Bank and stores responsibility for stolen check card, victim's right against bank and store in WI

I think these are questions not for a lawyer to answer, but for a lawyer to put to an employee of Walmart.

Good luck.

I'll add a couple points. From your question, I assume that it was a debit card that was stolen and not a credit card. The bottom line on lost or stolen debit cards (credit cards, too, for that matter) is simple: NOTIFY YOUR BANK AT ONCE IF YOU DISCOVER THAT YOUR CARD IS LOST OR STOLEN.

First, I hope you contacted your bank promptly and notified them that your card had been stolen. For debit cards, federal regulation limits your liability to $50 if you notify them within two business days after you first learn that the card was stolen. If you don't notify them within the two business day period, then your liability can be up to $500. Most banks offer you more protection than federal law requires. Especially if your card was a Visa or MasterCard debit card, it's quite likely that you'll be able to recover all of the money provided you cooperate with your bank and use reasonable diligence.

Second, your questions are certainly reasonable ones. I agree that WalMart probably should have become suspicious. But the bigger culprit here was the servicer of your debit card (most likely your bank, but sometimes, small banks have larger ones service their card portfolios). Most banks have fraud detection systems that flag certain transactions as suspicious and instruct the merchant to take additional steps to verify the customer's identity (generally, someone at the bank will need to speak with the customer on the phone). Such systems probably would have flagged the third purchase from WalMart ending in .46 in a 30-minute time period.

Good luck; I hope you recovered all of your money.