Hey looks like the wheels of fate have picked me up in their treads and dealt me out as a scam victim. Someone got a hold of my debit VISA #, which I only use online at places I trust (Amazon.com, etc.) but apparently I trusted one too many sites, or someone in one of the places got a hold of my info and levied some charges against my account. Luckily I noticed these pretty quickly, which is surprising actually since I normally don’t watch the activity on my account all that often (or at least up ’til now I didn’t).
First off I’ve cancelled my card and will have to wait up to two weeks to get another. No ATM / debit charges for me for 2 weeks. AND now all the sites I’ve set up to auto-charge this card (Mobil Speedpass, Maine Transpass, AT&T Cellphone, Audible.com, etc) need to get updated before they send me nasty notes. Probably about time I retired that number anyways, seeing as I memorized it about a year ago and thus it’s far too easy to impulse buy online.
Today I’ve been making phone calls trying to get more info and get charges reversed. Luckily they are small charges (mostly $1 pre-auth charges, though the ‘real charges’ could come through at any moment).
Here’s the summary so far: (I figured I’d provide the info here in case anyone else has similar charges and googles around and finds my page)
Charges to TLG SHOPPERS ADV PURCH
Turns out that TLG is Trilegiant. I found this website (http://www.consumeraffairs.com/scam_alerts/tlg.html) and they are basically an umbrella company to a bunch of somewhat sleazy looking websites like shoppersadvantage.com and NetMarket. Calling these folks was n’ar completely useless since they wouldn’t listen to me explaining that these $1 charges were just someone checking if the card was valid and that the actual charge, probably for much more. They insisted these must be ‘membership charges’ and that I could have signed up for these from a number of sites like AOL and etc. I tried to explain that I KNOW I DIDN’T MAKE THESE CHARGES but they said my name wasn’t in their customer support system yet and I should check back at the end of the week, though I may need to wait 2 or 3 weeks for my ‘membership to be processed’. I’m going to call these folks again in a little bit to see if I can get someone with more of a clue. (Note – I just called them again and got a more abbreviated version of the same dance, but this time I felt like the person actually heard what I said, but he said I ‘wasn’t in the system’ yet but should be by Thursday (much different than the 2 or 3 weeks mentioned above)
Next charge was to BLOCKBUSTER ONLINE. They found me in their system and were able to reverse the charges and cancel the account promptly. They gave me the e-mail address the person used to fill out the membership form, I dropped it a note and it didn’t bounce. I’m debating dropping them a longer note 🙂
Next charge was to TWX MAGAZINE ORDER. Found out they had subscribed to TEEN PEOPLE, SEVENTEEN and ESCAPE BOATING magazine. They asked if I was sure that someone else hadn’t placed the order for these magazines and I explained that I was 36, my son is only 20 months old, and I don’t own a boat! I had the order cancelled though they said I may still receive a few issues. Golly, can’t wait.
Final call was to STAR CLUB REWARDS who said they hadn’t actually charged my card the $1, that was just what it looked like since they had verfied it was active when they created the membership (with the same fake e-mail used elsewhere)
That’s it. I know I’m lucky compared to most, especially considering this card was my debit VISA it could have been alot worse. Note to self, don’t use that online anymore.
Len-
i hope they did not have more info (or more courage) on you and made actual fraudulent credit cards
Ryan,
If they did make cards, which I don’t believe, the account is d-e-a-d, dead, so it won’t do “them” much good.
BTW, I printed out the first “page” of Matt’s site (including the Web URL) and included it with Citibank’s fraud document.
BEWARE! !!! 866-860-8661!!!!!! Huge scam artists. A man called and said that I qualified for a grant from the federal government for college. What was weird was that he had asked for all of my personal information, when I already applied online for grants months ago giving that information.
“CHARLES” even said that I had to pay a one time $297.00 fee for a grant of a t least $5,000.00 and up to $20,000.00. CHARLES asked for my checking account number, bank routing number and a check number. When I started asking a lot of questions he became angry. I told him that I found his number on this web site as a fraud scam number and he became very angry, saying “forget it, there are a lot of other people who wnat this grant and I’m taking you off the list! Charles then hung up on me. Please be advised this is a scam number!!!
Haven’t bought anything from Apple or buy.com.
