Using Credit Cards in Thailand

[Snick]

There was a discussion a while back about the merits of using your credit card in Thailand. And I mentioned that I had heard quite a few stories about cards being cloned. Turns out I wasn't talking out of my ass.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/08..._wiretap_scam/

Thai police crack credit card wiretap scam
Noise on the wire
By John Leyden
Published Friday 4th August 2006 15:17 GMT
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Tourists from Australia and New Zealand are among an estimated 48,000 victims of a highly-organised credit card fraud ring in Thailand.

According to local reports, crooks intercepted credit card data between merchants and banks in Phuket, the popular Thai resort town.
Click here to find out more!

The fraudsters loaded this data onto MP3 players, which they sent to accomplices in neighbouring Malaysia. Cloned credit cards were manufactured in Malaysia and sent back to Thailand, where they were used to fraudulently purchase goods and services.

Thai police reckon the scam netted crooks at least Baht60m ($1.59m) over six months. A further Baht360m ($9.5m) in suspected transactions are being investigated.

Last month Thai tourist police arrested Tossapol Chaowanawuth, 42, in Bangkok's Chatuchak district, on suspicion of involvement in the wiretapping scam. Chaowanawuth has reportedly confessed to working with four accomplices on the scam. Chaowanawuth's arrest followed a raid in Phuket where police recovered wire tapping equipment. Further arrests are anticipated.

Thai police began investigating after Visa International reported a large number of credit card frauds involving counterfeit cards. Visa was first alerted to the fraud by banking security experts in New Zealand and Australia.

[Guest]

i use credit cards all the time and never had a problem

[Guest]

To be safe, one should only use debit cards
and still be careful

incher

[stogie bear]

That's interesting...

Why would debit cards be safer than credit cards?

[Guest]

Not copied at hotels, never pressed read and require a password to use. I never use gas stations or little stores only banks to get my Baht.
Much, much safer Stogie!

[katoeylover]

I now only take cash and travellers cheques.

[Guest]

Not sure if i'll get shot down on this one but. Around a year ago when i decided it was time to flee the scene (living in the u.k.) I opened an account with the BKK bank, they accepted a hotel address, i was still nine months from the move and just topped it up with each visit, and that was that. i got a cash card, bank book and have not had a problem. It may well be worth considering for regular visitors

[rxpharm]

Credit card cloning can happen in any major city that has large criminal activity. There have been numerous cases in LA, NY, Toronto, Vancouver, etc.

The advice about using debit cards, cash, travellers cheques, ATM cards, etc, is good for any tourist destination.

Some tips if you must use a credit card. Keep your card in view as they put the transaction through. This should allow you to spot any attempt to "clone" the card by passing it through a reader before or after the actual charge is done.

Restaurants are risky as it is rare that you can view the transaction being done.

[donnnnnny]

happened to me lucky visa were fast to respond and nothing was stolen from use of card
usually i dont use credit cards in thailand olly cash and my atm card for cash.

[BAM]

(Snick @ Aug. 05 2006,00:00) Thai police crack credit card wiretap scam..........

..........crooks intercepted credit card data between merchants and banks ...............

The standard 'Point of Sale' credit/debit card terminals used by most all merchants these days simply plug into a standard phone line and phone up the bank computers to get authorization. Believe it or not the data that passes over these public telephone lines is NOT encrypted in most cases! And it can easily be intercepted using a modem that€™s been modified to just listen in and send this data to a computer thats logging everying. I never use my debit card on any of these Point of Sale terminals that use dial-up connections. I only use debit in large stores that I can see having their Point of Sale terminals connected to a network LAN. This way the data is encrypted as it will pass over an SSL/SSH/VPN  type connection.

Don't worry about using your credit cards. You are insured by the credit card company and you don't have to pay for anything you didn't sign for. Since they are remotely intercepting the cards data they have no idea what your signature even looks like. And if they do buy something there will be no signature, like with an on-line purchase, or the signature will be faked and the banks will know. In any case you'll never have to pay for anything you didn't buy.

As for debit cards this is the real danger! They could clean out your bank account with your card number and PIN and this would be hard to recover from. If you have over draft protection you will find your account in a negative balance... they will take as much as they can get. Since no signature is involved to use a debit card it could be virtually impossible to prove you didn't do this yourself... you could be out all that money.

What I do while in Thailand to protect my debit card from fraud is this. I have 2 bank accounts and I only use the debit card for one... and I keep the balance low and there is no overdraft protection on this account. Using my laptop on an SSL connection I transfer only enough money that I will need for that day onto the debit cards account. This way if my debit card info got intercepted they would not have much luck in getting much money since there would never be much there to take.

[Guest]

Thanks Bam: I also have a Thai account that I keep at around $50,000 Baht, which I failed to mention in my earlier post. When low I wire money from the U.S.
In both cases I use the debit cards. The U.S. account is insured and the Thai not. My main reason for not using credit cards is the huge amount of time it takes if one is hit real hard, to clear it up. In reality I have never had a problem with debit or credit.

incher

[TopDog]

(incher @ Aug. 06 2006,00:39)

Thanks Bam: I also have a Thai account that I keep at around $50,000 Baht, which I failed to mention in my earlier post. When low I wire money from the U.S.
In both cases I use the debit cards.

incher

What Thai bank would you recommend? Are there any fees for using their or other ATM machines? Do they require a permanent local address when setting up an account? I typically use my US bank debit card but the ATM fees seem to keep increasing every year. Thanks!