One of my credit cards was compromised last week. I used it when we dined out at Ramen Nagi at the Mall of Asia, and after a couple of days, I got notification messages of several transactions that were being attempted using my card
The card features an EMV chip, which all along, I thought was safe, but apparently, not for online use, where only your card details and the 3 digit pin at the back of your card is needed. My guess is that someone at the restaurant took a snapshot of the front and back of my card and used it for making purchases online, rendering the EMV chip useless.
It's a good thing that I had my OTP (one time password) setup with all my cards that for every transaction being made, the system will send me a text message with an OTP in order for it to be approved. Several transactions were tried by the perpetrator ranging from as high as PHP75,000 to as low as PHP25.
I called up my bank immediately and notified them about it. My card was deactivated and a new one will be sent at no cost.
Having the OTP activated can be burdensome, as extra steps are needed whenever you're using your card, but I sure did appreciate having it activated during that time. I'd bet that it would be harder to have the charges reversed once they have been approved, and having that extra layer of protection did save me from a lot of hassle.
I have learned several things from this.
First is to always make sure to never give my card to the server or to anyone or at least, make sure that it never leaves my sight, if they need to swipe it at the register, I'll need to make sure that I go with them so I can watch their moves, it pays to be cautious.
Second, put a tape or use a marker over the 3-digit code at the back of my card so it can't easily be photographed, of course, you need to make sure that you have it jotted down somewhere as well.
And third nvest in an RFID wallet. RFID makes transactions faster, but it also makes things easier for perps to steal your data.
I've already reported the incident to the management of Ramen Nagi. Hopefully, they will look into it and implement steps to make sure it never happens again.
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