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So I just got off the phone with Bank of America because they sent me a replace card (unasked for) with the same card number, expiration data and CVV code. It came "Ready to use" - no activation required. In regular mail in an envelope with their logo on it.
The replacement card was issued for "tap-and-go" = and added feature which I do not want. It's a security risk and I don't want to buy an aluminum wallet and walk around with a Faraday Cage in my pocket.
Customer service didn't seem to get the point and just kept telling me it came activated because it's a replacement of the same card. Finally, I got her to put me through to the fraud people. The lady was astonished. It didn't come UPS or Fedex - just dropped in the mailbox. She's made a report (for whatever that will be worth).
These tap and go cards? Someone could intercept the mail or even take it from the mailbox. Use it without even opening the envelope and eventually return it to a (public) mailbox for re-delivery. If they kept it to local stores and smaller purchased, who'd notice.
In less than a month we've had this and Ally Bank sent not mail to us with my wife's SSN pre-typed in - for all the world to see and steal.
WTF? The scammers really don't need the extra help, but, I'm sure they're grateful.
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
modified 4-Nov-20 11:18am.
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We have become our replacement cards (without Wireless Chip) per regular post. But I am not that worried.
At least the bank told us online they were sending the renewal, and it is deactivated. You have to activate it personally logging in your own account and introducing the cardnr.
No CVV Code, so they are not valid for Internet shops either...
In your case... I would have some serious words with them too.
M.D.V. 
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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WHat gets me is when I ring the bank they ask me security questions - very understandable.
But when they ring me (and particularly their fraud department) they get very snotty about being asked to prove they are who they say they are. To the point where I refuse to deal with them and take a trip to a branch instead.
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Worse: they ring you, and then immediately start asking you to answer security questions to prove who you are. 
OriginalGriff wrote: take a trip to a branch instead
Good luck with that - even before Covid, branches were vanishingly rare. My branch got turned into a PizzaHut, and they didn't even tell me.
I think I'll just stick with Neil's letter to the bank manager[^]. 
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined."
- Homer
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My credit union just opened a new branch
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Yeah - here we think totally alike. Anyone, even the pharmacy for renewals, that calls me asking for personal information doesn't get it. I try to get them to prove who they are - asking them for information . . . you know how that works out.
Banks haven't done this but the pharmacy "time to renew" prescription service asks if it's me (or Mrs) and then want me to give them the full birthday. So now, an unknown caller who knows my name has my date of birth . . . brilliant.
What gets me is that you cannot seem to get them to understand how bad these things are. No wonder hacking and fraud are so lucrative.
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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W∴ Balboos, GHB wrote: the pharmacy "time to renew" prescription service
Google reminds me every fourth Saturday, and I submit the request directly to my doctors surgery via the internet. They approve it, it's collected (physically, it contains controlled drugs and legally they have to have the original paper document in their hands to prescribe) by my chosen pharmacy, and then delivered to my door.
Works really well, unless the person who knows how to use a computer at the surgery goes off sick or on holiday in which case it all gets forgotten ... 
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Here's an interesting opposite:
In New York State all prescriptions must be sent to the pharmacy electronically - no more paper prescriptions because of controlled substance abuse.
This makes (if the doctors' office is reasonably competent) for very convenient renewals. Either the pharmacy can call and request the renewal or you can call the MD's office and ask for one. If all are lucky, the renewal comes with built-in refills.
Notice, in the preceding paragraph, the statement in parenthesis? That has been my every-growing problem. It would be another sad but entertaining post of some length culminating in me not receiving a prescription (for a no-controlled substance ) for a full three weeks after it was prescribed - all because of the Dr's offices incompetence. Luckily it was an acute condition.
| Ravings en masse^ |
|---|
| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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W∴ Balboos, GHB wrote:
What gets me is that you cannot seem to get them to understand how bad these things are. No wonder hacking and fraud are so lucrative.
That's because at best you're talking with a minimum wage slave in a domestic call center. Typically limited education and thus probably unable to understand what you're complaining about in the first place; with zero ability to effect changes on one hand and whose compensation/continued employment is contingent on running you through the script as fast as possible with zero digressions on the other.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, weighing all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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Mostly - you're right. In the case of Target, not only are you correct by their phone system seems to almost invariably route you back to the same department. The several people I spoke to, only two, deliberately, all had the same accent although I couldn't quite place it. Their job seems to be 'just make it right' and be done with it (a bit of an improvement over your worst-case scenario which is all too common).
