Visa Fraud Report

I was called today and was told that 6300 dollars was charged to my Visa card from Shanghi China. Of course I don't know for a fact how, but I would like to tell someone what I suspect. I can't find a No. to call. Who do you call? Not Ghost busters!

 

Check this out...

http://www.bluetack.co.uk/forums/index.php?showtopic=10166

 

Talk to your bank if your card was issued through them (as is the case with debit cards) or if it's a credit card contact Visa directly. I'm surprised your card wasn't automatically frozen, mine was.

 

With most bank-issued Visa's (and I think that's the vast majority of them), customer-service matters are normally handled through the bank. Mine, which is one of the largest in Canada (with branches here and there all over the world) has 24/7 phone support.

I'm surprised your charge went through at all -- typically both the bank and Visa itself will keep an eye out for "unusual activity", and will make considerable effort to verify those with you before they're approved. This is especially true the last couple of years, with the huge increase in phishing. One of the service reps I talked to said that the most common kind of activity they're watching for is an unusually large debit at an unusual distance from your home (i.e., mailing address) of record.

 

My MasterCard credit card was temporarily stopped for making two gas purchases of $16 each in Canada (I live in the U.S). While this can be inconvenient (I always carry two credit cards for this reason), I appreciate the new level of security.

Rich

 

A standard recommendations is for you to check account status and transaction history reasonably often, in between statements.

One of the handy things about having a Visa (or MC, or whatever) issued by your own bank, if they offer online access, is that you can usually check both your bank account(s) and your credit card(s) on the same log-in session.

 

WARNING...New Credit Card Scam.

Note, the callers do not ask for your card number; they already have it.

This information is worth reading. By understanding how the VISA & MasterCard Telephone Credit Card Scam works, you'll be better prepared to protect yourself.

My husband was called on Wednesday from "VISA," and I was called on Thursday from "MasterCard."

The scam works like this: Person calling says, "This is (name), and I'm

calling from the Security and Fraud Department at VISA. My Badge num ber is 12460 Your card has been flagged for an unusual purchase pattern, and I'm calling to verify. This would be on your VISA card which was issued by (name of bank). Did you purchase an Anti-Telemarketing Device for $497.99 from a Marketing company based in Arizona?" When you say "No", the caller continues with, "Then we will be issuing a credit to your account. This is a company we have been watching and the charges range from $297 to $497,

just under the $500 purchase pattern that flags most cards. Before your

next statement, the credit will be sent to (gives you your address), is

that correct?"

You say "yes". The caller continues - "I will be starting a Fraud investigation. If you have any questions, you should call the 1- 800 number listed on the back of your card (1-800-VISA) and ask for Security.

You will need to refer to this Control Number. The caller then gives you a
6 digit number. "Do you need me to read it again?"

Here's the IMPORTANT part on how the scam works. The caller then says, "I need to verify you are in possession of your card". He'll ask you to "turn your card over and look for some numbers". There are 7 numbers; the first 4 are part of your card number, the next 3 are the security Numbers' that

verify you are the possessor of the card. These are the numbers you sometimes use to make Internet purchases to prove you have the card. The

caller will ask you to read the 3 numbers to him. After you tell the caller the 3 numbers, he'll say, "That is correct, I just needed to verify that

the card has not been lost or stolen, and that you still have your card. Do you have any other questions?" After you say No, the caller then thanks you and states, "Don't hesitate to call back if you do", and hangs up.

You actually say very little, and they never ask for or tell you the Card number. But after we were called on Wednesday, we called back within 20

minutes to ask a question. Are we glad we did! The REAL VISA Security Department told us it was a scam and in the last 15 minutes a new purchase of $497.99 was charged to our card.

Long story made short - we made a real fraud report and closed the VISA

account. VISA is reissuing us a new number. What the scammers want is the
3-digit PIN number on the back of the card. Don't give it to them. Instead, tell them you'll call VISA or Master card directly for verification of their conversation. The real VISA told us that they will never ask for anything on the card as they already know the information since they issued the card! If you give the scammers your 3 Digit PIN Number, you think you're receiving a credit. However, by the time you get your statement you'll see charges for purchases you didn't make, and by then it's almost to late and/or more difficult to actually file a fraud report.

What makes this more remarkable is that on Thursday, I got a call from a

"Jason Richardson of MasterCard" with a word-for-word repeat of the VISA

scam. This time I didn't let him finish. I hung up! We filed a police report, as instructed by VISA. The police said they are taking several of these reports daily! They also urged us to tell everybody we know that this scam is happening.

 

That's why I tell everybody NOT to use their credit card on the internet.
How can you use your credit card in such a dangerous area as internet, where fraud is wharp and woof and where you don't even know WHO is behind the website ?
These con men know every trick how to use stolen credit cards in their advantage.

I made ONE exception for PayPal, because I couldn't open a Paypal account without a credit card (keep in mind that Paypal has different rules for different countries).
Of course there are probably exceptions where you can use your credit card safely, but you have to verify this first.

