Jacque Tiegs of Clair Shores, Mich., had a similar experience a few years ago. She used her debit card at a hotel in Milwaukee for incidental charges and found out on her next month’s bank 
statement that someone had run up a $3,500 bill at another hotel of the same brand in Chicago. Her bank couldn’t (or wouldn’t) solve the problem, and the hotel claimed she had run up the charges. Only by threatening to go to the police and offering proof that she had been out of town on a work assignment was she able to get the charges reversed.
(From a WalletPop.com article)Â Â Don’t think that the same protections you get from your credit card apply to your debit card. If someone steals your credit card number and runs up a big bill, you won’t be responsible for the fraudulent charges — at least not until the card company completes its investigation and probably not at all if they find evidence of fraud. But if someone steals your debit card information and starts charging away, you’re on the hook. The money comes straight out of your bank account. Not only are they your funds — with no one there to cover for you — but getting the money back can be a huge hassle that can easily take a month, if not more, to resolve.
Even if your money is only locked up temporarily, as Greg Meyer’s was, it can still be devastating, especially if you don’t have a large balance to tide you over. Not only that, but if the hold is greater than your balance, it can trip an overdraft protection and subsequent transactions can be denied or add to your overdraft woes.
So how do you protect yourself – and your debit card? “Be alert when there’s an opportunity for so-called ‘skimming’ or where people can look over your shoulder to track your PIN number,” says Tim Lukens, a senior vice president at Affinion Security Center, a company that makes anti-cybercrime software for big banks. Also, think twice before using your debit card at a restaurant, where you don’t actually see the server swiping it, or at gas stations, where surveillance cameras can record you keying in your PIN.
http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2010/03/31/debit-card-disasters-what-to-do-when-you-get-burned/
