Is there an ATM card reader near you?

@Cherryann01

Really well written! Sorry to hear about the £200 lesson.

My Irish friend Paddy (this is not a joke) made friends with a German couple in Thailand, who said they'd been backpacking for several years, and he couldn't quite work out how they financed their travels. They toured the sites together over a few days, had a blast, and one morning Paddy woke up after having been drugged, and lost all of his money and valuables.

@gsturdee

Wow that was a bad one, hope your friend was okay after the incident. I bet he was the butt of a few jokes on his return though.

On a positive note, a friend and I drove from northern Germany to what was Yugoslavia in the early 80's, stayed at a place called Pula, now Croatia. We had a lovely time and had planned on staying in Trieste, Italy for a week or so but took one look at the place and drove straight on, ended up in Venice. We booked in at a Hostel and the receptionist told us we would be in the same room with a lady from Finland. Well we were and she was very attractive. Any way we just spent 2 or 3 days hanging out together, seeing the sights, eating and drinking and had a great time until it was time to go our separate ways. Lovely woman, very funny, easy to talk to and good fun to be around so just goes to show, most times people are genuine.

A representative for one of my credit cards called me today and informed me that they noticed a suspicious purchase attempt with my card on Facebook Marketplace amounting to over PhP11,000 and another small purchase for around PhP18. I didn't make those purchases. So, they blocked my card and will send me a new one.
I now vaguely remember that there was one merchant whose cashier swiped my card to a slot on her keyboard in addition to my sliding it into a the store's card reader. I thought it was a bit odd. But I didn't say anything. I'll be more careful next time.
-@FilAmericanMom

This is why I always pay cash in foreign countries.  When we went to Cyprus in 2014 I had to use cash, very few places took a credit card.

A representative for one of my credit cards called me today and informed me that they noticed a suspicious purchase attempt with my card on Facebook Marketplace amounting to over PhP11,000 and another small purchase for around PhP18. I didn't make those purchases. So, they blocked my card and will send me a new one.
I now vaguely remember that there was one merchant whose cashier swiped my card to a slot on her keyboard in addition to my sliding it into a the store's card reader. I thought it was a bit odd. But I didn't say anything. I'll be more careful next time.
-@FilAmericanMom

I have no doubt on your experience, but have some questions.

(1) I have never made a purchase on FB Market Place, my wife has and it's always been C.O.D. and sometimes the order never comes. I'm wondering how does one use a credit card on FB Market Place?

(2) After the phone call to you did you check online to see those charges were on your card?

(3) Did you check online to see if they blocked your card?

(4) I would be suspicious of any call I did not originate. For protection in the future, ask them for a return number and call them back.

-@FilAmericanMom
I have no doubt on your experience, but have some questions.

(1) I have never made a purchase on FB Market Place, my wife has and it's always been C.O.D. and sometimes the order never comes. I'm wondering how does one use a credit card on FB Market Place?

(2) After the phone call to you did you check online to see those charges were on your card?

(3) Did you check online to see if they blocked your card?

(4) I would be suspicious of any call I did not originate. For protection in the future, ask them for a return number and call them back.
-@Enzyte Bob

To answer your questions

(1) I was actually surprised when I was told that someone used my credit card to make a purchase at FB Marketplace. I thought FB Marketplace was more like craigslist where one can post a rental or an item for sale, and where the prospective buyer and seller would contact each other to arrange the delivery and sale of the item / service. Now I know that one can make a purchase from certain merchants on FB Marketplace using a credit card.

(2) No, because I don't have an online account with my credit card. Only debit / bank accounts.

(3) No, because I don't have an online account with my credit card. A few minutes after the call from the credit card company ended, I received a text from the same sender that sends me transaction verifications and where the sender's "number" is not a number but the company name, like in GCash or SMART, informing me that they blocked my card. I also received an email stating that my request for a card replacement has been processed.

(4) I didn't feel the need to call them back. The call sounded legit. They didn't ask for the credit card number and other personal info other than my name. They verified if the last purchase I made with my card prior to the suspicious transaction was by me. (So, we were able to determine that the PhP11k+ and the small PhP18 were the only unauthorized purchases.) They asked if I wanted my card blocked. They said they'll send a text, email and replacement card to the address / number I had in their files.

FilAmerican: I don't have an online account with my credit card. Only debit / bank accounts.
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You might want to confirm the phone call you received alerting you of the possible credit card fraud is on the up & up. Many cc frauds start by receiving a phone call.

Since you don't have an online account with your credit card company you still can check.

On the back of your credit card there is a number you can call . . . Of course you will have to wade through that obnoxious menu. If you don't want to talk to anyone there is enough options to choose from . . . . like checking your last transactions or even locking your card.

