Strange... Hacked :/

[Cullin Kin]

So... Unfortunately, I was part of the government data breach that occurred recently and this resulted in someone obtaining my credit card number and making fraudulent charges. Nightmares. Who the heck hacks a college student?! Lame sauce.

One of these charges was to a SouthBeachSmoke dot com... When I went to the mailbox today, there was a package... It was from the above site, two starter kits (cigalike style) and two packages of 12mg/mL Citrus Cream cartridges and two packages of 18mg/mL cartridges of the same flavor.

This is so strange. The box had my name on it and had the right address for me, but I personally did not order it.

More importantly... Why would someone hack my credit card and buy stuff just to send it to the person they hacked?

I'm going to call SBS tomorrow to tell them the charge will be cancelled and they will not receive payment to see if they would like me to send it back.

Anyways, this really sucks. I thought I would share it just to keep people aware. If you are at all connected to the government hack, monitor your credit.

:/

 

[Romano Cheese]

They didn't think that one through lmao. Sorry to hear about that though that really sucks.

 

[dbrandt01]

Wow that's terrible, but hope you get it all cancelled and worked out. I had this happen once, but I don't blame a vendor. I looked online and noticed I had two google wallet charges for $50 each. I called them and they verified quickly, while it was my card, it wasn't a charge I did. They saw the account that did and they banned them they said.

 

[Cullin Kin]

They didn't think that one through lmao. Sorry to hear about that though that really sucks.

Wow that's terrible, but hope you get it all cancelled and worked out. I had this happen once, but I don't blame a vendor. I looked online and noticed I had two google wallet charges for $50 each. I called them and they verified quickly, while it was my card, it wasn't a charge I did. They saw the account that did and they banned them they said.

Thanks for the replies. Fortunately, the credit card company is being very trusting and is investigating as well as refunding all of the fraudulent charges. Also, I'm very lucky that they shut the card down after about $400 worth of various charges. This person went crazy, they went on a shopping spree.

This reminds me of that movie 'Identity Thief' with Jason Bateman...

 

[Bunnykiller]

you would think with all the expenses the CC companies are incurring from hacked accounts they would make efforts to create software that would be more impervious to hacking... doesnt seem to be happening tho... still getting hacked...
got an idea... what if we had available to us a card reader that connected to the USB port and we swiped our card when we make online purchases and that blip of info was encrypted at the card reader even before it hit the computer for data transfer....
no more typing the info into the comp ... ( sounds good but I have no idea of the complexities involved)

 

[GinnyTx]

Sorry that happened to you...been there done that back in '05ish..the bank at the time didn't want to acknowledge the theft but it's pretty hard for me to be putting gas in my car and buying a bunch of kids toys at Toyrs R Us in Phili at the same time (before big online purchasing thank goodness) big change over to another bank with no money or the couple grand you thought you had in checking gone.

Hope they get it all worked out for you!!

 

[Papillon61]

My card was hacked a month ago, a couple of days after a flavour vendor in the UK sent out an email informing us clients their data had been breached for about an hour. The hacking may or may not have been the result of that data breach (the vendor said they keep no payment details on their site - just names and address etc). But in any case I had no hassles, apart from having to cancel the card and wait for a new one to be sent. My bank uses the 3D security system which means I get a text message every time my card is charged and I call them back if I was not the one authorizing the charge. Also I only use one CC with a very low limit for online shopping so when idiot charged my card for GBP 1300 he had no hope in hell for that amount to be honoured. Other charges were eventually made to that card but by that time it had been deactivated. @Bunnykiller - I like your idea. I always say, if someone can think of something then it can be done!

 

[Kwtony]

Its a computer program or a beta attack, someone didnt just wake up and say "lets steal from this student" doesnt really work that way in this instance. In the banks eyes (and the theifs) you are no more then a sting of code and a bunch of numbers

 

[rhm3769]

We through the same thing last week with my bank. Somehow they always know after a charge or so whether it was me or not.
They cancel the card on their own, send a text if the charge is flagged as fraudulent to give me a chance to validate it and then the security/fraud department calls. I've been through it quite a few times, actually, and have never had to challenge any charges.
Waiting to see if anything gets delivered from the $470 charge made to sprint.

I'm sure banks and credit card companies lose money on all of this, but the businesses receiving the fraudulent charges are the ones really losing out. I know at my company, if someone walks in and successfully uses a stolen card as payment, the payment is returned to the card but the thief does not return the product to us.
If this charge to sprint was for a phone purchased online, if it shipped before the charges were reversed, someone got a free phone....

 

[stevegmu]

The government data breach wasn't about credit cards... It's probably your computer...

 

[crxess]

you would think with all the expenses the CC companies are incurring from hacked accounts they would make efforts to create software that would be more impervious to hacking... doesnt seem to be happening tho... still getting hacked...
got an idea... what if we had available to us a card reader that connected to the USB port and we swiped our card when we make online purchases and that blip of info was encrypted at the card reader even before it hit the computer for data transfer....
no more typing the info into the comp ... ( sounds good but I have no idea of the complexities involved)

You mean this:
MagTek 21040140 Credit Card Reader - Newegg.com

They have been around for several years. People just don't consider using them.
Built-in/Slot type systems have been available for over a decade.

