Credit Card Fraud in Brazil

Before we started on our current nine month long international trip, I thought a bit about which credit cards and debit cards I should bring long with us.

I decided for debit cards to take these cards:

• Captial One 360 (Master Card, no fee for ATM withdraw in brazil and most of Europe)
• Wells Fargo (Visa, charges a fee for ATM withdraw, but it is my backup).

For credit cards, I brought these:

• Citibank American Airlines Executive card (Master Card, no foreign transaction fee, and has chip & signature technology)
• Chase Ink Bold (Master Card, no foreign transaction fee)
• American Express Gold (Amex, foreign transaction fee)

My wife also brought the following cards:

• Wells Fargo debit card (Visa, charges a fee for ATM withdraw)
• Citibank American Airlines Executive card (Master Card, no foreign transaction fee, and has chip & signature technology)
• Chase Ink Bold (Master Card, no foreign transaction fee)

My thought was that with these we would have two good options for getting cash and for using credit cards.

*Pictured above is my favorite wallet from TubPeople.com. It is made from recycled inner tubes.

Within two weeks of our trip in Aracaju, Brazil, my Chase Ink Bold credit card and my Wells Fargo debit card had been cloned and used fraudulently. Hello credit card fraud in Brazil! I still had the physical cards but someone else was have a blast eating out and buying lots of clothes in Aracaju and Sao Paulo, Brazil. Chase caught the fraudulent charges in Sao Paulo pretty quickly and notified me via text message. I then checked my other accounts and saw the extra charges on my Wells Fargo debit card. Both banks removed the fraudulent charges and issued me new cards without much fuss (it took about 14 days to get my new Wells Fargo debit card).  I did never receive my replacement Chase Ink Bold card in the mail. (I should probably call them about that.)

How could it happen? At first we thought it might have been someone who swiped our cards from our apartment. Was it one of the nannies? The cleaning lady? A new friend we made? We didn’t really think it was any of them though, so I did some research online and found it must have been cloned when I used it.

Apparently, Brazil has some great credit card fraudsters. And the a main fraudster’s tool are sneaky little devices they physically install on ATM machines that will clone your ATM card when you use that ATM. Or they install malicious software on the credit card terminals that will copy your card information too. And often, the business owners do not even know their credit card terminal is infected with this malware. Tricky business.

The easiest types of card to clone are cards that are used by swiping. It is simple to copy a swiped card’s information and cheap to make a cloned card. And I had been using my cards that way.

So apparently, our cards in the US are a bit behind on the latest anti-fraud card technology. The secure way to use a credit card is through a chip and not swiping it.

Using a credit card through the chip makes it much more difficult to copy the card’s information and even if a criminal were able to copy the information, it is more expensive and difficult to make a cloned card to use.

Luckily, we each had one credit card that had the chip technology, our CitiBank AA Executive card. That is the only card we use for purchases, but we rarely do use it.

Our strategy for now is to take weekly or bi-weekly trips to a bank ATM and pull out cash fee-free with my Capital One 360 debit card. In my last article I talked about which ATMs work for cash withdraw in Brazil. We then mostly use cash for our expenses.

Yes, at first it was strange carrying around cash. Back in the states, I usually had less than $10 on me, if I was even carrying any cash. I would only use my credit card. Now we are more used to carrying cash with us

Are we worried about getting mugged or our cash stolen? Not really. I only carry as much cash as I need for where we are going. Our apartment is pretty secure in a gated complex with a 24-hour gatekeeper. And we do only take out about a week’s worth of cash at a time.

Using cash instead of our credit cards plan has been working out well. And it also has helped us stay in our budget. Yeah!

So on your trip to Brazil, bring an ATM card that will work here. Talk to your bank about that and any fees associated with international cash withdrawals. Also take at least 2 credit cards that have the chip technology. If you current card doesn’t have a chip on it, call you bank. They may be able to send you a new one with a chip.

You really don’t want to be stuck without any access to your money. And don’t count on your home bank sending you a new card fast. The international mail here is still not that reliable and it will take a couple of days minimum, if it arrives.