This morning my wife noticed 3 fraudulent charges come through on our Discover card. The one line Discover showed for them was "Cell Stores" with a 1800 #. So I called and told them I didn't have my order #, and asked if they could look it up by CC #.
Surprisingly, they gave me a name and shipping address. The address is for an auto repair shop in Tampa Fl. (I'm in Kansas).
So I called the place, and started the conversation off with "hey man I heard you can hook me up with a cell phone for cheap, what you have?" It was a friendly conversation. He seemed confused, and kept saying they were an auto repair shop. He volunteered what street they were on - like he expected that to convince me he had nothing to do with cell phones. So I responded with his address, and said, isn't that you; thats the shipping address on this charge.
He didn't come out and say it, but I got the impression he was the owner or manager. He never came across as scared or defensive, so I don't think he did it. But that is the shipping address for the order, so there has to be some connection.
In hindsight, my big mistake, was not asking for the guy with name on the charge. When he said he didn't know about selling cell phones, I should have said, 'well isn't this Alkas", and then asked for him. I suspect it was one of his employees.
If he admitted Alkas was an employee, it would have opened up a whole new angle for fun.... "So are you guna go to jail with Alkas, or will you let him go down by himself?"...
Anyway, I had a lot of fun with it. Not $1,200 worth of fun, so I'm still getting the charges reversed. But it was fun.
The moral of the story is, when you get fraudulent charges on your credit card, try to track down a phone number. Its loads of fun!
Surprisingly, they gave me a name and shipping address. The address is for an auto repair shop in Tampa Fl. (I'm in Kansas).
So I called the place, and started the conversation off with "hey man I heard you can hook me up with a cell phone for cheap, what you have?" It was a friendly conversation. He seemed confused, and kept saying they were an auto repair shop. He volunteered what street they were on - like he expected that to convince me he had nothing to do with cell phones. So I responded with his address, and said, isn't that you; thats the shipping address on this charge.
He didn't come out and say it, but I got the impression he was the owner or manager. He never came across as scared or defensive, so I don't think he did it. But that is the shipping address for the order, so there has to be some connection.
In hindsight, my big mistake, was not asking for the guy with name on the charge. When he said he didn't know about selling cell phones, I should have said, 'well isn't this Alkas", and then asked for him. I suspect it was one of his employees.
If he admitted Alkas was an employee, it would have opened up a whole new angle for fun.... "So are you guna go to jail with Alkas, or will you let him go down by himself?"...
Anyway, I had a lot of fun with it. Not $1,200 worth of fun, so I'm still getting the charges reversed. But it was fun.
The moral of the story is, when you get fraudulent charges on your credit card, try to track down a phone number. Its loads of fun!