Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community  

Go Back   Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community > The Academy > Tilted Life


 
 
LinkBack Thread Tools
Old 07-20-2004, 06:00 AM   #1 (permalink)
42, baby!
 
Dragonlich's Avatar
 
Location: The Netherlands
Credit card fraud...

I just checked my online credit card report (a rare thing for me), and discovered a bogus payment. Three days ago, someone has paid some 580 euros to (what appears to be) Paypal.

Of course, I contacted my bank, and they're blocking the card, and sending me a formal damages form. I also have to report it to the police. Being me, I decided to contact paypal too, see if they can do anything about it...

The questions: does anyone have experience with these things? What happens next? Do I have to pay anything, or is my bank going to pay? (It's a visa card, and it says in the fine print that there's a 45 Euro limit to damages if the card is stolen/used. Problem is: it wasn't stolen, just used online.) Any other tips, ideas or pointers?

God, I hate criminals...
Dragonlich is offline  
Old 07-20-2004, 07:05 AM   #2 (permalink)
Non-Rookie
 
NoSoup's Avatar
 
Location: Green Bay, WI
Well, providing the laws are the same here in America...

You are personally liable for only a certain amount if the card was fraudulently used. I would image that it would be the amount specified. In many cases, though, the Credit Card company won't even make you pay that.

Make sure you cancel the card and get a new one with different numbers. Also consider how the thief got the credit card information to begin with, and decide if you think any other credit cards you own are comprimised. If so, call up the companies and order replacements. Make sure that your credit remains undamaged, as it may well be worth your time to pay the minium payment and just chalk it up as a loss than spend the obsene amount of time and the potential hassle of getting it fixed later.

Hope that helps
__________________
I have an aura of reliability and good judgement.

Just in case you were wondering...
NoSoup is offline  
Old 07-20-2004, 07:46 AM   #3 (permalink)
42, baby!
 
Dragonlich's Avatar
 
Location: The Netherlands
Well, I did order a new card; it's the bank's policy in these cases.

How the thief got my info: there are two options I can think of.

1) When I destroyed my previous card (when it expired), I may not have destroyed it well enough. I cut it into small bits, which should be enough. I suppose it is theoretically possible that someone picked all the parts from my trash, rebuild the card, and (using common sense) thought up the expiry date. Possible, but unlikely. The card expired months ago, so why the long wait?

2) Someone broke into a database from two of the webshops I order stuff from. These are pretty much the only websites (or even shops in general) I've ever used my credit card with.

I thought of the possibility of physical theft, but the card is still there, and I typically/always keep it in my wallet, in my pocket. I've thought of one of those keylogger virii, but I scan regularly using various programs (norton AV, spyware S&D, ad-aware, and I use Sygate personal firewall software). But the problem is: I haven't used my credit card since may, so keyloggers can't have gotten the details recently.

I think I've got a mystery on my hands...
Dragonlich is offline  
Old 07-20-2004, 02:21 PM   #4 (permalink)
Non-Rookie
 
NoSoup's Avatar
 
Location: Green Bay, WI
Indeed...

Do you have any young'uns or a g/f around that may have used it? Both of those seem kinda unlikely, although possible. If one of the shops was broken into, if they know about it, they should have informed you that your card may have been comprimised. If you can't think of anyone else, I would contact the companies and let them know, if several people report fraudulent activity and they are all tied to that company, you may have something...
__________________
I have an aura of reliability and good judgement.

Just in case you were wondering...
NoSoup is offline  
Old 07-20-2004, 02:32 PM   #5 (permalink)
Junkie
 
Moderator Emeritus
Location: Chicago
If you've used the card online, there is the possibility of online fraud.

There's also been more than one scam around where an email goes to random people, asking for Ebay information, Paypal info -- whatever, you go to a site (not associated with the legitimate vendor) and are asked to put in a credit card.

If your bank has a fraud division, they can investigate further - -like what info was given out? ie what was bought and by whom.

Computer crime is a huge problem....
__________________
Free your heart from hatred. Free your mind from worries. Live simply. Give more. Expect less.
maleficent is offline  
Old 07-20-2004, 09:17 PM   #6 (permalink)
42, baby!
 
Dragonlich's Avatar
 
Location: The Netherlands
Paypal seems not to respond personally. This means that I've got no way to check who the money was send to. The automated responses only apply to account holders, and aren't of any use.

Anyway, no I have no kids or girlfriend (still looking), so that can't be it. The companies haven't informed me. (I might report to them, though).

I don't respond to scams. I don't use Ebay, nor do I use Paypal, nor do I like spam/scams. I'm probably using one of the most elaborate anti-spam systems around (for normal people anyway) - linux mail-server + spamassassin, combined with mailwasher on my windows box. Spam gets booted right away, and I only get e-mails from people I know. So that can't be it, either.
Dragonlich is offline  
Old 07-27-2004, 05:30 PM   #7 (permalink)
Psycho
 
iccky's Avatar
 
Location: Princeton, NJ
Since it was an online purchase, the numbers really could have been stolen by anyone who had acces to your card for 30 seconds out of your sight. I've heard that some waiters and storeclerks keep two credit card scanners, one that is real and one in their pocket that can record all of your information for their own use.

Do you shread your credit card bills?
iccky is offline  
Old 07-28-2004, 10:09 AM   #8 (permalink)
42, baby!
 
Dragonlich's Avatar
 
Location: The Netherlands
Quote:
Originally posted by iccky
Since it was an online purchase, the numbers really could have been stolen by anyone who had acces to your card for 30 seconds out of your sight. I've heard that some waiters and storeclerks keep two credit card scanners, one that is real and one in their pocket that can record all of your information for their own use.

Do you shread your credit card bills?
I have never paid anything "in the flesh" with my credit card. I only used it for online purchases, and only at two websites. But you're right: anyone could have taken it for a few seconds to copy the numbers. It's just very unlikely - I'm *very* paranoid about my wallet.

The police officer I talked to mentioned that he had seen four cases of credit card fraud in the last couple of months, all involving the same type of card I use. It's a specific type that has an online summary (only online, so no weekly mailings); there's pretty much no other credit card that uses an online system like that. That might be the source of the fraud - the website shows the credit card number *and* expiry date on the same page. It may be encrypted, but a hacker might be able to get that info...
Dragonlich is offline  
Old 08-13-2004, 11:07 AM   #9 (permalink)
42, baby!
 
Dragonlich's Avatar
 
Location: The Netherlands
Update: got a letter from the bank. Their preliminary investigation shows I've done nothing wrong, and they'll remove the payment from my credit card.

I'm just a bit nervous about using my new card online... It could happen again, after all.
Dragonlich is offline  
Old 08-13-2004, 01:33 PM   #10 (permalink)
Tilted Cat Head
 
Cynthetiq's Avatar
 
Administrator
Location: Manhattan, NY
glad that it's getting resolved and not a huge headache.
__________________
I don't care if you are black, white, purple, green, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, hippie, cop, bum, admin, user, English, Irish, French, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, indian, cowboy, tall, short, fat, skinny, emo, punk, mod, rocker, straight, gay, lesbian, jock, nerd, geek, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, driver, pedestrian, or bicyclist, either you're an asshole or you're not.
Cynthetiq is offline  
 

Tags
card, credit, fraud

Thread Tools

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are On



All times are GMT -8. The time now is 08:09 AM.

Tilted Forum Project

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Search Engine Optimization by vBSEO 3.6.0 PL2
© 2002-2012 Tilted Forum Project

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360