# My credit card was ripped off. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 25, 2001, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-credit-card-was-ripped-off/55783 "2001-02-25T02:05:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![wahoo11](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8baadc/32.png) [@wahoo11](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wahoo11)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2001, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-credit-card-was-ripped-off/55783/1 "2001-02-25T02:05:21Z")
I had a small charge on my credit card to a Moscow Telecom company and questioned it. Visa told me that they’d had hundreds of these and proceeded to cancel my card and issue me a new one. They had no idea where this company obtained my credit card information. I have done business with about a dozen E commerce sites. Is there anyway I can find out which websites have been hacked for credit card numbers? ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2001, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-credit-card-was-ripped-off/55783/2 "2001-02-25T02:16:31Z")
Have you been shopping at [Egghead.com](http://Egghead.com), perchance? Here are a few websites: [http://cthulhu.ale.org/ale-archive/ale-2000-12/msg00408.html](http://cthulhu.ale.org/ale-archive/ale-2000-12/msg00408.html) > **[MSNBC News - Breaking News and News Today | Latest News](https://www.msnbc.com/)** > > MSNBC breaking news and the latest news for today. Get daily news from local news reporters and world news updates with live audio & video from our team. [http://www.bensbargains.net/ktalk/977428744,41151,.shtml](http://www.bensbargains.net/ktalk/977428744,41151,.shtml) It appears to be related to [creditcards.com](http://creditcards.com) somehow. ---
**Author:** ![wahoo11](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8baadc/32.png) [@wahoo11](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wahoo11)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2001, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-credit-card-was-ripped-off/55783/3 "2001-02-25T02:45:10Z")
Derleth - Thanks for the links. Looking at the posts on bensbargains it appears that [Drugstore.com](http://Drugstore.com),using a process of elimination, is the firm that got hacked for my credit card info. Thanks again. I can’t wait to confront them. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2001, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-credit-card-was-ripped-off/55783/4 "2001-02-25T03:29:18Z")
Why are you so sure it was e-commerce? Is that all you used the card for? There was credit card fraud before e-commerce existed. I had one counterfeited before I ever made any pruchases online. ---
**Author:** ![wahoo11](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8baadc/32.png) [@wahoo11](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wahoo11)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2001, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-credit-card-was-ripped-off/55783/5 "2001-02-25T16:28:02Z")
Revtim - As ‘hundreds’ of numbers were ripped off by Moscow Telecom at my credit card company alone,it stands to reason that somebody got a list. Of course someone working at a bank or traditional retailer could have done it,but I suspect [Drugstore.Com](http://Drugstore.Com) after reading information provided by Derleth. I have contacted [Drugstore.Com](http://Drugstore.Com) regarding this situation and am awaiting their reply. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2001, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-credit-card-was-ripped-off/55783/6 "2001-02-25T16:40:44Z")
That makes sense, I should have took a look at those links earlier. I didn’t realize they addressed Moscow charges directly. As a side note, it looks like the Egghead hack didn’t actually get far enough to get credit card #s, so they are likely in the clear. ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2001, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-credit-card-was-ripped-off/55783/7 "2001-02-25T16:43:04Z")
Rev, the egghead thing was pretty famous. I got a letter from them too but no charges on my card. The hackers supposely got a few Million card numbers. As to how someone got your card number, you might have put your credit card slip in the trash can or the store used the old carbon card receipts & put it in the can too & someone fished it out. So you should always make sure no one has those when you make a card purchase. In One place I visit a lot I can take my copy out before I sign it so that my signature doesn’t appear on the copy in case someone finds it. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2001, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-credit-card-was-ripped-off/55783/8 "2001-02-25T16:57:57Z")
Handy, did you get the email from Egghead where they state that it looks like the hackers didn’t get far enough to get credit cards? This was a few weeks or months after the event. Granted, they might be lying, but that would have been easily brought to light when people started getting illegal charges that could only have traced to egghead. Here’s an article: [http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/computing/01/09/egghead.data.idg/index.html](http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/computing/01/09/egghead.data.idg/index.html) It’s the latest article on the event on [CNN.com](http://CNN.com), so if it were proved false then likely there would have been later article stating so. ---
**Author:** ![dave316](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/76d3ee/32.png) [@dave316](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dave316)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2001, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-credit-card-was-ripped-off/55783/9 "2001-02-25T17:05:34Z")
mine was hit also the way I heard they got them was that the hackers hacked into a credit card processing site that a lot of websites use and got the numbers the cards were visa and mastercharge ---
**Author:** ![messiah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3e96dc/32.png) [@messiah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/messiah)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2001, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-credit-card-was-ripped-off/55783/10 "2001-02-25T17:30:49Z")
Last week a friend and I, went to a nearby bar, and were charged 220 pounds for a bottle of champagne (ok that included the company of two women for an hour [I didn’t realise it was that sort of bar, until I got in, cubs honour {honor}] ). He handed over his credit card, but they came back saying it had been refused, so I paid cash. He thought this was a bit odd as he had hardly used the card, so he checked his account the next day to find that the bar(stads) had somehow taken 500 pounds. ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2001, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-credit-card-was-ripped-off/55783/11 "2001-02-26T00:22:15Z")
“Handy, did you get the email from Egghead where they state that it looks like the hackers didn’t get far enough to get credit cards? This was a few weeks or months after the event.” Yes, I do remember that. But there is no way they would know how many they got. They could guess. It seemed to be one of those reassuring guesses that they might give in order to keep business going.