My last purchases online at the time of the fraud were JC Penney, A&E, Intuit, Sears and MarketExpo.com.
I also have a pop-up blocker.
Sherri
Sherri,
So Apple doesn’t have your card number in their database? No iTunes purchases?
Intuit… They had my card number from a Quicken online purchase. Hmmm…
I have just fallen prey to this scheme and thought I would share my info.
My credit card is through my credit union(BECU) and not sure if they would share my info with 3rd parties so I don’t know how Blockbuster got my account. I also don’t have any Apple products and do not use iTunes. Below is the list of fraudulent charges.
Blockbuster Online 18666922789 TX $10.85
TLG*Great Fun 178795** 800-290-8603 CT $1.00
TLG*Buyers Adv 178795** 800-553-4948 CT $1.00
TLG*Autovantge 178795** 888-657-2733 CT $1.00
TLG*Traveladv 112263** 800-318-2709 CT $1.00
TLG*Complethme 112263** 800-490-2712 CT $1.00
TLG*Netmarket 178795** 800-209-7131 CT $1.00
I immediately notified my CC company of the fraudulent carges. I then called Blockbuster and they were very nice and told be the account was registered with the email address of chanaskenop@marchmail.com. Not even remotely close to my name or email address. I have not called TLG yet but will shortly.
Well, I received my second issue of Seventeen magazine today, with the cover story: Hot Swimsuit Guide! 🙂
Well, I’m a Mac tech too. I buy from Apple, Small Dog, and Amazon quite regularly, though, like Matt, I would be pretty surprised if any of them are the source of the leak. I lean toward a credit bureau (remember Experian just bought Metareward) or something like Choicepoint. Sorry I haven’t had time to follow up for a while.
Coleen-
So you think it was a person at choicepoint (or experian…) or a strategy to get people that don’t notice by one of these companies
Ryan & Colleen,
Again, I have mentioned earlier– I really think this has something to do when you obtain a credit report free or otherwise from Experian. Now that Illinois residents can obtain free credit reports, people are beginning to complain about the same problems we are listing here. The Chicago Sun-Times actually did an article about it.
Also, this past week, I have received the “Buyers Advantage Card”, and “Great Fun” card. Since my credit card company notified me of this fraud late last month, or earlier this month, and cancelled the credit card charges, and cancelled the card, because I didn’t order these items– (I have since received a new card with new number and expiration date), I have no intention of paying for them. NO NEW CHARGES
Ryan & Colleen,
Again, I have mentioned earlier– I really think this has something to do when you obtain a credit report free or otherwise from Experian. Now that Illinois residents can obtain free credit reports, people are beginning to complain about the same problems we are listing here. The Chicago Sun-Times actually did an article about it.
Also, this past week, I have received the “Buyers Advantage Card”, and “Great Fun” card. Since my credit card company notified me of this fraud late last month, or earlier this month, and cancelled the credit card charges, and cancelled the card, because I didn’t order these items– (I have since received a new card with new number and expiration date), I have no intention of paying for them. NO NEW CHARGES have shown up on the new credit card either!!!
As I promised an update on my situation. I had to cancel my credit card, but I was able to get all money refunded by my company because this was a fraudulent transaction, and as I have read calling this “ trilegiant� people is a futile attempt this worked out well for me, It looks like budget car rental is how they got my info. So has anybody in here ever rented from budget car rental? I hope every one in here can gather enough info to put together some warning to others.
No, I’ve never rented a car in my life.
I’m leaning toward two theories, actually. My #1 theory is that somebody got hold of a stolen credit card list and is using us as referrals to get free booty, figuring that’s somehow safer than actually buying stuff with our cards.
My #2 theory is that it’s somehow related to opt-out schemes. I have discovered that Wyoming, where I live, is an opt-out state (the state attorney general’s office told me that.) In an opt-out scheme, you can, for instance, receive an envelope of junk (snail) mail, and if you throw it away without checking off a “No” box on an enclosed mail-in card, you can be responsible for the junk they send you as a result. I hope that some consumer group is agitating to overturn this horrible state of affairs. Now imagine that the junk-mail sender is affiliated with, say, a credit bureau or credit card company–they’ve got access to your card info. Seems illegal but may be what’s happening, though I have no evidence of it. This is why I’m suspicious of the Experian/Metareward connection.