Once I left Desktops behind I went to a Secure Debit card. It transacts through PayPal with instant Email notification of any activity. (NOT directly linked to my Bank information)

 

[Mogar]

That is the difference between Credit Cards and Debit Cards. Credit cards will fight for your funds and refund. If they find the charges are valid, they will then ask/demand you pay those invoices. Debit cards will immediately pull the funds from your bank and then fight to refund your money.
I would suggest that you always use Credit Cards for online purchases if possible.

 

[jseah]

We through the same thing last week with my bank. Somehow they always know after a charge or so whether it was me or not.
They cancel the card on their own, send a text if the charge is flagged as fraudulent to give me a chance to validate it and then the security/fraud department calls. I've been through it quite a few times, actually, and have never had to challenge any charges.
Waiting to see if anything gets delivered from the $470 charge made to sprint.

I'm sure banks and credit card companies lose money on all of this, but the businesses receiving the fraudulent charges are the ones really losing out. I know at my company, if someone walks in and successfully uses a stolen card as payment, the payment is returned to the card but the thief does not return the product to us.
If this charge to sprint was for a phone purchased online, if it shipped before the charges were reversed, someone got a free phone....

The credit card companies are pretty good at tracking your spending patterns so they can spot fraudulent use of your card. The last time my credit card number was stolen, the credit card company called me when someone tried using my card number to purchase a bunch of gift cards.

 

[bluecat]

Many credit card companies (if not all) have an address file on where things can be shipped. The person who stole the information could have tried to enter the real shipping information (which would be stupid as it could be easily tracked) or they could have it sent to your address hoping to get to your mailbox before you did. Either way scary crap, and they should make an example out of a few of these id thieves to discourage the practice. Something about rolling them down a hill in a box full of rattlesnakes comes to mind.

Someone tried to steal mine once. They tried to have the items shipped to a different address about 3,000 bucks worth. I didn't get any notice until my daughter tried to use netflix and it said she couldn't. The company did not pay for them and shut down the number.

 

[jrlakeman]

That is one strange fraud you have there never heard of getting items that were fraudulently charged shipped to the card holders mailbox. Strange indeed...

 

[WattWick]

The mystery!

Sucks that it happened to our Kin (heh!). What puzzles me is how someone would know to order e-cigs. And why.

One could assume it's a clever attempt at trying to cover up a check of the cards active status. On the other hand it's not very clever when something one has not ordered shows up in ones mailbox. On the third hand... by the time it does show up... there's likely been a few days. Which should be plenty of time to do clever things and make a clever and oh-so-dashing escape.

 

[Mrs C]

Just went through this last week. The bank caught 2 phishing charges, froze my card and was trying to contact me while I was trying to call them. I check my account activity daily or at least every 2nd day and spotted the charges. That makes the 3rd time in 2 years either hub or myself have had a card compromised.

 

[Traijan]

I've been through it twice.... Once with my ATM/Debit card that never arrived. I contacted the bank and instead of issuing a new card with a new number they sent out a duplicate. I received it and activated it. That same afternoon I went across the street from my office to the gas station to get some cigarettes and the card was declined. I called the bank who told me that there were a huge amount of unusual charges on my account that morning. Taxi rides and gas station food purchases etc, so they put a stop on my card. They eventually reversed the charges.

The other one was my paypal account got hacked (not sure how, as the system at Intel tells me "It would take about 3,284,249 years to crack your password" However somebody charged a $100 fraudulent charge on my paypal account anyway. They immediately returned the money to me the same morning I reported it and I never heard from them again.

In case your interested, you can check how strong your password is at How Strong is Your Password?
But do as they say and use some sort of alternative to any real password that you use, something similar to see just how strong they tell you it is.

Oh and the weakest password that I used to (USE TO) use on all non important sites it tells me:
It would take about 10.4773 seconds to crack your password.

LOL

I now no longer shop online with a debit card or a CC, and instead put money into a prepaid account and use that card as that way I can limit myself from catastrophe of somebody draining my real bank account or having to deal with the hassles of a credit card company and getting them to reverse the charges. And I have a notice sent to me daily on what my prepaid account has in it and I just glance at it each morning to see if the balance has changed and if so then I go and find out why. So far it's not been compromised.

I also don't allow sites to store my credit card (prepaid card) info anymore. I don't know if it would help if they were hacked or not but it makes me feel better knowing they don't have it permanently stored on their servers or database even if it is less convenient to have to re-enter it for each purchase.

 

[crxess]

That is the difference between Credit Cards and Debit Cards. Credit cards will fight for your funds and refund. If they find the charges are valid, they will then ask/demand you pay those invoices. Debit cards will immediately pull the funds from your bank and then fight to refund your money.
I would suggest that you always use Credit Cards for online purchases if possible.

You do not get it. The MasterCard Debit card is well protected by Paypals protection policies. I have several Good Credit cards and rely on them for emergencies. I do not wish to jump through hoops or wait for replacement if one is hacked.
The PPDC seems to be pretty much immune to hacker advances.

*I read all these experiences of others with card fraud and wonder how I made it past 60 without the issue.............. Oh wait, no I don't.
Precaution before use.

 

[Wraith504]

Use reloadable prepaid cards for online purchases.