Credit Card Fraud, My Account Got Wiped Out

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shudogg

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Apr 24, 2008
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Hello fellow WF members. On October 15th, my wife and I woke up to a call from the Chase Fraud Center notifying us of unusual activity. There were to charges that were made. One was for almost $300 and the other for almost $1500. Both done the night before. It cleared out my checking account, and pulled out $50 from my savings to cover the overdraft.

Word of the wise. I suggest turning off the overdraft feature unless it is something that you really need. Point being that if they kept spending out of my account, it would have cleared out my savings account as well! Somehow someone got a hold or generated my wifes debit card number. I am not sure how to hell this happened as we rarely ever use her card. We only use them at known places like WalMart, ect. She did however just use her card at a stand this past weekend to buy a purse. It was at a festival. I am not 100% it was that, but it is the only untrusted place her card has been used. It just seems to fit the puzzle.

So another suggestion, only use your cards at known places you trust. If you do want to buy something from a stand, borrow the cash from a friend or something, or run to the ATM. Also don't make purchases online from untrusted sites. If so, make sure they are using a trusted payment system where the people that run the site don't have physical access to the information. Or use the paypal option if available.

Another thing that struck me odd is the whole reasoning of the purchases. There is no real address, they just put in fake info like "jddskfjdsfjsdf", but they must have gotten her debit card number and security code right... I contacted one of the sites, take a look at the mailing and shipping address!

"BILLING INFORMATION
GHFGHfgfg hghghg
gg
jhgjhjhj, jhj
hjhjkjkjhkh, AL 12323
US"

"SHIPPING INFORMATION
GHFGHfgfg hghghg
gg
jhgjhjhj, jhj
hjhjkjkjhkh, AL 12323
US"

I mean what the hell is the intent. The items that they bought for almost $1500 aren't getting sent anywhere, wtf? Is this some kind of online virus scam that just has a collection of card information, and just runs around making bogus transactions to clear out peoples accounts just for laughs? I mean if it was me, I would have boughted some TVs, DVDs, ect, and had it sent to an abandoned house or something. Then go pick it up later lol.

Just wondering if anyone knows of any online viruses/scams running around doing anything similar.

Also just for shits and giggles, look at the two sites that they used my wifes card on:

Wear Your Conscience™- Justice Clothing- Union Made Clothing, The Sweatshop-Free Alternative - They spent $1,297.70
https://www.mikeswesternsuppliers.com - They spent $295.95

Both transactions ended up getting declined, but it will take a few days for the money to actually get back to my account. Just thought I would share, and hope some of you get a little smarter with your cards from this.
 


WTF, Can I get a mod to delete this thread. The other one is fine. I kept getting a database error while trying to post the new thread, that is the reason for the double post. So someone please delete this one.

Thanks
 
shudogg said:
WTF, Can I get a mod to delete this thread. The other one is fine. I kept getting a database error while trying to post the new thread, that is the reason for the double post. So someone please delete this one.

Thanks
Click to expand...

WTF yourself.

The db errors build character. Don't be such a baby. ;)
 
This is sad to hear Shudogg. One thing (and I dont know if this will help) is that some of these dickheads will actually capture this information sometimes months even years (not so much years now since identity theft is talked about so much) and store this information. Generally there are two things to do with this information.

1. Store and use it yourself - Much riskier than the second option
2. Auction it off like it was Ebay

Most of them go for the second option and it's actually amazing that (while it is sky high) identity theft and CC Fraud is not much higher than it is. Most of these assholes will simply keep selling the data and a lot of people's information just keeps getting tossed around. It's the real bad apples who maliciously go after your money where the real problems lie. At least you were with Chase and it was a card with some type of monitoring service because when mine was stolen a little over a year ago it was on a private banking debit card close to where I live that had over $4500 before I found it. I always do a deposit check on Fridays and it was then when I saw it. No warning or anything.