FWIW, I haven’t asked for a free (or otherwise) credit report. Don’t recall renting a car from Budget on that credit card. Did use the credit card at Hertz in Dublin Ireland last summer.
So many companies had that card number…
Again, I haven’t requested a free credit report(until now of course) nor have I rented a car with the card as well…but lots of people have its #. I agree with Colleen’s theories but I am leaning towards #1. While I think #2 is plausible making the fake emails points me to #1. If they could legally charge you for the stuff that you didn’t check no on then emailing your actual address wouldn’t matter (legally anyway). Of course they have a better chance of squeeking by if they send it to a fake email but that still seems to obvious to me. It’s a nice loophole to rope consumers in but not when someone is just sitting there making up fraudulent emails. Of course both parties realize the extent of the crime will probably never prompt the authorities to act so either is possible. I think we will never know.
This just happened to my wife too. Charges were made to Blockbuster Online, TLG Great Fun, TLG Auto advantage, TLG Travel Advantage, TLG Warranty Advantage, TLG Complete Home Advantage, and Entertainment.com (the coupon book, which had mysteriously arrived in the mail).
I am almost certain that in our case the credit card information, our correct billing and home address, and my wife’s email address came from the database of an online merchant that was hacked into by an intruder or accessed by an employee.
Here’s why I suspect this. My wife has a hotmail account specifically to use for online shopping. I’m not going to post her real name or email address, but I’ll make an example with the same features to illustrate what happened: cindylouz@hotmail.com. My wife has only used this email address when purchasing things online, and neither our credit card company nor any credit reporting company has this email address. The name on her credit card and billing address is Cindy Zelf. Cindylou is a nickname her mom calls her.
When she called Blockbuster to cancel that account, she found out that the Blockbuster account had been set up with the email address: cindylouz@runbox.com . This is not something that could be derived or guessed from her name, so I think that cindylouz@hotmail.com was stolen from one of her online shopping accounts along with the credit card and address.
I tried emailing that address at runbox and got this bounce message:
Final-Recipient: rfc822; cindylouz@runbox.com
Action: failed
Status: 5.5.0
Diagnostic-Code: smtp;550 Account discontinued, trial period expired
The fraudsters seem to be creating mail accounts on runbox.com (which has 30 day trials), so that even services that require a live email address or that send a confirmation / activation email will accept the order. The only other things required to quickly order small things most places on the net are a valid credit card number, expiration date, and billing address matching the card, which they also seem to have.
When my wife called one of the TLG services she was told that she had signed up through netflip.com, which looks to me like how the criminals could get paid. If you go here: http://www.netflip.com/ and then click on the “Fast Cash! $” icon, you can see the page where you can get $12 for signing up at Blockbuster, and on the next page can get $4 for ordering an Entertainment book. As a test, I created a netflip account and I verified by clicking through to the Blockbuster.com order form and also to the Entertainment.com order form that the name, street address, and email address on the netflip account can be totally different than the name and addresses used to order at Blockbuster and Entertainment.com. Netflip’s site says they’ll send you a check with the referral fees that you accumulate, and I assume that if you signed up 1,000 people for Blockbuster and ordered 1,000 Entertainment books that netflip’s software would dutifully mail you a check for $16,000.
Because doing this at a major dollar volume would take a long time manually, because the fraud email address was based directly on a real email address, because of the volume of us that have been impacted (and we’re only the tip of the iceberg), and because of the similarity of the charges, I am worried that the criminal(s) are using software scripts to talk to all of the web sites involved in setting up the email accounts and signing up for the products/services. A software script for this running on a single PC could take a database stolen from an e-commerce site and sign up thousands of people for dozens of services each, in just a few days. The criminal could then collect the bounties and then disappear.
We should all report this crime to the site that Colleen found (http://www.consumer.gov/sentinel/idtchart.htm) so that the government can see the magnitude of this problem.
–RayA
I’m sorry to say that I sell MBNA credit cards and I can assure you that MBNA does SHARE your info with all kinds of marketing companies. That’s how they function. Check my site –> http://www.tele-marketing.us — I’m rather mad about all this.
I’m an Apple user and I haven’t had any of this…Apple has my CC for iTMS, and I haven’t seen any of the above.
