Royal Caribbean Credit Card - Compromised

[AustinCruisers]

I am waiting for my new RCCL credit card from Bank of America to arrive. It appears that my old credit card number was compromised. I carry a zero balance on the card and used it for the first time in several months for our Sea Pass account. We were on the Freedom sailing out of Port Canaveral on Nov 8 - 15, 2009.

 

We did not use the credit card anywhere else except for RCCL check in. Not even on our Ports of call.

 

They attempted to use the number and did not have the security code from the back of the credit card and did not have the billing address. The charges were declined.

 

So be aware and be warned.

[temple1]

That is very upsetting.

 

We use the BOA card and I have a couple of questions.

 

When you say someone tried to use the number - what kind of purchase were they trying to make? On line or telephone? Was it in the Port Canaveral area?

 

I ask because maybe I'm overly optomistic about people and wonder if it was a keying error or some other honest mistake.

[Mark_K]

That is very upsetting.

 

We use the BOA card and I have a couple of questions.

 

When you say someone tried to use the number - what kind of purchase were they trying to make? On line or telephone? Was it in the Port Canaveral area?

 

I ask because maybe I'm overly optomistic about people and wonder if it was a keying error or some other honest mistake.

It is upsetting, but it has nothing to do with the particular type of card. It could have just as easily been any card, any type.

[temple1]

It is upsetting, but it has nothing to do with the particular type of card. It could have just as easily been any card, any type.

 

Well, I know that. The OP could have posted about almost any credit card and it would be one we have in a drawer somewhere. ;) But I thought to keep it RCCL related.....

 

No matter who issued - my questions are still valid. Was it an honest mistake? Or did someone at the port try to steal the number (and most of the people I've encountered at the ports seem to be the type to know what additional info you would need to use a card these days) after checking them in.

[luckyprincess]

Our BOA RCCL card was comprosmised, too. Just got my new ones...

[seatraveler1]

I have used my RCCL VISA for years and have never had a problem with it being "compromised". That being said, my Discover was just compromised last week within 1 hour after using it at a marine (boat) supply store here in Florida. The Discover security system indicated that someone actually swiped my card in California when I just used it an hour earlier in Florida! Luckily the computer system "locked" out my card when it detected that.

[printingchick]

I had this same issue when someone attempted to buy airline tickets using my credit card number. It could easily have been a typo in an on-line purchase. Not necessarilly a theif. But they closed my account and issued me a new card. I'm glad they stay on top of things the way they do. Closing an account is a royal pain. I use my card for EVERYTHING and have it set up for several accounts. My dry cleaner called saying they tried to bill my cleaning and my account had been closed. How embarassing. But better than the alternative I suppose.

[phoenix1181]

More often than not, the card information is obtained many months before fraudulent activity occurs. People tend to think it happened at the last place it was used but that's actually quite unusual.

[firefly333]

Mine was POSSIBLY compromised too, and they sent me a new one.

 

Note, they said POSSIBLY compromised, they never said for sure. They said they issued a new one, just in case.

[seatraveler1]

More often than not, the card information is obtained many months before fraudulent activity occurs. People tend to think it happened at the last place it was used but that's actually quite unusual.

 

This is mostly true, but my suspicion went up a notch when I found out that the main headquarters for this marine store was located in California! Hummmm, that's where the charges were from also, maybe a pure coincidence.

[MaryL31]

Someone used my GM card to purchase flights and a hotel in Europe in 2007...the purchase was made in England, and the flights/ hotel were to Ireland. I had not used the card since August 2005, and that was only to cash in points when I purchased a vehicle. I actually USED the card probably in early 2005 to make a purchase. So it took 2.5 YEARS before someone used it. I still wonder to this day if it wasn't the car salesman who sold the number (please no flaming against car salesmen...I'm sure some are honest, and perhaps it WASN'T him, but I can't help but wonder). Needless to say, I cancelled that card, despite them wanting to send me a new card with a new number. I was not held responsible for any of the purchase...Also wanted to say that this card sat in a drawer for the years between when I last used it, and when it was used fraudulently. I never carried it in my wallet.

