I called the recipient of credit card fraud order

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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!
 
Stuff like that always makes me wonder - how did a guy in FL get
your credit card info?

The wife and I had a similar situation a year ago with a CANCELLED (they don't seem too picky about checking details) VISA card; $1,800 worth of motorcycle parts were purchased online from a company in Roanoke, VA, but the people there wouldn't tell us anything about the ship-to address or name or anything.
 
I dont know what it is with Discover cards, but my mom had her account comprimised, a card she had not used in several years. My discover card was messed with as well, and I dont even live at the same address. Discover stands behind the customer and treated our cases just fine, but not surprised to hear another story. With my mom's they opened up some DHL account and used it to ship stuff they were selling in and out of the country, and sometimes DHL would come by and drop off shipping supplies to her address! The first couple of times she didnt know what was going on and actually used some for her ebay LOL. Wasnt funny when she started seeing a bill.
 
Discover has issues with this..

But I hear that they take care of their cardholders.


Makes one wonder though..
 
doesnt that make you sick that people will ruin lives for a few extra bucks or stuff.

i had a friend that had his credit and bank funds ruined because of some illegal allien stole his info.
 
I got called two weeks ago by their fraud unit. Someone tried a couple of orders for over $1400 total. Had to have my card replaced. Seems like it's a problem on Discover's end as this thread is showing me. I spent a week racking my brain over where I could have compromised my CC number.
 
Originally Posted By: jhMalibu
I spent a week racking my brain over where I could have compromised my CC number.


Usually the compromise is in retailer's electronic security, the CC company itself, or a third party who handles processing. Unless a waitress scans your card, or something like that. That happens, but it is a very small minority of the cases. Doing it at the time of the transaction is a lot of work for individual CC #'s. If you're going to the trouble, you might was well get them by the thousand/million. The best targets are storage of customer data on corp. networks, post processing at the CC company, etc. At that point it doesn't matter whether the transaction started online or not.

Which makes it ironic when people talk about not shopping online because they're afraid of fraud. Who do they expect to have better electronic security? The dot com who's business is centered around having superb tech expertise, or traditional old business fumbling through this new fangled technology...

My guess is, our card info was swiped in bulk with a lot of others, then resold. Some wannabe thief probably bought the card info online and had the junk shipped to his day job.
 
A little while back, I got a phone call from RBC (my bank). My debit card had been compromised. The lady wouldn't tell me any specifics, only that is was in between the last three to twelve months.

I told her: "Lady, I've been between British Columbia, and Quebec, and every province in between, you'll have to be alot more specific than that."

Fo those unaware, I'm a bus driver who's driven every continental province in Canada (save Manitoba, flew over that one).

She chuckled and had a new card for me to be picked up at the nearest branch (I was out of town).


It's odd, because I'm one of those overly-retentive people when it comes to taking care of my debit card...
 
I have had several cards replaced due to companies saying they were compromised. Even got free credit protection due to some Federal Government compromises of financial information (I was a Federal Employee).

I once had some small erroneous (not mine) internet charges on one credit card (MasterCharge), they took care of them and gave me a new card. They said it was easy to trace online misuse.
 
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Yep. a couple of weeks ago I woke up to a half dozen email messages that I had opened accounts with blockbuster, Netflix, a dating service, Disney movies etc. Someone had my email address, the name of another person in a different state and the wrong Discover card number. Apparently they were pinging accounts to see which were valid. Unfortunately I did have some fraud charges on mine unrelated to the services that someone tried to set me up with.

I agree, I am going to stop using cards at restaurants (make a photo with a cell phone or use a scanner etc) and maybe the service some cards offer with unique numbers for online purchases. What really irritates me is the unwillingness of the companies to go after the crooks, too costly for them to pursue so they put up with it.
 
Originally Posted By: defektes
doesnt that make you sick that people will ruin lives for a few extra bucks or stuff.

i had a friend that had his credit and bank funds ruined because of some illegal allien stole his info.


People that do this don't do it for a few extra bucks. More like a few extra thousands or millions.
 
Someone got a couple tickets on Air Arabia off my Visa card. Ordered online. $2000 worth of charges. Nice! Was a royal pain to get fixed.
 
About a year or so ago, credit card info of Sweetbay (grocery chain here) customers was compromised. I only shop there once in a blue moon, but I used a card during the period that the compromise took place. Kept and eye on my statements and nothing strange showed. A month after it was realized that the compromise happened, my credit card company canceled my old one and sent another card.
 
I have 2 credit cards and a debit card and I watch them likes hawks online... I know about fraudulent charges within a day. Has happened only a handful of times since I got my cards 10 years ago.
 
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