Cap’n,
“I’m an Apple user and I haven’t had any of this…Apple has my CC for iTMS, and I haven’t seen any of the above.”
So why are you here???
RayA,
Great work. Thanks for taking the time to research this. Sounds plausible… If Citibank uses my printout of this Blog, they should use your info!
Mine hit me on 3/18. On 3/16 someone used my credit card and ordered through TLG and TWX. I was first alerted when I received a DirecTV satellite dish and receiver. I do have a question though, on the entertainment coupon book, did the criminal have it delivered overnight? I thought it was a foster teen whom we had removed from our home a week earlier attempting to get back at me. I had an AARP membership, Columbia House DVDs, DirecTV equipment, an Entertainment Coupon book (which by the way was for my area), two TLG charges and a TWX Magazine charge. We had a our telephone number changed the day the teen left, so the telephone number given was an AOL access number. The email address they used was mylastname_myfirstname@yahoo.com and it was created on 3/16. One of the telephone numbers they gave was the private cell phone number of a dentist in our state. NetFlip was also given as a point of reference for all but the satellite order. The AARP membership is what gets me. I’m not even 50 yet – long way from it.
I might think I was part of this same scam but for the fact that my former foster child set up a new yahoo email address the same night as the perpetrator did with the bogus email. And at least three of her friends have accounts with NetFlip.
Lisa,
“I was first alerted when I received a DirecTV satellite dish and receiver.”
That would get someone’s attention, wouldn’t it? I wondered why I received Teen People and Seventeen magazine…
“Entertainment Coupon book (which by the way was for my area)”
Geez… I think I got one of those in snail mail the other day and tossed it. Should have kept it for “evidence.”
It should be noted that they are using several different free email sites. The fake email for me was made through consultant.com
It really wouldn’t be that hard to find out who referred all of us through netflip. Especially seeing that it seems to be pretty widespread. All we need is access to netflip and to backtrack from there. Unfortuanely it is impossible to get in touch with them. Hopefully one of these large banks will have someone with enough time on their hands to pursue this.
From what I see on sites such as epinions.com, netflip is slow in giving out the rewards. So we may still have some time before they can disappear. You would think netflip would want to pursue this so that they would not have to give out fraudulent rewards?
Just when I thought I had tied up all of the loose ends I receive a post card for magazine subscriptions. This time it is through Orangebrick.com…as by mentioned by others earlier
I was curious. I recieved a phone call from a CopmuPlus Benefits. They mentioned taht were aligned with Mastercard and were seeking out to help repair bredit with a credit card offer and report. Thee *66 860 8661 phone number looked fafmiliar when I saw your blog and I was wonderfing if anyone else has been contacted or approached by them . I would love to hear if they are true or not . I first felt tipped off by the request to get my social dl # and checking account number. That seems odd to me . Anyone else withthe same situation?
hey everyone, I just want to thank you for posting this message board. I got hit with this “scam” Thankfully, my bank (a small community bank) caught it. It started last month with $1.00 here, $1.00 there. I really didn’t think much of it – I had been doing some shopping on line. Then the other day, my bank called to say they got a truck load of charges with random expiration dates. They think, that who ever is doing this was trying to find the correct expiration date for my card. I tried to call the 800 number for the TLG company. I was put on hold over and over, then when I finally did try to wait it out, the phone would ring as if someone was going to pick up, then the phone would hang up. My bank is blocking my account for any type of transaction and will notify me if something else comes in. In the mean time they are ordering me a new card.
I let my bank know of this message board and how helpfull it was. So once again thank you and if anyone knows of some good software that I can put on my computer that will block this in the future I would love to know what it is.
Hi everyone! Thanks for all the great info. It seems that my case is a little bit different, but maybe mine is what y’all started out with. So, of March 29th, I had 4 $1 charges from ShoppersAdv and 2 $1 charges from Netmarket. On March 31st, i hade $1 charges from each of the following: Great Fun, TravelAdv, Complete Home, and Autovantage. These were all shown from USBank as charges that went against my available balance but not my account balance. So basically, they were pre-authorization charges or whatever they are called. I hope that makes sense. Today, April 2nd, only the 4 charges on the 31st went through. The other 6 charges from the 29th just disappeared. I have not gotten any charges from Blockbuster or TWX, like most of you have mentioned.
