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Hmm...Fraud question


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A package arrived at our house this morning that we didn't order. The order was paid for by our card and shipped to our address. When I called the company (from whom we've never ordered), they said all the address and card info was the same, but the email was slightly different (the email used the first part of our address, but it was @ somewhere else). When we checked our bank statement, there was another, larger order placed at the same company yesterday, to be shipped to our address.

 

So, now that we've frozen that account, and dh is on the phone with the police to file a report, why in the world would someone use our card to ship products to our house? Why wouldn't they just change the ship-to address?

 

Hanging out with the doors locked...

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Happened to us. Credit card info was stolen. Fraud department contacted us, we closed the account. Packages started showing up. Ridiculous random stuff. Nothing a sane person would want. I don't think they intended to intercept the package, just to wreak havoc.

We contacted each company to find out what to do with the stuff they shipped to us. Some had a paid return label, some said keep, from some we have not yet heard.

 

ETA: many companies won't ship to an address that is different form the billing address, at least not the first time you do business with them.

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Guest submarines

What was in the package?

 

Whenever I read stories like this in the past, it always turned out to be a family member ordering and then forgetting. But the different email address doesn't match this scenario. How weird.

 

I read only the first pages of your mysterious presence thread, but in addition to an odd presence, is there a prankster in the house?

 

ETA: I obviously was't up to date on all the recent freuds.

Edited by sunflowers
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:001_huh:

 

Wow, that's weird.

 

How would they go about retrieving the goods that they ordered? Swiping it off your porch?

:iagree:

 

This. There was something in the paper about this a while back. The thieves would cruise by and grab the packages off the porch (this was fedex and they could track it online to know when it was delivered). The paper mentioned it was VERY difficult to catch these villians because all the identifying info is YOURS and the email is junk.

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I've had this happen twice; cancel the card right away if you haven't already.

 

Allegedly, it's an attempt to put through charges on your card and determine if you're paying attention. They start with small charges (for us, they ordered a keurig coffeemaker and signed me up for the disney video club and a couple of magazine subscriptions.)

 

If the card is still good a couple weeks later, they know you're not paying any attention and will (supposedly) place the "big" order. At that point, I'm not sure how it works since I keep pretty close track and have always caught them early.

 

I guess they place the order and use a different email address so the tracking info goes to them. Then I guess they could in theory, wait by your place and sign for the package when it comes?

 

Not sure about next steps beyond the "tester" charges.

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I've had this happen twice; cancel the card right away if you haven't already.

 

Allegedly, it's an attempt to put through charges on your card and determine if you're paying attention. They start with small charges (for us, they ordered a keurig coffeemaker and signed me up for the disney video club and a couple of magazine subscriptions.)

 

If the card is still good a couple weeks later, they know you're not paying any attention and will (supposedly) place the "big" order. At that point, I'm not sure how it works since I keep pretty close track and have always caught them early.

 

I guess they place the order and use a different email address so the tracking info goes to them. Then I guess they could in theory, wait by your place and sign for the package when it comes?

 

Not sure about next steps beyond the "tester" charges.

 

This happened to us a couple of years ago -- small orders placed and arrived at our house. It was during the holidays, so I knew I didn't order, but thought maybe a family member had sent the items...I totally missed it was on our credit card because this time of the year I'm always ordering online and have tons of charges on the credit cards. Then, when they hit with the BIG charge (a $3000 computer), I noticed it.....and they'd changed the delivery address! UPS intercepted the package and the police handled it (never did find out what happened), but we had to cancel the credit cards, change passwords and a bunch of other things following that. They didn't even need to change email addresses either ... they'd hacked my gmail account and added a forward of all my mail to my account to theirs.

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Okay, so the police just left. They said that because the packages were ordered with our numbers and shipped to our address, they won't be able to do anything because they can't show "intent". He also said that situations like this aren't a priority because of that reason, and thieves are savvy to that. He also said that there are over 500 reports of this exact situation in a 'burb on the other side of town that just came in this month :001_huh:.

 

So...yeah.

 

One package showed up today, but the other still hasn't arrived. According to the company from where they came, we can just send them back for a refund, which we'll do. However, I'm not too crazy about some thief hanging out, watching my house - if that is the case. The posters who suggested "test" purchases sounds a little better me.

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When this happened to us... it was our then, 9yo son. :tongue_smilie: The fact that it was LEGO was a HUGE clue.

 

I'm sorry, but that's kind of funny :lol:. Poor kid, lol.

 

The police wanted us to be sure it wasn't one of our kids, but I just don't see my kids ordering Zoobles :lol:.

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Good luck!

 

Don't be surprised if you get other things too, not paid for with your card...and with invoices of payment due.

 

I think it's all about identity theft.

 

If they can get your credit card info, and one other piece of information (i.e. email address, or a username/passcode to amazon or ebay...that sort of thing) they can do some real damage if you're not really paying attention.

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Wow, this is weird because the same thing happened to my husband last month. I don't remember what the item was, but it was something completely odd that neither of us would have ordered. We chalked it up to a glitch in the system at Amazon, but it sound like it's some sort of new scam?

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Funny you mention amazon, because at the time (about 2 years ago), we speculated that it was because we had, on both occasions, purchased a third-party item from amazon.

 

We figured our information was compromised somewhere in the transaction between amazon and the third party.

 

I haven't had a problem since, though, and suspect that if that was the issue, it's been addressed since.

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We haven't had the exact scenario... But have had the small "test" purchases, then the big charges show up. Apparently the thieves do some small purchasing first, then the big guns come out. For us, I think it was electronics purchases, after the small charges (the small ones were pizza & McDonald's - 2 separate incidents).

 

Glad you caught it!

 

Now I'm going to go check all the boxes that have been arriving here... I've just been imagining that they are really our purchases, and putting them in the garage. Oops!

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We just found out some more info - the first order was small, about $16, and was the pkg we received today. The second order was for a gift card - in the amount of $64. :confused: At first I would assume that the gift card would show up in the mail, but then I started wondering about the other fraudulent email address. Does anyone have experience with eToys (I think it's Toys R Us)? Do those gift cards get mailed, or sent to an email address to be printed out and then used that way?

 

What I don't completely understand is why the odd amount for a gift card. I guess if someone did that small awkward amount several times a day, it could add up, but, still. And why to a toy place? Why not to someplace that sells electronics or something so they could get something big if they are going to go to the trouble and risk spending time in jail?

 

At least the amounts were small - some of you who had larger amounts...:grouphug:.

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We had this happen a couple of months ago. Some expensive software that we hadn't ordered arrived in our mailbox. When dh called the bank to find out what was going on, he learned that someone had tried to purchase plane tickets using our information. Several other purchases were made and we disputed the charges with no problem. Amazon and PayPal both sent us statements saying that they had been hacked a few months back, so I guess that's when it started.

 

I hope everything is resolved quickly and easily.

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