Credit and debit card skimming is on the rise in the area.One morning before work, you’re walking the dog and the phone rings.
It’s a representative from Staple’s, saying your online order – supposed to ship soon – is halted. There’s a problem with your credit card.
This is how Chattanoogan Kelton Bodell recently found out someone, somewhere, had stolen his credit card information and made fraudulent purchases through his account – that he had become one of millions to have private financial account information stolen in the U.S.
Credit card fraud strikes about a quarter of American credit card holders every year, according to CreditCards.com. Card fraud has been a serious and mounting problem here for years, costing retailers upwards of $32 billion in 2014 alone, according to MasterCard.
And for card holders like Bodell, it often strikes out of the blue.