Cyber crime is getting out of control.

[HaveGun]

In 2019, there were 467,231 incidents of cyber crime in the US. Over 1.3 billion social media users reported their data compromised over the past 5 years. Financial losses are in the trillions.

I live in a virtually crime-free community, yet I have just become another victim of cyber crime. I went to go use my debit card in town to make a purchase and it was declined. I called my bank and they said they got an alert that there may be fraudulent activity, so they suspended the card.

I hadn't checked my account in a couple of weeks and when I pulled up my records, sure enough, small charges started popping up to PayPal for $2, $5, $10. Then a couple of small charges to BestBuy.com. Then a huge $1000 payment to Credit Acceptance Corp. WTH?? $1083 stolen from me.

They canceled my card and began the dispute process and said I should get my money back. I was told there was no way to tell how my debit card info got hacked or how to prevent it in the future. My debit card info was compromised a couple of months ago as well, but no money was lost.

This is crazy!

Virtually everything is done via electronic payments these days. How do you NOT use a debit card or credit card without a huge hassle and prevent your accounts from being hacked?

And the BestBuy thing was weird. I just received a package from "BestBuy". It was child's toy shipped from Kentucky with a fake BestBuy logo on the invoice. They shipped it UPS 2nd Day air for $44.

So, I received a package that someone ordered with my debit card and had it shipped 2nd day air. How does the scammer benefit?

Read More

 

[Provincial]

It must be a UPS sales enhancement scheme. Figure out which UPS executive gets a bonus when sales volume (especially, 2nd Day Air) increases.

 

[Oregonhunter5]

Horrible
My pay pal account got jacked a few years back. Someone bought a giant dildo. Lol!!!! Ive Never really seen anything like that so that was pretty nasty.

 

[PaulB47]

Watch your mail boxes. We've seen two theft attempts already in our local box. I take mail out just after it gets here, and send outgoing mail shortly before the mail carrier arrives (both theft attempts happened at night). If my surveillance system had better cameras, I could have captured the license plate, although I'm guessing people who do this will cover their plates first.

 

[Oregonhunter5]

Watch your mail boxes. We've seen two theft attempts already in our local box. I take mail out just after it gets here, and send outgoing mail shortly before the mail carrier arrives (both theft attempts happened at night). If my surveillance system had better cameras, I could have captured the license plate, although I'm guessing people who do this will cover their plates first.

We started buying the higher end locking mailboxes years back. They work good

 

[CountryGent]

We have mail sent to a PO box near my office for that reason. There is a mail box at the end of our hill, but far too often the human garbage steal stuff from them.

 

[HaveGun]

I have PO box and a doorbell camera.

 

[sobo]

My neighborhood uses a set of those "clusterboxes" things.


Feel free to copy to Member's Quotes Taken Out of Context thread...

 

[sobo]

I posted the story here somewhere a while ago when we were discussing this theme before.

While deployed to AFG, I noticed on my online register that two charges from PayPal had hit my account for a coupla dollars each over the span of a coupla days.
Being halfway around the world at the time, and it being only a coupla dollars, I thought I would handle it on my next R&R, since Kandahar is ~12 hours ahead of us here in the PNW, so my credit union folks would be asleep while I was awake.
About a week later, a $2,200 charge from PayPal hit my account. THAT got my attention! I stayed up late and waited for the credit union folks to come to work and explained this crap to them. Note that I did not even have a PayPal account! So how does this sh!t even happen? Got my money back lickety-split, but I was still so damned angry, I coulda shot someone. Cyber crime should be punishable by a death sentence!

/rant

 

[ATCclears]

I recommend that you do NOT do business with anyone where their online website(s) scores less than a B on this free testing website.
SSL Server Test (Powered by Qualys SSL Labs)

That includes any of your personal information or password, and your payment-card information.

The test for Northwest Firearms (nice job, guys/gals!):

SSL Server Test: northwestfirearms.com (Powered by Qualys SSL Labs)

 

[HaveGun]

Nice site! Just did RMR Bullets and they got an "A" rating...

SSL Server Test: www.rmrbullets.com (Powered by Qualys SSL Labs)

 

[made in china]

Virtually everything is done via electronic payments these days. How do you NOT use a debit card or credit card without a huge hassle and prevent your accounts from being hacked?

And the BestBuy thing was weird. I just received a package from "BestBuy". It was child's toy shipped from Kentucky with a fake BestBuy logo on the invoice. They shipped it UPS 2nd Day air for $44.

So, I received a package that someone ordered with my debit card and had it shipped 2nd day air. How does the scammer benefit?

View attachment 769875

View attachment 769876

I had something very similar happen to me.

