Credit Card Fraud- WATCH OUT!

kddani · #1 05-02-2003, 03:16 PM

Hey everyone-
just a friendly reminder to pay attention to your credit card bills.... (something which i'm very bad at). I happened to check one of my credit cards online, and saw that something for around $670 had been billed to my Mastercard on Monday from www.bidpay.com - in other words, someone was fraudulently using my credit card to buy a money order to complete an auction on ebay.
They also used my name and address (which is kinda scary in itself).... it was a Sammy Hagar Strata or something (guitar, i'm guessing)... purchased on Monday. Definately NOT mine.

Just a warning to be careful!

LXAAlum · #2 05-02-2003, 03:38 PM

Did you report this to (1) the police, (2) ebay, and (3) the on-line payment agent?

Do so ASAP, and make sure to contact your credit card company and file a DISPUTE on the charges.

kddani · #3 05-02-2003, 03:43 PM

I have reported it to both my card (it will be disputed) and the company it was purchased through (bidpay)
I have no way of knowing what transaction it was on ebay- I did a search for relevant auctions completed within the last 30 days and there was nothing near close to the price.
Should I report it to the police? What would I say? I don't have a whole lot of info for them.
Thanks!
Danielle

chideltjen · #4 05-02-2003, 03:50 PM

similar thing happened to my grandparents. the guy got their number and ordered a bunch of tickets via tickets.com or something. stupid guy tho... he did all the tickets "will call" so the police caught him at the box office. my grandparents aren't being held responsible for the charges.

LXAAlum · #5 05-02-2003, 03:51 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by kddani
Should I report it to the police? What would I say? I don't have a whole lot of info for them.
Thanks!
Danielle

Darn right you should. Report (give printouts that show URL addresses) everything that you have, as well as who/when you spoke to your credit card company, give them contact info for the bidpay company, etc....

Just call them, and they'll let you know what else you might need to provide.

And, if for some reason that guitar or whatever shows up, and you don't want it - I'm a big Hegar/Van Halen fan...

bethany1982 · #6 05-02-2003, 03:57 PM

After you report this to the police, report it to the Internet Fraud Complaint Center. Do not wait for your local authorities to act.

http://www1.ifccfbi.gov/index.asp

You may have more than a simple credit card problem.

kddani · #7 05-02-2003, 05:01 PM

Thank you everyone for your responses!
I have filed complaints with:
* My credit card company
* Bidpay
* Ebay
* The FBI (thanks so much for the link bethany!)

Gotta love local law enforcement. I looked up the number for my zone's station (I live within the City of Pittsburgh) and called them to ask what to do, they told me I had to call 911.

I HATE calling 911 for non emergency purposes.... it just doesn't seem right. Anyway, I called them, gave her my name and number, she said someone would call me back shortly. That was about an hour ago, no word from them

Somehow that doesn't surprise me.

I know they have much better things to do, but that system is screwy. I would've been more than willing to drive over to the station and fill out whatever I needed to. Argh.

Well, whoever it is, is going to get their ass busted. That'll teach them to screw with me

If you're going to try to defraud someone, better cover your tracks better. And don't screw with a law student. Hehe

texas*princess · #8 05-02-2003, 05:16 PM

kddani, ths reminded me of a story one of my profs told the class one day.

She got an outrageous credit card bill for over $2K in merchandise she did not purchase. She filed a complaint w/ all the authorities and they tracked it down to a guy who used her credit card number to purchase items over the internet.

They tracked the guy because of the shipping address he used -- his HOME ADDRESS.

..anyhow.. are you sure the auction was on eBay? If you said you checked and couldn't find anything within the last 30 days, it is quite possible this person used a different internet auction site. I know Yahoo has auctions, as do some other people. (Although eBay *does* get more internet traffic..so who knows)

Also.. I checked out the bidpay.com website and it does say that you can use bidpay to pay one seller for multiple auction wins with one money order.. there are so many variables to consider..

kddani · #9 05-02-2003, 05:24 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by texas*princess
kddani, ths reminded me of a story one of my profs told the class one day.

She got an outrageous credit card bill for over $2K in merchandise she did not purchase. She filed a complaint w/ all the authorities and they tracked it down to a guy who used her credit card number to purchase items over the internet.

They tracked the guy because of the shipping address he used -- his HOME ADDRESS.

..anyhow.. are you sure the auction was on eBay? If you said you checked and couldn't find anything within the last 30 days, it is quite possible this person used a different internet auction site. I know Yahoo has auctions, as do some other people. (Although eBay *does* get more internet traffic..so who knows)

Actually I ended up getting the auction number from the folks at Bidpay, but just b/c that's the auction number they put doesn't mean they were even involved in an auction. Both the emails the person gave to bidpay (the sender of the money and the recipient) didn't match up to ebay. So it's like that this person just found an auction for around that much and decided to use that one.

