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Financial fail
Apr. 8th, 2010 09:38 pmMy debit card has been compromised, and some fuckers have attempted to siphon $2K out of my bank account. Thank god for the CPS bank, because after about $150 worth of transactions, they put a hold on the rest, cancelled my card and gave me a call. The transactions are still sitting there as "pending" (with the funds unavailable), and they still might get processed, but I can claim back later if that happens.
For the life of me, I can't think how it was compromised. I paid for my travel to NZ and some sundries on it. I use the PIN and the card does not leave my hands, so it is unlikely to have been skimmed. Also, it's VISA transactions that are the problem, not debits from my savings account (which my card is linked to). No viruses or malware on my machine - I've just scanned it using three different tools, to be sure. I haven't been signing up to dodgy porn sites or dodgy any other sites. I booked my travel to NZ using reputable sites like Wotif, Air NZ and Virgin. There are no transactions listed on Paypal. Amazon can't transfer funds elsewhere... The pending transactions were all to shitty "adult" sites.
The only thing I can think of was I ordered some gear from the US a couple of months ago, and because the merchant was not set up to accept CC payments online for non-US payers, I very reluctantly sent my CC details via poxy email. In 4 different messages over 2 days, but still. Perhaps their system has been compromised. Well, I'll be emailing them to see if they've had any issues - they were very professional in their dealings in general, other than the payment processing - I most CERTAINLY will follow best practice in future to not email stupid things again. And I'll continue racking my brains to see if there might have been some other place I've left CC details.
The ironic thing is that over the last couple of months, I've been trying to locate a disposable credit card supplier. The only one I've found in Australia only sells them in units of $50, and does not refund any leftover balances. Screw that for a joke. Time to get a regular CC with maybe a $300 limit and start using that, methinks.
For the life of me, I can't think how it was compromised. I paid for my travel to NZ and some sundries on it. I use the PIN and the card does not leave my hands, so it is unlikely to have been skimmed. Also, it's VISA transactions that are the problem, not debits from my savings account (which my card is linked to). No viruses or malware on my machine - I've just scanned it using three different tools, to be sure. I haven't been signing up to dodgy porn sites or dodgy any other sites. I booked my travel to NZ using reputable sites like Wotif, Air NZ and Virgin. There are no transactions listed on Paypal. Amazon can't transfer funds elsewhere... The pending transactions were all to shitty "adult" sites.
The only thing I can think of was I ordered some gear from the US a couple of months ago, and because the merchant was not set up to accept CC payments online for non-US payers, I very reluctantly sent my CC details via poxy email. In 4 different messages over 2 days, but still. Perhaps their system has been compromised. Well, I'll be emailing them to see if they've had any issues - they were very professional in their dealings in general, other than the payment processing - I most CERTAINLY will follow best practice in future to not email stupid things again. And I'll continue racking my brains to see if there might have been some other place I've left CC details.
The ironic thing is that over the last couple of months, I've been trying to locate a disposable credit card supplier. The only one I've found in Australia only sells them in units of $50, and does not refund any leftover balances. Screw that for a joke. Time to get a regular CC with maybe a $300 limit and start using that, methinks.
