Computer fraud

Question

I have Windows 10 but this may be an unrelated question, I'm unsure. I keep a hard copy printout (paper) of my credit card information for back-up. I don't store it on my computer, I do store it on a spare USB storage drive that I don't use except for storage. One of my credit cards on that hard copy I haven't used for almost six months and it has a zero balance with no activity. On the 22nd I updated my hard copy paper and reprinted it. Today I learned that someone committed fraud charges with that credit card number and they did it on the 22nd. Credit card company says fraud is common, but my thoughts are that it's too coincidental to be chance, I'm guessing somehow my hard copy was accessed on my computer. Why would one of my dead cards sitting several months suddenly be accessed on the same day I randomly chose to update my hard copy? MY QUESTIONS: 1."Do you agree?" 2. "How is this possible?" 3. "How come my other credit cards were not also accessed?" 4. "I'm considering wiping my computer and reinstalling the software, would you agree?" Thanks

Answer 1

Then that's what you should change, since there's no good reason to maintain any of that on your computer or another device you might use for any reason I can think of.

The only information you need when calling to report a lost or stolen card is your personal information and any security information they use to identify you, along with the customer service phone number for the card company.

Otherwise, none of this information is ever needed except when actually using the card itself.  And if the card is lost or stolen, it should always be immediately reported and disabled by the card company.

So again, I can think of no valid reason to ever duplicate any of this information, since all this does is add risk that this might be stolen by someone, either via the computer or simply someone who has access to your house reading it off the paper.

Rob

Answer 2

Yes, my hard copy does have all the information on it that you listed. Thank you.

Well, except my billing address that is.

Answer 3

Does the USB flash drive containing the hard copy information for that particular credit card contain:

All 16 digits of the credit card number

Your name as listed on the card

Expiration date for the card

Billing address for the Card

The Security Code from the back of the card

If all or at least the first 3 of these necessary items aren't available, then it's unlikely the information was acquired from the USB or your computer.  That's because all of these items are typically required in order to successfully use the card, so without any one except possibly the Security Code, no one should be able to use it.

As the card company indicated, most such fraud is due to other avenues such as a business where you'd used that card in the past having been breached recently by hackers.  For example, the Chipotle restaurant chain recently confirmed that many of their customer's credit card information had been stolen between March 24 and April 18 of this year.

Since you indicated your card hadn't been used for several months, this wasn't likely to have affected you, but there are literally dozens if not hundreds of such cases every year, some of which we'll never hear about because the businesses are too small and often technically incapable of detecting the fact that they've been breached.

Rob