Debit Card Skimmed

[Femalepicasso]

I use my debit card often so it might be tough to find out who the culprit is...the past month is used it for McDonalds (Yonge-Sheppard), taxis (Beck), Movie (Cineplex Odeon @ Fairview Mall - kiosk), and Holt Renfrew (Bloor Location - Prescriptives Counter). I went to an RBC kiosk today to pay some bills and was surprised to find only $900 in my bank account when it should've been more around $1500. I printed out a mini statement and saw a PTB WD made on March 23, 2009. Called RBC and asked them what this was and they informed me that this was a withdrawal...I told them this couldn't be me since i only withdraw $60 at a time and in monthly intervals and i had no reason to take out that much money. They then informed me that the WD happened on Saturday (March 21, 2009 @ 10:35pm) and taht there were two other attempts immediately following to withdraw $300 and then $105 which were declined since my daily limit is $500 (Thank god). Told them it couldn't have been me since i was at home at 7pm and been too sick to go out for most the week...RBC is going to investigate and let me know within 7-10business days. Did anyone else frequent the above mentioned locations???

[Jucius Maximus]

It's been mentioned a million-and-one times on this board...

NEVER use debit except at your own bank's ATM. It's only a matter of time before you get scammed, and you have a reverse onus in proving your innocence, all the while you will have to do without your money. Use cash or credit only!

As for finding the culprit... good luck. You went to many places with lowly paid workers who are easily vulnerable to being paid by organized crime gangsters for running skimmers. It could be anyone. If I was to hazard a guess, I would say it's the taxi because it's very hard to put controls in place to ensure a secure payment environment in a guy's taxi, and if you are riding at night, it's really hard to see what happened to your card.

[NewBieDoobie]

Hey FemalePicasso,
I frequent Fairview Mall from time to time but did not use Debit while there.

[angel_wing0]

It's been mentioned a million-and-one times on this board...

NEVER use debit except at your own bank's ATM. It's only a matter of time before you get scammed, and you have a reverse onus in proving your innocence, all the while you will have to do without your money. Use cash or credit only!

As for finding the culprit... good luck. You went to many places with lowly paid workers who are easily vulnerable to being paid by organized crime gangsters for running skimmers. It could be anyone. If I was to hazard a guess, I would say it's the taxi because it's very hard to put controls in place to ensure a secure payment environment in a guy's taxi, and if you are riding at night, it's really hard to see what happened to your card.

we need a HUGE sticky for that seriously.

[rilhouse]

It's been mentioned a million-and-one times on this board...
NEVER use debit except at your own bank's ATM. It's only a matter of time before you get scammed, and you have a reverse onus in proving your innocence, all the while you will have to do without your money. Use cash or credit only!

+100000000

cash + credit.

[zero383]

I use my debit card often...

I stopped reading after that lol. As others have stated, don't use debit cards!! Chances are, you'll get scammed. Live and learn. Good luck though.

[osc]

It could be anyone of those places especially HR...the culprits probably ended up using an old trick (which caused huge stir in Vancouver).

Basically, they swap a terminal for a hacked terminal at any site which records your magstripe info + PIN. After one week, they come back and pull a switch again. The retailer would never know and now the culprits have a week's worth of debit cards to go have fun with...

For the OP, it will take a while to investigate but, ultimately, if they receive a lot of fraud phone calls, Interac can eventually locate the common point where are cards were used and then investigate further. If you are truly unlucky and it was an isolated case, you may be SOL.

[liorsyncro]

I wouldn't say don't use debit card at all, but be very careful. Never use it at gas stations, convenience stores, small stores in the middle of nowhere, ATM machines at convenience stores, restaurants. Those are all big no no. This is not to say each place runs a scam, but rather about reducing the risk. The only exception I would make are big retail stores. But even they aren't safe because remember what happened to TJX in the States like two years ago? Even though the scam was at the network level, it still gave the hackers access to people's personal bank accounts. I definitely agree with what others have said: cash and credit. It's much easier to obtain a refund from a credit card if your account is compromised than a debit card.