Champaions, heretofore, in my experience for meeting and exceeding your expectations in terms of useless were Virgin Mobile and Roku. Each with their own delightful nuance to bring "sunshine" to your day.
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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I always ask to have a key word/phrase added to my account if there's a chance someone will call me. That way, I ask for the key phrase from them before I'll answer any security questions.
Most companies I've dealt with support this - if the call centre person you're talking to hasn't heard about it, ask them to check with a supervisor. If the company doesn't support it, I simply ask for anything I'd need to get through to the same person from the main switchboard (name, extension, dept.), then I call back on a published number.
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Call them back to verify that it was them that called you. Don't use the number that the caller wants you to dial.
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I opened an account with a 'challenger bank' here in the UK because they send a notification every time my card is used. Over 10 years ago, it was already common-place in Italy (and probably many other countries), to get a text message for every Credit Card transaction. It can't be difficult, can it!
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It's an account setting.
I get an email for any transactions of the types I select:
Online, gas station, over a cert $ amount.
It's good for them in that it allows you to catch the fraud (and save them money) earlier and has virtually now cost.
I don' text, but that's is an option as well.
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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5teveH wrote: It can't be difficult, can it!
Do you ever visit QA? 
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I haven't had any issues with Ally bank personally. I had a card number stolen a couple years back and I got a refund on my account and a new card issued quite quickly. I use their card control app now to avoid the issue in the first place.
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Except sending, perhaps, if they send your SSN in a plain Ally Bank window envelope by regular mail and deflect (repeatedly) when asked how they can be so careless with my Mrs' Personally Identifiable Information?
So - to answer my concerns they just repeated the stupidity.
| Ravings en masse^ |
|---|
| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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That is indeed a problem. I haven't experienced it but a problem nonetheless.
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We have to first use the new card via the 4-digit code before it can be used at all : so the first payment is always requiring the code, afterwards it is released for "tap-and-go". I cannot understand why a bank would send ready to go cards per snail mail  
On a side note, I could not live without "tap-and-go" anymore : it is quick and reliable. And I can even trace small payments for my private accountancy. Fraud exists, but is covered by insurance and is not really common (yet, maybe).
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When I talked to the banks CC Fraud department that was her first question - by UPS or Fedex - and was shocked that it was just in a plain B of A envelope. An unnecessary bulk mailing when they could have done it properly, when they issued replacements for expiring cards that require calling them to activate it. If you don't call from the phone number they have on file you get bumped to a live person for a bit more of an interrogation.
So, why snail mail? My hypothesis is they save money on each mailing by sending it that way. Apparently they're upgrading all the cards (this one wouldn't expire for 2 3/4 years).
I don't generally consider "quick and reliable" for "safe and secure . . . and reliable". The market in RF-Proof wallets is not needed for the magnetic strip or chip. So - if in close enough proximity to a (portable) scanner in a scammers position you may be close enough to charged for something.
For that matter, since my card was mailed 'active', clever scam would be to take allied bank mail from mailboxes for a day or so - then, unopened, try to tap and go with it. After a sufficient number of purchases you put it back in the mailbox. How would the proper owner know until the bill comes? Dispute (local) charges on a card you already use locally? And you never reported it stolen? I'm not sure I'd believe you.
| Ravings en masse^ |
|---|
| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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The worst thing is the RF Protection wallets that are fabric with 'RF strips' embedded you just need to scan them at High power to get the relavent information out.
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I bought the Mylar RFID "envelope"/cardholder. I put it in my wallet, and my card slides into that.
Yes, my newest card came with this chip (unrequested).
They did the same crap with the Passports, which is how I learned about those shielding envelopes.
Imagine being in a foreign country, and someone sitting outside with a directed antenna, pinging you and getting your passport details (some fields are encrypted, but your country of origin was not when I looked into it)!
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I needed my wife's SSN one day, and when I asked, she just said "Google it!"
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I didn't try Google. Looked it up in my encrypted password app. We've all been hacked.
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