When we got to Mexico a couple of months ago, we started thinking about how best to protect our credit cards. We've had problems in years past with the credit card number getting swiped. We decided to (1) apply for an additional credit card we would use as a "throw away" card. In other words, we would keep the existing credit card that has all the automated payments tied to it such as utility and phone bills in our pocket and not use it in Mexico. When we have to use a credit card, we will use the "throw away" one. (2) Use cash when possible. So unless we are dealing with things like big marinas and hotels where we are relatively safe to use the credit card, we would use cash. Particularly when dining at all the small restaurants you find on the beaches - we would follow a cash only policy.
All sounds good, right? Well, enter the land of high tech scammers. Apparently one of our cash cards got cloned. Three cash withdrawals in three days for a total of about $1100. We immediately called Wells Fargo and they processed our claim. Credit should be issued to our account within a few days. Whew!!! It was relatively painless to report the fraud and get the claim underway. They asked if they find the culprit whether we would be willing to testify to get the accused put in jail - YOU BET!
They asked whether we had any idea how the card was stolen. Our only suspicion is a bank machine in La Cruz that wasn't yet operational. Melissa put her card in it and got as far as entering the PIN and seeing how much the cash withdrawal fee would be before the machine told her it didn't have any cash to dispense.
This incident doesn't change our plan for how to protect ourselves - other than the fact that we will avoid cash machines that aren't bank owned from now on.