I feel awful!

[soocool]

My Mother''s Day was ruined when I received a call from my credit card company about fraud on my account. Luckily they called immediately before they charged up a lot on web purchases. Later that day one of the web companies called to ask why we canceled the order and I told them it was a fraudelent charge. All they gave us was the order number and said they could not release any more info without a police report. So my DH is at the police dept right now trying to get them to file a police report.

To matters worse, it seems my computer (right now I am using my daughter''s) has trojans on it which we have been desperately trying to get rid of the last couple of weeks. We have to call into a pc professional because the on-line tools and virus protection programs can''t seem to get rid of it (Hupigon?? anyome heard of it??). So I don''t know if this is how my credit card info was stolen or what else was compromised from my computer.

I am so upset right now! They had my DH''s name. our address, and phone number when they made the orders. DH is worried if they have his ssn. I am so careful about what sites I go to and I don''t open email attachments which are questionable. I feel like this is all my fault and just want to crawl under a rock until it is all resolved.

 

[jcarlylew]

**hug**

fortunately your credit cards did exactly what they are supposed to do, rather than hit you with a huge bill later on.
I hope that this gets resolved quickly for you!!

*hug*

 

[steph72276]

I''m so sorry this happened to you, especially on Mother''s Day. You guys need to both check your credit reports and if I were you, I would think about having my credit "frozen" so that nothing can be opened up. You can have it unlocked if you need to open up something.

 

[tlh]

Date: 5/11/2009 10:51:41 AM
Author: steph72276
I''m so sorry this happened to you, especially on Mother''s Day. You guys need to both check your credit reports and if I were you, I would think about having my credit ''frozen'' so that nothing can be opened up. You can have it unlocked if you need to open up something.

Ditto. What horrible news on mother''s day... I hope that this clears up quickly!

 

[Lilac]

I''m so sorry this happened to you. Hopefully it will get resolved quickly.

 

[MichelleCarmen]

What a pain! At least the CC company caught the charge fast.

FWIW, you can add onto your credit report that there have been identify fraud under your name/SS# and that may possibly reduce future incidences. When DH and I moved to a house in a less glamourous part of town (lol), I had ordered a copy of my report and at the top it was listed that my address had involved mail theft/fraud. I got a PO Box to protect myself and haven''t had any problems. . .we moved from there after nine months. . .that probably helped.

 

[Burk]

Oh no!!

What a stressful situation-and on Mother''s Day no less. Hope you get it all figured out!

 

[Italiahaircolor]

What awful news!

I am so sorry this bummed out your Mothers Day...but thank God for dilligent CC companies who actually monitor spending. They saved you from an even bigger, nastier mess down the road!

And SooCool, please don''t feel bad about this. It''s a huge inconvience, and terribly unfortunate...but it''s not uncommon, and it can happy to anyone. Actually, this happened to my Grandmother and me (although the person who stole mine was an ex). But the person who took my Grandmothers identity did so using checks! They somehow managed wash some of her checks, and ended up spending thousands of dollars at stores like Best Buy, Linens and Things, and more in an extremely short period of time. My Gma has never made a purchase online, and rarely even uses her computer. So, it just goes to show you this sort of thing can happen to anyone and anytime....and it''s scary.

You guys will just fine once this mess is sorted out. In the spirit of awareness, flag your credit...request new CC''s with new numbers...check your credit reports....and make sure to keep in touch with your local PD to stay ontop of any developements (although, don''t be surprised if they never find this person).

 

[diamondsrock]

Don''t feel bad! You''re not alone. This just happened to me a couple of weeks ago. It started when I had a package delivered to my house which I did not order. Ends up somebody got a hold of my credit card number and was making purchases. I closed it that day and called the credit bureau to place a fraud alert.
I''m keeping a close eye on my other cards. I have no idea how they got a hold of my number.
Also, my computer is on the fritz as well and I need to get another one. It crashed a week ago and I finally got it up and running, but now I have no firewall and can''t do any updates so it''s pretty much useless to go online. I think it''s the hard drive but not sure. I don''t know if that had something to do with my card being stolen or not. I have all kinds of anti virus stuff on there and run scans all the time. I don''t know if it''s a hardware issue or a virus.

