New scam tactic: Close to a hundred emails such as website sign ups to mask the fraudulent charge on your card.

Fireballsocal

Fireballsocal

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For the second time, a fraudulent charge was made on my CC. This time via paypal. The last time was through the costco online program. I caught both but here is the tactic used to try to mask the fake charge. The thief signed me up for many different web services. Forums, online stores, anything that would send me a confirmation email to my email address. I had over 70 new emails when I checked this evening. This guy is lazy and most are from the same business. The last guy put in the work or used a program that signed me up for over 100 different sites. I assume they are hoping that in the mass confusion this causes, I would miss or even better, delete the email confirming the fraudulent purchase. It was a pair of shoes delivered to the UK this time. A playstation 5 delivered to a Los Angeles address last time. Just a heads up. If you suddenly see a whole bunch of unusual emails, carefully look through for any charges and then check your credit cards.
 
In the matter of 20 minutes, paypal had determined that the charges were fraudulent and refunded the charges. The charge had already appeared on my credit card used for paypal and now it shows the same amount as refunded. Great service from paypal.
 
Anytime a charge is processed to my CC’s, or debit cars, I get a email & text message notice. I also have two factor authentication if you try to log on to my accounts.

In the past year someone tried to buy stuff using my card #, but I caught it instantly because of the text alert. I locked the card and submitted a fraud charge. No money ever left my account and the pending charge was gone the next day. Just a few months ago someone called me pretending to be from the bank and was saying someone was trying to do a wire transfer from my account. The scam is to get you to say no your not transferring money and then because you think your talking to your bank, you give up information.
 
The CC companies and paypal don’t care to catch or prosecute these people, just refund charges.
 
NIKAL said:
Anytime a charge is processed to my CC’s, or debit cars, I get a email & text message notice. I also have two factor authentication if you try to log on to my accounts.

In the past year someone tried to buy stuff using my card #, but I caught it instantly because of the text alert. I locked the card and submitted a fraud charge. No money ever left my account and the pending charge was gone the next day. Just a few months ago someone called me pretending to be from the bank and was saying someone was trying to do a wire transfer from my account. The scam is to get you to say no your not transferring money and then because you think your talking to your bank, you give up information.
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Good catch. I also have the two factor auth. The use of spamming emails to overwhelm someone. An elderly person maybe. That was the interesting bit. Because it happened before, it actually tipped me off.
 
Good to know.

I regularly view spam emails or subscription type emails and unsubscribe or see where they might have generated from before blocking/deleting them. This helps cut down the amount of junk i get sent.

I watch my accounts and Credit Cards like a hawk on a regular basis, I have young adults living in my house....they think money grows on trees sometimes.
Text alerts, Creditwise, etc, all that digital tech is enabled to my mobile phone.

I'm like the Missile Warning Center (MWC) and SBIRS when a Vente Mocha, Non dairy spearmint latte is charged on my card.

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EastMT said:
The CC companies and paypal don’t care to catch or prosecute these people, just refund charges.
Click to expand...
Actually I know a guy who works for Paypals fraud department, and they do go after scammers. You would not believe some of the things he has had to investigate.
 
Fireballsocal said:
For the second time, a fraudulent charge was made on my CC. This time via paypal. The last time was through the costco online program. I caught both but here is the tactic used to try to mask the fake charge. The thief signed me up for many different web services. Forums, online stores, anything that would send me a confirmation email to my email address. I had over 70 new emails when I checked this evening. This guy is lazy and most are from the same business. The last guy put in the work or used a program that signed me up for over 100 different sites. I assume they are hoping that in the mass confusion this causes, I would miss or even better, delete the email confirming the fraudulent purchase. It was a pair of shoes delivered to the UK this time. A playstation 5 delivered to a Los Angeles address last time. Just a heads up. If you suddenly see a whole bunch of unusual emails, carefully look through for any charges and then check your credit cards.
Click to expand...
Thanks for telling us. I had never heard of this particular fraud strategy related to signing up for web services.

Regarding Paypal, don't forget to change your PayPal password and maybe link a totally different credit card to PayPal.

Regarding alerts, I sign up for all of them with multiple credit cards. I always select them to go to email because I'd rather get the ProtonMail alerts on my phone instead of a bunch of different text messages. Plus it's easier to keep and search them in ProtonMail. Plus I always set the minimum alert amount to $1 if allowable. If you set your alert amount too high, you may miss lower fraudulent charges.

Also, even though I know almost everyone does this, I never let a waiter in a restaurant take my credit card away from the table. I either pay cash or I plug in a credit card at the front desk. The last time I got a CC hacked (several years ago), it was 1 day after I gave it to a waiter.
 
I have my three different CC apps on my phone. I get a push message Instantly when a charges is made.

No email required.
 
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