4900 Yonge St (Toronto Recruitment Center) visa/parking cautions.

[Urocyon Cinereoargenteus]

Im not sure where I should post this, but since it involves the parking at 4900 Yonge St I figure recruitment might be a good spot.

A few months back I was at the center and used the large pay parking lot just south of Shepperd and Yonge. I attempted to use my work CC and it was spit back as card unreadable, so I parked on the street and used one of the many pay parking meters on BeeCroft Road (Just west of the recruitment center), way cheaper and closer to the recruitment center too. A few weeks later I noticed $6 and $7 charges popping onto the card as parking fees from Boston. So I called Visa, confirmed that Id never been to Boston and they deleted them. About a month later the card got hit with a series of large purchases from a US based IP address and they locked the card down and issued a new one. Its been fine since.
Last week I had to drop in and looked along BeeCroft for a parking meter and was unable to find any, but there was a dingy looking parking lot with electric arms on BeeCroft (across from the North York Civic Center), so I thought...what the heck, its a different parking company than the one at Yonge & Shepperd...I figured Id use my personal card this time as I forgot the company card at home. Needless to say, that machine would not read my card...No big deal, I back out and cruised up and down BeeCroft a couple times till I found a pay parking meter.
Well guess what? Lo and behold they just called and my personal card got compromised. They put through a $650 purchase the same day as I was at 4900, and last night put through two $3500 purchases, all from a US based IP address buying stuff in the states. Now I have to go a few days with out a Visa, and make sure to change all my personal stuff over to the new card.
Thankfully I pay for purchase protection on both cards...but I know most of the people going to 4900 Yonge are probably younger than me and may not have the funds to pay for purchase protection every month, so I STRONGLY RECOMMEND that they take a pile of change and use one of the Parking Meters on BeeCroft. They are WAY CHEAPER than the lazy man parking lots and nobody can steal your identity when you use cash.

 

[Pusser]

Generally, if your card is compromised and/or used fraudulently, you don't have to pay for it.  Purchase protection for that purpose is unnecessary.  The only protection I've ever had on any of my cards is that which comes with the card automatically (and for which I don't pay extra), yet I've never had to pay for any fraudulent purchases.

This is still good information and hopefully, the credit card company is pursuing it.

 

[Urocyon Cinereoargenteus]

That's good to hear about the cards. The last thing anyone wants to see is some recruit getting his student visa maxed on him half way through the hiring process.
I mentioned it to the Credit Card company and they didn't seem to care. I think the problem is that when a card is refused rather than processing it is that it;it gives the perp's a chance to scan it, but there is no formal record kept on file. By that I mean when the credit card company goes through statements of people that have been compromised, it only lists the ones who have completed a purchase. The savvy thief just scans and declines the card as unreadable...so there is no paper trail that leads them to the card reader. They take a pass on the $10 parking fee, knowing most people have multiple cards and will just go to the next one, which they will process. I only have 2 and my company card gets used for work stuff from trusted vendors, and my personal one I just use for the points so all it shows are the same 3 stores over and over again. It seems like a no brainer to me given that I try to use cash for anything outside of the normal purchases I use my card on.

 

[PuckChaser]

RBC will lock my card out automatically if the amount/location is not consistent with my spending, especially if its used shortly after in a location I couldn't possibly have traveled to. As well, I've been called by them to tell me my debit card is locked because it was used at a place where someone reported an alleged card reader, and that they'd rush me a new one. Banks are getting wise to this, because ultimately they're on the hook for the fraudulent charges due to their security.

 

[cupper]

Might be worthwhile mentioning it to the cops, as this would be a prime hunting area for scammers.