 

[bee*]

I''m sorry to hear that. Thankfully they rang you first! I hope that you get it sorted.

 

[April20]

Don''t feel bad!!!! This is NOT your fault. Criminals are so sneaky- I doubt there is any way to figure out how they got your number.

My CC number was stolen a couple of years ago. Lots of online purchases and airlines tickets. The CC didn''t call me, but I was in the habit of checking my account every couple weeks to pay it off. When I logged on expecting to see $50 or $60, I was STUNNED to see a balance of nearly $5000!!!!! I called, they cancelled the card and refunded the charges. I never figured out how it happened and haven''t had any issues since. I did get catalogs from some of the companies they ordered online from for a while, so they obviously had my address.

 

[HopeDream]

Hey Soocool,

Sorry to hear about your credit card number being stolen. I''ve heard that some unscrupulous restaurant staff can get ahold of your credit card number when you pay your bill. Once you have someone''s name it''s quite easy to look up their other information online (address, phone number etc.)

I had a bad trojan on my computer a little while ago. Sometimes all you can do is wipe (erase) the hard drive and re-install your operating system and all you other programs (which you can do yourself for free) Most computers come with a restore disk for this purpose (You can find further instructions online). Save all the stuff you want to keep before you wipe your hardrive (an external harddrive is good for this) and scan the files you save with a good antivirus program to make sure the trojan doesn''t come too. It usualy won''t infect word or picture files.

Depending on where the trojan has infected and what files it has corrupted, it may be impossibe to remove without erasing everything and starting again.

Good luck !

HD

 

[soocool]

Thanks for everyone''s support. It seems that we may have gotten rid of the trojan thanks to Stephan and Karl... my heroes!!!

If the trojans come back, I will heed the advice of wiping everything clean and reinstalling. DH suggested getting another computer dedicated to certain functions and keeping this one solely for internet fun.

DH filed a police report yesterday and we contacted the credit bureaus so at least we know we should be OK for the next 90 days. That is how long they keep a fraud alert open on your record. We are considering subscribing to one that will always keep an eye on all our accounts, a kind of insurance policy, if you know what I mean. It is terrible knowing that someone has robbed you and you don''t even know it until it is too late.

On the brighter side, my ring arrives today!!!!

 

[Stephan]

I''m so happy you feel better today!
I don''t know American laws, but here in Europe, if my credit card is charged and I don''t agree, Mastercard won''t ask me to pay. It''s that easy.
I hope the people who charged your card go to jail.
Everybody should be honest!

Remember to use Firefox, SpywareBlaster, Malwarebytes, CCleaner + antivirus & firewall to stay safe and protect your privacy.

 

[soocool]

Date: 5/12/2009 8:32:17 AM
Author: QueenMum
I''m so happy you feel better today!
I don''t know American laws, but here in Europe, if my credit card is charged and I don''t agree, Mastercard won''t ask me to pay. It''s that easy.
I hope the people who charged your card go to jail.
Everybody should be honest!

Remember to use Firefox, SpywareBlaster, Malwarebytes, CCleaner + antivirus & firewall to stay safe and protect your privacy.

It''s the same here. When the cc company called I told them those were not my charges and then stopped payment. Later we got a call from one of the on-line stores because the cc company declined the charge. We got the order number but that was about it. The police said once my Dh filed the report they turn it over to the detectives and since the on-line store had shipping info on the account. they''ll be able to investigate (on-line store flagged it as fraudulent also because I assume they might also prosecute) In a span of less than an hour they tried to charge about a 1,000 dollars worth of stuff. Thank goodness the cc company saw something was not,as we say it here in the US, kosher.

If they find the culprits, you better believe we will press charges.

We also loaded Firefox yesterday. thanks again!