Watch out for Cyber Fraud.
The other day I wrote an entry about a experience I had with a customer. To make a long story short, this guy wanted to buy some shade sails that I sell on the internet. Anyway, he claimed to be a Reverend from Africa wanting to buy 30 shade sails for his church. The total order was going to be about $12,000 (badly needed money) and so he sent four different Mastercard credit cards for me charge his order with. I was kind of suspicious of a scam but not 100%. As soon as I went online to try to charge the cards they were declined. I sent him an email back stating that the credit cards had been declined and two days later he sends me another email with four more Mastercard credit card numbers. Different then the ones he had sent before but they all had same eight digits as the other ones. By this time, I knew I had a scam artist on my hands and decided to call Mastercard to find out if the cards were valid or not. They in turn instructed me to call Citibank. I then called Citibank gave them the card information and sure enough, none of the information that he gave was matching.
The next day, as I was doing research for this blog, I found an article about a company called Heartland Payment Services who processes credit cards. Unfortunately, a hacker broke into their system and stole an undeterred amount of credit card numbers. They must have stolen thousands since this company processes credit card for more than 250,000 companies. I might not be a detective, but I would not suspect that this person tried to pass off some of those stolen card numbers. Heartland has been able to determine how long the spy ware was embedded within their system.
Cyber fraud is a very common occurrence these days. I receive every day emails claiming that I won the lottery or some sort of wacky job offer where I am supposed to be receiving monies on behalf of some foreign company. I have even received an email claiming to be the Internal Revenue Service. They then go on to say something about my stimulus check. The IRS does not solicit people via email. I have also received email from Bank of America asking me to update my account information. I do not even have an account at Bank of America. Every kind of scam that you can think of has more thank likely already been thought by some cyber thief in a foreign country.
Africa, in particular Nigeria, is well known for these types of con artists. They operate in internet cafes half way across the world prying on unsuspecting victims. Many people have fallen victim to these types of scams. I remember watching a documentary on 20/20 about a doctor that was conned by one of these con artists. Instead of using their knowledge for something productive, they use their intelligence for something sinister. These con artists are even celebrated over there.
Anyone can fall victim of cyber fraud if they are not careful. This individual that was trying to pass me the stolen credit card numbers to purchase my shade sails were looking to buy things on the internet that they could resell. It did not really make sense to me why this Rev. Oliver Smith wanted to buy 30 shade sails. He could have also tried to rob me by asking for a bank account number where he could make a wire transfer. That thought had run across my mind as well. People need to be careful with their credit card and personal bank account information. People need to look out even more especially during these hard economic times.
The other day I wrote an entry about a experience I had with a customer. To make a long story short, this guy wanted to buy some shade sails that I sell on the internet. Anyway, he claimed to be a Reverend from Africa wanting to buy 30 shade sails for his church. The total order was going to be about $12,000 (badly needed money) and so he sent four different Mastercard credit cards for me charge his order with. I was kind of suspicious of a scam but not 100%. As soon as I went online to try to charge the cards they were declined. I sent him an email back stating that the credit cards had been declined and two days later he sends me another email with four more Mastercard credit card numbers. Different then the ones he had sent before but they all had same eight digits as the other ones. By this time, I knew I had a scam artist on my hands and decided to call Mastercard to find out if the cards were valid or not. They in turn instructed me to call Citibank. I then called Citibank gave them the card information and sure enough, none of the information that he gave was matching.
The next day, as I was doing research for this blog, I found an article about a company called Heartland Payment Services who processes credit cards. Unfortunately, a hacker broke into their system and stole an undeterred amount of credit card numbers. They must have stolen thousands since this company processes credit card for more than 250,000 companies. I might not be a detective, but I would not suspect that this person tried to pass off some of those stolen card numbers. Heartland has been able to determine how long the spy ware was embedded within their system.
Cyber fraud is a very common occurrence these days. I receive every day emails claiming that I won the lottery or some sort of wacky job offer where I am supposed to be receiving monies on behalf of some foreign company. I have even received an email claiming to be the Internal Revenue Service. They then go on to say something about my stimulus check. The IRS does not solicit people via email. I have also received email from Bank of America asking me to update my account information. I do not even have an account at Bank of America. Every kind of scam that you can think of has more thank likely already been thought by some cyber thief in a foreign country.
Africa, in particular Nigeria, is well known for these types of con artists. They operate in internet cafes half way across the world prying on unsuspecting victims. Many people have fallen victim to these types of scams. I remember watching a documentary on 20/20 about a doctor that was conned by one of these con artists. Instead of using their knowledge for something productive, they use their intelligence for something sinister. These con artists are even celebrated over there.
Anyone can fall victim of cyber fraud if they are not careful. This individual that was trying to pass me the stolen credit card numbers to purchase my shade sails were looking to buy things on the internet that they could resell. It did not really make sense to me why this Rev. Oliver Smith wanted to buy 30 shade sails. He could have also tried to rob me by asking for a bank account number where he could make a wire transfer. That thought had run across my mind as well. People need to be careful with their credit card and personal bank account information. People need to look out even more especially during these hard economic times.
Labels: credit card, credit cards, cyber fraud
Credit Card / Financial news blog post by Todd Holliday at 8:11 PM 