citrouille

I didn't think it would happen to me but it did. I mentioned it to one of my sisters and she casually said, "Oh yeah, the same thing happened to me while in Barcelona."

Such is a fact of vacationing tourists in Europe, expect to get your cc ripped,and wait for your cc company to notify you of suspicious activity in your account? I expected none of it. Maybe that's because I'm not an experienced traveler outside the US. How disappointing.

bettyk

We've traveled to Germany, Austria and/or Switzerland 5 times since 1999 and have never had any suspicious charges on our credit card.

In 2006, when we arrived in Germany we spent 3 nights in Bacharach. I used my credit card once on the entire trip while in Bacharach at a small souvenir shop. When we returned home a couple of weeks later, there was notification from my credit card company that they were cancelling my credit card and sending me a replacement. When pressed for a reason, they just told me that Master Card Int'l had informed them, Citibank, that security had been compromised on some of the vendor's information.

No fraudulent charges were ever made and it was a big hassle to change my auto pay accounts.

Robespierre

Citibank blew security on about 500,000 cards a couple of years ago. They told cardholders all sorts of tales why their cards were canceled.

citrouille

Well, I have to say that this was the first time it ever happened to me, though it was only my 2nd time in Paris/Europe. My trip took me back home via BRussels.

I was notified by my cc company 2 days after I got home that there had been suspicious activity on my card. I immediately checked my acct online. It looked like somewhere in Brussels, there were 4 charges that were made 2 days after leaving the city. All 4 were just over 50 euros.

The only time I used my cc was to charge my hotel, La Maison du Dragon (a hotel that seems to espcially cater to guests of Chinese origin). Otherwise, the rest of my cc charges were all made in Paris.

I knew I didn't like Brussels the moment I set foot on it. ;-)

citrouille

I don't have citibank visa. I have fidelity.

Momliz

there are so many posts about thievery and scams to folks while in Europe, with an equal amount of people responding that nothing happened to them on their vacation. My uncle had his identity stolen while he was in the U of Pennsylvania hospital with leukemia. My home here in the DC suburbs has been burglarized twice. I have never had any crime happen to me in many years of travel.

Could it be that there are thieves and dishonest people all over the world, that you are just as likely to be nailed at home or on vacation?

Apres_Londee

Nothing whatsoever to do with being in Europe. It happens everywhere. Just one of those things.

Pegontheroad

I once used my credit card to pay for a taxi here in Spokane. I hadn't used the card for about a month because I'd been in the hospital and in rehab for a knee replacement. My credit card company called me to say that someone had tried to buy $2500 worth of computer equipment on my card, but they'd refused the charge.

Since I hadn't used the card for anything but the taxi, I feel certain that the culprit was the driver, but I never accused him.

analogue

Due to the chip technology, I believe there is very little credit card fraud in Western Europe. So the crooks concentrate on the foreign cards without chips.

jamikins

I agree about the chip and pin. My friend was here in London and someone stole her purse with all your ID and cards. She has a European chip and pin card and a canadian card. They left all the ID and cards and through the purse in a restroom where someone found it. My friend took a quick peak and though everything was there. She got a call a few days later from the canadian card company and the theives had taken the non chip and pin card and went to town buying stuff.

alanRow

<<< Due to the chip technology, I believe there is very little credit card fraud in Western Europe. >>>

All the crooks did was shift the purchases to cases where a PIN isn't needed - online / mail order for example.

So CC fraud is still there, it's just in a different form

analogue

Online orders now require the security code in addition to the card number. You need to physically have the card to know which security code is marked on it.

GSteed

Is this a case for cash only?

Odin

I had cc fraud on a recent trip to the US. The card was cloned and used. The ccd company said that the US and Middle East are the most common places that cloned cards end up. In the US, they did not ask me for ID with ccd and some places did not even need signature. When paying at a restaurant, they always took the ccd away out of sight.

I also had ccd fraud from another trip to Sweden. In this case it was online transactions that did not require security code. The ccd company said liability was passed back to the merchant since they did not have adequate security on their website ie they did not ask for the security code.

Those PIN numbers get stored somewhere so would not assume that there is little fraud in western europe.

flanneruk

"Due to the chip technology, I believe there is very little credit card fraud in Western Europe"

There's any number of stories about PIN-related fraud. Microcameras recording PIN entries and correlating them with old style skimming rackets, for example. In our tiny Cotswold town, one woman claims to have been skimmed on a card she'd used only at our railway station and at a Marks & Spencer branch.

MissPrism

One good thing with chip and pin is that your card is read at the restaurant table and doesn't get taken away by the waiter.

bozama

For goodness sake crime happens everywhere , just because it hadn't happened to you at home doesn't mean it doesn't happen just as much at home.

My ATM card got "scanned" and used fraudlently,, to the turn of 500 dollars withdrawn in a two minute period( first a 200 dollar withdrawal , then a 300 dollar one) .. then luckily my bank closed it down.

This happened two weeks ago in my home town, small twon western Canada, it can happen ANYWHERE!

Pete_R

<i>Is this a case for cash only?</i>

No more (or less) than in the US.

I'm a European, I use a CC here all the time. My card has been cloned once, and as far as I can tell, it happened in Indiana of all places.

PatrickLondon

It's only happened to me twice. Both times suspiciously close to the only times I've used a certain catalogue store (that tourists won't ever visit) here in the UK.

hetismij

I'm a European, and only recently got my chip and pin card. I have never had my card skimmed or misused, ever. It has been stolen, twice - once during a break in at home, once my purse was stolen. Each time I was able to cancel the card quickly with no use having been made of it.
That said neither I or my husband let our cards out of our sight. In the US recently if we had to leave the card with the cashier whilst filling up the car one of us stayed inside with the card in our hand until the other had filled up.

The same is true with our debit cards - which do get skimmed too, more often than you'd realise. The use of a small camera enables them to get the pin, and the skimmer is put on an ATM so it looks like the normal card slot, or the cashier uses an extra skimmer that you don't see. I never pay with a card if they want to take it off me. Here in the Netherlands now many ATMs have holograms on the card slot and warnings about skimming.

So the simple thing to do whether in the US or Europe (or anywhere else in the world) is never let the card out of your hand/sight. If you have a pin with it make sure you hide your hand well whilst keying it in.