@gsturdee
Wow that was a bad one, hope your friend was okay after the incident. I bet he was the butt of a few jokes on his return though.
On a positive note, a friend and I drove from northern Germany to what was Yugoslavia in the early 80's, stayed at a place called Pula, now Croatia. We had a lovely time and had planned on staying in Trieste, Italy for a week or so but took one look at the place and drove straight on, ended up in Venice. We booked in at a Hostel and the receptionist told us we would be in the same room with a lady from Finland. Well we were and she was very attractive. Any way we just spent 2 or 3 days hanging out together, seeing the sights, eating and drinking and had a great time until it was time to go our separate ways. Lovely woman, very funny, easy to talk to and good fun to be around so just goes to show, most times people are genuine.
-@Cherryann01

Was she like Terry's 'bit of stuff' the Finnish masseuse when they all went caravanning in the movie spin off of The Likely Lads ?

@Lotus Eater

She was stunning but we were just enjoying the city together, the three of us. No hanky panky.

Just got hacked again, this time it was one for the books. Some hacker in a Spanish speaking country hacked my closed Netflix account and paid for 1 month with my closed PayPal account.

On Tuesday I received 2 emails from Netflix saying my email and phone number was changed. I went to Netflix chat and was told there was an unsuccessful attempt to change email and phone, "can I help you with anything else?" So why did the emails say it had been changed? I was able to log in with my email and my phone number was the same. I changed my password and forgot about it.

About an hour ago I noticed a Netflix charge of $10.81 on my credit card though PayPal. It wasn't on my current PayPal account and I can no longer log into my old "closed" PayPal account. I went to Netflix chat again and some girl told me she would take care of everything but when she asked my current location and I told her I'm in the Philippines she replied "I told you everything you need to know, can I help you with anything else" and she was gone. I right away rang up and new Netflix agent in chat and this guy permanently closed my account and refunded the $10.81.

The problem I may now have is with PayPal. I've closed my old account 3 times now and I may be looking at #4. When I moved to the Philippines I closed my old PayPal and created an "international" PayPal account on the advice of a PayPal agent, but it would only work for a short time. I would call and they would say there is a problem, you have 2 open accounts. I would say please close the old one and it would only work for a few days and I would call and be told there is a problem,  you have 2 open PayPal accounts and I would say please close the old one, again. I had to go though that one more time and things have been good since, 3 times is a charm. Now it looks like it may happen again since they allowed a charge to the closed account.

@Moon Dog

Sorry to hear.

Was the initial email alert fraudulent? Sometime these emails have a link, when you click on it puts you through to a fake site. Logging in, you're actually providing the fraudsters your account and login details.

Hope you don't have a repeat.

Moon Dog said . . . .Just got hacked again, this time it was one for the books. Some hacker in a Spanish speaking country hacked my closed Netflix account and paid for 1 month with my closed PayPal account.

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What gsturdee said is the truth and great advise.

For everyone including me from the first day your on the internet everything you posted will remain forever, including your email address. Yours and mine is on many many servers, this is why we receive so much useless Spam and Scams. We left a food trail for the Ants to follow.

So here is how I avoid online email scams.

I have two email accounts one from my beginning time on the internet. . . . It's an food trail for Fraud Scammers.

I have a second email account for my Banks, Paypal, Wise, Meralco, Sky Communications, Amazon, Ebay, IRS, SS, Shopee & Lazada. . . . you get the idea. I know any email to that address is from the actual sender.

My general account I consider it like a burner phone or throwaway account, my ant trail for fraudsters, it's my Roach Motel or Fly Paper.

Going back to what gsurdee said, these scammers operate the same as a call center, their English may be better than the real customer service of your banks. They send out thousands of emails like the one Moon Dog received. I receive emails saying my xyz bank account has been compromised requiring immediate action, please call 800 555 1212, but I don't have an account with xyz bank.

With thousands of emails sent out, a percentage will have an account at XYZ bank, a smaller percentage will end up talking to a fake bank, fake Paypay or fake what have you. If the scammer guesses my bank correctly, I still disregard and delete the email without reading it. I use this account for general emails, even to my friends.

Now something I'm sad to report, on my original post (post #1 on this thread) "Is there an ATM card reader near you?"

The missing P8000 was theft by my stepson, When my wife, myself and him got separated, he went to the ATM and withdrew the money. So I changed the pin and now lock up all my cards. (originally I gave him the card, so my wife & I can sit down during the checkout process.)

@gsturdee The emails seemed legit and the Netflix agent verified that an attempted hack had occurred. The senders email address was info@account.netflix.com and when you moused over it www.netflix.com came up. Google was reporting that the password was compromised for some time but since the account was closed I didn't worry about it. Netflix refunded my $10.81, removed the billing method and closed the account for good. Pedro only got one night of free movies and I didn't lose anything.

