Why Can't I Find Out Who Compromised My Bank Card?

[TheStatutoryApe]

The other day I learned that my bank canceled my debit card. After talking to several people on the phone I was able to find out rather little about what happened. Apparently some merchant or investigative agency contacted my bank to tell them that my card information may have been compromised. That's it. Nothing else. I expressed a desire to find out who contacted them and/or why it had been believed my card information was compromised and I was told they did not have that information. I asked whom I could contact to find out these things and was told they hadn't any numbers for anyone I could call. The answer to all of my questions seemed to be a simple "no" I will never under any circumstances be able to find out anything at all from anyone about what happened.

Its pretty damn frustrating to find out that somewhere out there someone may have appropriated my personal information and there's absolutely nothing I can do about it. Certainly my card was canceled and so I have no worries on that score but I have no idea what other information of mine may have been taken. I can't even avoid doing business with whom ever it is that may have been responsible.

Funny though that right about the same time my bank started aggressively advertising their new Premium Consumer Protection Racket... er I mean Service.

 

[Ouabache]

I hope you followed up, by talking to bank managers, on up to VPs. If they have evidence that your debit card was compromised, it is a no-brainer the compromisee have access to the same information (i.e. merchant or agency that reported it). Rattle their cages!

If they still ignore you, sounds like a good time to change banks.

 

[brewnog]

If they still ignore you, sounds like a good time to change banks.

Or, (much more effective), change branch. Banks don't care much these days about losing customers, (they're much more focussed on new business), but if a branch manager sees that someone wants to change branch, questions start to be asked and you might just get some customer care.

 

[hypatia]

Your bank might of used this company to route payments.

http://www.h-online.com/security/Over-100-million-credit-debit-cards-compromised--/news/112452 Or anyone of the new information breaches that I have heard of in the past month. When you signed up for your card, one of the agreements was that...you do not own your card, they do. If its a on going investigation, they can't tell you anything anyways.

 

[lluviata]

@ TheStatApe: That sucks, I'm sorry to hear that.
I understand the frustration, having seen just last night that $1500 left my account and I didn't spend it.
I second the suggestion to follow up with as many people as possible. You really need to know what information was compromised to take effective action: was it only your debit card number and pin or was your account number stolen too? Is there any chance that they now know your credit identity? I hope not. :-(

 

[cristo]

You won't be able to find out who has taken your card details, since there will be pending court cases between the bank and the company/individual involved in order for them to recover money that may have been stolen from other accounts.

This situation is annoying, especially if they don't tell you whether it's just your card that's been compromised. It happened to me a while ago when I was on holiday: I went to use my card in an ATM and it didn't work, so I had to call back home to my bank and they advised it'd "been held" due to suspcious activity. I then had to have my card cancelled.. whilst I was abroad. Needless to say, I wasn't best pleased!

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

I've not had the opportunity yet to harass more bank people but I'm considering it and seeing if I can find a bank that will give me more information in such a situation.

You won't be able to find out who has taken your card details, since there will be pending court cases between the bank and the company/individual involved in order for them to recover money that may have been stolen from other accounts.

This situation is annoying, especially if they don't tell you whether it's just your card that's been compromised. It happened to me a while ago when I was on holiday: I went to use my card in an ATM and it didn't work, so I had to call back home to my bank and they advised it'd "been held" due to suspcious activity. I then had to have my card cancelled.. whilst I was abroad. Needless to say, I wasn't best pleased!

a friend of mine said she had a similar issue. apparently her particular bank has some sort of system that monitors transaction patterns and raises a red flag if there are a series of transactions it finds suspicious. perhaps your bank does the same and found your out of country transactions to be suspicious. you may want to check so you can let them know if you plan to be abroad again.