So, my questions are as follows:
Did this happen to anyone else/is this how it all started?
Do you think I should still be concerned about the $1 fee that were part of my available balance but then just disappeared?
Thank you for any help! I’m so upset…I’m just a college freshman and I can’t believe I have to go through with all this. I guess I had to grow up sometime.
Michelle:
I would cancel the card and make sure to call all of those services to cancel the accounts that the thief signed you up for, because even though those were pre-authorization charges you are now probably signed up for services that charge monthly charges(even if you cancel the card).
beyond that read this entire thread and decide if you want to follow some of the other steps like putting a fraud alert on your credit.
MPJ-
Expiration dates is an interesting angle that hadn’t been exposed yet. If they had all of the information minus the expiration dates they may have been trying them out to then later do larger purchases??
RayA: good work. I also am starting to think that it’s an automated way of using a stolen list of credit cards. Netflip (and Orangebrick), remember, is registered to Metareward, which was recently purchased by Experian. I have not had time to persevere with trying to get someone at Metareward on the phone to track this stuff. Their voicemail even says they only correspond via email. Best best is to get a law enforcement agency on it, but I could not even interest MBNA at all, and the local police say it’s out of their purview. Perhaps the state attorney general?
Daniel: you say MBNA shares info with partners. Does this include one’s actual credit card number?
I found your website after being fustrated with this unauthorized bill.I finally relized that I was being charged for something I didn’t order.I had to change my A/E card.The company TLG great fun got me for 4 months before I caught them. I now pay attention to all my bills at the end of the month.Let’s hope something ca be done about this. thanks and good luck to all
After doing some research on my useage ofthe card, I bought something at buy.com,.Anybody know anything on this companies policies. thanks
Hi Everybody,
“Due to higher than anticipated response to our program, we are unable to handle your call. . . . CLICK.” This is what I heard for my first three calls to TLG (Netmarket, Great Fun, and Complete Home.) I just managed to get through, though, so I thought I’d come back to this website & tell my story. I also want to thank everybody who has posted here — it proved to be truly helpful, and the specific advice for how to deal with these people on the phone helped me out a lot.
I’m a college student in upstate New York, and my friends & I have all ended up with these charges on our debit cards. I only had three, but another friend had six such charges. The only thing we can think of that we have in common is that we both have debit cards through HSBC Bank, and we both use ITunes, but my friend didn’t use ITunes at the time when the charges began to appear. The only online companies that have my card # are Amazon, Uncommongoods.com, and Sephora.
So far HSBC has been very helpful, but they also advised me to deal with the TLG people directly. By the time I got through to all of them, they each told me the same story — that the $1 fee was for a “trial period” ending April 26 (I’m so glad I caught the 3/17 charges when I did), that I signed up through Netflip.com, and that sometimes people have done so accidentally. I was really surprised at how helpful the TLG people were on the phone — the first guy sounded like he really felt bad that this was his job. For the first two calls, I sighed and said that I absolutely did not sign up through Netflip. By the third call, and after reading this website, I was so used to the runaround that I just said, “Okay, but now I want to cancel.” She said, “Wait, what? Excuse me? Are you saying that you REMEMBER signing up through Netflip?” I laughed and told her, “No, but I’ve already made 2 of these phone calls and they said the same thing.” She laughed too — she had been completely surprised to have a customer NOT protest this claim . . . I do feel bad, because of course none of this is the fault of the person on the phone, and they seem very boxed in by the script they’re given.
I got the names of the representatives & a cancellation number, and after I hear back from HSBC I’ll have them make a note on my account of the action I took. Has anybody had “repeats” of the $1 charges after canceling?
I do have one question that I thought I’d ask of the group — they did try to get me to allow them to send me a “20 dollar free restaurant voucher” which I of course refused (although I think my friend may have accepted such free offers). What would you recommend doing if I do receive anything from them? Since I live in New York, “negative opt-out” letters are illegal, so does that mean I should contact the state atty. general if something like that appears?
My email address is ammartin@buffalo.edu for anybody who wants to keep in touch or share info, especially other HSBC customers.
