Preventing the Travel Woes

[Chitza]

Brian A posted in another thread that his card had possibly been skimmed when on a ride to Key West. I have heard a few other stories from other members about the same problem.

Since I have a long international trip planned for the summer, I have done some research on this topic. I plan to call my bank a week before the trip to alert them that they will be seeing unusual activity on my account. I have used this as my wallet/purse for about the last ten years:

It's an aluminum case with a bungee closure on a plastic piece at the top. I never considered that it was a theft deterrent. Until I bought these from Amazon in prep for the trip:

I don't really understand the process of skimming and at what point your card is vulnerable. If it's when you swipe, I don't suppose either of these remedies are worth a darn. But they apparently protect your card from being scanned before or after the swipe.  ???

[norton73]

Skimming is adding an extra reader into the gas pump that the thief can use to get your CC info.

Something to consider is having more than one credit card, maybe leave one at home with a trusted friend. Why you ask?
We both travel for work and also pleasure, not always together.

Back in November, Lynn was up in Boston and on the first night she was there, her purse was on the back of the chair she was sitting in, and someone stole her wallet out of it. She discovered it was missing in less than an hour and called me to cancel the debit and CC cards, but then she had no money, or anyway to pay for anything.
The next day I got our bank to issue her another card and I overnighted it to her.

Since then, we have applied for a couple additional cards, that we are not using, and they are staying in a drawer to be used only if one of us loses, or has reason to cancel the card we have and the other can overnight an extra .

[klaviator]

I always carry 2 wallets and split up my stuff between them.  I carry a credit card in each, a picture ID in each and some cash in each.  Then I split up everything else to keep them both around the same thickness.  If I lose one I can get by with the other. 

[Brian A]

The Story:   Hard for me to say for certain but I have to figure my card got skimmed at one of the fuel stops along the way. No way to know where/when.

I got home Saturday evening and the fraudulent charges showed up Monday afternoon. One was from a Shell station in Gainesville, Fl. and the other from a Sunoco, also in Gainesville. (I never stopped at either station.)

My average fuel charges at each stop along the trip was $4.00 - $7.00.
The two charges Monday were both around $120.00.  The credit card companies must have some pretty good heuristic analysis software. They caught the only two fraud charges I have ever had on this card (approx 6 years) and caught the charges and contacted me within an hour or two of the charges posting to my account.

I did a little poking around the web and it turns out the Sunoco station appears to be the place a lot of fraud charges come from.

Results:  Bank of America cancelled the card immediately and - of course - I won't be responsible for the charges. My new card should arrive in a few days.

What now?  Not sure now what I will do differently, if anything. I don't want to get a second credit card to have as a "just in case" card. I have one, and only one credit card and I'd like to keep it that way. (I do have my Wells Fargo debit card which I could use in a pinch.)

I'm thinking I'll probably just keep it the way it is.

I always try to use good judgement. I keep my valuables - wallet/cash/credit card - safe and secure where they would be very difficult if not impossible to lift without me knowing it.

The banking and credit card industry is huge. So is the criminal element associated with trying to steal from all involved.

Nothing I can do to change that. I just try to take good precautions, keep tabs on my billings and trust the Credit Card company to keep watch on their end. They have contacted me a few times in the past when something flagged their fraud monitoring software. In all cases the charges were legit if maybe just a bit out of what their system saw as my "norm". But, I was very glad to know they were keeping watch.

[Shepcam]

I work for an international bank in the ATM division. We see this every now and then. Our machines run an anti-skim feature to help prevent this. The manufactures also try to design the card readers to prevent a skimmer being attached. Being in the business I am always on the lookout when I use my card. Pay attention to the card reader and if you think something looks fishy dont use it!

[Chitza]

Does the new chip technology fight this problem? How much more susceptible to skimming is the credit card vs. the debit card?

[Brian A]

I think the chip cards can't be skimmed IF the card reader is a chip reader and you don't have to swipe. Pretty much all gas pumps are swipe and that is where the skimmer comes into play.

I would assume skimming a debit card is the same as skimming a credit card. The skimmer reads the data coded on the magnetic strip. Also maybe logs the zip code entered? (if zip code is required).

I don't use a debit card because I don't ever want to be in the spot where it got skimmed and somebody cleaned out my cash, from my account, then I have to go through the hassles (and in the mean time no money in my account?). Also, I believe credit card purchases have a higher level of customer (me) protection than purchases made with a debit card. A debit card takes money direct from the account. A credit card purchase is a credit transaction and is governed by various federal laws.

Maybe I am wrong on the specific details of how debit transactions work. I don't know how common "holds" are when using a debit card, because I never use mine, but I do believe those can create problems if a hold ties up the cash in your account, making some of it unavailable until the hold is released.