The trouble with buying on the internet is, that it is way TOO COMFORTABLE.
You are at home, nobody is watching, you have all the time you need to choose, ...
Believe me sometimes I would like to use my credit card on the net to buy stuff that isn't available or hard to get in Belgium, but I have enough discipline not to do this.
I prefer to use my credit card in real life, not on the internet.

 

My wife was called. The woman asked my wife her birth date. She wouldn't give it to her. The woman said she understood. Then she asked what month she was born. My wife gave her the month. Then she proceeded to give my wife her full birth date. Then she asked for the first 3 numbers of her SS card. My wife gave her those. Then she gave my wife her complete SS number. So it looks like this woman had all the info and was verifying that my wife was who she said she was. It hasn't shown up in my VISA account as of last night.It's all strange to me.

 

Erik, I agree with you about the internet but I do a good bit of buying on the net. I was talking to a person last night who seemed real knowledgable. He said it really don't make any difference if its the internet or not. He said that everytime you use your card it goes over wire and all someone needs is a sniffer and an encription buster and they can get it.

 

That's not the only danger, although this example is rare :

Go to a shop, make a credit card purchase, but the eftpos is down...manual purchase...all your details are recorded (same when you make a phone credit card purchase).... Dodgy sales staff get a hold of the number....There are then ways to make certain types credit card purchases untraceable

 

Right. In this case it wouldn't have mattered if you used your Visa online because the company that was hacked into was an intermediate between Visa and financial institutions as far I understand it. They take in and process transactions you make with your Visa, anywhere, be it online or not. As far as encryption goes, that's why I feel it is a lot better to use unknown freewares that aren't too popular. I have noticed that the popular softwares are usually the first targets to get "hacked" or torn apart as is the case with AVs or other examples.... blah blah blah my mouths getting tired

 

all someone has to do is go behind a mall and go through the trash and get the carbon sheets that are thrown away when useing a card. A lot of stores still use this method and all your info for the card including your signature are on it. I have been useing my check card on the internet for purchases for a few years now and I keep two accounts one for the card and the other for my check book. I never keep more in the card account than I need for a purchases to be made within fourty eight hours and have never had a problem. Even if my check card is compromised the fradulant charges are reimbursed very quickly. But you still have to use a lot of common sense.

 

I have a friend that works at the bank, where I have an account and she told me that customers often cancel their credit card after using it on the internet.
I agree with the other methods that have been mentioned, I heard or read about them too.
Even the warning of Primrose was posted in our Free Lotto Forum some time ago.

Nevertheless I stick to my opinion, it's at least one possibility less to become a victim.
It's a pity that all good things on the net are so abused.

 

I use a check card on the internet, I also have online banking so I can check my accounts anytime (pay bills at two in the morning). If I get charged for something I didn't buy, I contact the bank useing a form on their web site. It secure and I use Opera/firefox Never IE. The send me a email saying to call them to give them the details (I think its important to tell them asap that somethings fishy). I call them and give them the details, and they tell me they will refund the money and it will be back in my account in 2 or 3 days. Then the send me a formal report to fill out in about three weeks. I've gotten phishing emails from banks; my former ISP, Paypall to name a few that sound a lot like Primrose's post. Still its could have been a lot worse. When I make a purchase in a store I ask for the carbons BEFORE I hand over my card. then I cutup the carbons into slivers 1/16 to 1/8 inchs. You just have to use common sense, that goes for a credit card too. I am going to put my picture on my credit card for identification.

 

Hi,
Do they still use carbons?
I live in Israel and all cashiers have modem line directly to credit card companies. So it's one swipe of the card, wait 3 sec for telephone and that's it. I think they switched to purely electronic purchases because probably of all the theft involved with carbons.
Mrk

 

Doing fraud prevention for (very) large merchants for a living I deal with both the fraudsters and the victims on a daily basis. We see obvious patterns every day, some are obviously obtained by physical means, others are obtained electronically. The scarry thing is that they often have a lot more detail than just what you use to make purchases with, online or off. BigC is definitely right the reciepts. I know they'll also search recycling centers and other places as well, for dumps made by careless small companies that offer services (tax return places, CPAs, etc etc). There are also those that use camera phones to take pictures of you while you shop at Walmart (or wherever), waiters that buy card readers at Radio Shack, and many many other means. Then, most astoundingly, there are the sloppy phone bankers that don't ask for anything that's not easily available in your wallet, and sometimes worse. It's a good idea to set up a password on your account that nobody can obtain. The full-on identity thieves are extremely scarry in what they can do, and are extremely difficult to stop.

The point isn't to scare anyone, just don't put all your bets on any one thing and figure you're safe. Take the precautions you can and always keep an eye on your account, even if you your finances are well accounted for. The well organized fraudsters are not often making many big purchases anymore, that's obvious and they know it. Anything you think is obvious, they've thought of too.. it's their full time job (just think of how well you know yours after several years). I've seen accounts at work that had typical ordering patterns (spending no more than $20-30 at a time) that go unnoticed for a year, and sometimes never get noticed at all. Fraud rings often have hundreds (or more) stolen card details that they use every day, they don't need to make the big purchases to be profitable. This, of course, depends on the individual fraud rings. Each has their own pattern, and the harder we make it for them, the more clever about it they get.

