[titan2k10]

Debit cards are locked away. They never get taken out except extenuating circumstances. Anyone who uses a debit card needs to be taken out behind the woodshed for a lesson.