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My CC was stolen and I don't understand the motivation.

hargle

Veteran Member
Joined
Nov 30, 2007
Messages
1,397
Location
minneapolis, MN
On Sunday I was checking my bank account online, and noticed a ~$10 charge that posted the day before that I didn't remember purchasing.
I may be getting senile and have had a few bouts of drunken ebaying, but this one was definitely outside my brain.

I contacted the merchant, and they dug up the details. The name, ship-to and billing address were mine. The email address used was definitely not mine. It also seems the domain used is not actually registered, so the email would have bounced. The merchant even provided an IP address too- it was definitely not me.

I figured the IP address would not be in this country, but it was actually someone local to me in another suburb- maybe 15 miles away.

I'm aware that the new CC fraud trend is to do small amounts so the victim doesn't realize it, and keeping it local makes it both harder to dispute and harder for the CC company to detect, but this just leads to more questions:

1) Is this person going to troll my house now and wait for UPS to drop off the package and steal it off my doorstep? Seems like a lot of work/risk for a $10 reward.
2) Was this just a test purchase to see if my CC was still active, and the next purchase was going to be a bigger hit?
3) Was the plan to contact the merchant and cancel the order and refund it to a different card? (can they do that?)

Obviously I've closed that CC down and am monitoring any other activity, and I'm thankful that I found this in the early stages, but it just seems so weird for someone to order an actual product instead of something virtual they could have gotten instantly. Obviously not a criminal mastermind I'm dealing with here.
 
Perhaps it's just one of your friends, who wanted to buy you a present, but they didn't have any money so they swept your cc :)
 
It happened to me a few years ago. Chase caught about $260 worth of video games, PC parts, and even a rainbow (close) lizard from Australia. Visa security cancelled my card on the spot and issue a new one. They had me go to the bank and verify the bogus purchases and then refurbished my checking account. I was told that they have full time investigative people and that eventually, they would nab the culprits.
 
If it wasn't obvious in my 1st post that the thing this person ordered was an actual item that needed to be shipped, which leads me to question #4:
Why would they purchase something that needed to be shipped? Itunes, an ebook, a porn site, something like that would have provided an instant reward.

I have not made my local law enforcement agency aware of this. I somehow don't think a <$10 fraud case is going to warrant much investigation.
 
I would bet it's #2. They make a small purchase to see if you notice, then follow up with something more significant once they're sure you're not paying attention.
 
I would agree with #3, but all are viable options, even your number 4. The shipping address could be for them to have a physical address to go with the card, which in turn, could lead to full on ID theft. I would be very watchful over the next few weeks, have your cc company do their thing if they have not already, contact your bank too, so they can properly secure your bank account. If law enforcement doesn't know, let them know, and even more importantly, you need to let the credit reporting agencies know so things can be properly disputed, if at all. Let EVERYONE know. ID theft isn't exactly something pretty, and cc theft is a start.
 
It's #2. It's pretty much standard procedure among CC scammers. They're not interested in what the item is, and won't be hanging around to collect it. It was just some small random item they bought to test if the card details they got were valid or not.
 
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