APA Open Community

Even though my company is smack dab in the middle of the country, we've had encounters with bad guys on both coasts this week:

• A scoundrel in California yesterday called pretending to be from our local electric utility. He claimed we owed a few hundred dollars and unless we paid asap via a gift card our power would be turned off. He was too dumb to block his city of origin so it was obvious he was in San Diego.
• A scallywag got $131 worth of food from the Ritz Diner on 1st Avenue in New York City using one of our company credit card numbers.

About the time Covid started, a person in California got one of our debit card numbers and had a new $1,000 Traeger BBQ grill delivered by UPS to a model home in a subdivision being built. (I hate his dishonesty but to some extent I admired the cleverness of using an empty house for the delivery. If only he'd use his smarts for something productive instead of criminal behavior.) Traeger was nice enough to refund that money. Since debit cards are not protected like credit cards, we stopped using debit cards after that incident.

Sad to say, it seems like these things happen as a result of giving our card numbers out over the phone to folks we choose to do business with. Equally sad is it appears that some of the folks who left their jobs during the "Great Resignation" have resorted to illegal activities to make ends meet.

It's harder than ever to keep our companies safe from these predators. The same types of people are also after everyone's personal money.

• Use credit cards, not debit.
• Be careful how you give out card numbers and the parties you share them with.
• If anyone calls claiming your ______________ (fill in the blank) will be shut off unless you go to a store, buy a gift card and send it to them - they are full of hooey. Hang up.

If anyone else has examples of fraud to watch for, or advice on avoiding these issues, please chime in. 

Bill,

Many debit cards these days offer the same protection as credit cards.  All you need to do is confirm with your financial institution what level of protection they provide.  My MasterCard debit card has zero liability protection on unauthorized purchases.  A few months ago we had a small charge on our card then an immediate credit.  Since I get notifications of all activity on my account I know any time something out of the ordinary comes through.  My bank says the scoundrels will test the validity of a card with a small transaction so when successful they will go on a quick shopping spree.   I cut them off immediately so had no loss in this instance.  We did go ahead and get new cards.

A few years ago we had 80 transaction attempts within a 60-minute period on a debit card.  The only one that got through was the very first charge for less than $100.  The bank covered that loss and funds were returned to the account within 48 hours.  I have heard that with some banks there may be  more of a delay before the funds are returned to the account.  That's the big downfall of using debit cards for businesses without the resources to fund that short term dip in cash flow.

I stopped using debit cards for my business because of the potential negative impact I could experience from a fraud event.  Even with "protection", you never know if your cash could end up getting tied up in some fraud investigation.

Even though my company is smack dab in the middle of the country, we've had encounters with bad guys on both coasts this week:

• A scoundrel in California yesterday called pretending to be from our local electric utility. He claimed we owed a few hundred dollars and unless we paid asap via a gift card our power would be turned off. He was too dumb to block his city of origin so it was obvious he was in San Diego.
• A scallywag got $131 worth of food from the Ritz Diner on 1st Avenue in New York City using one of our company credit card numbers.

About the time Covid started, a person in California got one of our debit card numbers and had a new $1,000 Traeger BBQ grill delivered by UPS to a model home in a subdivision being built. (I hate his dishonesty but to some extent I admired the cleverness of using an empty house for the delivery. If only he'd use his smarts for something productive instead of criminal behavior.) Traeger was nice enough to refund that money. Since debit cards are not protected like credit cards, we stopped using debit cards after that incident.

Sad to say, it seems like these things happen as a result of giving our card numbers out over the phone to folks we choose to do business with. Equally sad is it appears that some of the folks who left their jobs during the "Great Resignation" have resorted to illegal activities to make ends meet.

It's harder than ever to keep our companies safe from these predators. The same types of people are also after everyone's personal money.

• Use credit cards, not debit.
• Be careful how you give out card numbers and the parties you share them with.
• If anyone calls claiming your ______________ (fill in the blank) will be shut off unless you go to a store, buy a gift card and send it to them - they are full of hooey. Hang up.

If anyone else has examples of fraud to watch for, or advice on avoiding these issues, please chime in. 

