Posts Tagged ‘credit card fraud’
Just Behave
It’s been a lot of days in a row with temperatures above freezing. I’ve lost count at this point, but there has been enough melting that the labyrinth is now half uncovered.
The melting also finally exposed the dead raccoon that Asher buried in the snow down by the road long ago. Cyndie has been wanting to get rid of it, but was mistaken about its location and couldn’t find it when she brought me down there with a shovel a few weeks back, as things first started to melt.
It’s all bagged up now. When Asher originally caught the raccoon, Cyndie wondered why the critter was out during the middle of the day. I’m wondering why no other roaming predators had taken interest in the carcass when it started to be exposed by the melt. Maybe it was sick, and that’s why nothing was messing with it.
When I walked Asher past that spot with the telltale striped hide peeking through the snow earlier in the day, he was very good about obeying my “LEAVE IT!” command.
He was also very good when we made our way down there again in the high heat of the afternoon and happened upon a neighbor walking her two dogs along the road. We have no confidence about whether Asher will react aggressively with unknown dogs or not, so we do our best to avoid coming into contact with them.
I was able to have a brief long-distance conversation on the subject with the neighbor, Heather. She politely checked to see if Asher would be okay with her dogs, and I was able to express that we just don’t know for sure. Happily, the dogs all behaved while coming within maybe 10-15 feet of each other, and followed commands to focus/refocus on each of their owners every time we asked.
It was comforting that the mere sight of the dogs didn’t send Asher into a tizzy. Heather understood that Asher might be protective of his property and possibly of me, as well. It was the second close encounter in two days with them without incident, so there’s hope it could become a non-issue in time.
Speaking of protection, we are happy that the Visa credit card company contacted Cyndie yesterday by both a phone message and a text with a fraud alert of $8759.00. Always wary of phishing scams, she responded by calling the phone number on the back of her card.
Sure enough, it was a fraudulent transaction. Cyndie had just used her card earlier in the day at a restaurant in Woodbury for lunch. She called the manager to alert them of the unauthorized transaction, in case there was any connection. She had been seated at the bar, so they didn’t even have a server other than the bartender.
The manager was very helpful and looked up her receipt, offered to review the surveillance video, and volunteered to cooperate with any police investigation. Adding intrigue, the $8759 was charged to a cookware supply company. Hmm.
Cyndie chose to contact the Woodbury police by email with all the details. More information will be provided as it becomes available.
It’s kind of sad when dogs behave better than people do.
.
.
First Flowers
That didn’t take long. A day after the new green of freshly sprouting leaves appeared on the raspberry bushes, the first flowers of the season blossomed on the forest floor.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
I don’t actually know what kind of flowers they are. Searching flower images brought me to Wood Anemone as a close possibility, yet I never found results that definitively matched ours.
Cyndie is home again this morning. She arrived to a stack of packages and mail that arrived while she was away. Her rummaging around last night after midnight woke me up. Those packages? She whispered that she hadn’t ordered any of them.
A week earlier, while she was in Florida with her parents, she received notice from her credit card company, checking on purchases. Cyndie still had possession of her card, but hadn’t used it while in Florida. The fraudulent purchases were being made over the internet. So, how does credit card fraud work when you order online? Couldn’t authorities just check where the packages are sent?
Well, not in this case. The fraudster had the items sent to our address.
Huh?
The last place Cyndie had used the card was at the airport parking lot. Getting out again was a trick, because she had canceled the card earlier in the week, as soon as they notified her of the unauthorized purchases. How do you get your car out of the ramp a week later?
Apparently they have a plan for that. Must happen often enough. There is a button you can push for help. The voice told Cyndie that, since she still had possession of the card, she could swipe it to get the amount owed, and then use a second card to pay.
What is making much less sense to us is, the credit card company’s response about our receiving the packages from the fraudulent purchases. An agent told Cyndie, “This happens all the time” in reference to purchasing goods and having them sent to the card holder address. I’m guessing she misunderstood what Cyndie was asking.
I know fraud happens all the time. I don’t see why thieves would frequently order goods they don’t receive.