[Arizona Cruz Chic]

This happened to us a few years ago.....apparently I had shopped once at TJ Maxx, then several months later someone hacked into their account. They notified all banks and then we were notified that our card was compromised. I was really mad, but in the end it all turned out just fine, BofA handled it very well and it was all seamless.

 

***

[kyriecat]

My credit card number got stolen and used last week. I have no idea how the person hacked my number since I still have the card. Someone probably swiped it months ago and just got around to using the number. What gets me about the situation is the person used the number to spend $900 at Bloomingdales in Ohio. I live in Texas. I have never shopped at Bloomingdales in my life and very rarely spend that much at one time. That charge didn't get tagged as fraudulent, but my card gets denied about every third time I try to use it at a grocery store that is less than a mile from my house where I shop 1-2 times a week. :rolleyes: I have no idea how the credit card companies decide what appears fraudulent and what isn't. One of my coworkers thinks I'm paranoid because I check my credit card charges online every couple of days.

[lcguy]

Shortly after returning from the Enchantment in September, my American Airlines Mastercard was "potentially" compromised through a vendor database. Got new cards, no problems, just a pain to change CC numbers for all auto debits. :mad:

[mgmigs]

About 2 weeks ago my rccl visa card was used fraudulently to make 2 purchases. the card never left me and i don't think the purchases were made in person, may have been an online type transaction. i closed the account and had a new card issued.

[HB Cruiser]

Sometimes I wonder about BoA security. We have been card members for 6 years now, BoA has cancelled our card and replaced with a different number four times in that period. Now I am not a banking analysist BUT this seems to be too frequent in my book.

 

I also have a Discover card (holder since 1998) and have NEVER had this issue. It is linked to our business and we use it quite frequently, and mostly on line.

 

It is just hard to figure out.

 

Tim

[TravlGrl]

I blame Bank of America. Our B of A credit card (Alaska Airlines) was "compromised" (I love how they tell us that, but the bank won't actually tell us HOW it was compromised) twice in the last 5 months...once while we were in the middle of relocating cities and we had no use of our card for meals, gas, hotel etc. while we were on the road. They issued a new one...then 2 months later it happened again.

 

Weird how it's happened twice in the last 5 months, yet the bank won't tell us how it's been compromised.

 

P.S. Good friends of ours had this happen to them also during the same time period it happened to us (but we lived in different cities and hadn't been traveling or using our credit cards together). We're wondering if some numbers were stolen from the bank, and as a precaution, B of A just told us our accounts were compromised???

[gdpups]

I have only good things to say about BofA. In August I went on a road trip and one week after I got home I went grocery shopping and my BOA visa was denied. I went home and called visa and they started going through my last few charges.

 

She asked if I charged $1 something at overstock.com and I said no. She then asked if I charged something at walmart.com and I again said no. She said what flagged the account was the small charge then the online purchase and she also said those two .coms were highly used by scammers.

 

I had my card in hand, but my daughter said gas stations are usually where the scammers place card readers. Went online and verified that. Since I had just returned from a road trip and had used many gas stations we figured that's what happened. I'm glad BofA caught it so quickly!

[SliderNc]

Storeage of card holder information follows some strict guidelines that are set forth by the card issuers (VISA, MC, Discover, AMEX). If it is compromised, they have no choice but to deactivate the cards in that database and issue new ones. The codes on the back of the cards (CVV code) cannot be stored in any database except the card issuers'. The data is also now supposed to be encrypted and undecipherable without the correct algorithms/keys. I know that is at least what we do for the account numbers/expiration dates.

 

BofA and Citicard are notorious for having their accounts hacked. I've had two BofA cards replaced multiple times since I've had them and my Citicard, which I've had the longest replaced over 6 times in a 10 year period. It sucks for anyone and it is cheaper for a "possible compromise" to be fixed by issuing new cards then for the compromiser to start using said hacked card numbers and the banks having to pay out to retailers/businesses for the services used.

