Don't use your debit card at the gas station.

[substitute]

Well you can, but don't put in your PIN; insist on doing it as a credit transaction. Why? Because people love to steal the PIN. It's way easier to empty your bank account that way than it is with regular credit card fraud.

Retailers will do just about anything to force you into using the PIN instead of a credit card type transaction, because credit cards cost them money and PIN/Debit transactions don't. So you have to say it's credit, punch the credit button, decline to use your pin, and then tell the checker again that's credit. Or they just automatically present you with the PIN entry screen with no other options.

So, what happens when you use your PIN? Usually nothing, because supermarkets and other big retailers are secure environments. But if you use one of those rollaway ATM droids, or the ATM at some nightclub, not so good. And if you go to a gas station that only takes PIN transactions, like the ARCO here, you might just get royally and electronically screwed.

Comments

[vegemitelover.livejournal.com]

Wow. The sticker is an awesome tool to take away the worries of somebody that might think.. "hey, this looks a bit different!".

With the sticker they probably would also think "...Oh! This new wierd looking interface is apparently for my protection! Ok then."

Banks should implement ID KEY system to combat card, cheques and identity fraud.

[(Anonymous)]

Banks have option to reduce card, cheque, mail order and identity fraud to VIRTUALLY ZERO simply by implementing ID KEY system described on website www.xwave.co.uk



Fake documents have made signature system unreliable but ID stickers will enable us to personalise them like passports to make these signatures reliable again.



Skimmers and pin-hole cameras have made ATM transactions unreliable but use of Card Key Code stored on ID KEY to activate ATMs will make ATM transactions reliable again. This system will make use of stolen and skimmed cards meaningless.



This shows that if banks implement ID KEY system we will not have to prosecute organisations for failing to protect our personal and card details since these details will not get misused.

Re: Banks should implement ID KEY system to combat card, cheques and identity fraud.

[feisty-robot.livejournal.com]

UN-altered REPRODUCTION and DISSEMINATION of this IMPORTANT Information is ENCOURAGED, ESPECIALLY to COMPUTER BULLETIN BOARDS.

It's all so clear to me now

[brainflak.livejournal.com]

This must be why our credit union was calling us a few days ago saying "So, hey. Everything going..OK? It is? Good. We're going to cancel your debit card and send you a new one anyway."

[mcfnord.livejournal.com]

i almost always go with a credit transaction when using my debit card. so much so that i kinda thought of myself as having a credit card. so i fly to phoenix, and rent a car, and they won't rent a car to me because i don't have a credit card. i have $20,000 available on a debit card, but that's not a credit card. i dispute the rental later but they mail me small print saying i had to present a major credit card, and they keep the money, thanks. what cocks. stupid cocks. i have quite a few credit lines, 12 worth $150k, but i destroy the physical plastic. usually now i carry a debit card that gets $150 every two weeks... if it is emptied by crooks, how bad could that be?

[cascadefailure.livejournal.com]

Both Craig and I have recently seen that S.A.F.E. sticker when buying gas. So far, no unusual transactions...but maybe I should call my bank.