We just discovered a $50 charge to our account from some internet outfit called epoch.com. Apparently, it’s a credit card processor for numerous internet businesses, some not so family-friendly.
We were lucky to have caught, considering we’re so broke we can’t spare a dime and epoch.com agreed to reverse the charge and research the fraud. Our bank is crediting our account with the $50 and will follow up with a chargeback if the reversal doesn’t come through in the next couple of days.
I’m relieved, but have learned the lesson of keeping my eye on our account with more vigilance.
Anyone else run into this problem? Anything I should know from this point?
About a month ago I posted where I found an unexplained $9.99 charge on my cell phone bill. When I called to inquire I was told that it was for a ringtone service. A: I woud never sign up for a ringtone service and B: it was for a phone that I haven’t used in months and is stuck in a drawer somewhere. I told the rep that it was unauthorized so he removed it for the current and previous bill and blocked the company from further charges. I was still on the hook for the very first month it was there.
I found a fraudulent charge for cell phone service on one of my credit cards, many years before I actually broke down and got a cell phone. I had to write a letter to the company saying I hadn’t made that charge. I didn’t have to pay for it, and I kept an eye on that account (as you should always do for all of your credit card accounts) and didn’t see any more fraudulent charges. Sometimes it really is just a one-off thing.
I had big time trouble with this sort of thing several years ago. I started bouncing checks when several different companies debited my checking account and VISA debit card number with multiple charges of multiple hundreds of dollars. I went through the process, swore out an affadavit and whatnot, and the bank restored the funds and issued me a new card. Next month, same thing, so this time they issued me a third card and a new checking account. Every month for 8 months in a row I had fradulent charges on my statement. The bank restored the funds every time, but the inconvenience and unreliability of my money was intolerable, and I left that bank. This kind of debit stopped at that point.
One lesson was to have checking accounts and debit cards at more than one bank, so that if one account comes under attack, there’s already another one available and working.
Then a few months ago I had another problem - I ordered furniture using a VISA debit card, and it turns out the furniture company was not legit, and I was out more than a thousand dollars. My current bank provisionally restored the funds two days after I claimed I’d been defrauded (which was 10 weeks after the furniture company debited my account) and have since made it permanent. I gotta say, though, I’m amazed at how much fraud there seems to be, and how little I hear about the miscreants being caught and punished.
I just went through this with a company called gpnethelp.com. They are an online personals and escort service and made an unauthorized charge to my credit card. If you Google that name, you will see that they do this to a lot of people.
I called the credit union that issued the card. They cancelled the card, sent me a new one and also sent me an affidavit to sign saying that the charge was fraudulent. It was a pain in the butt. And I have no idea how they got my card number. But apparently they have ways to get a lot of them.
A story from another perspective.
My sister and her husband are involved with a website that takes donations. Most of the donations that come in this way are small and via debit and credit cards. At one point, they started getting a number of $5 donations that were later reported as fraudulent by the card holders. It turns out that someone who collects and sells credit card numbers was using my sister’s site as a way to check the validity of the card numbers. They would make a $5 donation and if it went through, the number got marked as valid and probably sold for more money.
The credit card companies put it back into my sister’s lap, to verify that future donations are valid. If they accept a charge, and it turns out to be invalid, the credit card companies pass the charges back to my sister AND tack on an additional charge, I don’t remember how much. Sis now has to go through records of all donations and try to verify which are valid and which might be fraudulent. She is pretty sure that they are rejecting some valid donations, but it’s not worth the risk.
My sister and BIL tried to get the credit card companies, the local police and the FBI all involved to stop this person. Apparently they had some common IP addresses that the donations were coming from. All of the above groups declined to do anything.
>using my sister’s site as a way to check the validity of the card numbers
Well, this is crazy. Wasn’t the core business of the credit card companies the facilitation of vetting the validity of the numbers (I mean VISA and Mastercard, not the issuing banks, whose core business in this context was lending money)? That’s why vendors are supposed to pay the 2% or whatever it is - to get VISA’s stamp of approval on the number. Now it sounds like somebody new is needed, to go into business checking numbers. At this point, what are the credit card companies bringing to the party?
Maybe I was unclear. The person checking the card numbers didn’t have them legally. He/she was stealing card numbers and bouncing them against my sisters site, to find cards that hadn’t be cancelled yet. Then they could sell of a list of verified usable stolen card numbers.
I don’t know where you are but there was some news recently how the Sweetbay grocery stores (mostly in Florida) were hacked (starting in December) and many credit and debit numbers were accessed. People who frequent the stores have been warned to keep a close eye on their accounts.
I was one of those people. I haven’t noticed any unusual charges (I check online every day) and I had my bank put a fraud alert on my account, so I should be fine (knock on wood.)
>Maybe I was unclear. The person checking the card numbers didn’t have them legally.
Yes, I think you were clear. What’s crazy is that the credit card company, who is in a position to verify card numbers and has infrastructure and special legal mechanisms at their disposal, is passing the responsibility off onto your sister, who probably doesn’t have any of that capability. I realize that the card thief can’t go to the credit card company and ask for a list of stolen numbers to be checked, but I think your sister should be able to go to them with a list of donor’s card numbers to be checked. Did that make sense, or do I misunderstand after all?