CC Fraud! OT, but mods, please allow - *EVERYONE* pls read

[spittle]

I noticed this charge as well on my Providian VISA on Dec 18th (was for $10.26 from Global Telecom). I went ahead and disputed the charge with my credit card company and asked them to issue me a new number.

It's kind of interesting though. The only stores I've purchased from in the past couple months are amazon.com and a recurring charge from essential.com (qwest long distance). So, I dunno. I probably did order from drugstore.com *several* months ago however. Bleh.

Good luck with it all folks...

 

[Harvey]

This thing is big. There's a story about it on news.com.

FBI looking into questionable credit card charges

Mysterious charges to the credit card accounts of dozens of online shoppers may be linked to the online theft of more than 55,000 credit card numbers last week, an FBI official said Thursday.

People have flooded the Internet message board FatWallet.com with complaints of unauthorized charges ranging from $10 to $18 from a company called Global Telecom, based in Moscow.

 

[BigCat]

There is anothe story on msnbc.com: http://www.msnbc.com/news/506714.asp

 

[DPmaster]

Here is something a lot of you should know about. I just found out from the IT administrator where I work at that egghead.com was hacked, and their credit card database was accessed. He said the e-mail he got said there were possibly around 3.7 million cc numbers that were accessed. Be careful guys and check those cc statements.

 

[Startide Rising]

You will continue to need to check your NEW CC for awhile also. Some banks will automatically route charges from your old CC onto your new CC. My bank does that in order to not disrupt regularly charged services like telecom (telephone, long distance, cellular, etc), insurance, utilities, etc.

After I cancelled one of my CC after the CDUNIVERSE.COM theft incident, I noticed that the new CC had lots of charges appearing on it. These were all legitimate (thankfully). My friendly bank had simply automatically kept the charges transferred to the new CC because they didn't want to disrupt any of my purchases.

Here is a quote from MSNBC from someone who had a problem with disputed charges following her to her NEW CC.

 

[axolotls]

I check my accts daily and have at least 7 accts (cc's and webcerts) at Amazon.com, also I have made purchases at drugstore.com, but not many.

I haven't seen any of these charges on any of my accounts. I don't think it's Amazon cuz I surely would've been hit. I lost my drugstore account number but like I said I only ordered once or twice from them this year.

Fortunately, all my credit card companies are fairly good about disputes, except MBNA (can't remember why, but I know they made jump through too many hoops for a very small dispute)

 

[858diver]

Link to details of Egghead.com hit

 

[Daud]

Here is my original post (for continuity):
Am I paranoic ?
I was browsing Ecrap for a Nexstar telescope and bum: a newcomer (0 background)to the auction site has ca. 25 auctions of different new unpacked highly attractive goods. He accepts only VISA. All his auctions end during one hour. There is no info on the pages who he is, why he is selling etc. A perfect anonymous who will be given CC numbers and then disappears ?
What do you think ?
++++++++++
And here an interesting follow-up:
All listings disappeared in the meantime. The seller is still listed as registered. If you search for his items, they are completely deleted. Search in the past items for one of his items DCMM1 (he spelled this incorrectly and left a trace in this way) and you will find aborted scam auctions where he used different name BUT FROM THE SAME DOMAIN 37.com
Make you think twice how come that he was able to use the same trick for several weeks ???

 

[A/\EKC]

I think E@gay stuff would love to hear this story. For all I know these little tricks cost them money as well....

 

[SuperSix]

Bumpage...

 

[abfpat]

sometimes it takes several days, even a week for a charge to show up online. I wouldn't get too pleased about not having it show up online. Wait til your next statement. It'll be there/

 

[Tominator]

I got hit for $10.26 charged to 'Global Telecom.' I've got a BankOne Visa Debit card. BankOne immediately canceled both cards used on the one account and will issue new ones in 7 to 10 days. I use automatic bill paying and this SUCKS!

The only plus here is I read about it on AnandTech Forums! Thanks 858diver!!

BEWARE

 

[Ultanium]

No Russian Telecom on my statement, but Staples has billed me 3 times for the hp-9110i that they scratched from my original order.... Watch out for them, it took 5 phonecalls to get this straight.

