Personal anecdote and tips:
I had my debit card skimmed at a local gas station in October. Within a couple hours, it was being used at stores in Los Angeles. I live a 3+ hour drive from LA so there's no way the skimmer/data was physically taken down there–the data had to have been transferred (cell?) to someone down there pretty quickly.
My card was used at a restaurant and a few different stores, but several times per store. Total amount charged was about $2K. All purchases were < $100 and most purchases were for very even amounts at drug stores. Based on research, this is because buying gift cards is a favorite use of stolen cards. Gift cards can be turned into cash online for about 75-85 cents on the dollar.
Chase was very good about freezing the card and crediting back all the fraudulent charges.
TIPS:
- Use cash or a gas card for gas OR at the very least, use a pump close to the cashier
- Debit cards have a reputation for having less protection than credit cards. At least at Chase, this is no longer true. Chase has zero-liability for unauthorized debit card purchases [1]
- Check your online banking often
- Don't rely on your bank's automated fraud detection. Most alerts I've received from Chase have been false positives (legitimate purchases while traveling).
[1] https://www.chase.com/checking/debit-cards
I had my debit card skimmed at a local gas station in October. Within a couple hours, it was being used at stores in Los Angeles. I live a 3+ hour drive from LA so there's no way the skimmer/data was physically taken down there–the data had to have been transferred (cell?) to someone down there pretty quickly.
My card was used at a restaurant and a few different stores, but several times per store. Total amount charged was about $2K. All purchases were < $100 and most purchases were for very even amounts at drug stores. Based on research, this is because buying gift cards is a favorite use of stolen cards. Gift cards can be turned into cash online for about 75-85 cents on the dollar.
Chase was very good about freezing the card and crediting back all the fraudulent charges.
TIPS:
- Use cash or a gas card for gas OR at the very least, use a pump close to the cashier
- Debit cards have a reputation for having less protection than credit cards. At least at Chase, this is no longer true. Chase has zero-liability for unauthorized debit card purchases [1]
- Check your online banking often
- Don't rely on your bank's automated fraud detection. Most alerts I've received from Chase have been false positives (legitimate purchases while traveling).
[1] https://www.chase.com/checking/debit-cards