[NA] Weird new credit card fraud thing? [/NA]

catmandu

catmandu

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Catmandu
Someone bought a pretty cool outdoor pizza oven for $900, and a WTF Gucci Fanny pack for $865 on my credit card that was replaced only 30 days ago due to a lost card. They used one of my Daughter’s burner email accounts (she is an authorized user on that particular credit card). Goofy thing is, they shipped both items to my actual street address! It is almost like a situation where you leave your desk at work with your computer unlocked, and someone notices and goes to town signing you up for animal pron. Except I don’t work, and my home computer goes to a locked state after three minutes of inactivity.

After asking the family to make sure it was not some drunken Christmas gifting deal, I disputed the charges and replaced the card yet again.

Can’t quite figure this one out.
 
Porch pirates have it shipped to your address. Pick it up before you notice the package waiting at your door. That way when you dispute the charge, the compay might just say you shipped it to your own address and trying to pull a fast one.
 
Someone's going thru your trash and have your private info. And using it for porch pirating like @KaiGywer said.

Time to get security cameras.
 
They may also have been test purchases. I got a couple of cookbooks delivered to my house right before a large quantity of other fraud purchases were made.
 
The couple times my card numbers were used the test purchases were small items (tank of gas, trinkets). One they knew the number worked they hit the big purchases.
 
My wife’s debit card got hacked a few weeks ago. Seems like I’ve had more issues with chip cards than non chip cards. I had to get 3 new cards in one year a few years ago. Or maybe the scammers are getting smarter
 
We have two credit cards; one for spot purchases, one that is only used for monthly recurring charges and automated utility payments and such. This way, when the spot purchases card gets compromised, I don't have to rekey CC info for all the monthly recurring stuff. The spot purchases one has been boosted five times in the last three years.

Four of those times the last charge before the fraud started was via a Square system at a small vendor. Three of those four times, the Square system last used was at my wife's hairstylist's salon. The fourth occurrence was with a Square system at a small cigar shop in Ybor City (fantastic cigars, though, especially the maduro). I don't know if the Square system is compromised, or if the employees at these small vendors are compromised (but I strongly suspect the latter). However, my wife has finally agreed to only pay for her hair care experience with a check or cash.

The fifth, non-Square-related, fraud is the oldest one of the bunch. Someone ordered a Swann home video surveillance system--their top of the line bundle at the time--and had it shipped to my house. It never arrived as far as I know. Was able to demonstrate that nobody here signed for it, the email used on the order was not my email (although it was similar), and the customer phone number provided wasn't even in my area code. Citi investigated and reversed the charges. That led to Swann contacting me directly several times, accusing me (rudely!) of stealing from them. I will never do business with Swann, should I ever decide to install video surveillance anywhere.

When digital wallets first rolled out, I was resistant. I've since put the spot purchase card in Apple Wallet on my watch and phone and use that everywhere possible. The tap to pay system generates a one time code that can't be used to get to the actual CC#, or so I'm told. We'll see if this improves things.
 
Upon delivery, setup a stakeout surveillance op preferably with an ubiquitous white panel van parked nearby. When they roll up to grab the package, you and your neighbors appear with aluminum baseball bats and perform street justice. Drag said bodies into van and drop off on the bad side of town. Mission complete.
 
YooperMooney said:
Upon delivery, setup a stakeout surveillance op preferably with an ubiquitous white panel van parked nearby. When they roll up to grab the package, you and your neighbors appear with aluminum baseball bats and perform street justice. Drag said bodies into van and drop off on the bad side of town. Mission complete.
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Get a couple of guys with blowtorches and pliers and go medieval on their A's.
 
Every time I put a credit card in Apple Wallet it seems to get compromised. I stopped doing that. I got compromised one other time either at a shady gas station (most likely) or at the DC Metro farecard machine.
 
Too bad about the Eighth Amendment. Caning as in Singapore would seriously cut down on this type of crime.
 
My wallet was stolen out of my car in the driveway on Christmas eve, I noticed it missing when I went out to the car to get something yesterday (Christmas) afternoon. Checked the bank account online, there was already a $5 test purchase on one of the cards. Fortunately I don't keep cash in my wallet and I leave my pilot certificate in the plane with the aircraft papers, but I still have to deal with replacing credit cards, drivers license, etc... grrrr. We live out in the woods and never worried about this kind of thing before, but the cop who took the report said there's a lot of this going around lately.
 
So....

did you keep the stuff?
 
Every time I replace a card, usually due to it expiring, it takes 3,4 or 5 times before there are no charges on the card before I actually receive the card. My guess is someone at the issuing company sells the number.

I only have a USAA credit card. USAA is not what it used to be.
 
I suppose it was a porch pirate deal, hoping we'd be gone for Christmas. There were charges at a furniture store and a mattress store down in the valley recently, I suppose there might be a nefarious employee down there. They would have had to deal with the predicted nine feet of snow we are in the middle of up here on the ridgeline.

Jim K said:
So....

did you keep the stuff?
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Nope, I only steal from the government (tax avoidance, not evasion).

The pizza oven was backordered, so a quick phone call cancelled that order. I have an email in to the other vendor's customer service (the only contact info I could find) but have not heard back. Santa left a present on the deck Christmas Eve, though:

EubLhAgl.jpg


I mean, c'mon, $865 for that? WTF?

M'lady says it just doesn't go with her jammies, darn it. So it will go back if they ever get in touch with me.
 
I once bought someone a nice lobster dinner and another meal at another Atlanta area restaurant. Also on more than one occasion have bought books for a college student.

I've never heard of actual charges being against someone for credit card fraud.
 
