Urgent to all who donate to the DNC by credit card.

[RedTail Wolf]

I have for some time been allowing the DNC to charge a pre determined amount to a credit card that is used exclusively for that purpose. I have never used it for anything else.
Well seems as the DNC might have a security problem. I got my bill today and my balance which I pay off each month (I only give them 15 dollars a month) was $7500.00!!!!! Seems I bought 2 computers and spent $3500.00 on gifts at Wal-Mart. com and requested my address be changed to Connecticut? Just a warning to anyone here who might be doing the same!


RedTail Wolf

[tk2kewl]

1. and this is connected to DNC how?

[RedTail Wolf]

6. They are the only people I have ever given the number to!

That was done by telephone. So who else has access? I guess bank employees but I suspect it's the DNC. Might be why we lost. The whole operation was hacked by the other side! You have a better reason? I'd love to hear it............


RedTail Wolf

[tk2kewl]

8. never used the card for anything else ever?

there are lots of ways to steal identities

[RedTail Wolf]

11. NEVER

Only DNC has the number and me.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

2. Have you contacted them?

They need to know this soonest.

[RedTail Wolf]

14. Yep!

I called them and wrote them. They say they have a good security system? Who knows but they are the only people who have the number and it's the only charges ever on the card till this month. The bank says I won't have to pay but it's still spooky!


RedTail Wolf

[jayfish]

3. Care To Post A...

scan of the charge? With all sensitive info edited out of course.

Jay

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[AP]

5. How do you know someone requested your bill go to CT if you got

your bill?

[RedTail Wolf]

9. I called the fraud dept at the bank!

They said I had requested a COA form since I moved to CT.

[RedTail Wolf]

10. Bank told me

Someone had phoned in and said I had moved to CT and needed the form

[AP]

15. Are those the same answers?

I've never heard of a COA form for a credit card. Usually you just call the company (or fill out the back of the bill).

Obviously, if you request a form, it has to go to a real address, which would make it pretty easy for the cops to locate the criminal.

That story makes no sense.

Want to try again?

[RedTail Wolf]

17. Yeah first one didn't seem to post got an error message....NT

[AP]

18. What about the rest of my question?

Did the cops arrest the guy at the address to which the COA was sent?

[RedTail Wolf]

27. . They

said I have to fill out an affidavit before they could pursue charges and go after who ever did this. They are overnighting the affidavit to me so I can fill it out saying it wasn't me doing the charging. Some idiot is gonna go down if they are stupid enough to have the merch sent to a home address and they still live there. I have a feeling that the place will be an empty house when the investigators get there. Who knows?



RTW

[AP]

29. I'm going to declare BS.

Why would someone REQUEST a COA form that they never intended to recieve and complete? Why even make that phone call? Because you want to get caught?

Why would they send it to an empty house?

The affidavit story sounds fishy too.

[havocmom]

33. I second that declaration of BS! The company issuing the card is the

entity which files legal action against the criminals in the case of card fraud. It is their card! The particular account # is yours but since you are not liable for fraudulent use, after $50 bucks you are foo the hook. The issuing institution is the real injured party legally.

As far as nobody but you and the Dem group you contribute to having the card #, wrong-o. BofA issued a new card to my husband a couple years ago. He had never even activated it when we get a phone call from a very honest and decent stereo equipment salesman. Someone had phone ordered several thousands of $$ worth of stereo equipment. The salesman & the address for delivery of purchase were both in NYC. We live in Montana. Salesman looked up our phone # and called to see if we had placed the order. Everything turned over to BofA to sort out. Turns out, they had issued the SAME ACCOUNT # to us and to a guy in NYC. It happens. BofA on the hook for the $$, not us. But errors happen or are sometimes planned. There are lots of people in a company who can access #.

Oh, and lots of banks/financial institutions now have much of their processing work outsourced, so your numbers get bounced via satellite all over the friggin world. You cannot imagine how many places that number can be snagged. To think only you and the people you spend $$ with have access is naive or malicious. Most issueing institutions DO call when a pattern of use changes suddenly. If yours didn't, drop that account like a hot rock and look to another company.

Since you are NOT LIABLE for fraudulent uses of your card, why are you so worried about it? Once you let the issuing bank know about it, it is their problem and you are off the hook. So, wanna explain just why you are so hot to work up a lot of distrust hereon DU for making monthly arranged contributions to a Democratic organization, because many of us are really curious about it.

And you never answered my question about whether a trolling motor was also purchased with your card. Just curious. Doing a study of fishermen and would like to know.

[AP]

36. And I'd like to amend my declaration of BS to add:

There's absolutely no reason for the card user to provide an affidavit. You have no personal knowledg of anything that would help them prosecute the offense. What is your affidavit going to say? "My signature is not on the receipts form the Walmart purchases"? That's why you sign. That's the proof that you didn't buy the stuff. There's no more that you can add.

Credit card companies don't make their customers sign an affidavit before bringing charges against people comitting credit card fraud in a situation like this one.

