Q: My husband was recently a victim of fraudulent charges on one of his credit cards. It was determined by the credit card company that it was some kind of breach on their end and not anything to do with his actual activity or being scammed by someone. He had not actually used that card in months.
A week after this happened, he received two separate debit cards inviting him to sign up to have his paycheck direct deposited onto cards. One was a MasterCard from netSpend and the other was a Visa from Account Now.
I would have been incredulous on any day seeing something like that but given recent events was even more disturbed. I don't recall reading about these prepaid cards in your articles but the idea strikes me as looking for trouble and furthermore when you direct deposit in a bank you earn some interest. Little with current rates but something. Am I correct to believe that offers such as these should be shredded immediately?
J.G., Richmond Hts.
J.G., Richmond Hts.
A: First, when you say the credit card company said that the breach was on "their end," it probably actually means there was a breach by the processor or a retailer or someone besides you. I don't believe the bank suffered the breach.
But I agree the timing is suspicious. If I had to guess, I'd say these two prepaid cards may stem from someone going on an account-opening spree or using your husband's information in questionable ways. Maybe a bad guy tried to open some accounts and the requests were denied for whatever reason -- maybe some of the information didn't match. This could have led to your husband's name showing up on databases of people who are financially strapped. We will come back to that problem in a minute.
In short, you should never use or mess with a card or account or check that you didn't request or know about. If you get an unsolicited credit card in the mail, you should not use it, even if it's from a bank you've heard of before. Same thing with a prepaid debit card. On my goodness: There is no way in the world someone should even consider allowing their paycheck to be loaded on to some prepaid debit card that landed in his mailbox and he doesn't know why.
Many of these prepaid debit cards come with fees -- fees for a withdrawal or to check your balance or a monthly maintenance fee or an inactivity fee. It would be a shame to see your hard-earned paycheck get sucked up by sleazy fees. (How nasty are some of these companies? As I was doing online searches for prepaid debit cards, a couple of genuine companies had ads for adult sites.)
Not all prepaid debit cards are bad. The state sends out unemployment benefits on prepaid cards. Many rebates come loaded onto a prepaid debit card. That's fine. But if you're going to open an account for a prepaid or reloadable debit card, you should do your homework and make sure it doesn't include any fees that will sting you.
Back to the data breach and what may have led to these strange debit cards that arrived in your mailbox.
First, I would call both of these companies and find out why the cards were sent. I'd call from your office or a phone that's not your landline or cell phone. I'd give only the amount of information on the mailings -- most likely name and address. I wouldn't provide a Social Security number or date of birth or name of employer or anything else.
I would also take some other proactive steps: