I don't get it. You would think the debit card company would have contacted the owner of the card by phone to ensure it was a valid charge after receiving the $3,000 charge from the "shipper". In addition, the charge did not originate from the cardholders phone number and opening a shipping account with a debit card. Sounds fishy.

I use my debit card less and less. Pretty much as R does now, ATMs only.

If you have a Citibank card you can use a 'virtual account number'. Their website will give you an account number to use that only lasts 30 days. I usually use my check card for stores I trust like Amazon...anything else I go with the Citi card.

Writing a check is just as dangerous as using a debit card. When you write a check you basically hand a series of strangers your name, address, account number and routing number, sometimes even your phone number and drivers license number. This information in the wrong hands can clean out your bank account. Don't even get me started about writing checks for you bills and mailing them from your home. Identity thieves actually cruise neighborhoods looking for outgoing mail. It's a much better idea to mail your monthly bills from the post office, but it's still dangerous.

My credit card data was stolen two different times at restaurants. Many restaurants, gas stations, and other businesses use radio signals for credit card transactions. Thieves are using computers with WYFI cards to collect the data from the parking lot. US Bank caught it and never paid any of the merchants who excepted the charges.

R Neal is right about using a debit card, it has little protection by law like credit cards have. A credit card holder is protected by federal law to a max of $50.00. A debit card is not protected under this law.

I no longer use online banking because the guarantee the banks give is misleading. The banks only guarantee that their computer is safe from hackers and not the connection between you and the bank. It's always the customers computer that gets hacked, not the banks.

I use to special order my checks with no name on the checks so no one would know what signature to use. Now I have to have an address because the checks are shipped to the address on the checks. I don't worry much about the data being stolen from the checks since it requires my signature on the checks. I closed my account at a local credit union because of security problems. The credit union credit card data was hacked and everyone had to be issued a new card. They also change the pin numbers on everyones ATM/Debit card when they update the software. They use the last four of your SSN every time they do an update. Your last four SSN, street address, last four phone number, and birth date are common pins and should never be used.

Call me old-fashioned, or SO 20th Century! I have never used an ATM and don't have a Debit Card. Cash or check for local/bills and CC for mail & online ordering. I have advised my kids that the DC does not have the $50 fraud protection cap that a CC has.

I use my debit card regularly and rarely carry cash. This morning while checking my account I discovered that I paid $131.90 for a meal last week.

Well it was for two but it was two senior buffets at the local KFC. Two charges were levied to that account, $15.95 for two senior buffets and $115.95 for two senior buffets.

I called the credit union and, armed with my printout, I went to confront the manager. She was sympathetic but untutored in the mechanics of repairing the damage.

She invited me to have a lunch on them while she called her boss. I suggested that maybe I should just bring in a boat load of seniors to have lunch on them and thereby eliminate the paperwork.

After about fifteen minutes of her wrangling with the computer over such things as whether the refund should be in US dollars or Euros, I was out of there with a receipt for my refund - and two free buffets on them.

It's a good thing I like their buffet.

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I believe you can also file a charge back on your debit card I've only had to file one on my credit card (I was charged twice for an oil change).

The guy at the credit union said he was once double-charged on his debit card for a chicken biscuit but it only came to a couple of dollars. I hate to think of what this could have been without the senior discount.

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I was double charged for a book from amazon.com, then they triple reversed it, then double charged it again... all within the space of a single day (according to my on-line credit statement). Oh well, they got it right in the end... 4 charges - 3 reversals = 1 charge.