And yes, if I ever have the displeasure of calling you about a fraudulent transaction, I will never ask for any details, except maybe to verify the last four digits of the credit/debit card number being used (which I will tell you first). At that point I will instruct you to call your financial institution and cancel the card immediatly, and let you know that our investigations department will contact you to let you know the results and discuss refunding the purchase (which is usually dealt with by the bank directly). At no time will anyone ask you to divulge any information.

To lighten things up a bit, though, there are also some extremely stupid fraudsters out there.. my favorite was the lady that was obviously a 30-40 yr old (very) southern black woman who was trying to convince me that she was a 75 yr old Chineese immigrant that has only been in the US for about a year. As you can imagine, those don't go very far Citibank advertising can eat their hearts out (Standard disclaimer applies, there are very stupid fraudsters of every gender and ethnicity, this is just one of many examples.)

Most in the US don't use carbons anymore for swiping your card (except as a backup for when the system goes down), but will have copies of the purchase reciepts that you take home. My state makes it illegal to have the full card number on the reciept, but not every state does, and not every merchant complies.

 

Thanks for the info Notok, most places around here have purely electronic purchases a few places do not. My state also makes it illegal to put full card number on the reciept. It bothers me when I order something over the internet and the company puts my email address on the outside of the package for anybody to see and send me more spam. When I was with Earthlink I got forty to eighty pieces of spam a day. Earthlink uses the spam filtering service brightmail. I started missing important emails, so I shut off earthlinks spamfilters, I got Mail washer. Then I switched from Earthlink to RoadRunner. My spam droped to zero. My Earthlink email address was obtained from Eartlink or one of their associates and now RoadRunner has it's own email filters.

 

I'm still confused about this situation. The $6300 never has shown up in my VISA account.

 

WilliamP: My guess would be that it was a merchant of some sort that recieved an order in your name that became obvious that it wasn't you. To be on the safe side, you may want to get a copy of your credit report. This is also something that I neglected to put in my last post that should be done periodically. If you're worried, you can call the credit reporting agencies (Experian, Equifax, et all) and have them put an alert on your report that says any applications for credit need to be verified with you at your home phone number first.

 

I don't used any credit card, just cash, cash cash. If you don't the money to buy, then wait til you have enought to buy it!!!! Less headache down the road.

 

I know Capitol One (visa) watches the cards like a hawk.

Before we left for Cozumel, I contacted them and told them I was going to cozumel and wanted to make sure it would work. After being there for a few days I used it and it was declined. I called Capitol One and they said "We see on your account that you said you were going out of the country, but we wanted to make sure it was actually you calling"

And then they let the charges through.

Irritating, but I'd rather be irritated than bankrupt

 

I am considering paying Equifax 99 per year for Credit Watch Gold.

 

Sounds like enforcement is not being done agressively. I wonder who is supposed to enforce these kind of laws. I don't mean to sound negative, but I'll bet who ever I would contact would tell me I should be talking to some other administrative body. The first guy got it right. Who do you call? Do you stop out of wallmart and call the police that they use your full account number?


- HandsOff

 

Read about this on another forum.

http://www.simon.com/giftcard/

I've done zero research, but did read a thread where people were raving about this option, and they use it for all online transactions. I know with Simon malls, the minimum amount you must put on a card is only $20; the fee if bought in person is $1.50 per card (I think it's a flat fee, regardless if you put $20 or $500 on it). A little higher if bought online.

Here's another page, the info they need for the card

http://www.simon.com/giftcard/order_build.aspx

OK, just filled out for a bogus card - I don't have the time to do screenshots, but the info I had to fill in was a street address for them to ship to and a phone number. Now, if you can get one in person, no need to give out any information.

I asked for a $250 gift card, my total with shipping was $255 and change. Add more if you want it overnight. Deduct a little if you buy in person.

Read the terms and conditions page - only big thing there was that some places add 20% to cover a tip or gratuity you may want to give; typical SOP for most restaurants. If you leave less, it's then freed up on your card.

The other terms page says they start deducting $2.50 a month once the card is 7months old.

Anyhoo, my point is if you use this card online and someone steals the related info: they maybe can steal whatever the balance is. However, if you only have $50 on the card, that's the max they can get. Beyond that (and most importantly), they can access the name on the card, but no other personal or financial information.

Once I do a little more research, I plan to start using these. I usually charge small amounts online, so I'd get a few cards with smaller balances. I'm just not sure if/how these would work with places like eBay (I sell there, they charge the fees to my card) and Paypal, or wherever you would need to register your card and make a monthly payment. Seems to me that this would maybe be a good option for ALL one time online purchases (my favorite kind!).

Like I said, I cannot personally vouch for such cards (I've nicknamed them phony Visas); I did read just enough of a thread that I'm pretty fired up to give the process a try, though!