Community Chat

[San Antonio Gal]

Sorry that happened to you @JeanLouiseFinch .  It's happened to me before too.  PIA for sure.

When it happened to hubby with his debit card, he ended up canceling his debit and just uses credit cards only.  It's scary when your checking account is involved.  He got the money back from the bank, but still.

[Estellee]

There are some clever theives out there. Doesn't matter how diligent we are they seem to find a way.

[San Antonio Gal]

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@CalminHeart wrote:

Wow, what a pain. I feel for you.

I investigated fraud for 20 years. There is no way I'll buy through any social media. Too many scammers. I shop only from known reputable companies. That doesn't mean the are scam-free but it's less likely. 

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@CalminHeart  -  It happens just as much at "known reputable companies".    Probably more so because everyone shops at those places.  

[Boehm Collector]

My husband's credit card used to get hacked frequently.   It was a real hassle because he would have to cancel his card and wait for a new one to arrive.    He noticed that it frequently happened after he got gas for hit car.   Now he pays cash for gas and has not had a problem since.   

[Estellee]

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@San Antonio Gal wrote:

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@CalminHeart wrote:

Wow, what a pain. I feel for you.

I investigated fraud for 20 years. There is no way I'll buy through any social media. Too many scammers. I shop only from known reputable companies. That doesn't mean the are scam-free but it's less likely. 

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It happens just as much at "known reputable companies".    Probably more so because everyone shops at those places.  

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@San Antonio Gal Yes, that is so true. Even reputable companies and we are still hacked.

[gardenman]

@JeanLouiseFinch.  Your fraudulent charges didn't necessarily come from Facebook ads.  I had that happen long before I ever used social media.  This $1.00 charges are a trial to see if the card works.  They preceed bigger charges.

Yeah. There are organized groups/gangs that travel the country playing this game. One of their members will get a job at a small retailer, and whenever the store is quiet, they'll enter numbers into the billing system with $1 charge (sometimes one cent) to see if they get a hit. When they find an active number, they'll then copy it down and put it where others in their group can find it and access it to drain your account. 

It's a game to avoid prosecution. I had it happen to me over twenty years ago. A small record shop in Miami posted a one-cent charge. It went through, and my bank account was drained later that day. I talked with the Miami detectives and prosecutors who were investigating the issue, and they'd tracked the group all the way back to California. They'd then moved into Arizona, Texas, Louisiana, and had already left Miami and were now in Atlanta.

One will get a job with access to a billing system. Find an active CC number, write it down, and then put it in a "public" area in their communal apartment/rented house. Others in the group will then use that number to drain the account. The detectives were very frustrated as the only thing they could directly tie to a person was the theft of the initial penny, and the prosecutors refused to prosecute for the theft of a penny, even though it led directly to more theft. "Judges would laugh us out of the courtroom for bringing a charge for the theft of a penny." The initial offender who steals the penny/dollar will tell detectives they just collect the numbers as a hobby and never intend to use them. They can't help what others in their group do.

It's a game that gets played a lot. There's not a lot you can do to prevent it. I had a long chat with Visa about the stupidity of accepting a one-cent charge, but they insisted they had no choice. It's a pain. Those groups pull in tens of thousands of dollars a month, and there's not a lot you can do to stop them. They move from city to city and keep doing the same thing.