BEWARE: My credit card was copied after I used it tosecure hotels in italy and pay for my SCAVI Tour....
 

Hi All

Just a word of warning
I just discovered my credit card was ' duplicated/ skimmed' and over €6,000 euros went on my credit card last weekend. I rarely rarely use it . I recently used it to secure my hotel reservations for my upcoming holiday in Italy and to pay for my SCAVI tour.


So just a word of warning to be very very careful.

I never thought it would happen to me.

Should I contact the hotels I booked?

Thanks
D

D, what process did you use to secure the reservations in which your card was duplicated, was it over the internet, by phone or fax? At least you will not be responsible for the stolen amount.

A reason you should contact the hotels is because I am guessing that card is no longer valid and could that impact any of your reservations?

Hope you come out of this without any financial obligations for the stolen cc number. Deborah

I guess now looking back I have been very foolish

I fowarded my credit card details via e mail directly to the hotels

I emailed my details for the SCAVI tour.

I didn't actually submit them via the internet at any stage as far as I can remember.

I am waiting for the credit card co to resolve it - they do an investigation etc. I am assuming I am not liabile but its a heck of an inconvienence.

Just beware!

Indecisive, I am very sorry to hear about your being scammed.

My son, who is much more savvy about the internet/email than I am, has always told me that I should only use secure sites on the internet and that I should NEVER put my credit card number in an email. If a hotel or B&B doesn't have a secure email site, which is not that unusual, I always get a fax number and fax the credit card number to them. For the once or twice that the place didn't even have a fax number I have sent the number by email, but I do it as two separate emails. Half the number in one email and the second half in email number two. Apparently the chances of both emails being intercepted are miniscule.

I hope this helps when making future bookings.

indecisive, if you sent it by email then you sent it over the internet. I also use my credit card online for payment and just expect it to be a secure line.

I am sure someone else on Fodor's has experienced online cc fraud and can give you some peace of mind regarding your financial responsibility.

Good luck, Deborah

LOTS of people send ytheir CC information in e-mails, over the internet, etc.

Who knows exactly how your information got into someone else's hands; it could easily have been on the other end of your transmissions.

You need to check with your CC issure as to your liabilities but I suspect that may be limited to $50.

Hi I,

>I guess now looking back I have been very foolish

I fowarded my credit card details via e mail directly to the hotels

I emailed my details for the SCAVI tour.<

Not foolish at all.

If the theft was from the hotel or the Scavi office, it doesn't matter how they got the info - phone, fax, eml, letter or in person.

It's highly unlikely that someone intercepted your emls.

You can check that by buying something with another CC and sending the details via eml.

If that card is compromised, you have a very bad spyware program on your computer.

Definitely notify the hotel and the Scavi tour people.

You are limited to no more than $50 liability per transaction, ONLY IF IT WAS YOUR FAULT.

Assuming that you notified the CC issuer as soon as you learned of the fraud, you have no liability.

((I))

I also send hotels my cc info over mail sometimes. If it was someone at the hotel or at the tour company who copied your cc information, then I suppose it would have happened even if you had send it by regular mail. I would definitely contact the hotels and Scavi about this.

Thank you all so much for you replies

The card was actually physically used in Australia . So I guess its easy to prove I wasn't there.....

I guess I have been unlucky and will be more careful in future

So sorry to hear about the CC problem.

Regarding the Scavi tour...everything I've read says you would be sending your CC info via email to their office once they confirmed a time. I emailed them on March 25th asking for a reservation in late May/early June. I got their auto-reply but nothing more. So I have no idea what sort of email to expect from them (if I ever actually hear from them again). I was assuming I would be sending the CC info via email...although the idea of doing that bothered me somewhat. I do business on-line (booked my Rome trip that way) but usually via web sites and, hopefully, secure lines.

Hope things work out for you, D.

LeeParis

Indecisive, that's the whole point: I'm not sure how much "more careful" you really need to be.

You don't know for certain how your card number was compromised, much less how it actually happened.

The one thing you <b>might consider</b> doing in the future is divinding your credit card number between two different e-mails. <b>But</b> that's no guarantee of safety, especially if the compromise happened in the recipient's office, etc.

Have you checked the PC you used to send the emails?

Don't ever e-mail CC details. Your e-mail can be very easily intercepted. The thiefs have special software to intercept any e-mails that could possibly have CC#s. The software looks for certain details, such as 16 digit numbers, expiration date (i.e. 3/08) name, address, etc. Your e-mail is totally unsecure, unless you have software to encrypt it, but then the other side will need software to read your mail, so it's not very practical unless both parties use the same software.

