Last night, while at a bar with some friends, I received an e-mail from Bank of America. The e-mail alerted me that there was “unusual activity” on my account and my debit card would be inactive until I got in touch with them to square everything away. I called only to find out that there were two charges for $485.39 in Montreal. Needless to say, I was in Cambridge at the time.
After confirming that the charges were fraudulent and going through a list of recent transactions with the customer service agent on the phone, I was transferred to the claims department where I would be able to make a claim to recoup my money. The automated message I was sent to asked for my bank acct number which I did not know. I tried using my debit card number and that got me nowhere. SSN, same result. I gave up and decided it would simply have to wait until I got home and had access to my account information. That left me some time to try to figure out how someone may have used my debit card in Montreal while I had my debit card with me in Cambridge.
I took a trip to Montreal about a month ago where I had a fantastic time. From delicious food to great company, I would have to say it was one of the best weekends of my summer. While in the city, I needed a way of getting some Canadian currency. Early on my second day in the city, I decided to go to an ATM to withdraw some Canadian cash…I believe this is where the issue occurred. I went to an ATM inside of what appeared to be the local equivalent of a gift shop. After swiping my card and entering my PIN, the machine told me the transaction was invalid. My initial thought was that my card had been suspended since I had used it a few times the day before for dinner and the sort. We traveled along and ran across a restaurant that had an ATM right inside the door. The friend I was with told me to try that one; which I did. This time it worked. I had decided that the first ATM must have been through another bank or something of that sort and declined my transaction arbitrarily. After speaking with the fraud investigator on the phone, I believe there was something far more sinister going on.
It is called “skimming.” A device is placed inside an ATM card reader and when you pass your card through, the information is collected off of the magnetic strip and stored locally or sent to an awaiting computer. The “skimmer” is apparently used in conjunction with a small camera that records your PIN as you enter it on the keypad. This information is then used to make an actual card with the same information as the one I possess; the con artist can then go to an ATM armed with a duplicate of my card and my PIN to make a bit of cash. This is how my debit card was used in Montreal while I was in Cambridge.
Moral of the story: don’t use the ATM in the gift shop on that one street in Montreal. If you do, there may be a couple of $485.39 charges about a month later.
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