Credit Card Fraud

DuckCreekFarms · February 19, 2009

Well....I 've been on the phone the last few hours trying to get a fraud charge taken care of. Had to cancel my card and get a new number. The fraud charge (Someone by the name of moretalent) went though Paypal so they are investigating it..... It's my first and I am a bit shaken to say the least....I just happen to catch it today when i went to my credit card account on line and saw it happened yesterday...I have been using my card frequently on line buying tomato seeds. That's all I have been using it for...... so someones web site is not as secure as they should be. Be Careful!!!

gary

mresseguie · February 19, 2009

Gary,

Good thing you caught it so early! Could you post later once you know more on this? I just ordered seeds from a seed company in CA that I have used before. I trust them to be careful, but I'll keep tabs every few days now that I know of your plight.

Thanks for the heads-up!

Michael

**mdvpc** · February 19, 2009

duck-same thing happened to me-just today. they canceled my card and are sending out another.

DuckCreekFarms · February 19, 2009

Pay pal is supposed to investigate and get back to me within the next 10 days, I will know more then.....

kygreg · February 19, 2009

I wonder if duck and mdvpc have ordered from a common site?

**nctomatoman** · February 19, 2009

Paypal scams can also come out of the blue - a few months ago a Paypal charge showed up for something I did not order from a company I did not know....they refunded my money and did an investigation - turns out some company was indeed using Paypal accounts to get money.

We had our checking account identity stolen some years ago....long story -

but these incidences are not fun at all...

stormymater · February 19, 2009

"moretalent" - hmmmph. Hope it runs into someone with mo' talent still. I will be watching closely. It would be great to catch the so-in-so by their pattern of hit ' running Tomatovillians! Not that I want anyone to have to go through the PIA of dealing with fraudlent credit card charges. How much $$$ did they attempt to steal?

rnewste · February 19, 2009

Same thing happened to us 10 days ago. VISA called us noticing a bunch on $1.00 charges for someone downloading Apple I-Tunes. VISA said they were just trying to "confirm" the $1.00 purchases before they tried to transact a much bigger charge.

Remember about a month ago, some credit card clearing Company in New Jersey had a security breach and millions of cardholders information was stolen? Guess some of us were in that infamous group!

Had to get the new cards, then call AOL, Dish, Verizon, and others where I do direct billing to give them the new card number. One thing I am going to do is use a second "standby" credit card to use at unknown sites when ordering, so my main card with all the direct bill accounts will be somewhat better protected. Suggest you guys think about doing the same.

Ray

DuckCreekFarms · February 19, 2009

They only charged $247.00. I asked the Credit card assistant if that was unusual, but she said they would probably try more next time!........They had also set up an email with paypal that sounded a lot like my name. I'm glad i caught it. But I have a habit of going to my credit card on line every two or three days, just to check up.......

**carolyn137** · February 19, 2009

Better late than never but I will never use paypal for anything on the net.

If I can't phone directly and talk to a real person and charge with a credit card that way I won't even look at a website.

Do any of you remember a few years back whenJohnny's had security problems?. I wasn't affected but a lot of folks were and now they no longer store your complete credit card number on their server. This was not associated with Pay Pal, which they don't accept

And I know Marianne Jones at mariseeds, who does accept Pay Pal, had problems with Pay Pal itself several years ago.

No phone contact number and I don't buy. Period.

rnewste · February 19, 2009

Another Tip: NEVER respond to a PayPal email that starts out "You need to update your account information". While the PayPal logo looks authentic, it is a phishing scam to try to get your private account information.

Ray

sirtanon · February 20, 2009

I had someone in Europe charge (3) separate seats on Pakistan Airlines on my card using Orbitz.. and to make matters worse, Orbitz initially made it VERY difficult to get the reservations canceled (and consequently refunded).

Ultimately, I kept pressing on and demanded the direct number to their fraud department which ultimately got me fast response.

I was lucky - The charges were still 'pending.' Had I not taken my daughter to Walmart that day to get some clothing, and had the card declined, I would not have known until the charges had actually gone through, at which point I would have had a much harder time getting them refunded.

**nctomatoman** · February 20, 2009

It isn't only Paypal that send those authentic looking phishing emails....there are ebay scams going as well. I read or heard somewhere that you should never respond to any email requests to update accounts - it should be phone contact.

dice · February 20, 2009

What I do with PayPal is leave an expired card in the account
as the default to charge to. When I actually need to make a
payment through PayPal (like for an eBay purchase), I log in to
PayPal and add a card that is actually valid, make that the
default, make my payment from PayPal, then delete the valid
card again, and leave the expired card number as the default
and only means of payment registered with PayPal. PayPal
will refuse to make any payments from that account with an
expired credit card number as security for the payment.

Wi-sunflower · February 20, 2009

My web site uses Google Checkout to process credit card payments. I'm just a fairly small seller and don't do enough business to justify a "merchant account". The fees would sink me.

Anyway, Google processes the card and I don't even see any info at all and Google is responsible for keeping that stuff safe. Makes it a whole lot easier for me as I don't have to worry about safekeeping any of that stuff.

People can call me and talk, but I can't process a card payment over the phone. And frankly I don't want to know your card number. No way for someone to blame ME if I never know it.

