Internet Fraud..we have been a victim!

20 Oct 2004

This morning I got an email from ebay saying that a new account had been set up with my credit card details, did I know about it? Those of you who have dealings with ebay know that they can be quite erratic with things and emails from them arrive eventually rather than soon. Anyway I thought nothing of it and just mumbled something about ebay being 'bloody slow again, as usual' or words to that effect smile

. That was about this morning that I found the email, it had been sent to me at Anyway, at 10am this morning I got a phonecall at work from the bank, special investigations department no less! Conversation went along the lines of 'We are ringing to inform you that last night rather a lot of money was spent from your account. Do you do a lot of betting on the internet?' No, none at all was my reply, why? 'Well, we have to inform you that someone decided to spend Â£3000 of your money in an hour and half on an internet betting site'. :shock: OMG! So apparently someone in America, they think, has got hold of my debit card details and gone on a spending spree of $1000 transactions, and topped up this betting site and also opened an account on ebay with my debit card details, all in all doing eight transactions. The good news is that the bank believes we haven't done the transactions, as looking back on what we normally spend they can see that we don't bet and are crediting our account back with everything. The bad news is that our account is now on hold for a few days, we can't use the debit cards or draw money or anything without going into the branch to do it and getting authorisation from head office. So we feel like criminals and can't get to or spend our own money while the real criminal is getting away with it because they can't trace who it is. The online betting shop will be getting looked into for accepting an account and not doing proper credit checks and allowing all the deposits, but the police won't be getting involved as apparently the fraud has to be over Â£5000, and it will be virtually impossible to track the criminal down. I must say though that I am very impressed with the bank, as the last transaction was at 2am when the card was finally not accepted anymore and they got in touch with me at 10am when they discovered what had happened. So please be very careful when shopping or whatever online. At the moment I keep going from feeling very angry that someone has invaded my privacy and ultimately I am paying for it by not being able to access my own bank account, and also feeling like a criminal myself.
ccr xxx

20 Oct 2004

How awful .. have heard a lot of this unfortunately re ebay sad

Hope it gets sorted quickly for you kiss

Calista xx

20 Oct 2004

CCR, did you have an eBay acct at all? Do you know where the thieves got your details from?

20 Oct 2004

Yep, I do have an ebay account. The bank told me that the debit card details that have been used is an old one but is still in date, you know when the expiry date is coming up, well my new card started in 09/04 and the old card finished in 10/04 and it is the old card number that has been used. The old card is still in my desk drawer, and the new card has been updated on ebay so the person must have had the details for a while before being used as I have used the new card for about 4 weeks now, does that make any sense! confused

:shock: I sent an email to ebay asking a few questions and obviously wanting answers and all they have done is sent back an automated reply rolleyes

. It's either coincidence that the person has opened an ebay account with my details or they genuinely, somehow, got my details from ebay, I dunno, I don't really know what to think.

20 Oct 2004

Sorry you had to go through this as well, a year or so ago I got a call that my details had been misused. Apparently a local pizza delivery driver had been keeping copies of card details when people wrote cheques, then buying stuff online with them...
Only way to be safe, keep an eye on your account and report anything suspicious quick. Good to see bank were on the ball this time though for you.

20 Oct 2004

Which bank was it ccr? Tell us the name of the good guys as we are all so quick to name and shame the bad ones.

20 Oct 2004

Over the last few weeks, I have had several emails, claiming to be from ebay and asking me to verify or update my account details, and confirm credit card details also.
These have all been spoof emails which I have reported to ebay for them to act upon.
However, from the replies I have had, it seems that a large number of people think these emails are from ebay and thus they follow the link and confirm the credit card details etc.
This is a known scam and is how details are harvested from accounts. There is no way details would be leaked from ebay themselves.
So if perhaps you have done just this and "updated" your account, that is how your card details have been gained by a third party.
I knew the email was a spoof the minute I read it anyway because I don't have a credit card registered with ebay, so it wouldn't need "updating" evil

I hope you manage to sort things out with your bank.
Tracy-Jayne

20 Oct 2004

Yep, Tallnhairy, the bank were really on top of this one, I'm really impressed with that. Unfortunately it's our first time dealing with this, and you get the shock and everything, but to the banks it's just another day at work it's that common now isn't it sad

20 Oct 2004

Vix, the bank is Nationwide, been with em for about 20 years now and never had any trouble from them. biggrin

Redhot, no I didn't do this even though I have had one of these emails before, I had already heard that they were a scam but they do look very convincing I must say! :shock:

20 Oct 2004

I use Ebay a lot, my ebay 'account' doesnt contain any credit card details, where as i use Paypal for any purchases and sales (a safe payment method) and they do have my details. Where were your details stored? I have had two 'Ebay' emails saying that they need to confirm my details again and to log in via this email.....YEAH RIGHT....do i look half baked??? I forwarded them to Ebay and yes they were fake Ebay emails.
Thats terrible for you, i hope it all gets sorted out. :fuckinghell:

20 Oct 2004

Yes there are a lot of fake emails that look like they come from ebay and they ask for your bank account details or password. This is called 'phishing' I believe. I think it's best practice now to NEVER enter your ebay account from unsolicited emails from ebay as they might be fake. Ebay will never ask you for these details or threaten to close your account because you do not respond to a given mail alert.
Also report anything suspicious to ebay.
LC

20 Oct 2004

I do almost all my banking over the internet and check my accounts first thing each morning and at least twice over the working day just to make sure that no dodgy stuff goes through. Only takes a moment or two and I can ring up a call centre to check out any queries I have.
IGNORE any emails asking to confirm details - simple theory.