Ult :disgust:

 

[A/\EKC]

Oops. With all my vise comments - I've been hit by GLOBAL TELECOM myself.... Feel sorry for the company, though - most probably it will go out of business with so many faux payments. Most probably - it's one of those ISP's, which got payed by stolen cards....

 

[prodigy]

^^^

 

[iluvdeal]

For those of you affected by the Global Telecom Moscow Russia fiasco, how did your CC company handle it? I called them immediately when I found out and they canceled the card and issued me a new one. Today I got a new card and # but they also sent me an affidavit I have to fill out and get it notarized (how much does that cost BTW?), what a pain in the butt to go through. Basically it looks like one of those forms where they want to make sure it wasn't you or one of the other card holders who made the charge.

 

[Havoc13]

Saw the charge today, called the bank and they handled everything. Asked what company and when I said Global, he said ok, card terminated, new one being issued expect it in two days. He also told me 3.7 million bogus charges have been made by them...

 

[Lord Gwynz]

I got double whammied with the $10 charge from Russia and a $99 Paypal charge (I've never used paypal and never signed up for it). Were the card #'s obtained from that recent Egghead incident? I don't think I ever bought anything from there.

 

[Lore]

I canceled the card on my Egghead.com account as soon as I heard about it. I've never bought from Egghead before, but I did buy from onsale.com before they merged. I guess they also merged databases.

 

[JJordan]

Mine was charged the $10.26 in 12/24. I wish I knew if it was Egghead or somewhere else. Oh well, Citibank cancelled the card and I should have a new one today. And they are sending me an affidavit to "dispute" the charges. I assume it will not be a problem. Citibank knew abut the deal and told me the authorities had aleady been contacted so I did not need to do anything. Oh well, that is the risk you take.

By the way, Outpost has to be the FASTEST processing I have ever seen. I ordered 128mb of PC133 memory (I used Flooz I had accumulated) last evening abut 4:00 and it is here this morning.

 

[FugiMax]

I have a charge on my CC for about $13 from a "haven industries", and I don't recall ordering anyhting from something like that. Anyone know what that place is??

-FugiMax

 

[Cheezy]

I got charged yesterday $250 from Net2PhoneDirect.com

I called up and said I had never ordered anything from them. They said they would look into it and block my card from being used there again and also would refund the money.

I also called MBNA and got a new card. Later on last night I called net2phone back and they said they resolved the situation and the person who stole it was a profile who had done it in the past. Well I am glad everything is back to normal for now. I am thankful I check my credit card online most every day, just to be on the safe side.

And for these bastards who commit this fraud, IT REALLY PISSES ME OFF!!! I work hard for my money, and it makes me mad that these dill holes drive up consumer prices and interests rates because they wont work hard for a dollar. It really troubles me because all the stolen money and or goods in the end comes out of our pockets.

Take care everyone! Have a happy new year and be safe.

 

[michaelh888]

Just checked my citibank online credit account and saw the charge "12/23/00 12/23 GLOBAL TELECOM MOSCOW RUS $10.28". Called Citibank and canceled this card immediately.

 

[858diver]

It takes circumstances like this to learn about your credit card company.

We charge over $75k per year on our American Airlines/Citibank Visa, always pay at the end of the month, and average less than one contested charge over 2 or 3 years. So, even though they don't make the obscene 18% finance charges on us, they still take in over $2k per year in fees, plus the unfair extra charge when the card is used in Europe. I contacted THEM when the charge was found (learning about this issue on fat wallet.com), even though they were fully aware of it, and only then had me cancel my card.

I received a letter in the mail this week, which contained a very legal-looking document - an affidavit to sign AND HAVE NOTARIZED - which in the past has cost me as much as $20 at a Mail Boxes Etc - for a stupid $10 charge. When trying to demonstrate the lunacy of this, the Citibank CSR became indignant, who's only solution was that we go to the closest Citibank branch - even though it is 85 miles away!

Lesson learned: While I don't intend to change to an AMEX or Discover card (for the unique numbering schemes described here), I will be contacting American Airlines (the only reason we have Citibank) to voice my displeasure with their choice of banks, and I would like to encourage everyone else in the same situation to do the same.

 

[A/\EKC]

Affidavit from Citibank (for those of you, who are slow typists):

"Neither I, nor anyone authorized by me, nor anyone with my knowledge or consent received or expected to receive any benefits or values as a result of this transaction."

Cool, isn't it?