In any event, I use credit and not debit. It just works for me. YMMV.

I am impressed and reassured by the banking industry's/credit card companies' monitoring software. I use my CC very, very frequently. Tons of purchase in state and out of state and online. And the only fraud charge I have ever had was caught immediately.

And related to the discussion: My CC is with Bank of America and all my banking is with Wells Fargo. This is by design. Most every decent sized city in the US has a branch office for one or both. I figure, worst case scenario, I always have enough cash to get me to a city with an office I can walk into, talk to a person face-to-face and get on-the-spot help.

[Brian A]

Also - I have the phone numbers to report lost/stole cards for both B of A and WF programmed into my cell phone.
I think it is a good practice.

[Chitza]

I have two accounts. Both debit. One will not read at a gas pump so I have to go in to pay. Very frustrating that I have to get off the bike, take off my helmet, go inside, guess how much fuel I need and always over pay. However, it is a skim resistant procedure and any that I overpay goes back to my card immediately and there are no holds. I use my other debit when I am in a hurry or with a group.

Edit to add: I have my accounts set to send me a text with every charge. It dings before I am done with the transaction in most cases.

[Shepcam]

Brian is right about the chip in the cards, its pretty dang secure. The skimming takes place from reading the tracks on your card and recording the key entry. The feature we use is a vibration during the reading of the card. If you notice at the ATM when it reads your card and the card entry is a little slow or "vibrates" thats the anti-skim. We use NCR, Wincor and Diebold machines and they all have various designs to try and make it difficult to attach a skimmer. This really happens in the European market a lot. Our ATM division in Europe reports a skimming event at least once a month, where we see it maybe once or twice a year.

[Chitza]

An article on identifying skimmers. With photos!

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2469560,00.asp

[DachshundUberAlles]

I know that American Express is great at monitoring activity and catching out irregularities in spending. Contacting the issuer prior to a trip is sound practice. Another option to consider is to get a "trip specific" card, one with a deliberately low limit to minimize the ability of any thief to score big off of it. I keep one such card myself. Fraud protection is , of course, a great option to have as well.

[klaviator]

Does the new chip technology fight this problem? How much more susceptible to skimming is the credit card vs. the debit card?

I don't know about resistance to skimming but I don't have a debit card because they just seem much less secure than credit cards.  I have zero liability on my credit cards and I don't give the credit card companies any money until I review my statement which I do online several times between statements anyway.  Also my credit card companies seem to monitor activity very closely.  Debit cards, on the other hand, withdraw directly from your account.  That feature makes me really nervous. Besides, I get a lot of cash back from my credit cards.  The only reason I can see for a Debit card is for use as an ATM card.  Unfortunately no one seems to issue ATM cards anymore.

[Shepcam]

Does the new chip technology fight this problem? How much more susceptible to skimming is the credit card vs. the debit card?

I don't know about resistance to skimming but I don't have a debit card because they just seem much less secure than credit cards.  I have zero liability on my credit cards and I don't give the credit card companies any money until I review my statement which I do online several times between statements anyway.  Also my credit card companies seem to monitor activity very closely.  Debit cards, on the other hand, withdraw directly from your account.  That feature makes me really nervous. Besides, I get a lot of cash back from my credit cards.  The only reason I can see for a Debit card is for use as an ATM card.  Unfortunately no one seems to issue ATM cards anymore.

BBVA/Compass and Americas First Federal Credit Union do!

[Brian A]

I just now realized where I got skimmed. At a Shell station in one of the plaza stops on the Florida Turnpike on the 1st day of the ride.  One pump would read my card, allow me to enter my zip code and then "process" but never turn the pump on.

I moved to a different pump and all worked well.

I mentioned it to the clerk inside and she said she gets complaints all the time. Something about the banks and some of the pumps, blah, blah, blah.... there wasn't anything she/they could do about it, blah, blah, blah.

It didn't click w/ me at the time. The fact that my card had just been skimmed. I wonder if the clerk was in on the deal?

I think I will try and find the specific station and make a few phone calls.....


EDIT TO ADD: Mile Marker 184 - Shell Station at Fort Drum Service Plaza

EDIT AGAIN: I called and talked to the manager. Very nice guy. He said they have serial numbered seals for all card readers and he was going to go reinspect the card reader for the pump I was at that gave me problems. I noted that it was odd that one pump would read my card, allow me to enter my zip code but he come back and tell me to see the attendant, but the next pump I moved to worked fine.
I told him there was good chance that the skim happened somewhere else but I didn't recall any other anomalies on the trip. In any event, he was nice and very appreciative of the call.