How your travel funds can get stolen via wi-fi
DAY 15 – Having your credit card info stolen over public wi-fi can happen more easily than you think, and your bank may not be of much help if it happens to you.
Do you use public wi-fi? Does your computer send your payment information for anything while you’re using it? Look at what happened to me in Malaysia so you can avoid it happening to you.
My sad tale
I took my laptop to a Starbucks in Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia a few days ago, where I purchased something online using my ATM/debit card. Everything worked smoothly. Ho-hum.
But a few days later I got an email from Bank of America: they had detected some “unusual activity” on my ATM card and had already canceled it. With no input from me – they must have been pretty sure about it to go ahead and cancel it.
Be careful with youth hostel wi-fi.
The charges they listed were indeed mysterious – $150 worth of purchases at a toy store a block away from the Starbucks.
Bank of America said they’d launch an internal investigation, which sounded all well and good but it meant I wouldn’t have access to any cash for the length of the investigation. The cash I had on me had to get me through.
Gulp.
This Means You!
They sent a new ATM card to my mom’s house in the United States and she mailed it to the central KL post office a few days later where I picked it up. Bank of America suggested I get a police report while waiting for the results of their investigation, so for the second time in a week I found myself sitting in the tourist police office near the Petronas Towers.
A friend I’d made at my guesthouse came – my moral support this time.
Coffee shop wi-fi: a blessing and a curse.
The result of the investigation
Bank of America, frustratingly, found “no evidence of wrongdoing” and said I was liable for the $150 as if I’d spent it myself. Thanks for nothing, BoA.
There are several questions I was never able to answer about this tale, including:
- How did someone get this info, even from public wi-fi? I thought secure connections were safe.
- What made the bank think these charges were suspicious in the first place? I’d been using the card legitimately in the area myself.
- Given that the charges were suspicious enough for Bank of America to immediately cancel my card and launch an internal investigation, what made them rule against me and take the money after all?
Precious, precious cash!
Lessons to learn
Your bank may help you like they helped me – which is to say, sort of but not really. Without them you may not even know about the problem and there may be more and higher purchases made with your card – but you might have to pay up anyway. It’s different with different banks, and it matters whether your card is a debit or a credit card.
I felt lucky that it was only $150; although that is a big part of my savings since I’m working online to continue this trip, it could have been worse. Much more than $150 would probably mean I’d have canceled the trip.
Shudder.
So be careful with public wi-fi; try to use broadband cables, and secure connections when possible. And have an alternative source of funds in case something happens.
And don’t let the stress of losing money burrow too deep in you, it’ll make your blood sugar high!
Have you ever had something like this happen to you? Where was it? How did you handle it?
