I know the title raises a few eyebrows and I think it should. My reason for that title is a small bit of information I have just learned from my local bank. A few months back I logged into my online banking website and I was immediately in shock. They showed my account in the negative. Now I know I don’t have much money but I had enough to get by on. I started going line by line and I discovered all these charges from Budapest.
I immediately called my bank and had them review my account with me. I was a victim of Identity theft.
Somehow and somewhere my credit card / debit card information was stolen. Not the actual card because that was still in my wallet. My bank said the charges went through as a point of sale charge which apparently means my card was actually swiped since they have the 3 digit code off the back of the card. I assured my bank that I had NEVER been to Budapest. They believed me and put a stop on my account and issued new cards and I filled out all the required paperwork to get my money back.
Here is the piece of information they shared with me that I want to share with you. My bank informed me that the most Identity theft stems from restaurant’s. The reason they warn people of this is because your server usually takes your card and walks away to ring up your meal charges. This is where the danger comes into play because they have the entire card with acct#, full name and of course the 3 digit security code from the back of the card. Now that we have this information what the hell do I do about it. Here are some tips my bank gave me and they seem easy and obvious. Pay in cash if you can, if not tell the server you would like to bring the bill up and pay for it at the register. Now there are some restaurant’s (usually national chains) where there is no cash register directly for customers to bring up and pay. In this situation tell the server you would like to follow them to the register, use an excuse like you don’t want the other guests that are with you to see the bill, you want to surprise them or something of that nature.
Another solution is to start buying gift cards for yourself for your favorite restaurant’s. I guess you could technically buy prepaid visa’s for yourself as well, the reality is to somehow protect yourself with some common sense and diligence. None of us want to admit to ourselves that something like this could happen to us. The sad reality is “statistically” it is going to happen to you or someone you know.
Take some small steps to protect yourself and you can reduce the risk and exposure of your personal information taking a trip to Budapest.
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