Sorry — new information — my friend ALSO got signed up for Blockbuster service & some AOL service. Just now, I logged into my ITunes account to remove my credit card information; from now on I’ll just use prepaid cards from Target. But when I signed into my account, I noticed & remembered that you can use your AOL account when you sign up for ITunes, can use the same screen name, and can have everything billed to your AOL account. When you sign in to ITunes, you check a box to indicate whether you want to sign in with an ITunes account or AOL.
It seems like there are a lot of possible threads, but I thought I’d point this out for people wondering how their credit card got to TLG in the first place.
Daniel: you say MBNA shares info with partners. Does this include one’s actual credit card number?
———–
I hope not, but I really don’t trust them. They’re in the business of harrassing people (via telemarketing). If you’re a customer, expect to receive a lot of “great” offers!
Well, my case seems to be a little different…
I have (had) a Bank One credit card through Amazon; the last time that I used it was October.
On my January statement, (which I was surprised to get, since I hadn’t used it in so long) I had one charge to an enterprise called “American Singles” for 24.95.
I immediately called Bank One and disputed the charge (and found out that there was another similar charge- turns out it was a monthly thing), and wrote Bank One a letter disputing both charges. I tried to call American Singles but gave up after being on hold for over 1/2 hour. Bank one later sent me a form to fill out and fax to them detailing the charges and why I was disputing them. A couple of weeks later, they sent me a letter saying that they had resolved the disputes and that my account had been credited the amount of the charges. I canceled that card anyway- I wasn’t using it. Oh, and it was the card of record at the iTunes music store. This all happened on my March statement.
THEN, I got a statement from ANOTHER card that I don’t use any more, this one a First USA Visa that I got through Countrywide, with $275 worth of charges on it, one to someplace called Digaccess.com and 4 to Paypal “WorldWinner”; I followed the same procedures, but haven’t heard back from First USA yet. However, when I called them, they immediately put me through to their fraud department. They canceled the card number and sent me a new card, but I haven’t activated it yet, and probably never will.
I don’t know why all of these bogus charges showed up on cards that I havent’ used in so long, but that are still active, and no bogus charges showed up on the card that I currently use (a Mastercard).
My first thought when all of this happened was that I was a victim of the Choice Point fiasco, but I still don’t really know what happened. I did a free credit check through Experian, but didn’t see anything suspicious.
I’be been checking my statements since then , but haven’t seen anything alarming, but I’m still a little anxious.
But I never had to try and contact any of these businesses- the CC bank did all of that.
If you read the fine print on the back of your statement, it tells you in detail how to dispute a charge, and what your responsibilities are.
Choice Point, by the way, is the lovely company that was hired by Katherine Harris when she was secretary of state in Florida to “purge the voter registration lists of felons” and which “accidentally” purged the registration lists of not only felons but also thousands of non-felon voters, effectively giving the 2000 election to Bush…
BTW, I live in Hawaii, and don’t use either my credit cards or my debit card to make regular scheduled bill payments- I do that the old fashioned way- by check.
And the reason that I have so many cards is that, for the last couple of years, I’ve been getting offers for cards with 0% interest for 9 mos to a year… so I get one, use it until the offer period is up, and then get another one; and fortuitously, another interest free offer has been coming along right about the time that the old one has been expiring. I have to say, I LOVE using the CC companies’ money and not paying for it, even though I usually pay off the balance every month. But, in retrospect, I guess that I should have canceled those cards after I was done using them.
I spoke to a customer service representative from HSBC . . . They were aware of these kinds of charges, and said that they would keep an eye on my account for any more activity from TLG.
On Feb 26 of this year i got a call from a company by the name of CompuPlus Benefits. They said I had recently been on their web site and was tryin to apply for a credit card. I couldn’t remember since i am always on the net doing something. Anyway i listened to what she had to say. She said i had been approved for a mastercard with a limit of 2,500, but because of my credit i would have to pay a one time fee of 354.60. I knew my credit was jacked up so supid me went along. She took my info, account number everything. Gave me a contract number and the customer service number incase i wanted to cancle before my account was debited. She gave me the number 1-866-860-8661. Ever since that day i have never been able to reach anyone at that number. Its always busy. On the 4th of March my account was hit, just like I had set up for 354.60, but no name of the company was given, only the 866 number was attached to it. Since I work in the bank where i have my account. The manager came to me and told me it had just come it for payment and if I wanted him to go ahead and pay it. I guess someone was trying to tell me something but I wasn’t listening. I told him to go ahead and he did. Its now April 8th and still no word from these people. No e-mail, no phone call, nothing in the regular mail. And that damn 866 number is still busy. So I guess its safe to say i have been swindeled out of 300 bucks. I mean judgeing from my credit these people must have know i would go for anything, and they also must have known i was broke as hell and they took advantage. Who knows how many other people they got with this scam..
