Credit Card Fraud Alert! Yes, It’s A Wilton Story

Getting that phone call from the fraud protection department of your bank or credit card company is certainly upsetting:  We believe someone has fraudulently used your credit card…

The Victim

Such was the case for Sarah Philippon, a Wilton resident who recently was the victim of such a crime.

“While I was eating dinner at a restaurant in Wilton, I got two bank alert texts, asking me to verify some debit card purchases,” Philippon recounts. They triggered her suspicions, because she’s not a mobile banking customer and doesn’t get alerts very often. When she logged onto her online banking account once she got home to check her account, she saw that someone had used her account number to make a $113 purchase at a New York City Rite-Aid, and had also tried to make two other purchases–at the exact same time she had been eating dinner here in Connecticut.

She immediately called her bank.

“It’s a debit card, and I hadn’t used the card outside of Wilton in a few days. I had been to the gas station, I had been to the market, I had been to the places I normally go.” The bank locked her account, telling her they knew it was a skimming operation–her number had been ‘skimmed’ or stolen somehow, and duplicated by thieves most likely using a special device to steal her credit card number and PIN.

Skimming is a method frequently used by thieves; they attach small devices to a credit card machine in order to electronically capture bank card information from the card itself or by capturing keystrokes from a keypad. According to Wilton Police Department, another method used by thieves is to actually install tiny hidden cameras to view PIN codes as they are being entered. This information is used to access the victim’s account or to create fraudulent cards with the stolen personal information.

Lt. Donald Wakeman of the Wilton Police said the such devices are often attached to ATMs or at self-pay locations, such as gas station pumps or video rental machines.

Even more unsettling–Wakeman said there are also tiny hand held card reader devices sometimes used by unscrupulous employees at retail locations, such as restaurants or bars, where a credit card may be handed over and is out of sight for a period of time. Devices can be hidden in the palm of a hand or a pocket if a card is swiped through, it captures the data in the same way to be used later for illegal purchases.

“As far as skimming complaints, we have not had any of these recently reported to us, although it is an on-going issue throughout the area and is a crime that can take place anywhere at any time,” Wakeman says.

The devices attached to gas pumps, ATMs or other locations are well-camouflaged. Just Google images for “credit card skimming devices” and you’ll see what some of them look like and how hard they are to spot. They are often longer, different colored plastic or shaped just slightly differently than the original card swipe part of the machine.

Sometimes banks can detect the fraud right away and limit the damage; sometimes the violation is more extensive. “I had a friend this happened to a couple years ago, she was so shaken up. They got a hold of her information, and it went so fast, there were five different people making transactions all at the same time, over $15,000,” Philippon says.

She posted a warning on Facebook, and quickly heard from many other people in Wilton who had recently experienced something similar. “I couldn’t believe how many people were posting that it had happened to them.” And although she reached out to police, Philippon was discouraged when she heard there’s little they could do. “They told me, ‘Unfortunately unless we can apprehend a suspect, we can’t do anything.’ I just think the community needs to know it’s going on in this small town.”

The Business Owner

While Wilton Auto and Tire (210 Danbury Rd.) was not the gas station Philippon visited, nor does Michael Lindquist, the station owner, know of any skimming that’s ever occurred at his station, he said he does try to prevent fraud however he can. One of the ways gas station owners try to prevent such theft is to program the pumps to ask credit card users to input billing zip codes with every transaction. “Customers thought we were mining personal information, not fully realizing it was for their protection. At the pump, that’s our only line of defense.”

And yet his station’s pumps no longer ask for that zip code information. Why not, even with the risk?  “People sometimes push the wrong number, some people would complain and not come back. The end result is we’re trying to protect them, and it prevents someone from using a stolen card to use it. But right now we don’t require a zip code. I have a feeling in the future all credit card companies will require that because it is the first line of defense and works pretty well.” He adds that he does always check for the signature on the back of a card when he’s presented with one.

As for trying to stay ahead of the game and making sure that the pumps haven’t been tampered with, Lindquist says, “We do a physical inspection of all the equipment once a week. I’ve never seen one of those things and we’ve never been told by the credit card company to do that–that’s where a lot of our information comes from on this, our credit card processor. When a security issue or problem does come up, we get an email or a phone call, but that’s few and far between.”

