Credit Card # Stolen

[Intercooled]

My wife and i just got a phone call from Dillards Dept. Store in Texas. The store was checking on an online order made today for a large sum of money. We confirmed that we didn't order anything. We then called the credit card company and found out that $11,916.00 was purchased on my wifes account over the last 6 days. My wife has made some online purchases in the past and now i'm really upset and disturbed how this happened. We wont be liable for the charges, thank god!! I've used my card many times to make purchases from online Car polish vendors and such. Very scary!!
Just thought I'd drop a note here for all you guys to just beware!!!

[SilverLexus]

I use a card with a low credit limit just to be careful.

I'm sorry that happened to you two.

[Intercooled]

Silver, I'm thiking about getting a credit card with a very low limit just for internet purchases. I wonder if thats possible.I mean requesting a low limit from a credit card company?

[perry]

Originally posted by Intercooled
Silver, I'm thiking about getting a credit card with a very low limit just for internet purchases. I wonder if thats possible.I mean requesting a low limit from a credit card company?

My company, MBNA, allows me to generate numbers with a set expiration date, limit of my choosing, and they're only good at one vendor. I believe that Citibank may also offer that feature, and probably others.

For instance, I ordered a new hard drive for my computer this past week for $112. So I made a card with a limit of $115 set to expire next month. If the number gets stolen, it can't be used elsewhere and someone else can't use it at the same place and get more than $3 of stuff. And if they do want that $3 of stuff, they need to hurry because the card expires next month. Pretty safe, huh?

You should be able to request that your company lower your limit if you don't want to apply for a new card.

Did they actually use a card at all the different places? Just online orders? Could they have stolen some of those checks that the cc company sends for you to write against your credit limit?

[Corey Bit Spank]

That's odd, capitol one called me when I purchased college books to ask if it was me purchasing them. And I have a $500 limit, lol.

They always call my parents when they make a large purchase too. Infact, when they go on trips they call up to verify that it's actually them making the purchases. It's really annoying sometimes but it makes me happy to know they watch.

[kpounds]

My understanding how this is done is the thieves 'park' at busy websites and bank sites and try to get the CC/debit card numbers when you go from a secure page onto a regular page and somehow they can see the numbers stored in your temporary internet files.

Best thing to do after making a purchase is logout if possible then close the browser completely (red x). That stops the 'data trail' right there. Then clear out your temporary internet files ASAP before browsing again as you'll be carrying that info along with you and someone might be able to view it. You can do it in Windows or there's a great free program called Diskcleaner that does it one click. http://www.xs4all.nl/~mp2004/ Cleaning the temp files every so often also speeds up web surfing as your not carrying the extra files around like an extra weight.