How can someone use my debit card without having it Reddit

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Fraudsters can still use your debit card even if they don’t have the card itself. They don’t even need your PIN—just your card number. If you’ve used your debit card for an off-line transaction (a transaction without your PIN), your receipt will show your full debit card number. You should always destroy these receipts so no one finds your card number.

Hi all,

My dad claims that I should not use a debit card online because the merchant has direct access to the checking account and could potentially drain my account if they were nefarious. Some results on Google do mention a similar idea but I am not sure if this is just fear mongering.

I do plan on purchasing items from other countries such as France or the EU.

Is this an accurate assessment or is using a debit card online fine?

EDIT: Thanks guys. Sometimes your parents do know what they are taking about!

When you swipe your card a few times and it doesn't work, you've probably noticed that the cashier will mumble something about the stupid computer, and just key it in. Method #1, usually done by a rogue cashier (since it requires a pretty convincing-looking fake card otherwise).

Cloning the mag stripe on a credit card, once you have the information, takes about 30 second and $150 in readily-available hardware. Method #2, the "right" way to do it since any expired card (hell, an old hotel door card will work) makes a convincing enough fake and only the data on the stripe matters, since no one ever checks the details on the card, just the signature (and rarely even that).

As an aside - Best credit card "security theater" I've ever seen, I had to pick up a prescription for my SO, so she gave me her HSA card to pay. Cashier asked me for ID, and proceeded to "compare" the signatures on my SO's HSA card to my signature, and apparently decided they match. Mind you, she has a big flowery signature, and I have this scrunched up signature that looks more like an EKG than actual writing.

Okay, so for the fourth or fifth time in less than 3 years, my debit card information has been stolen and fraudulent charges have been made on my bank account. This happens about every 6 - 12 months. I have three bank accounts at different banks, but only one has ever had fraudulent charges (it’s a credit union, if that matters).

Every time it has happened, I still have the card itself in my possession. All the fraudulent charges are made online or in cities far away from me. This most recent time, they told me that someone had created a fake duplicate of my card and used it in a store in a city several states over from where I live.

It is so frustrating that this keeps happening to me. I feel like I am smart with my debit card info. Although I do use my debit card for online purchases, I don’t go on shady websites. I don’t let people borrow my card and no one else has access to my bank account. So why is my debit card info is constantly being compromised?

I don’t think any of my friends or family are responsible since the fraudulent charges have always been made in places where no one I know lives. Anyone have any ideas? I feel like a big sucker.

Edit: Whoa this blew up overnight. Reading through all your replies now, thank you so much for all the help!!

I received unauthorised charges and had to block the card.

I'm quite paranoid about security and can't explain how this could have happened.

I only use the card online and I have only registered it on these sites: paypal, amazon and google; each site has a secure password generated by a password manager and 2FA is enabled.

I've never told anyone the data or used it physically in any shop or written the data anywhere.

Before registering another one I would like to understand how it is possible, in order to avoid this happening to me again, can they guess the card data by making a lot of automatic attempts?

Update: it turns out it was not a problem due to something I did, but to a flaw in the card operator's system, the exact same thing is happening to thousands of holders of the same type of card

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