Among Friends

[BalletBabe]

Well let me start by telling you that my debit card was hacked this past week.  Luckily only one charge got through.  I thought I would share what happened to me, just to make you all aware of these hackers. 

I was doing a price check for a ladder.  Everyone wanted close to $200.00 for it, except this one place that only wanted 73.00 for it. first alarm.  I clicked on the site---Big mistake.  I could see no shipping information or nothing.   I started entering my debit card number to see what the final price would be.  Suddenly I was knocked off the page.  Never finished putting my numbers in.  

I suddenly knew that something happened and it wasn't good, so the first thing I did was check my account.   I had bought a ladder for 98.99 with a 2.00 charge to process the order. 

First thing I did was change all passwords on everything.  Thank God I did,  because by Sunday they tried to send me a second ladder. 

They had no email address, and their phone number was 12345678.  I went back to the site and sent them a nasty note of course with no response, closed down my debit card also. I copied everything---their website , my letter to them etc.  I reported them to the fraud dept also.

What I have found out:

They are from Shanghi, they hacked a wesite, that when you click on that website it routes you to them. Make sure you are dealing with a legitimate company when purchasing anything.   Don't use your debit, use a credit card , unless it is some company that you trust.   

Change your passwords at least once a month on your email. as well as any bank accounts you have used.  Make sure the site is safe either by having a lock up at the address bar or a s after the http.    I was shocked when I was told what happened.  The bank will give me my money back, but it taught me a lesson.   I refuse to buy anything again with a site that I am not familiar with.  The holidays are bad for getting hacked.  Be careful everyone!!!

[GCR18]

It is a good reminder.  

[MarkeieMark]

ITA a very good reminder.  I forget the holidays bring this out also.

[Kachina624]

@BalletBabe.  Thanks for sharing your experience.  I had a close call a couple years ago with a company that turned out to be in Hong Kong, buying some shoes.  Fortunately, I used PayPal to pay for the purchase and they got my money back for me.  Now I always use it on any foreign or otherwise shaky transaction.

[MJDinVegas]

Thanks, @BalletBabe, for posting your experience.  It’s frightening how much ahead of the technology the bad guys seem to be.  Your advice is sound and I thank you!

[dooBdoo]

            Thanks for taking the time and effort to share your experience, @BalletBabe.   I'm sorry that happened to you.   It's very thoughtful to let others know and it says a lot about you that you wanted to help make us all safer.

            It's always a good idea to check and double-check the trustworthiness of a website before using it, and the extra time to do so is much less trouble than having to fix problems after the fact.

            I want to add another caution:  When browsing the internet, reading articles, even using social media and you see ads for products, services, or websites...   if you're interested in the info in the ad do not click on the ad itself.   Go back to the browser and find the official listing for the website, and then enter it that way.    Some of those "sidebar" or popup ads are not secure nor are the links they use, and in some cases they're counterfeit copies of reputable sites.   

[January121]

Just curious ... you mentioned that you started entering your debit card numbers in but, never finished & got knocked off ... if so, how did they get the rest of your information?

[haddon9]

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@January121 wrote:

Just curious ... you mentioned that you started entering your debit card numbers in but, never finished & got knocked off ... if so, how did they get the rest of your information?

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Curious about that too.

[SunValley]

@dooBdoo@BalletBabe Thank you both for posting. I am to the point of not clicking on any Facebook ads or “quizzes.” They are too vulnerable to hackers and crooks; I have tight privacy on my account and have never filled out the “about me” information categories. I stopped using my debit card for online purchases at least 5 years ago.

I also immediately unsubscribe from any shopping marketing email list if it is a one-off purchase and my order has arrived. I was shocked to see that a recent email from a company that I bought some socks from at least 6 years ago actually used a group email, and I could see dozens of customers’ personal email addresses including mine. I contacted them immediately to remove me from their records. 

The frustrating part is that the only security problem I’ve experienced was from the Experian hack, and I have never signed up for an account with them. The take away for me is that the genie is out of the bottle (i.e., dozens of financial, legal, government, and health care agencies have sensitive information posted on their servers that are beyond my control) and that seemingly harmless activity done today is the source for hackers tomorrow. 

[LTT1]

@BalletBabe@dooBdoo

Thank you so much for the reminder and the information! ✅