"Well my credit card has been hacked for the first time!" Topic

I just got back from the credit union were I had to file a fraud complaint and cancel my credit card #.

I found a suspicious charge. It turns out that it was a bogus company in AZ (MCAtemplates) that is used to steal small amounts of money ($11.89 in my case) people's cards. Small amounts are stolen to keep from raising the flag too fast or high?

Well fortunately I caught it the first time it hit! So I did a little checking, and it turns out that this could have come from using my card to make purchases through online sites that use freemerchant.com or other sites with "data leaks".

If I understand it correctly these sites are cybermules that steal money and wire it to off shore accounts.

Here is an interesting link on how it works:
link

So apparently those "make money at home internet jobs are for real". You set up a site that steals money and then wire part of it to an offshore account. Paying yourself out of the account and you really do not have to sell or market anything?

Anyone else experience this?

Sort of… Despite my warnings to do research on the company, my wife signed my daughter up for a "nationwide talent agency". I just about flipped when she did this without the research. If you type the company's name into Google the first hundred links come up describing this scam. Supposedly you could cancel from their website, but it was terribly buried, and it never got cancelled anyway. Never got a human on the phone either. Cost me a "scouting fee" and a couple months of "renewal" before I had to cancel the card.

"and it turns out that this could have come from using my card to make purchases through on-line sites"

Which only goes to prove why I will not use a credit card on-line.

Yes and sort of.

Yes, I had my credit card defrauded but not small amounts. Same person also hacked my email account to try to intercept confirmation messages but I managed to catch it. This person was after moderately big ammounts, charged hundreds of dollars of gift certificates to multiple sites. I caught it pretty early because one of the vendors had me on record as a purchaser which was bad because they approved the sale at first but good because out of the first 5-6 vendors to process $400+ worth sales each, they were the first to call me to confirm so I found out about it the next day. Froze the card, turned it over to my bank's fraud department, they said a week later there was $40,000+ of charges. Got it all credited back, new cards, etc. A little hassle working out credits (the vendor who'd called me credited me back but the bank also got them to credit so for a while I had double credits to keep explaining needed to be backed out.) But not too bad apparently judging by some of the horror stories we see in the news.

Sort of like Virtualscratchbuilder, because my wife bought something and it was one of those web sites that after the transaction says "click here to qualify for a chance to win free gifts" and she did it and signed up and it was a fine print clause that you get charged $10 USD per month and get discount certificates in the mail. She was cancelling the certificates thinking they were spam, and even though she does our credit card payments, and caught the $10 USD monthly charges right off, she thought they were an online gaming service I had signed up for so it took 2-3 months for her to figure it out. That was essentially a legitimate vendor though since she was able to cancel the service with no trouble.

Same thing happened to me, too. I bought a product at a website (not a miniatures company). Several small charges appeared on my card within days. I called my credit card issuer, who canceled the card, reversed all of the fraudulent charges, and sent a new new card. The problem was totally resolved at no cost to me. This is funny -- the fraudulent charge on my card was for a book on how to make money from a home business…

Mike,
it could have been from online, but it could have been a data leak from a regular database as well? Remember when I think it was TJ Max leaked 60,000 credit card numbers. Initially I thought it came from one of my many trips overseas, but it looks like it may have originated in the US? Hard to tell.

Anyway it was my first experience, and now I am thinking that it may be a good idea to "rotate" my credit card number every year just in case? However I think this happened pretty quick, i.e. they got the number and charged it right away.

I figured it was worth sharing this since it could be happening to a lot of people? the web info I found was very interesting though.

I have several credit cards. One card has a very low credit line, per my request. I use only that one card for internet purchases. I never use any of the other cards with larger credit lines on the internet.

Ooh Rah,
That is exactly what these sites are. Apparently legitimate websites that people setup and then just sit back and watch the money come in. If I understand it correctly the scam requires someone to setup a "business" and a website. They get everything they need from the parent service. The site might involve downloadable stuff like games or online sales. Then money starts coming to the company's bank account from "purchases." The guy running the internet business sends some of this money to an offshore account.

Somewhere offshore there is a criminal network that is using stolen credit card info to make the purchases.

It also looks like there is some implication that certain services provided to would be legitimate on-line business are offered by companies that use these services to leak Credit card data!

All pretty insidious!

Also, they do not go for big money. They go for small thefts that people either don't notice or simply don't bother to fight.

Plus they setup phone lines that nobody answers. The first thing the credit card company does is tell you to contact the merchant. You can't because they will not return your call, but it seems like they have a legitimate business. It might take people months to get it cleared up even if they catch it. Fortunately my credit union seemed to be willing to help, but I still have to wait and see what VISA does with the claim (only $11.89, but still?). And I did have to go there and fill out the paper work my self.

yeah, two of the charges were less than $5 USD each. The largest charge was the "how-to-start-a-home-business" book for $49.95 USD or thereabouts. Gotta give them "credit" for chutzpah, though.

My credit card issuer was real good about it. Everything was done by phone and mail. Visa credited everything back to the account within 30 days. Hope you will get all yours back, too. Heck, $11.89 USD is two bags of minis or so.
Good luck!

I use one card for internet purchases.

Years ago, someone defrauding one of my credit cards started buying things and mailing them to me as a bizarre thanks. amongst the more amusing ones:

- the children's book madonna wrote
- a very nice swiss watch with an inscribed thank you card
- a button making factory

The watch we sent back, the madonna book and button making factory i took out of general circulation.