I have a pending charge on my credit card for 1 cent from XIAO CHUM CAI.
This is bugging me for several reasons. First, the transaction date is April 2nd. I did not use my credit card between March 27th and April 4th. Second, when I call Mastercards customer service they insist that they don’t have any information on the merchant until the transaction actually posts. Rarely do transactions take more than 2 days to post to my account, it is now April 7th and it’s still up as a pending charge.
I’d feel better if I could find out who or what the hell XIAO CHUM CAI is, but the web is no help. There is a mention of it on Google on a Gunbroker message board (I do use the Gunbroker auction site) but that particular thread seems to have been deleted.
Yeah, but I couldn’t get it to open. Your link worked.
From the link:
not fraud from XIAO CHUM CAI… looks like this is the company that bills for Hostway.com, so if you do any web stuff with Hostway that is their way of checking a card before they actually put thru any charge for services you may have requested.
I don’t know about XIAO CHUM CAI… like I said I reported it immediately after seeing this charge and my bank said this was the billing company for Hostway with whom I did do a charge… they routinely pre-approve $.01 when you purchase something to see if the number provided is valid… had the same pending from Sirius a few weeks ago before billing for the whole amount went thru…
So is XIAO CHUM CAI fraud or not? Who the hell is HOSTWAY?
We had the fraud department from Visa call us when they noticed $1 charges on our credit card. It is an indication to them that someone has your number and is testing to see if it works. I would call the fraud deptartment to verify. In our case they used amazon, then they tried to buy $25K worth of lumber in Spain and they actually walked into a bank to take out money, again in Spain, or so we were told by Visa.
the good thing is that you can simply dispute odd charges, but in my case I had to firmly remind VISA that this is the case
The 1c is definitely a ‘test’, whether or not it is by a fraudster is a bit unclear, anyone can post a page on Google saying that EGG FOO YUNG is CitiBank’s payment service.
I would keep a careful eye on all future transactions.
I use my credit card quite a bit, so I check my credit card transactions twice every day. In the morning when I get to work, and at night before bed. The web site makes it easy. This is the first time in a long time I’ve been this concerned about something.
My bet is that someone is going to have a dip in your card, XIAO CHUM CAI is a lunatic name for some form of payment collection company.
However, it does not matter too much as you are obviously on top of the situation.
You can query/dispute/charge back a transaction for months which can be very annoying for legitimate vendors
Not sure if this means anything, but did you spell the charge name correctly? Is it “chum” or “chun”? the ‘m’ spelling doesn’t fit standard Chinese pinyin but the other ones do. Just more oddity along with this charge.
I’ve had card numbers stolen and fraudulent charges put through, as well as ordinary disputes.
Until there is an actual fraudulent charge, there isn’t anything to dispute. I was amazed at how mellow they (Visa) were. Not really uncaring but for them it’s just another cost of doing business and they are frying fish larger than 1 cent.
I’d call up the card company and tell them to make a record of my concern. IIRC they will put a tag on the card that more closely scrutinizes transactions. In any case you’ll have a written record that you warned them.
If it’s a longstanding number and you’ve used it a lot, nothing wrong with asking for a new card. No charge and whoever is testing your card should end up being the only one disappointed.
The problem with doing that is that
a) it is not stolen
b) he might well have standing charges (mandates) that he wants to keep up - SDMB for one
c) New cards are a PITA
His best bet is to watch and wait, those guys are after the suckers that don’t watch their bills. My guess is that they have hijacked an existing vendor’s account, probably a Thai or Hong Kong bar/restaurant.
However, on reflection, I think it might be an idea to close the account, but only for honest reasons. I’ve just thought of some scams that are harder to get out of, and I’m not going to post them here.
And trying to explain to visa that you didn’t pay for any hookers in Siam won’t be a PITA? Assuming this is a fradulent charge, you going to have to change your number eventually. I say, do it now before it costs you more then one cent. Even if the auth turns into a regular charge, the bad guys will still only have the old number.
Um . . . they’ve retained me to contact you about that. I’m afraid you’ll need to make good on your marker immediately.
Seriously, could be something, could be nothing. Don’t make yourself miserable over it. You’ve already done your bit by reporting it as suspicious. If the charges are fraudulent you can dispute them. If somebody has obtained other personal information about you, from whatever source, you’ve got bigger problems, and reporting the card missing, destroyed, or otherwise will just make your life harder. Keep an eye on the account. Maybe follow up with VISA with a letter to their fraud department if you are itching for something to do. And wait.
Now the pending charge of one cent from XIAO CHUM CAI is gone, and there are no charges on my transaction list from such company, and no other company has charged me a penny for anything. So WTF?
