In other words, Prime Day gave fraudsters a target-rich environment. It’s true. My wife and I were among those targeted. In our case, it wasn’t a phishing attack. The bad guys had already harvested some of our personal information.

Sitrep (situation report)

CHECKCARD AMAZON. COM AMZN.C SEATTLE WA ON 07/15 - $193.77 We found no legitimate charge and became convinced the charge was fraudulent. Our next step was to contact the bank’s fraud department. At this point, we had eliminated the risk of further fraudulent transactions and financial harm to us. But that wasn’t the whole story.

The rest of the story

Where, exactly, the criminals got our debit card details remains unclear. There were no geographical records, so we couldn’t determine if the fraudsters were local and had somehow skimmed the card or were far away and had somehow obtained the card’s digits through a hack or a nefarious credential purchase. If we weren’t the only victim of this crook’s activity, I’m betting they got away with many charges that went unnoticed.

How we stayed safe

Our system works. Many years ago, we instituted what we call “banks and bills.” We started doing this for our company back when we were a startup running on fumes. Originally, it involved a daily review of how much we had in our bank accounts, what payments were due to us, and what bills we had to pay. With a staff of employees and no external funding, we were living from client payment to client payment. Cash management was a necessity. My wife and I also started using the banks and bills system for our personal expenses. For an in-depth deep dive into what this system is, read my article, “The single best way to protect yourself against credit card fraud” and then do what it says.
It works, as we proved this week.
It’s been a long time since we’ve had to do a daily financial review, but we do check all our accounts on a weekly, scheduled basis. Every week, we go down all our bank accounts to make sure the transactions make sense. This is how we caught this fraudster. With weekly banks and bills, it never takes us more than seven days to find a problematic transaction. This week, as we went down the list of each transaction in the bank account, we noticed the odd $193.77 and immediately took action. Had we not had a weekly review of transactions, we might never have noticed that bill or noticed it was too late for the bank to reverse the charges. That’s how I recommend you keep your business and family safe as well. Do a banks and bills review weekly, double-check any questionable transactions, and you can be sure you’re always on top of your accounts.

More fraud prevention techniques

Adrianus also explained that gift card scams are prevalent because such cards are popular presents. Don’t fall for offers for gift card vouchers. Always be suspicious of messages encouraging you to respond quickly, and always speak to loved ones and friends on the phone before making transactions you believe they have asked for. 
Beware of text messages or emails giving an order number and a link to track a package. Once clicked, a hacker may follow up by asking for a small payment to speed up delivery or claim there is an extra fee to pay.

The bottom line

Remember, the bottom line is your bottom line. It’s worth it to take the extra care to check your accounts and do your due diligence. Sure, the charge we faced was under $200, but who’s to say that if that charge was allowed to go through, we wouldn’t be facing repeating charges or much bigger charges? Our due diligence prevented something that could have gotten very bad, which we might have caught far too late. In the immortal words of Sgt. Phil Esterhaus, “Let’s be careful out there.” Have you checked your accounts? Have you experienced Prime Day-related fraud? What techniques do you use to keep safe? What’s your sitrep when it comes to financial security? Let us know in the comments below. You can follow my day-to-day project updates on social media. Be sure to follow me on Twitter at @DavidGewirtz, on Facebook at Facebook.com/DavidGewirtz, on Instagram at Instagram.com/DavidGewirtz, and on YouTube at YouTube.com/DavidGewirtzTV.