Credit card fraud - any advice

Last night a fraudster tried to use my credit card to pay for an online item. I got the alert via the AIB app to approve a payment. I contacted customer service and they advised changing the card. In the last week I bought items from an online car product store, which I have not used previously. I’m wondering if my card details have been compromised by this. I’m also wondering about the wider safety of my AIB account and whether I should be concerned about my debit card? At the moment my Apple Pay cannot be used until I await the arrival of a new credit card. I’m wondering whether I should use Revolut instead? I have only recently opened a Revolut account. I suppose I could put a small amount into the Revolut account and use this instead to pay for my small Apple related ongoing debits, e.g. storage, Netflix. Is a Revolut just as vulnerable. Should I reduce further the limit on my credit card ? This is the first time this has happened to me, and I am a little disappointed that it can be so easy for my details to be compromised. I never use my credit card for day to day items in shops only online stuff.

Why not transfer to Revolut as needed rather than large sums if you have concerns. That way you minimise potential losses.

While I’ve heard people complaining about Revolut it’s not been about security concerns afaik.

It's impossible to know if the data breach resulted from the recent transaction you mentioned or from some earlier transaction. It could be that your card details were included in data recently hacked from some business, even though your most recent transaction with that business was some ago.

Some people keep a separate card for use in online transactions — by which they mean, transactions in which they themselves input card details into a website. It may be that transactions of that kind are more than ordinarily vulnerable to fraud, and the thinking is that, if your online card is compromised in this way, well, at least your regular card will be unaffected. But all this really does is limit the inconvencience you suffer when you have to cancel a card and wait for a new one to arrive.

You can limit your exposure further by having a debit card for online transactions, and keeping only a low balance in the associated account, transferring more in to meet larger payments as and when you make them. That way, if your card is compromised, the most you can lose in the low balance in the account. If, as in your case, you only use a card for online transactions, there's really no reason why it should be a credit card, so this is something you might want to consider.

Back in the day, it was common to hand your card to a waiter, hotel clerk, etc and for him to disappear for a few minutes while he processed the transaction, and then came back with your card and a receipt. In that time he could, of course, easily copy your card details and later sell them to some unscrupulous person. So even if you never use your card in an online transaction, you can still be the victim of fraud.

Incidents like this are also a reminder to review your overall security - e.g. for the many online accounts that most of us have these days always use unique and strong passwords and two factor authentication and/or passkeys where available, in order to reduce the risk of one account being compromised allowing others to follow suit.

January25 said:

I’m wondering if my card details have been compromised by this.

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If they have once you have a new credit card it doesn’t matter.

Many neobanks offer a one-time virtual card with a number that is only used once. This is what I use whenever I have a suspicion about an online merchant.

TomEdison said:

Back in the day, it was common to hand your card to a waiter, hotel clerk, etc and for him to disappear for a few minutes while he processed the transaction, and then came back with your card and a receipt.

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I think people tend to underestimate this kind of risk or that of one of their relatives or kids friends taking a quick photo of the card when in the house. I keep my credit card hidden away and only take it out of the house to make a purchase. For my debit card I use Apple Pay and likewise the debit card never leaves the house except for an occasional ATM withdrawal.

When it comes to online transactions I think people tend to overestimate the risk. Online merchants are paying to use very sophisticated systems that have had decades’ worth of investment in them. The merchant acquirers who provide online forms and point-of-sale terminals as well as the card networks (Visa, Mastercard) don’t want merchants to be skimming card details at all. There are layers of encryption at all points of the sales chain and to the best of my knowledge no one working for the merchant should be able to see and save your card details.

Annieindublin said:

While I’ve heard people complaining about Revolut it’s not been about security concerns afaik.

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Reading these would lead one to believe otherwise hence the reason for people only keeping possibly up to €100 in their accounts with Revolut.

Conor Pope certainly does not appear to like them as mentioned here.

I think the programme Complaints Bureau on RTE Player had something about their safety issues alsom quite a while back.

But your 2 factor authentication saved the day here. This should be a reminder to all to have this linked to your phone so that you don't get caught out. This far outweighs the perceived inconvenience imo.