Oh yea, one other thing. While you see a shitty set of letters that dont make sense to a shipping address have you gotten a hold of where these things are supposed to ship from. I'm not an expert but if it was something I wanted then I damn sure would not put a delivery address where someone could find it. Not sure how exactly they do it but they probably call and have it changed if I can.

Just some tips I heard in the underground.

{edit} I just seen you had both transactions declined. Thanks for that as I just wasted 2 minutes of my life.
 
shudogg said:
So another suggestion, only use your cards at known places you trust. ... or run to the ATM.
Click to expand...
Card skimming
Credit card fraud - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 2nd paragraph
ATMs aren't exactly trustworthy either, anymore. Nothing digital is.

As for the address, I work with a few people that have online retail businesses. They get orders like this from time to time, and then a phonecall / email saying that there was something wrong with the transaction, and if they could just Western Union the money back to the "rightful owner", they will try to make the purchase again.
Which begs the question of why the "rightful owner" doesn't just ask for a regular refund... But yeah, most likely, these guys are trying to do a bit of refunding on your behalf.
 
Like others have said, carders keep dumps for a long time so I wouldn't think this is something that has just happened. Also given the address supplied this isn't a refund deal. More then likely your details where used a PoC by the vendor to demonstrate to the purchaser the details are real and can be used. Upon making these transactions they buyer now has confirmation the data is real and as such will purchase a large number of dumps to commit further fraud.

Beyond that, it could simply be a credit card number generator being developed and tested and sadly you where the victim(though i would suggest if the ccv # was correct then its not random and more then likely a computer your girlfriend has done transactions upon is owned).

Therefore, don't wait for the hit, change all your passwords now!
 
This is also a goood reason to use CREDIT, not debit. While Visa/MC branded debit cards do have some protections, it is obviously a lot more inconvenient when your actual bank account is wiped out instead of a temporary hold on a credit line.
 
HarveyJ said:
Card skimming
Credit card fraud - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 2nd paragraph
ATMs aren't exactly trustworthy either, anymore. Nothing digital is.
Click to expand...
One thing I would say is look around the stores at the scanners that are being used throughout the store. Look for unplugged wires or units that appear different than the rest.
Card skimmers are getting incredibly good.
For example, take a look at some of the goods from the video of cha0(carder) getting raided.
For those of you guys that are too lazy to look,
289ad01.jpg

That's not exactly old school goods.

For ATMs, look for "security" cameras that seem to be pointed more at the keypad than anything else. That's not a deal breaker though, because some are legitimately set like that(Badly). If you see one though, look for either a card scanner that juts out from the ATM, or a tightly fit shell that actually goes around the ATM.
 
Not sure about Chase, but I know that other banks allow you to limit the amount of money you can use in a debit card transaction (not including ATMs). For PNC Bank, they let you set a swipe limit (no-pin transaction), and Bank of America sets both a swipe and pin POS limit. That way, if someone get ahold of my Bank of America debit card and PIN, the most damage they'd be able to do is $100 a day, and I'm sure I'd catch on.

This is a reason I always use my credit cards, and never debit.
 
johu said:
Not sure about Chase, but I know that other banks allow you to limit the amount of money you can use in a debit card transaction (not including ATMs). For PNC Bank, they let you set a swipe limit (no-pin transaction), and Bank of America sets both a swipe and pin POS limit. That way, if someone get ahold of my Bank of America debit card and PIN, the most damage they'd be able to do is $100 a day, and I'm sure I'd catch on.

This is a reason I always use my credit cards, and never debit.
Click to expand...
Interesting, I'm with Bank of America and didn't even realize that. I'll have to check it out.
 
Bank of America's minimum limit you can set is $100, and it applies to both PIN transactions or swipe (not sure if that's a combined limit, but the card will decline all charges above the limit for the day). If you need the block lifted temporarily for a transaction, a quick call to the number on the back of your card will take care of it. Other banks can go even lower on their minimum limit, and I believe PNC's minimum threshold is $10 or less.
 
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