Racerx said:
I've never heard of actual charges being against someone for credit card fraud.
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I've charged numerous people for using an actual stolen physical credit card as it's easy to prove. The online frauds on the other hand usually go through so many layers of anonymizing that tracking it is hopeless. Especially since the credit card companies/banks usually will make it right for the victim/customer anyways.
 
KaiGywer said:
Especially since the credit card companies/banks usually will make it right for the victim/customer anyways.
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Thats the problem nowadays...banks will just refund the customers and they just write it off as cost of doing business vs pursuing criminal charges for the casual scammer so there are zero repercussions.
 
I put anything with personal info on it thru the shredder, then as a nice touch mix it in the used cat litter…. They are welcome to go thru it
 
Shawn said:
Thats the problem nowadays...banks will just refund the customers and they just write it off as cost of doing business vs pursuing criminal charges for the casual scammer so there are zero repercussions.
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Exactly. The banks/credit companies have little interest in cooperating with an investigation because it is more of a hassle for them than to just refund the customer. The customer is no longer out any money, so they're generally happy.
 
There was a post about a debit card. Never use a debit card online and for other use it should never leave your hand. Debit cards have zero legal protections if they are compromised. Your legal recourse is to find the the thief. Most banks will reimburse fraud on a debit card if they feel you were not at fault but again they don’t have to gave you a nickel.
 
Jeff767 said:
There was a post about a debit card. Never use a debit card online and for other use it should never leave your hand. Debit cards have zero legal protections if they are compromised. Your legal recourse is to find the the thief. Most banks will reimburse fraud on a debit card if they feel you were not at fault but again they don’t have to gave you a nickel.
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Reg E (iirc) still protects account holders (deposit accounts/debit cards) - but the process is sssslllllloooooooowwwwwwwwwwwww because it’s “cash leaving”. Credit cards by nature allow for better fraud protection, restitution, etc since it’s essentially a loan.
 
Zeldman said:
One of the reason I do not do debit cards.
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BOA and I have a fight that occurs on a 3 or 5 year schedule. The send me a replacement debit card, and I chop it up and remind them that I had an ATM card, not a debit card, and I need a new ATM card. Much back and forth ensues, and eventually a new ATM card shows up in the mail.
 
I think paper checks are the least secure. Just think, they have the account holders name, the routing number, and the account number. All that is needed to make an ACH transaction. This has happened to an account I was monitoring. Someone set up a new Comcast account.
 
Checking accounts, ACH, have or used to have some of the worst protections. And maybe the most PITA to change. So I use checks the least, and typically only to trusted merchants. But they're protected by FDIC in the US, though. Just a pain if they are compromised. Least likely to have a recurring fraud against you? Bank check or money order, because they're nearly completely decoupled from your own account info. But they also have near zero chance for charge reversal, nearly like cash.

For gas stations, I use a credit card issued by the gas company. The kind that you can only use for gas. For ATM's, I just use the ATM's at my bank locations. Because both ATM's and gas pumps have a history of being skimmed. Hospitality, restaurants and such, I use cash as much as possible. Never, ever do I use a credit card device attached to a cell phone. Between those four are probably most of the credit card skims.

Accessing bank accounts and making online purchases I only do from my own personal computer. I never let anything save passwords from banking sites. I don't have any phone apps for banking or purchasing. It's not perfect, but it's reducing my odds of being hit.
 
Someone here says the bank eats the charges, no they dont....the vendor eats the charges and I am speaking as a vendor.

I have zero idea why credit card transactions don't require a PIN. Would eliminate most of the fraud. Our financial system in this country is antiquated.
 
Getonit said:
Someone here says the bank eats the charges, no they dont....the vendor eats the charges and I am speaking as a vendor.

I have zero idea why credit card transactions don't require a PIN. Would eliminate most of the fraud. Our financial system in this country is antiquated.
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It depends on who you are using as your acquirer, and what your relationship is. A real merchant that has a decent credit history and reasonable revenue will use an acquirer that will take on that responsibility. But even in that case, it's not the bank, but the acquirer that "eats" the charges.
 
Jeff767 said:
There was a post about a debit card. Never use a debit card online and for other use it should never leave your hand. Debit cards have zero legal protections if they are compromised. Your legal recourse is to find the the thief. Most banks will reimburse fraud on a debit card if they feel you were not at fault but again they don’t have to gave you a nickel.
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This is a common misunderstanding. If your debit card has a visa/MC logo on it you can run it as debit entering your pin or you can run it as credit which does not require a pin. If running it as credit you are protected from fraud and are limited to a $50 minimum deductible of liability though most banks waive that. Very few businesses restrict to debit anymore that I am aware of so you should never be punching in your pin anywhere. If your card and pin are compromised then you are liable for all money lost. Debit cards are not a bad thing if used right. When used at an ATM to withdraw cash they have the same risk as an ATM card in that if they are skimmed and the pin captured then access to the account is possible.
 
Getonit said:
Someone here says the bank eats the charges, no they dont....the vendor eats the charges and I am speaking as a vendor.

I have zero idea why credit card transactions don't require a PIN. Would eliminate most of the fraud. Our financial system in this country is antiquated.
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Yeah Its amazing looking back on how a signature was the validation process. That only works if A) everyone signed the back of their credit card and B) we were all handwriting experts.

The Dip and Tap methods (Chip and RFID) are probably the most protected in that the card has to be in hand. Last time I had a merchant account I was informed that if we only took those methods and didn't swipe or key we wouldn't be liable for charge backs. Its only a matter of time before those methods are compromised too though. Europe is definitely ahead of the US on credit card protection measures.
 
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