Some bugger stole my identity...

[octatonic]

Got a call from my bank this morning.
Someone added my visa card into their paypal account and made charges against it.
It is the one card I have that isn't linked to my own paypal account.

I have cancelled the cards and disputing the charge, of course.
But I have no idea how it happened.
Any of the times I have used it, someone could have written down the numbers and then added it to their account.

Paypal, of course, won't give me any information about it (because although it is my card, it isn't linked to my account, so data protection gets in the way).

Goes to show that this shit DOES, in fact, happen.
I think I am going to go back to using cash as much as possible.
I am very lucky that it was caught and that it is a relatively small amount of cash.
Co-incidentally I sold a car yesterday and put $10k in the bank account.
I shudder to think what might have happened if more charges had of appeared and I had to dispute more than I currently have to.

[Vandergraf]

I had a call from a electronics company verifying my order for $5000.00 worth of high end audio gear. Too bad I didn't order it. Turned out to be some guy in Nigeria with some software that generates credit card numbers and mine came up. One in a million. He didn't have the rest of the info right though so fortunately that flagged it.

A year later I get another call to verify an order for a nice computer setup, around $4000 . They had all the info right, but were having it shipped over seas, so the company called to verify, which means they even gave my real phone number hoping they wouldn't call.

I think my info got snatched from someone at one of the companies I do business with.

Lotta scammers out there!

[PlugHead]

Wow,

Always hear of it happening, just never think it could ever happen to me. Till it did. Someone copped ours and ran up an online gambling debt. Luckily the CC company flagged it, and we had to get new cards etc.

Good luck sorting this out - be prepared for a bit of inconvenience tho...

[joelpatterson]

I got one big question.

Say I walk into a bank, and I say, "My name is John Smith, I live at 1 Maple Street and I'm robbing your bank."

Doubtful the police would treat it like an open and shut case. And yet when someone fraudulently duplicates John Smith's credit information and applies for a credit card transaction, suddenly it really is John Smith's problem.

And the conclusion I come to... is that the legalities of the status quo are lock, stock, barrel, corral, ranch and grazing lands tilted towards the credit companies (and criminals) and severly tilted away from normal law-abiding people.

Say it ain't so.

[dementedchord]

my bank account got hacked about a month ago... such a pain in the ass... closing /reopening arguing with creditors... but in the end bank of america came through for me and it went away pretty fast when they got involved... never thought i'ld do a commercial for them...

[picksail]

Happened to me a few years ago. Really frustrating.

She Males.com

[Popbott]

That really bites Jim. Sorry to hear about your situation. Looks like someone found your credit card number. Like you said, it could have happened anywhere you used your card. Geeperz, I get nervous about using my credit card at the video game store, you know, when they imprint the card on that credit machine?

A while back, my buddy's emergency unused bank account was being charged for months until he got a message it was bouncing checks. Appearantly a record/song promoter he had hired some months back was paying her cable and electric bill with his account for months. He plans to prosecute. It takes all kinds.

But what are you supposed to do? Not go and buy Starbucks with your credit card? Ebay with a money order and not Paypal? There goes my whole studio.

[roxxon]

PayPal: BLOWS DEAD GOATS!

Your creditcard company offers real protection against fraud, PayPal is worthless!