A Russian scammer in my area somehow was able to use my CC to order $3K laptop. In order to complete the order, it had to be shipped to my home. What the scammer then does is has the delivery company (FedEx) in my case process a return. I received the laptop when I got home (not my name on the shipping label, just my address), and an hour later a FedEx guy (a real FedEx guy, not a scammer) said he was there to pick up a delivered item that was being "redirected" by the purchaser. I immediately red-flagged the situation ( I ALMOST gave it to him thinking it was an honest mistake) and said "I dunno what package you are talking about" so the FedEx guy said please let him know if I find it, and he gave me a FedEx slip for leaving it on my doorway if I found it.

So, I opened the package and got the invoice, and it still said that Russian guy's name, but my address. I check my CC online and yup, my CC was used to buy the laptop. And the Russian guy was probably trying to time it just right that when it was delivered, it would be picked up either without me noticing or because I thought it was a simple mistake (had I not already seen my CC online). I called FedEx cust service and FedEx actually told me the name of the guy trying to claim it at the Everett FedEx location, and it matched the invoice! Supposedly the guy had the package redirected to Everett and he was going to pick it up from them in person.

I reported to my police dept, they said this is common. I also back-tracked the guy myself and found him and his wife living in Lynnwood, which is just south of my city.

I also had some small worry that this guy knew where I lived and may try something, so the KSG-12 was always at reach for at least a month!

And, BTW, my CC company was NOT COOL at all to deal with. Took me 3 months to resolve, I ended up cancelling that CC, but I was allowed to keep the $3K laptop. It definitely wasn't worth the hassle!

 

[sobo]

And, BTW, my CC company was NOT COOL at all to deal with. Took me 3 months to resolve, I ended up cancelling that CC, but I was allowed to keep the $3K laptop. It definitely wasn't worth the hassle!

Please "out" the credit card company/bank, if you will, so the rest of us know which card NOT to have in our wallet...

 

[made in china]

Please "out" the credit card company/bank, if you will, so the rest of us know which card NOT to have in our wallet...

Seattle Metropolitan Credit Union, Visa Credit Card

In SMCU's defense, the VISA card they issue is handled by some other institution. SMCU is probably too small to manage their own VISA accounts.

What was so frustrating about the fraud on this card:
-They initially removed the charges upon me submitting all of my evidence
-They then put the charges back on pending investigation!!
-Then they said after investigation they determined that I bought the laptop
-I had to re-submit the evidence and remind them: "look at the laptop invoice, IDIOTS, it has a Russian guy's name, my address and my CC number....since when is my name Vladimr?" BTW that was actually the guy's name. SO frsutrating because it was so obvious
-Oh, and don't try and close the CC account until final resolution, otherwise I was warned that could complicate matters (like go to collections instead of being part of the usual billing cycle)

And all this time I thought credit cards offered superior customer service? I guess not with these smaller banks/credit unions.

 

[CoastRange57]

My neighborhood uses a set of those "clusterboxes" things.

So does my rural residential area in Central Oregon. Some of the the clusters are located in isolated areas or low traffic areas, (pretty much the whole area) and are regularly broken into by the local scum bags. They have nothing to do with security and more to do with the lazy azz postal workers to complain about.

 

[CoastRange57]

In SMCU's defense, the VISA card they issue is handled by some other institution. SMCU is probably too small to manage their own VISA accounts.

Virtually all banks outsource the credit card functions. One of my accounts got hit twice in a month with fraudulent charges from some "food truck" in Kentucky. The dwebe at the local bank said we had to come in each time and fill out the paper work to get our money back and explained it was not their fault but the credit card company's. An hour each time to do that.

At the time it was a low 6 figure construction account and the look on their face a week later when I closed the account and moved the money across the street to the credit union was priceless.

 

[sobo]

Virtually all banks outsource the credit card functions. One of my accounts got hit twice in a month with fraudulent charges from some "food truck" in Kentucky. The dwebe at the local bank said we had to come in each time and fill out the paper work to get our money back and explained it was not their fault but the credit card company's. An hour each time to do that.

When my checking account at my credit union got hit with $2,200+ in charges from PayPal (for which I did not even have an account), my CU was Johnny-on-the-spot with getting my money back. They sent me to a page on their website, I filled out an online dispute/fraud affidavit, clicked "send", and within a day or two, all of money was back in my account. I did this from halfway around the world (Kandahar). No trip to the bank (CU, in my case) required.

 

[HaveGun]

My credit union outsources their fraud claims. How do I know this? Because when I called the number my CU gave me, the two different people I spoke with could not properly pronounce the name of my credit union, which is a Native American word. Sad.