Cyndie was told she needed to return the items, or would be charged, but the agent didn’t have a good answer about how we get the return shipping paid for by someone other than us. At this point, even the conversation with the VISA agent was sounding shady.
Cyndie had immediately reported the activity as fraud and canceled the card. Seems to me that nothing after that point should be her responsibility.
I suppose the whole charade could simply be a way to prank someone. Three identical, extra-large hoodie sweatshirts. Makeup. Perfume. Shoes. A dress.
We’re not laughing.
.
.
Added Detail
A few days ago I wrote about the attempted fraud using my Wintervale credit card number, and how the bank had neglected to notify me. At the time I wrote that, I didn’t have all the facts. Well, I may have had some of them. I just forgot a pertinent detail.
Cyndie pointed out that she thought the bank did contact us, by way of her phone. She remembered it because she thought it weird at the time, that they called her to question use of my card.
She was visiting her parents in Florida when the call came, so she contacted me while I was at the day-job, a little confused over the details of the banks concern. She gave me a number to call, along with a case number for reference.
Given this additional detail, my fuzzy memory began to recollect snippets of the occasion. The fragments I dredged up led me to paint the picture thusly: I called and talked over the situation.
I do remember the feeling that nothing was amiss and my account was fine, which is probably why shortly after it happened, I forgot the call had even occurred.
Looking back now, it makes total sense that the problem I confirmed recently is related to that odd call in January.
Obviously, nothing was amiss with my account, except that my card wouldn’t work if I tried to use it. No transactions were ever approved, so I never saw anything suspicious on my monthly statements. Cyndie’s card continued to work just fine, and we carried on blissfully ignorant.
Yesterday, I received an email from an online forestry products retailer with this title: “Notice of Data Breach.”
Following an extensive eight week forensic examination, we have recently learned that the cyber attacks actually first occurred in December 2011. The forensic examination shows that beginning in December 2011, a person or persons without authorization accessed and possibly stole credit card information from our website belonging to our customers. The thief or thieves accessed our website remotely and overcame our firewall and security protections.
I did make a purchase at this site. This is where we bought our Swedish log splitter and a device that holds long branches for cutting logs with a chainsaw.
Their message went on to describe “…types of information stolen appears to include credit card numbers, cardholder names, CCV numbers, credit card expiration dates, addresses and phone numbers, email addresses, log- in and password” to their site.
Well, apparently they didn’t get my CCV number! That is why the multiple attempts didn’t go through, according to the person I spoke with at my bank.
I find it interesting that I was so quick to discount that anything was wrong back when I made the call in January to see why they were contacting us about our account. My Spidey sense™ was not tingling.
Maybe I wasn’t properly honed in on “the moment.”
Ya think?
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Too Common
This time of year we start to see the bountiful harvest of flies blooming around our manure factory, and it triggered our first order of the year from our online source for fly control supplies. I provided the card number for our Wintervale account that I used last year and the order was entered.
A week later I received an email and phone calls indicating that my card number wasn’t working. After checking that they had all the correct information, we decided the problem may be with our bank.
Last night I called our bank and learned my card had been placed on alarm status for possible fraud activity. The representative for my bank spoke so matter of factly about the situation that it occurred to me, this was normal activity from her perspective.
I was aghast! What!? When!?
Since I have been back at work for almost a year, I haven’t had much need to use the Wintervale account. I had been unaware of the unauthorized attempts to make expensive purchases in San Francisco in January. When the culprit wasn’t able to produce the correct code from the back of the card after multiple attempts, my bank was alert enough to suspend the card.
I’m not quite sure why they didn’t see a need to contact me about the situation.
Several more attempts were made at different locations for lesser amounts, continuing into February, all failures.
The only way I found out about it was that I finally attempted to use the card myself, and had to call to find out why it didn’t work anymore.
I guess credit card fraud is so common, the banks don’t even get riled up about it anymore. At least they are swift about disallowing questionable requests.
Maybe, since they don’t bother letting the card holder know about the situation, I should call them every month to ask if anyone other than me has tried to use my card. Especially if fraud is so common it is expected.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Relative Something 