Lindquist would welcome a brush-up lesson on what to do to help prevent skimming. “I’d love the police department or somebody to show us what to look for. I certainly would make a habit of inspecting our machines if I knew what I was looking for.”

If his count is anything to go by, the credit card thieves have many opportunities–far fewer customers pay with cash at the pump. That’s true, he says, “particularly in Wilton–we’re probably 95 percent credit card here. Down in Stamford [at his other station] it’s about 60 percent, a big difference.”

The Bank

Norma Stockmar, the manager of the Chase Bank branch in Wilton Center (33 Old Ridgefield Rd.), said banks are actively and constantly monitoring for fraud.

What raises a flag? “If they see unusual activity for someone, that doesn’t run in their general pattern of spending. Some will do it based on a dollar amount–if a purchase is more than they ever have used that debit card for. Some will suspect if you’ve quickly gone from CVS to online to Sears, they’ll question how you can be in all those places at the same time–that’s a lot of activity in an hour. Or an unusual geographic purchase.”

One thing the banks have seen is that many of those fraudulent purchases are made at easy, under-the-radar type places–similar to the Rite-Aid purchase made on Sarah Philippon’s card.

“Sometimes they’ll use the card for small purchases just to see if it will go through. The Rite-Aid purchase, or at a 7-11, a convenience store for $8.99, if it just goes through, chances are the card number has not been cancelled, and now I can go do an online purchase or a larger purchase at Best Buy. It’s a test purchase.

Usually a bank will block the account as soon as they suspect fraud. “I know that’s inconvenient for people to have the account blocked,” says Stockmar, “but it is for their protection.”

One thing Stockmar suggests consumers can do to protect themselves is to refrain from using a PIN if at all possible. “Once they get your PIN, they can go to an ATM. And I personally use my debit card much less frequently than my credit card–your debit card draws right out of your bank account.”

There are other suggestions she has:

• Be active about monitoring your account online. Know what your balances are and what transactions are happening.
• If you suspect fraud or something amiss, call the bank right away.
• Set up mobile banking alerts. “You can set them up by dollar amount, let’s say for purchases over a certain amount.”
• Be a smart consumer, and consider staying away from high-risk locations. “I would never use one of those self-checkouts at a supermarket. Those devices can be placed anywhere.”

Wilton Police Lt. Wakeman has similar suggestions, which he relayed in an email to GOOD Morning Wilton:

• Credit card users should try to avoid turning their card over to someone, such as a waiter, and allowing the card to leave their sight. It is much more likely to be skimmed when the perpetrator can walk away with it. Advise the waiter of your concern and bring the card to the register area yourself if you can, or try to pay with cash at a location where you know a card may leave your sight.
• Be aware of your surroundings when using a credit card or debit card at an ATM or at the gas pumps. If something looks out of place or is awkwardly attached to the machine, notify the establishment and the police.
• Try to shield your PIN number when entering it, to minimize the chance that a hidden camera is capturing it.
• Check your bank and credit accounts on a regular basis, in order to quickly discover any charges that may be unauthorized. Report these to your bank or credit issuer and file a report with the police. Federal law limits the cost of unauthorized charges to $50.00 when reported in a timely manner, and many banks and credit companies will waive all unauthorized charges.
• Anyone who is a victim should obtain a credit report from the three major credit reporting agencies–Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion–to review for unauthorized lines of credit and they should request that their identify be flagged so any new requests for credit must be approved by them before being issued.

One of the morals of the story is that some of the steps to protect yourself might be inconvenient–but they may also be the most secure. Having to enter your zip code, using a cashier instead of self-checkout, having to furnish an ID each time you use a credit card…these may be safe rather than easy.

It’s true, getting out of the car to pay with a credit card inside at a gas station–with two young children–might not be the most convenient thing for a busy mom like Philippon. “I don’t want to leave them. And at a restaurant, what are you going to do, follow the waiter?”

As for what changes she might make, one thing Philippon plans to do is sign up for mobile alerts for every charge made on her account. “As annoying as that might be, the bank said I would have been alerted the second it happened and you would have been able to do something right away.” She also will be more discriminating about the kinds of credit card terminals she will–and won’t–use, for instance staying away from self-service check-out lanes at Stop & Shop, and the like, which aren’t monitored as frequently as those with cashiers. “How often do they check?”