20 Oct 2004

Have you recently received e-mails allegedly from ebay asking to update your details including bank details and credit cards because these are not from ebay as they would never ask for your details so if you have received such an e-mail and sent your details on to that link that maybe how they got hold of your account details! it happens alot even from your own bank as well!

20 Oct 2004

Quote by GenHertsCpl
I use Ebay a lot, my ebay 'account' doesnt contain any credit card details, where as i use Paypal for any purchases and sales (a safe payment method) and they do have my details.

Hmmm, a little bird tells me that ebay recently purchased and now own paypal. so in theory if paypal have your details, then ebay do rolleyes

Another little ebay scam, nowhere in CCR's league but has just happened to my father.
Oh and this really is ebay and not one of these please re-submit your details type of places.
Ebay went to his bank to claim back auction fees as they do every month (he sells quite a bit via ebay). However this time the balance is already zero. So my fathers bank fails the direct debit for zero as they cant pay nothing. His bank then automatically issues him with a failed direct debit charge of Â£25.
Ebay then issue him with a Â£5 fine for non payment of a direct debit. Remember folks this was a zero pounds zero pence direct debit! And.... until he pays the fine to ebay his account is suspended from trading.
evil

:evil:
He is getting seriously pissed off at this point and ebay's response is that they should have the matter sorted in 14 days time.
Bit like a parachute really, pretty good when the work, but hell what a mess when things go wrong.
Ian

20 Oct 2004

Quote by ccr
the police won't be getting involved as apparently the fraud has to be over Â£5000, and it will be virtually impossible to track the criminal down.

There is no minimum sum for a fraud investigation. They might not want to look into it, but I strongly suggest getting yourself down to the police station and reporting it as it's not unheard of for banks to decide that actually you/your partner/your kids/your gerbil really did make the transactions and withdraw offers of compensation mad

You should get an incident number from the police even if all they say is "nothing we can do".
JonJon - Evil Debt Monger

21 Oct 2004

Thanks for all your comments, it's nice to know that you all think about these things :boo: , what is more worrying though is that everybody either knows someone or has had this done to themselves. :sad: We don't reply to any scams, not even to take our name of the email list as then they know that it's a genuine address and have got you so to speak. Both ebay and our bank contacted us before we knew anything had happened. Luckily the bank has managed to 'catch' the transactions and had them stopped before they even reach our statement, we won't be charged for anything and if by any chance we do get any overdrawn charges they will all be reimbursed. I do all our banking through internet banking, and certainly won't be stopping because it is so convenient. Ebay have got my bank details because I have sold stuff on there and they need the details for you to be able to do this, but my details could have been taken from any site that I have shopped on in the past and maybe it is just coincidence that ebay are involved - maybe I'm just too optimistic dunno

23 Oct 2004

Well............some of the comments above certainly seem worrying rolleyes

We do use Ebay.........haven't got round to selling anything yet.........but we sure will smile

But it really is worrying and eye-opening :shock: that technology exists to enable the clever dick-wits out there to be able to key into people's personal details banghead

Hope everything gets sorted out for you very soon.
Stuart & Tanina hump

xxx

23 Oct 2004

I work for a web based company and they don't ahve a web based secure server so we tell them we will ring for card details after placing their order.
You would be shocked .. after doing this for at least 4 years and ringing thousands of people only one has ever questionned who I am .. asked for details and if she can call me back to verify who I am!
The others have ALL read card details over the phone to me unquestionably!!!!!! Now I accept that these people are expecting a call but surely a minute to verify who I am is prudent?

23 Oct 2004

If you want to check to see for yourself if you can tell the difference between a legitimate email from ebay etc and a fraudulant one, try this test:

P.

24 Oct 2004

Quote by GenHertsCpl
I use Ebay a lot, my ebay 'account' doesnt contain any credit card details, where as i use Paypal for any purchases and sales (a safe payment method) and they do have my details. Where were your details stored? I have had two 'Ebay' emails saying that they need to confirm my details again and to log in via this email.....YEAH RIGHT....do i look half baked??? I forwarded them to Ebay and yes they were fake Ebay emails.
Thats terrible for you, i hope it all gets sorted out. :fuckinghell:

I've also had a couple of emails pretending to be from eBay recently but like yourself, I always pay via PayPal so eBay don't have my card details.
In one respect, these scam emails are pretty sophisticated because they look very genuine, official logos, same typeface and so on. On the other hand, they're extremely crude because you'd have to be pretty naive to fall for them ... out of curiosity, I clicked on the link for one of the emails and you see immediately that the URL is an IP address (!), then if you 'log in' you can type in any old crap and it goes to the next page (obviously because they can't verify the userid/passwd), then not only do you get asked to enter you name, address ... but you also are expected to supply your credit card number, start and end date, plus the 3 digit code at the back and for good measure ... your PIN number!
Everything they could possibly need to clone the card!
:doh: You'd have to be pretty silly to fall for that wouldn't you? :doh: