Pocono News Section

I-Team: Undercover Debit Card Investigation

I-Team: Undercover Debit Card Investigation - Friday, February 22, 2008 at 6:20PM EST

Friday, Feb 22, 2008 @06:20pm EST
WILKES -BARRE TOWNSHIP, LUZERNE COUNTY -- It has likely happened to you. You use your debit card to pay for a purchase and the clerk doesn't even ask to see it or compare your signature. It's a problem that can allow thieves to drain your bank account instantly and the I-Team has found local stores aren't following the rules to protect you.

Just slide and sign. It's an easy way to pay but possibly risky. Often cashiers at local stores don't ask to see your debit card to make sure it's really yours. That poses problems for shoppers. "Once I lost my debit card in a grocery store and someone racked up charges on it." Another shopper says "I'm surprised when they ask to see my id because that's how often it doesn't happen."

And if your card got in the wrong hands, a thief could drain your bank account in minutes. So the I-Team sent a female She walks into Kohl's in Wilkes-Barre Township, picks some women's clothing and walks to the register. The producer tells us what happened next. "I slid the card through the personal card reader. She didn't ask to see the card and I walked out with my purchase."

She walked out of Wal-Mart, Sam's Club, Payless Shoe Source, Ross with purchases. Either the clerks didn't ask for the card, or didn't notice my picture. We thought we found a diligent cashier at Sneaker King. She mentioned my photo. The producer recalls "She said, 'is this your boyfriend?' I agreed and she slid the card and I signed the card slip and walked out."

We collected merchandise totalling almost $150 from six stores. If our producer had been a thief, she could have drained my bank account in minutes.

If this happens to you, your account could be left empty for two weeks until your bank, by law, has to refund you the lost money. So who's responsible for the loss? The store --for failing to follow a contract it has with the card company.

Agent Bill Slavoski of the U.S. Secret Service, which investigates this sort of financial fraud, says there could be two reasons stores aren't paying close attention to the signature and ensure the card isn't stolen. First, poorly trained workers and second, companies want to rush business through the line. "They're more concerned about business and they're willing to write off a loss. I don't know this for a fact, but I can't think of any other explanation."

"In our experience merchants ignore the merchant agreement " says Paul Stephens of the Privacy Rights Clearninghouse in California. Because debit card abuse runs rampant and signatures aren't a full proof security measure, the non-profit agency encourages consumers to ditch their debit cards and get ATM cards instead. The difference is ATM cards can only be used with a PIN number and don't have a Visa or Mastercard logo on them.

While ATM cards aren't as convenient, it could protect you. As long as a thief doesn't have your PIN number, he can't wipe out your bank account.

Wal-Mart is the only retailer to respond to our requests for comment. This is the chain's response to our investigation:

"Wal-Mart is diligent about protecting its customers from fraud and follows the guidelines and mandates put forth by the major card issuers, such as MasterCard and Visa, designed to prevent credit card fraud. Credit and debit card companies provide Wal-Mart with online approval of transactions. They also randomly prompt us to check the signature on cards based on risk profiles they have in place. "Wal-Mart also works with local officials and card companies to help solve cases where cards have been fraudulently used at our stores. As a company, we would be very supportive of changes within the credit card industry that require a PIN number to complete a credit card transaction." --Dan Fogleman, Wal-Mart Spokesperson