[temple1]

Very interesting. We've had our BOA RCCL card for over 4 years. Never a problem. We have used it from CA to Key West with no issues.

 

DH used to drive a thousand miles plus a week and never had a problem with the Discover card he used for gas. Then on our road trip to Florida earlier this month we had one of the potential fraud calls from Discover, we were in the midst of our vacation, didn't call back until we returned home and noticed they had deactivated the card. The usage was a gas fill up in SC and again in FL or GA. They called the same day it happened.

 

Imagine if that were your only credit card and you didn't have our home phone forwarded to my cell. What a pain that would have been!

[SherriZ366]

My credit card number got stolen and used last week. I have no idea how the person hacked my number since I still have the card. Someone probably swiped it months ago and just got around to using the number. What gets me about the situation is the person used the number to spend $900 at Bloomingdales in Ohio. I live in Texas. I have never shopped at Bloomingdales in my life and very rarely spend that much at one time. That charge didn't get tagged as fraudulent, but my card gets denied about every third time I try to use it at a grocery store that is less than a mile from my house where I shop 1-2 times a week. :rolleyes: I have no idea how the credit card companies decide what appears fraudulent and what isn't. One of my coworkers thinks I'm paranoid because I check my credit card charges online every couple of days.

I check mine BofA account card daily and DH checks our Amex daily. Better to be proactive. I have had a Visa and an AMEX compromised -- the latter while I was on Serenade on an Alaska cruise. DH did not go and he handled the problem.

[MaryL31]

Temple1- that's pretty much what happened to us in the story I described on my previous post. DH and I were on our first RCCL cruise, and a call came in on the answering machine. Father-in-law, watching our kids, must have not understood, or ignored it. A week later, I started getting "strange" e-mails from what LOOKED like GM, but I was afraid to respond, since I hadn't used the card, and was afraid it was someone using a site that LOOKED like GM, but was "fishing" for my info. Turns out there was a $1500 balance on this card that has sat in a drawer for over 2 years. Go figure...

[Desert Queen]

A couple of years ago I was checking my BOA charges and noticed two odd ones, both for $200. When I called BOA to check on it they told me they were both for music downloads online (I never do that) and they had to have the number on the back of the card. The only time the card was out of my sight in the days prior was when we used it to pay for dinner and drinks at a local sports bar. BOA took care of it immediately and efficiently, but of course the account had to be closed and new cards issued. They did ask me if I had kids who might have done it. I called the manager of the sports bar and told him that I was not accusing anyone, but did want to bring this to his attention. I have since been very careful to check my account frequently.

[AustinCruisers]

The number was ran through some type of art museum just to see if the number was valid. Then a phone call to Ticket Masters was made with an attempt to charge $205.

 

The suspect only had the CC #, because I have the card in my possession. They did not have the security code on the back of the card nor the correct information such as the billing zip code and answers to other security questions. So the charge was denied.

 

As I've stated, I did not use the card anywhere else on the cruise. It had a zero balance and had not been used in several months.

 

I don't suspect the people at the counter that took the card when I was checking in to set up my Sea Pass account. But I'm confident it was someone down the line that handles the CC#.

 

I'm been in Law Enforcement for 20 years now and this is the second time that it has happened to me. 1st was my AmEx card and now Bank of America.

 

The both caught it. When I go out of the country I call the CC companies and let them know where I will be and what dates. My CC has been cut off in the middle of the ocean before and the ship locks up your Sea Pass card, so make sure you call your CC company. AmEx says I no longer have to call them, but I do.

 

Also if you plan on using a ATM/Debit card, most of the time there is an out of State and Country limit of $250 per day. You may want to call your bank, some banks let you notify them online of the dates and location that you will be at. This will increase your daily withdraw amount and not cap you at the $250 limit.

 

Safe travels!

[spongerob]

CC companies in the US refuse to adopt SmartCard technology which would make it much more difficult for such "compromises" to occur. It will therefore soon be impossible for US citizens to use their cards outside the US. We pay higher rates, and suffer the inconvenience of finding out our cards have been placed under a fraud alert, rather than attack the problem and demand better solutions.