Victim of Debt Card Fraud Says Card was Never Stolen
By: Stephanie Sobic
Updated: July 1, 2010
Anyone who has ever been a victim of fraud, it can come as a complete surprise. You've done everything to protect yourself, but still someone has been able to hack in to your personal information. For one Midland woman, she used her debt card in the morning and by night time her card was being denied.
In less than ten hours, Betty Forbes was out thousands of dollars...and where was her money being spent? In Europe, at a convenience store. Here's the catch.... Betty's debit card was never stolen.
"It's a cautionary tale that's true," explains Betty.
On June 7th, she made a purchase in the morning and by night her debit card was denied twice. Confused, she called her bank.
"They had canceled my card because they knew that something was wrong. So they really caught it, the fraud department caught it," says Betty.
$2,000 was taken out of her account and the transaction was done in Spain.
"The card was never out of my possession. No one had stolen my card and I did not give my pin to anyone. So that was a bit of a surprise to me," says Betty.
According to her bank, Midland Teachers Credit Union, your card doesn't have to be stolen for fraud to happen.
"We live in an electronic age and so much of our business is done over the internet or debt card or electronic funds transfers. Fraud can happen when you've always had your card in your possession," explains Midland Teachers Credit Union Spokesperson, Michelle Forest.
In Betty's case, she's not sure how someone got her personal information. Whether it was hacked from the internet or someone took an actual picture of her debit card when she was using it.
"According to the bank, they believe it happened in Midland. I don't have anyway of knowing that. I've heard that there are several other people. So their investigating it here locally," says Betty.
"Fraud is something that we need to be aware of. It’s not common, but it does happen. So the best thing you can do is be diligent in protecting your personal information, watch your accounts closing and realize there are a lot of security features that are set in place already by finical institutions to protect and catch fraud early," explains Forest.
Betty says if it wasn't for her bank shutting down the card, someone could have stolen a lot more money. And, you hate to see your money go to another country, especially if you're not taking a vacation there.
