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Credit Card Fraud Follow Up

Last week I wrote about how I found out I became a victim of credit card fraud. At that time I lost a big amount of money, $1,500 USD, to be exact. It wasn’t until the company charged me like they always do, I discovered some of the transactions on my card were fraudulent.

A week later and for me, everything is solved. My credit card company has reimbursed my money already and the form to make the transactions marked as fraudulent has been signed and sent. Until then it wasn’t 100% clear to me how it exactly happened. I’m always very careful to use my card because I don’t want to become a victim of credit card fraud. Surely that didn’t work out too well. I had my suspicions and to me it all leaded towards RFID readers that read my info from as far as 10 feet (4 meters) away!

My credit card company gets two thumbs of from me for responding the way they did when I phoned in and for reimbursing me so quickly.

Earlier this week I was talking to a colleague about all this and she told me she had received a letter from her credit card company too stating her card was blocked on suspicion of being a victim of credit card fraud! Now this came as a shocker to both of us. The transactions were all around the same time and we take our breaks together sometimes popping across the street to get something to eat. It’s a very busy public area with lots of people passing through every day. Now since we both still have our (now blocked) cards, I’m sure it happened with  RFID reader!

Now that everything is arranged with my credit card company and I have been reimbursed, I didn’t want someone reading my RFID chips again. RFID chips aren’t only in your credit cards, most bank cards, ID cards and passports have the same type of chip. All of which can be read by someone. To hopefully prevent this from happening again, I invested in an RFID blocking wallet.

There are many RFID wallets around, but I’m a PacSafe girl, a real fan, so when I saw their RFID blocking wallets that will also hold my passport I was sold on it. It’s an RFID-tec 250 women’s wallet.

RFID-Tec 250 pacsafe RFID-Tec 250 pacsafe
It comes in cool steel (pictured above), black and shadow. And shadow has an orange interior. I’m very happy with it and bills, cards and coins are all easily accessible  when I need them. But obviously not too easy for those who have no business in my wallet 😉

RFID-tec 250 available wallet colours

I was also recommended the Secrid wallet by someone and I really appreciate it. For me it’s just not what I was looking for as it holds mostly cards and I wanted something that could hold my passport too if I needed it to. But if that’s what you’re looking for, this might be something for you.

Like I said, if you’re interested in a RFID blocking wallet to help prevent you from becoming a victim of credit card fraud, there are many more options online, just google. And in the name of safety; make sure the connections are secure when you buy a wallet online 😉 (or anything for that matter!!)

Images Courtesy of Pacsafe.com

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8 Comments

  • Reply Te August 31, 2013 at 6:26 am

    That’s horrible that you had to go through that! Really glad your bank was onto it in terms in reimbursement!

    Me and technology aren’t the best of friends and I don’t tend to follow the latest updates… I didn’t even know there were readers like that out there!! I had only heard of tampering with money machines etc. Really good to know.

    • Reply Chantal September 1, 2013 at 4:39 pm

      I’m so glad they were so quick with reimbursement it’s a lot of money to lose 🙂

      I wasn’t aware either until I did some online research after it happened because I didn’t understand how anyone could get my data. Now that I found out my colleague had the same thing happen around the same time I’m more and more convinced that’s how it was done.

  • Reply Celine J. September 1, 2013 at 2:42 pm

    I’m sorry you had to go through that. Credit card fraud must really, really suck!

    I’m glad it ended up okay 🙂

    • Reply Chantal September 1, 2013 at 4:40 pm

      Thank you. I don’t wish this on anybody. The initial panic was the worst, luckily I knew quickly enough I would be reimbursed but thinking a lot of money is gone is absolutely scary.

  • Reply Elleannie September 2, 2013 at 6:21 pm

    Aww. That sucks but I’m glad that it’s been solved! The blocking wallets seem so cool. I didn’t know that they existed. They even look trendy 🙂

    • Reply Chantal September 11, 2013 at 1:26 pm

      Yes it wasn’t the funniest experience ever but im happy it’s solved and I learned something in the process; thieves have gotten very technically clever!

      I love the wallet it’s pretty and it’s good in every day use 🙂

  • Reply Marlies September 2, 2013 at 10:30 pm

    Heftig dat dat je moest gebeuren joh. Gelukkig kwamen ze er redelijk op tijd achter

    • Reply Chantal September 11, 2013 at 1:27 pm

      Nou ja, het is dat ik er zelf achter kwam omdat ik ineens veel moest betalen, maar het is heel netjes en snel opgelost gelukkig 🙂

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