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I was in a public concert today and I went to buy food. It was a brand new card but the services men suspiciously said it didn't work by swiped it very slowly, and then tried to record the card number, activation date, and the CVV to the phone. I stopped him. He got another guy to swiped the card, and it worked.

I felt uncomfortable about this because with the CVV card and the card number etc, anyone can basically shop it online, so I was thinking about getting a new card instead. But there were two options, one is to report the card damaged and I got a new card with the new CVV, the other one was to report the card stolen and I got a new card with the new number. Obviously getting a new card with a new number was a bit more complicated, because I don't exactly know the card number myself and which web services or subscription I used it on since it's digitally managed.

Should I report stolen card or damaged card if the CVV was stolen?

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    Reporting it as stolen or lost aren't the only options. Just tell the company what happened and let them work out how to handle it.
    – GreenMatt
    Commented Jun 16, 2023 at 14:34
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    @SteveSmith Most likely the seller was using something like this. A tiny reader attached to a phone or tablet. The seller wouldn’t want to pass their device to a customer who might take it or drop it. In an ideal world, the card would never leave the customer’s hand if it would be “pay by tap”, but the question asks about “swiping” so we know it’s an older method: motechno.com/product/acr32-mobilemate-card-reader
    – Patrick M
    Commented Jun 16, 2023 at 15:07
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    @SteveSmith in many countries and notably the US it is common to hand over a card and not see it for a while (that’s the case in most restaurants for instance where they will take the card to a terminal in the service area far from the table). The practice of mobile POS terminals one can bring to a table, or more generally, of terminals the customer can use without the merchant touching the card, while very common in some countries for decades, is still far from common in many other places.
    – jcaron
    Commented Jun 16, 2023 at 22:54
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    @jcaron and let's hope that the US gets up to date in this, because it is a huge security hole...
    – wimi
    Commented Jun 18, 2023 at 10:45
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    @jcaron again, you seem to be speaking of something common in Europe, but in less developed countries (notably the US) there's no such practice.
    – littleadv
    Commented Jun 18, 2023 at 19:29

2 Answers 2

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You should definitely call your bank and report the incident to them. It is most likely that they'll cancel the card and will reissue it with a new number and CVV. Subscriptions should be automatically transferred to the new card, but make sure there are no fraudulent charges yet as they may transfer too unless you explicitly identify them as fraudulent to the bank.

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    Thank you. I reported it stolen. I really liked that card it's new and it's shinny.
    – ShoutOutAndCalculate
    Commented Jun 16, 2023 at 2:34
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    @ShoutOutAndCalculate you’ll get a new shiny card…
    – RonJohn
    Commented Jun 16, 2023 at 13:41
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    @ShoutOutAndCalculate and log into the bank website to check for fraudulent transactions!!
    – RonJohn
    Commented Jun 16, 2023 at 13:41
  • @ShoutOutAndCalculate: well, the new new card will also be new and shinny. No loss here.
    – Quora Feans
    Commented Jun 17, 2023 at 16:01
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    "Subscriptions should be automatically transferred to the new card," this isn't necessarily true. Go and change them manually to make sure.
    – ave
    Commented Jun 18, 2023 at 16:32
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Should I report stolen card or damaged card if the CVV was stolen?

Don't report it as either. Talk to a person at the credit card company, explain exactly what happened. Let them decide what to do. They may want to contact the merchant.

If you report the card as damaged, the card can still be used for online transactions. I had a card snap in half a few months before it was to expire. Since is was damaged but I could see the required numbers, they didn't freeze the account.

If you report it stolen or lost, the account will be frozen until they can get you a new card. They will of course change all the numbers.

Because this is a credit card and it isn't directly linked to your bank account, you do have some protection. By reporting it and letting them decide what to do, you have met the requirement for reporting.

If this was a debit card you do need to get the card unlinked from from bank account, so it is very important to contact the bank/card issuer.

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  • You have the same protections if it's a debit card.
    – R.. GitHub STOP HELPING ICE
    Commented Jun 16, 2023 at 14:18
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    Except that the debit card can drain my bank account before I know it. There is always a delay between charges on a credit card and pulling the funds from my bank account. Yes the money will be returned to me, but that can take days or longer.
    – mhoran_psprep
    Commented Jun 16, 2023 at 14:39
  • Subject to daily charge limits, etc. And if you regularly use your credit card and rely on its credit limit, the same concept applies to it - your available credit won't be back until the fraudulent charges are removed, which may interfere with your ability to pay for things you need to pay for. They're really equivalent problems.
    – R.. GitHub STOP HELPING ICE
    Commented Jun 16, 2023 at 16:28
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    @R..GitHubSTOPHELPINGICE actually, at least in the US, the protections for debit cards are vastly different and are significantly worse.
    – littleadv
    Commented Jun 16, 2023 at 18:01
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    @R..GitHubSTOPHELPINGICE : The legal protections are different for credit and debit cards, and do not depend on the card processing network (they do depend on things like how far the merchant is from your home and whether your bank introduced you to the merchant). The card processing network may dictate contractual customer protection provisions, but since you aren't even a party to that contract you are mainly dependent on the goodwill of the bank to replicate those protections in your cardholder agreement. If they haven't done so, you will have an insanely difficult time claiming them.
    – Ben Voigt
    Commented Jun 16, 2023 at 20:14

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