Carol

February 19, 2009	#1
DuckCreekFarms Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Mounds, Oklahoma Posts: 257	Credit Card Fraud Well....I 've been on the phone the last few hours trying to get a fraud charge taken care of. Had to cancel my card and get a new number. The fraud charge (Someone by the name of moretalent) went though Paypal so they are investigating it..... It's my first and I am a bit shaken to say the least....I just happen to catch it today when i went to my credit card account on line and saw it happened yesterday...I have been using my card frequently on line buying tomato seeds. That's all I have been using it for...... so someones web site is not as secure as they should be. Be Careful!!! gary

February 19, 2009	#2
mresseguie Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Oregon Posts: 159	Gary, Good thing you caught it so early! Could you post later once you know more on this? I just ordered seeds from a seed company in CA that I have used before. I trust them to be careful, but I'll keep tabs every few days now that I know of your plight. Thanks for the heads-up! Michael __________________ Learning to speak tomato! Got compost?

February 19, 2009	#3
mdvpc Tomatoville® Moderator Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: San Antonio, Texas Posts: 4,386	duck-same thing happened to me-just today. they canceled my card and are sending out another. __________________ Michael

February 19, 2009	#6
nctomatoman Tomatoville® Moderator Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Hendersonville, NC zone 7 Posts: 10,385	Paypal scams can also come out of the blue - a few months ago a Paypal charge showed up for something I did not order from a company I did not know....they refunded my money and did an investigation - turns out some company was indeed using Paypal accounts to get money. We had our checking account identity stolen some years ago....long story - but these incidences are not fun at all... __________________ Craig

February 19, 2009	#10
carolyn137 Moderator Emeritus Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Upstate NY, zone 4b/5a Posts: 21,169	Better late than never but I will never use paypal for anything on the net. If I can't phone directly and talk to a real person and charge with a credit card that way I won't even look at a website. Do any of you remember a few years back whenJohnny's had security problems?. I wasn't affected but a lot of folks were and now they no longer store your complete credit card number on their server. This was not associated with Pay Pal, which they don't accept And I know Marianne Jones at mariseeds, who does accept Pay Pal, had problems with Pay Pal itself several years ago. No phone contact number and I don't buy. Period. __________________ Carolyn

February 19, 2009	#5
kygreg Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: kentucky Posts: 1,019	I wonder if duck and mdvpc have ordered from a common site?

February 19, 2009	#7
stormymater Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Pleasure Island, NC 8a Posts: 1,162	"moretalent" - hmmmph. Hope it runs into someone with mo' talent still. I will be watching closely. It would be great to catch the so-in-so by their pattern of hit ' running Tomatovillians! Not that I want anyone to have to go through the PIA of dealing with fraudlent credit card charges. How much $$$ did they attempt to steal?

February 19, 2009	#8
rnewste Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Campbell, CA Posts: 4,064	Same thing happened to us 10 days ago. VISA called us noticing a bunch on $1.00 charges for someone downloading Apple I-Tunes. VISA said they were just trying to "confirm" the $1.00 purchases before they tried to transact a much bigger charge. Remember about a month ago, some credit card clearing Company in New Jersey had a security breach and millions of cardholders information was stolen? Guess some of us were in that infamous group! Had to get the new cards, then call AOL, Dish, Verizon, and others where I do direct billing to give them the new card number. One thing I am going to do is use a second "standby" credit card to use at unknown sites when ordering, so my main card with all the direct bill accounts will be somewhat better protected. Suggest you guys think about doing the same. Ray

February 20, 2009	#12
sirtanon Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Phoenix, AZ (zone 9b) Posts: 796	I had someone in Europe charge (3) separate seats on Pakistan Airlines on my card using Orbitz.. and to make matters worse, Orbitz initially made it VERY difficult to get the reservations canceled (and consequently refunded). Ultimately, I kept pressing on and demanded the direct number to their fraud department which ultimately got me fast response. I was lucky - The charges were still 'pending.' Had I not taken my daughter to Walmart that day to get some clothing, and had the card declined, I would not have known until the charges had actually gone through, at which point I would have had a much harder time getting them refunded. __________________ I could sail by on the winds of silence, and maybe they won't notice... but this time I think it would be better if I swim..

February 20, 2009	#14
dice Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: PNW Posts: 4,743	What I do with PayPal is leave an expired card in the account as the default to charge to. When I actually need to make a payment through PayPal (like for an eBay purchase), I log in to PayPal and add a card that is actually valid, make that the default, make my payment from PayPal, then delete the valid card again, and leave the expired card number as the default and only means of payment registered with PayPal. PayPal will refuse to make any payments from that account with an expired credit card number as security for the payment. __________________ -- alias

February 20, 2009	#15
Wi-sunflower Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Wisconsin Posts: 2,591	My web site uses Google Checkout to process credit card payments. I'm just a fairly small seller and don't do enough business to justify a "merchant account". The fees would sink me. Anyway, Google processes the card and I don't even see any info at all and Google is responsible for keeping that stuff safe. Makes it a whole lot easier for me as I don't have to worry about safekeeping any of that stuff. People can call me and talk, but I can't process a card payment over the phone. And frankly I don't want to know your card number. No way for someone to blame ME if I never know it. Carol