Bill,

Many debit cards these days offer the same protection as credit cards.  All you need to do is confirm with your financial institution what level of protection they provide.  My MasterCard debit card has zero liability protection on unauthorized purchases.  A few months ago we had a small charge on our card then an immediate credit.  Since I get notifications of all activity on my account I know any time something out of the ordinary comes through.  My bank says the scoundrels will test the validity of a card with a small transaction so when successful they will go on a quick shopping spree.   I cut them off immediately so had no loss in this instance.  We did go ahead and get new cards.

A few years ago we had 80 transaction attempts within a 60-minute period on a debit card.  The only one that got through was the very first charge for less than $100.  The bank covered that loss and funds were returned to the account within 48 hours.  I have heard that with some banks there may be  more of a delay before the funds are returned to the account.  That's the big downfall of using debit cards for businesses without the resources to fund that short term dip in cash flow.

I stopped using debit cards for my business because of the potential negative impact I could experience from a fraud event.  Even with "protection", you never know if your cash could end up getting tied up in some fraud investigation.

Even though my company is smack dab in the middle of the country, we've had encounters with bad guys on both coasts this week:

• A scoundrel in California yesterday called pretending to be from our local electric utility. He claimed we owed a few hundred dollars and unless we paid asap via a gift card our power would be turned off. He was too dumb to block his city of origin so it was obvious he was in San Diego.
• A scallywag got $131 worth of food from the Ritz Diner on 1st Avenue in New York City using one of our company credit card numbers.

About the time Covid started, a person in California got one of our debit card numbers and had a new $1,000 Traeger BBQ grill delivered by UPS to a model home in a subdivision being built. (I hate his dishonesty but to some extent I admired the cleverness of using an empty house for the delivery. If only he'd use his smarts for something productive instead of criminal behavior.) Traeger was nice enough to refund that money. Since debit cards are not protected like credit cards, we stopped using debit cards after that incident.

Sad to say, it seems like these things happen as a result of giving our card numbers out over the phone to folks we choose to do business with. Equally sad is it appears that some of the folks who left their jobs during the "Great Resignation" have resorted to illegal activities to make ends meet.

It's harder than ever to keep our companies safe from these predators. The same types of people are also after everyone's personal money.

• Use credit cards, not debit.
• Be careful how you give out card numbers and the parties you share them with.
• If anyone calls claiming your ______________ (fill in the blank) will be shut off unless you go to a store, buy a gift card and send it to them - they are full of hooey. Hang up.

If anyone else has examples of fraud to watch for, or advice on avoiding these issues, please chime in. 

Even though my company is smack dab in the middle of the country, we've had encounters with bad guys on both coasts this week:

• A scoundrel in California yesterday called pretending to be from our local electric utility. He claimed we owed a few hundred dollars and unless we paid asap via a gift card our power would be turned off. He was too dumb to block his city of origin so it was obvious he was in San Diego.
• A scallywag got $131 worth of food from the Ritz Diner on 1st Avenue in New York City using one of our company credit card numbers.

About the time Covid started, a person in California got one of our debit card numbers and had a new $1,000 Traeger BBQ grill delivered by UPS to a model home in a subdivision being built. (I hate his dishonesty but to some extent I admired the cleverness of using an empty house for the delivery. If only he'd use his smarts for something productive instead of criminal behavior.) Traeger was nice enough to refund that money. Since debit cards are not protected like credit cards, we stopped using debit cards after that incident.

Sad to say, it seems like these things happen as a result of giving our card numbers out over the phone to folks we choose to do business with. Equally sad is it appears that some of the folks who left their jobs during the "Great Resignation" have resorted to illegal activities to make ends meet.

It's harder than ever to keep our companies safe from these predators. The same types of people are also after everyone's personal money.

• Use credit cards, not debit.
• Be careful how you give out card numbers and the parties you share them with.
• If anyone calls claiming your ______________ (fill in the blank) will be shut off unless you go to a store, buy a gift card and send it to them - they are full of hooey. Hang up.

If anyone else has examples of fraud to watch for, or advice on avoiding these issues, please chime in.