My wife and I keep getting our debit cards stolen online. We notice the charges and are able to dispute them and cancel our cards, but it sure is annoying.
We don’t put our card information on suspicious websites. They’re on well known websites like amazon and Facebook.
We ran out emails through a data breach checker and it found nothing.
I don’t think there’s any malware on our devices.
Any idea what could be happening and how to prevent it?
Running a virus scan wouldn’t be enough? I’d rather not factory reset everything.
No, it won’t. If you value that situation enough to post here, you should also listen to the advices you’re given.
If you have an antivirus running and you’re still being pwnd, a scan won’t change anything.
Format everything, computers, phones, everything with an Internet connection really. Yes, it’s a pain, but also yes, it’s necessary.
Do it
To be fair, factory resets are a huge pain in the ass. Might as well try other things before busting out the nuclear option.
Less of a pain in the ass than using a compromised device and having your payment card info stolen repeatedly?
Once you suspect a device is infected the only good option is the nuclear option. Anything else will not be guaranteed to 100% remove it, or really, anywhere near close to that, or even detect everything wrong in the first place or after attempted removal. And with a month long period between attacks that is a long time to wait and see to see if any other option might work.
A virus scan can only scan for something it knows. If you have something new or esoteric on your device, the scanner may not pick it up.
If you’re not using a reputable antivirus, also consider that the database is wildly out of date at best, or the “antivirus” is malicious on its own.