I agree with some here. If you have no other choice, although calling would be my choice, then split the number into 2 or even 3 e-mails. It doesn't guarantee total security but it will greatly diminish the chances of the info being intercepted.

If the hotel has a secure page to make a booking then use that as your first option.

I too was a victim of CC fraud about 2 years ago. In my case it was either an employee at a restaurant or a hotel in LA. I only used the card there. Few days before a month long trip, I went on line to check all the balances on my CCs and to my surprise there were 3 charges made in Houston (I have never been there) the evening before at Dillards, Home Depot and Wal-Mart. All 3 were for ~$500 each. I called the security hotline and as I was speaking with the agent the thief was trying another charge at the exact same time. She blocked it, but to my surprise, she was not in any hurry to call the store to get info about the thief. At the end I didn't pay a penny for the charges so I really didn't care but it surprised me to see how the bank fraud agent didn't seem to care. I just had to sign an affidavit few weeks later that neither I nor anybody that I may have authorized to use the card made the charges.

btw, I did receive a new card in couple of days.

Good luck!

If your card was physicially used in Australia that means it was a ring of scammers - not just an employee who used the number to get things for themselves.

I would definitely contact the hotel and let them know about the problem - since someone there may be employed by the ring.

(One of the restaurants we order from no longer takes CC info for phone orders - only cash - since someone there - they never found who - was stealing the info. With phone orders you get the card # AND address - which apparently allows them to get fake cards. We found out by talking to friends - and figuring out we all had bogus CC charges after ordering delivery from this restaurant - and complaining to them.

But - you should NOT give your cc number on the internet except for a site that you know is legitimate and with a clearly visible security lock. Never email the info all together.

I agree with the others, although there are things you can do to limit your exposure, since there isn't any way of knowing how the information was intercepted, it is hard to know how to be more careful.

Not to worry though. My card number has been stolen 3 times - different cards, one I have never used online or ever sent the card number in an email.

It is a slight hassle when the card number is intercepted and used, but not a huge deal. You wont be liable for any charges. The bank will issue you a new card with a new number - everything except the fraudulent charges will be transfered over. The only thing you really have to worry about are any pending or automatic charges you have going onto your card - just call the vendors and give them your new card number. Slight hassle, but nothing big.

The only time it has ever been a hassle for me was when I charged a tuition payment to a card and then before the tuition payment cleared, the card was compromised. Perhaps someone at the school was running a scam - who knows? Regardless, I had to jump through some hoops to get the tuition payment transfered onto another form of payment. It was straightened out, but it took a little time on my part.

Otherwise, the whole experiences have been pretty much hassle-free and I haven't been liable for anything.

I doubt that your credit card information was &quot;intercepted.&quot; A more likely explanation is that someone working for one of the hotels or the tour agency browsed the e-mails and copied your numbers. Even a FAX can be risky, but it is better than e-mail, especially if the FAX is immediately destroyed.

Although unrelated to European travel, I had some bogus transactions appear on one of my credit cards a few years ago. My VISA company spotted the suspicious activity and notified me even before I received the bill.

In the end, I didn't pay a dime, but it was a major hassle. About every four or five months, I would receive threatening phone calls or letters from a phone company that sold numerous $100 calling cards to the person that was fraudulently using my card. After a half-dozen phone calls, and two weeks of phone tag, it would be &quot;resolved&quot; until I heard from them again in a few months and the process would start over again. It finally stopped after I collected enough information to discover that the phone cards were charged to my credit card several days after I canceled the card. The VISA investigator that I spoke with said that many small telecomms that e-mail phone card PINs (no physical address required) are well aware that a significant portion of their transactions are fraudulent but continue to profit from such transactions.

Did the bank closed or froze your account and issued a new card with another number?

Sorry. I forgot to mention that the telecommunications company that honored the fraudulent transaction on my card did not even bother the verify that the card was valid. Had they checked, they would have discovered that it was recently cancelled.

Since the card was physically used in Australia what makes you think it was skimmed in Europe - could it not have been done when you used the card recently in the US and coincidentally it was misused now? Skimming usually involves copying the magnetic strip onto a blank card. If it was used over the net or by phone then maybe it was the result of your e-mailing the number, but only if you included the security code from the back of the card too, toherwise I suspect your card was skimmed much closer to home.

Hi In,

&gt;The card was actually physically used in Australia.....

Have you ever given your card to a waiter who disappeared for a short while and then brought it back?

It is more likely that that is how it was copied than by an internet intercept.

((I))