Akila: I think your situation is different from ours. I occasionally see warnings from our local sheriff warning people about phone scams where they try to get your credit or bank information. If the account that you gave them was a credit card, you should cancel it immediately and dispute the charge, if it’s not too late. If it was your bank account, I’d recommend closing it and opening a new one; and talk to somebody at the bank about trying to reverse the charge. These people have your info now, and, who knows, they might try to use it again.
As for those of us who got signed up for stuff we didn’t order, I continue to believe we’ve been used as “referrals” for someone trying to earn free merchandise or cash.
Ken, a question:
The Mastercard that you currently use…did you get it *after* the two cards that had the bogus charges? See, my theory is that all of our info got stolen somewhere along the line (something like the Choicepoint event). If you hadn’t gotten your Mastercard till after said theft had occurred, it might give us a clue as to when the theft happened.
A most amazing fact (at least to me) is that Matt’s blog here is the ONLY place that turns up if you google “tlg twx blockbuster”. (Actually, Matt posts in another spot too, but only one victim has replied to his post there.) So this is apparently the only gathering place for people sucked into this scam. Is it because there are so few of us, relatively speaking (implying only one evildoer perhaps)? Or can there be a whole slew of people who don’t look at their credit card statements? Thanks again to Matt for being the first victim, and for having a blog.
I think I am leaning towards one person. I don’t think they even had to use scripting and I think they had fairly small aspirations (getting one ipod or mac mini or something). The scam could get bigger but then the chances of getting caught grow. As long as they kept it “small” (maybe 100 people? if we are about 10 percent?) they could get what they want without worry. I also “think” that they got our numbers from apple(maybe someone that works there), this isn’t as firm as my other guesses but it seems strange that a lot of us are on file with them…of course, it could be amazon or any other number of larger sites.
oh and a big thank you to Matt. I think this would have freaked me out a lot more without this page!
A month ago, I had gone to my banking facility to withdraw some funds from my checking account only to find that I had insufficient funds. when ask how and why…I was told that a certain amount of money from a company called COMPUPLUS at 866-860-8661 had taken approx. $350 sum dollars via ACH processing…..I’ve called and sent messages but have not heard from them…..I think they are ripping people off.
Elsa
you said you called them and left them messages. Do you have any other way to contact other than that 866 number. And also when they db your account how did you know it was them. When they db my account they didn’t even use the name compuplus they just used that 866 number..
Akila
Your banking facility should be able to provide some info. via ach processing etc. I don’t know if there maybe other parties involve. I have sent a message to customerservice@compuplus.com and a reply by Sharon (customer service rep) says there is a fraudulent company representing themselves as Compuplus and they are trying to track down additional info. I’ve also requested information on Compuplus benefits. An agent by the name of Arthur Johnson is a Agent for that company who deals with credit card offers and plans. The address : Compuplus benefits, Inc
7200 12th Ave. N St. Petersburg, Florida.
By the way, I’ve been told to contact or report to BBB better business bureau by compuplus rep …..it’s funny how I’ve seen many complaints about them or one who supposedley represents themselves as compuplus at 866-860-8661… but don’t see anything thing listed under their company. Makes me wonder if they are using other names…….
I’ve been reading this blog for a few weeks and absolutely everything that has happened to others also happened to me. The same companies, the same money, the same actions…. And I also called and had all of them cancel my memberships…. I didn’t cancel my credit card because I figure the same can happen with the new card.
What I can’t figure out is what we all have in common…I don’t have Apple, I did get the magazines and the $1.00 charges, I didn’t get Blockbuster, didn’t get a credit report, I have Bank one-Sony Card….If we are all together??? How many of us are there?
Elsa
Thank You for the information. What is the zip code for that address in FL..