Don't let your bank cards out of your sight

[NormanH]

A scam that was new to me when I heard of it consists of taking a quick photo of the front and back with a mobile phone.

You don't notice that anything has happened, unlike when a card is stolen but the photo of number and key code on the back have been sent by MMS to a third party who can make Internet purchases.

It is exacerbated if your card has deferred payments and you don't notice that the balance has gone up until the day when you have to pay the month's purchases.

This scam can be avoided if your bank uses the system of a security  code  sent to your mobile as an extra check, but not all sites do this.

[EuroTrash]

Having recently had my bag snatched in Italy, with both my bank card and my mobile phone in it, I'm no longer a big fan of the security code by SMS. A lot of people keep their mobiles and their bank cards together in the same bag; Never thought of it before but now it's happened, it seems a huge and obvious flaw.in the system.

[Pickles]

[quote user="EuroTrash"]Having recently had my bag snatched in Italy, with both my bank card and my mobile phone in it, I'm no longer a big fan of the security code by SMS. A lot of people keep their mobiles and their bank cards together in the same bag; Never thought of it before but now it's happened, it seems a huge and obvious flaw.in the system.[/quote]

Our accounts are set up so that any confirmation code goes to the other's mobile phone. The REASON why they are set up thus is not because we were being clever, but because I had to muck about when trying to get the online system to accept UK phone numbers and had thought that there was a problem with my then provider, so tried OH's number in a slightly different format. Success! After that, it wouldn't take OH's number against OH's login, so I put mine in instead. After that small success, I couldn't face battling with the system to swap them round! It does mean that any expenditure over €300 gets notified to the other by SMS!

[dave21478]

Look out for shifty-looking till workers with a grubby thumb.

As they handle your card transaction, they glance at the back of the card and memorise the 3 digits, then as the card machine prints out the receipts, one for you and one for the shop, its a quick bit of sleight-of-hand to hold the shop copy of the receipt over the card and rub their thumb along it, leaving an imprint of the embossed digits from your card on their copy of the receipt.