Back around 2004 I listed a 1999 Harley Fatboy on eBay for a set price unaware that Harley scams were rampant on eBay at the time. The ad expired without any hits and I forgot about it. Some time later I began receiving phone calls about the bike. After a few calls I mentioned that the ad had expired, why was he calling now? The guy said I better go check, so I did. Someone had relisted the ad and started the bidding at $1 trying to get $1,000 down payments, but he never changed the phone number. I was listing a Fatboy on eBay and my password was Fatboy for eBay and the associated email. I did notice that I hadn't received any emails for a few days. The guy had upgraded the eBay ad and also upgraded my yahoo email so he could reroute my emails to his email account. I contacted Yahoo and eBay and they canceled everything and refunded any money charged to my accounts for the upgrades so it was a free lesson on password security. Some guy on an island off the coast of Maine had nothing better to do than try to guess eBay passwords.

I placed the order for the bike at Hannum's in Media, Pa. in 1997. The waiting list was 4 years long because Hannum's was the only dealer around that was selling for MSRP but not everyone was able to pick up their order so my time on the waiting list was just over 2 years. I finally sold the bike on eBay after riding it for 5 years for just what I paid for it. The guy who bought the bike was almost scammed on another eBay Harley so he pushed back when I asked for a deposit. He drove 8 hours in a snow storm towing a trailer and picked up the bike. It was still like new and he sent me a photo of the bike sitting in his dining room.

@Moon Dog

That's the correct Netflix email alright. Whenever I am in doubt I press "REPLY" for the email, and the true origin of that email comes up in the address field. (Obviously don't "SEND").

These fraudsters are so inventive and just keep coming up with new ways to con, sometimes really innovative. Have you seen on FB these fun quizzes - where you name your pet and mother's maiden name, and it comes up with your "Pornstar Name", or something apparently fun and innocuous?. These happen also to be password secret questions. 

Cool, you had a HD Fatboy. It's a dream of mine to get something like that one day for the British summer - maybe in 5 years if they're not electric by then. In the Philippines I love riding around on a Honda XRM 125, but the real goal would be cruising around the Scotland hills with my wife on the back, ride an entire day for a coffee and then head back .

@Enzyte Bob

Good info.

One mistake I made years ago... an Aussie friend in the Philippines bought a banana farm in Mindanao, with a business idea to sell banana chips. For some strange reason I got caught up helping him promote their sale. I found a free business listing site and placed an advert on his behalf using my email address.

Dang! I got possibly 1000's of generic emails, offering "to make a large order of your product" from dubious sources. Fortunately most ended up in spam folder.

Your idea of having multiple email address for different purposes is a good one. If nothing else when a response come through, you can roughly trace its origins.

@gsturdee I'm sure cruising around Scotland hills would be amazing! My first two bikes were Brits. I had a BSA Victor 441cc single that was supposed to be a dirt bike but wrestling that hunk of iron though the woods was no fun. My second bike was a BSA 650 Lighting and a fine machine it was, very fast!

I broke into the Harley scene with a 1980 Wide Glide. It was an 80 cubic inch shovelhead and I loved it, but it didn't love me. It was a four speed and at highway speeds you couldn't see anything in the mirrors and the vibration caused extremity numbness after a while. The Fatboy was my second Harley, it was an 80 cubic inch evo with 5 speeds which made things better but it was still a solid mounted engine with a good deal of vibration. My last Harley was 93 cubic inch twin cam fuel injected Street Glide with a 6 speed transmission and rubber mounted engine. It had a blasting stereo, cruise control and a keyless ignition. It was a real world class machine but if I had my choice of any Harley it would be a fully restored mid 1950s Panhead FL Hydra Glide. The last bike I owned and sold just before moving here was a Yamaha Majesty 400cc scooter that was really nice scooter and I wish I could have brought it with me. I had more fun riding that thing than any other bike I owned.

OMG a BSA Victor! Dude... that's awesome. I had a Rocket 3 that I restored at one point, 1987 I think.. In those early days of the 70's I was riding little Yamaha rice rockets. Living in Northern Calif we had endless twisties to ride.. and no bothersome cyclists to get in the way, lol. My how times have changed. I graduated to Japanese 4 cyl bikes in the 1980's and then into BMW boxer twins in the 90's and haven't looked back. Love the sound/feel of a big twin and still have one here stateside. Harleys are fine machines too - nothing sounds better.

Okay, I have no idea what this thread is about but saw a motorcycle post, lol..

FilAmerican: I don't have an online account with my credit card. Only debit / bank accounts.
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You might want to confirm the phone call you received alerting you of the possible credit card fraud is on the up & up. Many cc frauds start by receiving a phone call.

Since you don't have an online account with your credit card company you still can check.

On the back of your credit card there is a number you can call . . . Of course you will have to wade through that obnoxious menu. If you don't want to talk to anyone there is enough options to choose from . . . . like checking your last transactions or even locking your card.
-@Enzyte Bob

Soon after I had my card blocked, I received a replacement card. I checked my credit card statement, and everything was fine. There were 2 entries which indicated that my old credit card number has been replaced and that it's replaced by a new one. Rewards points were carried over to the new card.