[havocmom]

37. high 5, AP!

and I still wanna answer from the alledged victim about a trolling motor ;)

[AP]

39. Nice cross-exam, h.m.

shall we rest our case?

[Cicero]

40. Uh, I have had a similar experience...

Several years back I used a credit card when I rented a truck to move to my new apartment. A few days later my account got locked, and when I called the credit card company to find out why, I was told that someone had attempted to use the account to purchase various amounts of equipment, stuff that would be used by a moving truck rental company. Obviously, someone there grabbed a copy of my number and was trying to use it. I was sent an affidavit listing all of my recent credit card transactions and was asked to mark which ones were legitimate and then sign and return.

Now, the company sent me the affidavit, not the police. I assume that the bank eventually went after the people who stole my number, but I heard nothing else about it. I was issued a new number and went on with my life.

Later,

[Jose Diablo]

35. As for the COA

If buying a product through mail order, if the ship to address is different than the card bill to address, well wouldn't that raise a flag if you were a merchant?

It is a simple thing to receive a new card or products at an address that is currently empty. Get the new card call in to validate and then head for the stores, jewelry is good for conversion back to cash. Would you use your own address if you were planning to rip somebody off?

As for who actually is using the card, the one that is using the card does not have to be the one that stole the card information. There is an 'underground' market for CC information. Yes, its true. It is possible to sell information about CC without having to do the drudge work of actually using the card.

It is entirely possible for someone to have cracked the DNC contributor CC information for profit. It doesn't even have to be anyone associated in any way whatsoever with the DNC.

And these fuckin Fearless Fosdicks in law enforcement are making it happen by insisting on having a defacto national ID number (a public SS number) and then framing the issue as a need for them to know everything about everyone. After all, what should any decent law abiding member of society have to hide, right? Wrong, its about keeping private financial information out of the hands of crooks.

The idiocy in this country is driving me nuts.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

43. Actually, the empty house deal is a common.........

.....trick nowadays, although police are getting wise to it. It happened in my town when some guy was using E-Bay to scam folks. You find a house where some person living alone has died recently, especially an older person with few family members. If you know someone isn't stopping by or watching the house on a daily basis while the property is put in order, an unsuspecting mailman will continue to leave mail at the house. It only works for a short period of time I would think, and I can't see someone going through a COA deal to use that type of scam.......

[datasuspect]

42. yeah

and they would need to know a password/pin/other security protocol

[UNIXcock]

7. If a true story, you're only liable for $50 if ...

... it's a big CC company

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

12. It was Joe Lieberman

......needed some computers and gifts to give to Chimpy when he gets a job from him....

[PassingFair]

13. Nope, obviously the work of

The Clenis!

It is never satisfied.

[RedTail Wolf]

16. OK I was seriously trying to warn anyone in the same situation but

I guess we can poke fun as well...untill it happens to you.


RTW

[PassingFair]

19. Not meant to poke fun at your being ripped off...

My cards have been jacked more than once. It sucks.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

20. I just find it strange..........

....that you have a credit card whose only purpose is to donate to the DNC.

[RedTail Wolf]

23. Well it was one

of those pre approved CC that I really didn't want but took and when the DNC called last year they asked if I would do the monthly deal and I though about the card. I actually had to activate it the next day when they called back and said it wasn't a valid card. It still had the 800# sticker on it. Believe it or not? What is this Ripley's. Damn I posted to warn people of a possible security problem at the DNC and I am getting the third degree..so forget it...


RTW

[AndyTiedye]

22. Do You Shred Your Old Credit Card Bills?

People have been known to steal credit card numbers off of bills they
find in the dump.

[RedTail Wolf]

25. Yep

Since I take precautions with my papers, I must assume it was the bank or the DNC that got hacked or an employee of one did it? Who knows, I was just trying to warn people to be on the look out for strange charges if you support the DNC the way that I was doing.


RTW

[shuffnew]

21. Have you reported this to the DNC "and" your bank/card provider?

I have been using credit card for my DNC donations too and have not had any erroneous charges (as yet any way).

It is possible there might be problems with your credit card bank or card provider. There have been many instances of banks and card holders having their customer files hacked (that would not require that you have used the card anywhere before - just the fact that you have a card and are in their database).

[RedTail Wolf]

24. Reported to everyone including this forum

The bank says I won't be responsible for the charges. I was surprised they didn't call me when a pattern of $15.00 charges that had been going on for about 2 years now exploded into $7500.00 in one month and a request for an address change. I asked them why they didn't catch it and they said it was due to the recent merger they are going through. Less choices and more profits for large banks and corporations is what the Bush administration is all about!


RTW

[Norquist Nemesis]

28. Sorry about your problems...but

I wouldn't be so quick to point fingers at the DNC. Check your computer.

I am sympathetic to this kind of thing. At the end of June, my debit card was hacked...PIN number and all. We suspect it was from a gas station, but who knows. We were cleaned out in three days.

