It already is. Just a few weeks ago we had a major bust in NY with organized criminals who made millions off of stolen credit card numbers by recruiting waiters and waitresses at upscale restaurants skimming off credit card numbers from high end cardholders: http://www.bankinfosecurity.com/arti...hp?art_id=4266

You'd think paying $300+ or more in annual fees for your US issued AMEX Platinum card would have an EMV chip on it, but it still has only the fifty year old cloneable mag-stripe, while Canadian and UK AMEX Platinum counterparts have both the chip and the mag-stripe on them. Wait a minute, last time I checked it was called AMERICAN Express, not Canadian or British Express; why do they have more secure AMEX Platinum cards than ours? :mad:

I have a Platinum AMEX and was emailed an invitation to partake in a survey regarding many aspects of the card itself and possible future changes. One part of the survey stated they are considering issuing cards with the "chip" in it like the UK and Euro cards currently have. They asked how important this type of feature was to me and I rated a 10 as VERY IMPORTANT. We shall see what happens.

We recently had two fraudulent $100 charges in one day at two different gas stations within 30 miles of each other. We had the AMEX card in our possession the entire time--we called them and ironically at the same time AMEX was peeping in to ask about it.

I'm sure it was skimming.

It really has gotten ridiculous recently. I've been averaging one fraud per month over the last 3-4 months. The cards haven't been lost and were in our possession all the time. One of the cards that recently had fradulent activity we use exclusively for gas and groceries. I'm going to be paying alot more attention to the swipping device the next time I use my card.

Fraud can occur on a card you have never used if there has been a data breach at the card issuer, and it need not occur immediately after the data is stolen. The account information is subdivided and resold over time. It really has nothing to do with you or your physical cards.

Teenager Sentenced for Card Skimming

Teenager skimmed cards off of customers while working at the drive-thru of a McDonald's in Olympia, WA.


Unless we start ditching the mag-stripe and move onto chips as other countries have been doing, I suspect skimming fraud to substantially rise with many cases like these popping up everywhere.

I haven't had a problem (fingers crossed) yet, but I did have problems with the new ramped-up security system my credit union implemented. For a few days, they were calling every day to verify every purchase. It turns out that I had inadvertently set off flags when I bought an AF ticket online that was just over $2k. Apparently the security system works on a 'points' system and eventually a string of confirmed legitimate purchases will restore confidence in the card.

Credit union said they bought the new system because of huge increases in fraud. Gas stations are apparently one of the worst places, but they are also seeing huge increases in low dollar amounts at places like gas stations and markets (liquor and cigarettes). They said it used to be that a compromised credit card was almost immediately saddled with high-dollar electronic purchases, but now they're after low-dollar amounts too.

There are also bigger in-house problems than some of the issuers want to admit. A couple years ago, it turned out that my credit card had to be replaced (credit union was very proactive about this) because the processing was out-sourced to an outfit that got hacked. They were supposed to process transactions, return results and delete data. Instead they were retaining account info for months (supposedly to do some 'testing' - it still was in violation of the terms of their contract).

Unfortunately, my credit union's answer has been partly to demand even more information. I never reported when I went out-of-town - depending on who had access to the info, it was one more person who knew the house was unoccupied. Now I have to notify them when and where I'm going or risk getting my card locked. The security company they out-sourced to actually wanted a list of where I regularly use my card! Hello! I bought a new furnace - that's a one-time purchase from that outfit! I might stop at a 7-11 one time. I use the card everywhere because of points, but I am seriously re-thinking my habits at this time.

First fraud alert ever
 

This thread is very interesting to me because this is the first time in over 20 years that this has recently happened to us. While we were out of the country we got a phone call and an email from the Bank of America fraud department. Someone out in LA was using a plastic replica of our card. Three charges went through and two others were rejected.

The physical card is still in our possession. This was an old Bank of America Royal Caribbean credit card--it is our oldest card. We don't even use it anymore except for two automatic charges that we set up awhile back--one on Netflix and the other on Pioneer telephone (for long distance charges).

This past year I have had a number of fraud issues with my cards. It does seem that the system is getting hacked.
I hope that CHIP & PIN arrives soon.

I'm going to quote myself, because I guess my luck ran out! I got a call from Chase regarding a fraud alert on my account. I'm glad they called, because it was indeed a fraudulent charge (an online dating company I've never even heard of).

It was a bit unsettling how my card can be compromised. The process itself was simple. Rep closed my account and reissued a new one (they're going to expedite it to me). I check fairly regularly, but I haven't used this card in a while and it was just put away. Apparently, Chase caught it while it was in pending stage, so I am impressed that they caught it so early on.

I'm really good with my cards (most of my purchases are now through paypal, and I get paperless statements) and there's only two handful of purchases I made, so my guess is that my credit card was compromised at one of the stores or along the way.

It's annoying if this happens when you're out traveling though. The process seems straightforward, but does leave me wondering "how" it got compromised, and if my other cards are at a higher risk.

Same thing happened to me with a Citi Card recently. Only thing I can think of is that I used it in an NYC taxi right before their systems got hacked. Thieves tried to make $2400 worth of charges on my card (which isn't unheard of when I'm trying to meet a spend bonus with business spending). First transaction went through, second didn't and tripped fraud alerts. Got the charge wiped off after filling out a form and mailing it back.

The funny thing had been that Citi called me twice on online purchases to verify if it was valid, and it made me upset since the first time the transactions wouldn't go through.

I check every 1-3 days on Mint and have PageOnce alert, so I could find fraud myself hopefully.

After a fraud attack from Citi several months ago, I am now particularly adamant about bringing my credit card directly over to the credit card machine instead of just putting my credit card into the bill wallet whenever I go to a restaurant. Who knows what the waiter might be doing as he/she goes into the back to process the credit card.

The other day I was in NYC, the waiter looked very uneasy about me going straight to the waiter's area.

Him: "Sir, all you have to do is to set your card in the bill. We'll bring you back the card for you to sign."

Me: "I feel more at ease seeing my card being processed right in front of me."

Him: "You too? Is there a reason why we're seeing a lot more people doing this these days?"

Me: "Google skimming fraud, and you'll find your answer."

I really wish restaurants in the US would bring the terminal right to me like they do up in Canada and in Europe.

We should all be glad to be using our credit cards and not getting fraudulent charges on our debit cards!

I got hit with my first fraudulent credit card charge this year. A charge from Best Buy. Whoever stole my cc# had a bunch of my other information. I figure either an employee ripped off my information or Best Buy got hacked.

Hmm, I had a fraudulent charge on an old Citi Forward card last month. It's been sock drawered and I only put a small charge on there every few months.

Apparently someone managed to test out the card by buying something small and then attempted to buy something on the order of $600-700. Citi caught it and sent me an automated email. It was fairly painless ordeal.