DENVER — Brenda Fields is a single mom working hard to support her family, which is why the last thing she needed was for someone to use her credit card to pay for trips using Uber.
“They maxed out my credit card once and my credit went down 30 40 points, very frustrating,” Fields said.
She told Fox 31 she has never used ride sharing apps, which makes the charges even more mysterious. She got a new credit card number since the old one was compromised, then the charges appeared again.
“It’s scary because I don’t know who it is,” she said.
Field’s bank is investigating the case and Uber is not holding her responsible for charges from the stolen credit card number. Fields says she is dealing with serious consequences now.
“I’m trying to buy a new home and I can’t because all of these transactions are affecting my credit,” she said.
Cyber security expert Donald Mclaughlin of CP Cyber Security Consultants told the Fox 31 Problem Solvers hackers can get your credit card number from just about anywhere including online sites and even gas pump card readers.
“They could use that credit card anywhere, they just happened to choose Uber,” he said.
He advised that password protection programs and credit monitoring are important when it comes to guarding your accounts.
“If one account is compromised and you use the same password everywhere then now all of your accounts are compromised, by using a password manager you can isolate those compromises to just one account,” he said.
He also said using the two-step authentication feature is also important, so you are notified right away when anyone tries to access your accounts.