The up side is we don't have a lot of money, so the $1,200+ they took off with was a situation we could remedy rather quickly. The downside is we live paycheck to paycheck. So the $1,200 they took off with required we contact vendors for bills due, fix any auto payments assigned to that card, figure out how we were going to deal with a 'credit' from the bank while they 'investigated', and learn to live with the ever-present paranoia that it can happen again!

We figured that since they had the PIN, a camera was most likely rigged up to a machine where I had swiped the card. They captured the account, and videoed the PIN. All transactions were in the local metro area...with a test run first to see how closely we were watching, then BOOM!!! Next day, $200, $500, etc. all cash withdrawals from ATMs at convenience stores till there was no more. :(

They haven't caught him/her/them...yet. But the it's between the bank and the thief now and they'll go after them to make sure they get their money. When they do get him/her/them, I'm ready and willin to testify and hope they hit him/her/them to the fullest extent of the law. :mad:

I don't blame the gas station that this happened at...I blame the Thief!

[RamboLiberal]

26. I had my debit/ATM card hacked back in Sept

Fortunately I check it online just about every day so I caught the charges immediately and cancelled the card. Now I used it quite a bit online so I can't say if it was the DNC, but that was one of the places that had the number. Since the card is never out of my possession and I live alone I figure it had to be hacked off the net or by some employee working for an online vendor.

They got me for 4 charges totalling about $150 for music downloads and porn sites. I had to go a few rounds with the bank, file a police report, etc. to get the charges reversed. One company IBILLS was nice and refunded the money immediately but CCBILLS were &%@!*.

They even had a false email address in my name.

Now I'm paranoid watching my CC accounts and my credit report. And no I didn't fall for any phishing schemes. I'm in IT so I know about those.

And now I use a virtual CC number for each transaction online and no more of anyone having my number stored.

I was almost ready to blame DU at the time cause that was the week the mysterious black/white Bush showed up on the DU greeting screen and fooled some of us in to thinking DU was hacked.

So even DU can't have my number for monthly donations. I figure I'll use virtual number to donate quarterly.

[mike_c]

34. how do you do the "virtual number" thing?

I've stopped using "real" credit cards altogether and don't miss them, but I use my Visa check card for online purchases, so your story freaks me out a bit. Could you explain more about "virtual CC numbers" or point me to another ref? TIA.

[RamboLiberal]

41. Discover and Citibank are two I know of

For each transaction you can go to their website or download a program to your PC and generate a new virtual credit card number that is good for purchase only from one merchant for a short time period. For example if I generated one now the expiration date for that number would be 12/04. Also generates that 3 digit CV number some online merchants offer.

It's great for online and telephone orders. Only thing you can't use it for is for an online purchase where you need to use your actual credit card, i.e. Fandango, airline tickets you pick up, etc.

I know Citibank is a bad name around here - but I just use it for online purchases and try to pay it off each month just for the convenience of virtual CC numbers.

[m berst]

30. identity theft here

Hit hard. Bank and law enforcement were shockingly useless, either trying to sweep it under the rug, or treating me like the criminal. It has been two years and still haven't recovered. Never will really.

The bank's interest is in maintaining their reputation so that people have faith in them and keep handing them over their money, not in ferreting out or preventing fraud or in protecting their customers. Their losses are all factored into the game, and they are rolling in the dough. The police's only interest is in seeing a bag of dope somewhere on a car seat and making a quick and profitable arrest and seizure, or in hassling non-whites driving through the area.

It still pisses me off a little when people say "well, yes but did you do this? And did you report it to that? And were you sure to do this? And did you shred your dinner napkins into tiny pieces and make sure that you never wiped your nose on the receipt before leaving the bank?"

The banking industry has a little more integrity and accountability than the elections officails did in the last election. But them hey, we are "getting over" that, right?

So, rtw, I know how you feel getting the third degree.

It reminds me of a biography I just read by a man name Victor Klemperer, who survived the war in the Jewish ghetto in Dresden. As late as 1944, after seeing 90% of the community members dragged off or killed, everytime someone was arrested the reaction of the community was still "well he must have done something wrong to get arrested."

[AmyDeLune]

31. Another Possiblity...

someone might have either stolen your mail, or mail was misdelivered. If your credit card issuer sends you courtesy checks and someone dishonest got hold of them, they might have been able to get enough information from them to rip off your card.

I mention this because we routinely get other people's mail, including credit card courtesty checks, magazines, and the occasional bill. We either hand deliver them to the addressee if they are close enough, or put it back out the next day for the postman to (hopefully) deliver to the correct address.

[GingerSnaps]

32. You don't have to worry I know who did it Noel Bush needed a script filled

Last I heard Noelle was making another trip back to the pharmacy to get her oxycotin script filled ;) She ran into her pusher ops I mean Doctor and he needed a few things as payment for the prescription.

Here's another scenario:

Neil Bush knows all the ins and outs of the banking savings and loan business and there's a good possibility that he needed some computers before election night.

[jukes]

38. well, @ least you've

wasted some of our bandwidth...