Some absolute sod in the UK has stolen my card number. I've had a few transactions already for stuff in the UK and I'm not impressed to say the least. Nearly all of the stuff I buy online is with a different credit card so I don't think it's internet purchases but more likely some bastard at a shop or restaurant.

I telephoned Barclays just now at 1am and the very helpful woman told me that as I hadn't actually lost or had my card stolen then I'd have to call back at 7am to query the transactions. Not exactly a brilliant idea IMO! I called again and managed to get somebody else to put a block onto my card. It's lucky that I decided to check my online banking statement today otherwise I wouldn't have noticed it for weeks probably.

As it's a debit card as well it means they're actually spending my money! It's going to be a lot of hassle to get this back now. So far they've bought an adult subscription to some personals/dating site, 2x £30 topups for an O2 prepay phone and £225 for something I can't work out as it's a paypal style site. It's a bit of a hint that it's not me as I don't even have a O2 phone. Hopefully there isn't anything else which hasn't gone through yet

Bah. What a way to end a friday night

This happened to me sometime last year. Similar situation, in that I just happened to take a look at my American Express statement online one night and saw two transactions that I didn't make. Each was for about $30 or $40 to a couple different online merchants (McAfee and AOL.) I guess their theory is they do small to medium-sized transactions in the hopes that they don't get noticed. Well, I noticed, and they issued me a new card and investigated the transactions. They disappeared from my account by the time my next statement rolled around, so I was happy.

Not sure if the source of the theft was online or dumpster-diving a receipt, but I guess this sort of thing happens a lot. I know of six or seven other friends/acquaintances who've had card numbers stolen.

Best of luck resolving things in a timely manner.

Can you just go take all the money out of the account so at least they will get declined when trying to use the card.

This happened to me with a Discover card a couple months back. I don't really use the card, so I don't check it online. Discover discovered the fraudulent charges once the dorks had already spent over $800. I didn't pay a thing.

Of course, this was a credit card. It will be interesting to see what happens when a debit card is abused. Good luck.

I've had them put a block on the existing card and issue me a new one. In theory this means that they no longer have a valid card and it should come up as stolen if they try to use it again.

I've just been on the phone to the bank and they said that they'll send me out a bunch of forms to investigate the transactions. The O2 phone ones are on a fraud one and the other two will be on a disputed transaction form. Basically a lot more hassle if you've got a debit card as it's actually your money that has gone out and they need to investigate it before they'll refund you.

I'm just glad that they hadn't tried to totally clear me out in one go...

I'm pretty sure mine is off a card receipt from a place that I've shopped or eaten. I'm normally quite careful about where and when I use my cards but I guess you can't be careful enough. My brother has had somebody go wild on his card once and spent about $1000.

In theory it should be possible to find out who has my card details as they signed up for a dating site. The charge was for an adult verification system they've got on this site so they must know who it's for. Doubt my bank will do anything about it though.

The husband of my mum's friend had a phone call from the police last week to tell them their card company had alerted them to suspicous transactions on their card (about £500 worth). They went abroad a few weeks ago and they are 99% sure it was skimmed there. I'm not sure what the transactions were but I imagine they were foreign otherwise there wouldn't be an alert.

My boss's Barclaycard has been blocked a couple of times, once when he bought a Sony Vaio and some other things in Hong Kong and later on when he was living in Sydney. Major hassle to get it reactivated though!

Gareth

I now make it a habit of calling my credit card company any time I leave the country, and give them explicit dates about when I'll be travelling. That way, they don't block my card when I'm actually trying to use it (as happened once), and they know that if they see transactions after I come home from wherever, that it wasn't me.

Yes, the first time I went to New York I had my egg card blocked as I had neglected to tell them I was going to the states.

egg card?

It's a credit card we've got in the UK. Egg Card

It will be interesting to see what happens when a debit card is abused. Good luck.

I had someone from a gas station charge 2 $40 cash transactions to my debit card and luckily I noticed it the day they posted to my account. How often do you have transactions in the amount of $40 exactly at a gas station?

My bank (Wachovia) credited me the money immediately while the investigation began to take place. Once they found the offender at fault, I received a letter in the mail telling me this.

I never had a problem. I don't know what bank you have or how they handle things in the UK but my experience wasn't so bad.

Best of luck to you at receiving your funds back!