They have the address of the person who it was sent to (someone in Cali), and they'll give all that info once they're contacted by law enforcement. I think that person will be in for a visit from the cops.

Hehehe. I don't see how they can NOT get caught.

Peaches-n-Cream · #10 05-02-2003, 07:03 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by kddani
Thank you everyone for your responses!
I have filed complaints with:
* My credit card company
* Bidpay
* Ebay
* The FBI (thanks so much for the link bethany!)

Gotta love local law enforcement. I looked up the number for my zone's station (I live within the City of Pittsburgh) and called them to ask what to do, they told me I had to call 911.

I HATE calling 911 for non emergency purposes.... it just doesn't seem right. Anyway, I called them, gave her my name and number, she said someone would call me back shortly. That was about an hour ago, no word from them Somehow that doesn't surprise me.

I know they have much better things to do, but that system is screwy. I would've been more than willing to drive over to the station and fill out whatever I needed to. Argh.

Well, whoever it is, is going to get their ass busted. That'll teach them to screw with me If you're going to try to defraud someone, better cover your tracks better. And don't screw with a law student. Hehe

My mother had a fraudulent charge on her Am Ex. She lost her card and called them. She told them that she had used it the previous day. They said that she had charged two small amounts of money at two different places and then they said two amounts at a jewelry store for thousands of dollars which she didn't authorize. My mother just figured that she had lost her card and someone decided to go on a spree. They removed the charges.

Fast forward a few months...one of the lawyers at her firm complained that there was an unauthorized charge on his card. Another lawyer said that the same thing had happened to her. One of the secretaries said that she had the same thing happen. The main partner said that there was a mistake in his checking account of over $9,000. The police investigated and it turned out that another secretary had stolen credit cards and the partner's check and forged the signatures. She stole over $20,000!

She was arrested. Don't screw with an entire law firm!

dzandiloo · #11 05-02-2003, 11:23 PM

FYI People-this is happening alot lately, and it is often people with eBay/Paypal accounts. Please be very careful about responding to e-mails that look like they are from Paypal or eBay...they might say something like "there is something wrong with your account, please follow this link and log in so we can correct the problem..." Then you click the link, go to a page that looks like the eBay login screen, log in & get some message that everything is taken care of.... THIS IS A SCAM! eBay and Paypal will not e-mail you, asking you to follow a link. If they have any problems, they will wait for you to come to them and log in to inform you of any problems/changes.

Bottom line, when you follow those links, & fill in your eBay Password/ID, you are giving some con-man in Romania the keys to your life (don't be surprised if your e-mail password and eBay password are changed on you within a few days, and you can't access your stuff)--DON'T DO IT!!!

eBay/Paypal's web address will always have "https" at the beginning. The "s" denotes the secure site. If you follow one of those bogus, look at the address line. If it just says "http" before the web addy, without an s, it is not the real secure web site, and you should run away!!!

My husband is an eBay seller, and he gets these fraudulent notes daily. They are frighteningly realistic looking-with the logos and everything. Many of them have bad grammar, though, which is a tell-tale sign that they are fakes.

Anyway...thats just my lesson in internet/credit safety for the day.

texas*princess · #12 05-02-2003, 11:35 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by dzandiloo
eBay/Paypal's web address will always have "https" at the beginning. The "s" denotes the secure site. If you follow one of those bogus, look at the address line. If it just says "http" before the web addy, without an s, it is not the real secure web site, and you should run away!!!

Great advice dzandiloo!

The1calledTKE · #13 05-02-2003, 11:36 PM

now i am going to be paranoid

kddani · #14 05-02-2003, 11:40 PM

Definately good advice!

I keep pretty up to date with news in the ebay community, and know of these fake emails very well.

A lot of people (especially those who only do ebay very casually) don't know any better.

Another thing to note- be wary of sellers who want you to go through their own checkout service and give them your credit card number through their own website checkout. Sometimes this is okay, because may of the bigger ebay sellers have their own "brick and mortar" (i.e. REAL stores), but it's still risky. If they want you to go through an Andale checkout or another reputable checkout, that's okay. But if it's their website www.joeschmoe.com, be VERY wary.

Generally you're much more secure using paypal, bidpay, or sending a money order.

DigitalAngel126 · #15 05-03-2003, 12:29 PM

Eek, stuff like this sucks!!!!