Ever have a credit card number stolen???

Flomaster said:

I guess, just seemed like a lot of guys got a call today, and all had purchased from AHS recently.

-=Jason=-

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Yeah, we need to see how many responses we get from people with fraudulent charges on their card who have never ordered from AHS. Zero would be an interesting number.

Wow, I never expected this kind of a response...

Deafsmith is absolutely right though - right now AHBS _seems_ a common denominator, but it really should be a common denominator among the general population here at HBT, so it could be a red herring. That said, I'm glad someone's reached out to AHBS to give them a head's up, just in case. Never hurts to double check.

Just putting this out there, but it seems like PayPal might be another common denominator among folks in an online message board who likely buy stuff online often, and we _know_, because it's what they do, that they have to store CC info. Could be they got hacked too...

Chipster27, I like the suggestion a lot. I'll have to look into it with my CC company.

For now, I'm keeping a watch on my account for at least a few more days, to make sure nothing else goes through that they missed before closing the old account.

SWMBO had her debit card info and pin stolen from Bed Bath and Beyond and then the **** idiot who stole it used it to pay for his school parking ticket.

I just got a call yesterday that my credit card number was used to buy a few hundred dollars of phone cards or something like that.

It could have been stolen from anywhere...online merchant, restaurant, gas station, grocery store... the list is endless. But, yes, I bought something online from AHS a couple weeks ago.

I won't blame them even if it did happen through their site. I'll shop from them next time I need something. Great stock, excellent prices, and an amazing staff. It's worth this one small headache after so many years of buying stuff from them.

We have not been compromised that I know of. The common denominator is that people on this forum order from Austin Homebrew. I will look further into this matter.

I assume the banks are taking care of you are refunding any wrong charges.

I will keep you posted.

Forrest

I work for an IT security firm. We do forensics work for companies who have had a their customers credit cards breeched and this happens more often then you would think with highly visible companies. Of course, no companies want to admit that their customers card numbers were stolen so 90% of the time it gets swept under the rug without a word.

Austinhomebrew said:

We have not been compromised that I know of. The common denominator is that people on this forum order from Austin Homebrew. I will look further into this matter.

I assume the banks are taking care of you are refunding any wrong charges.

I will keep you posted.

Forrest

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Yeah, I think everyone's banks/card-companies are taking care of them so far.

My reason for suspecting AHS is because my credit card is pretty new. I just got it in mid January. The only places it has been used so far is at some local big chain grocery stores, some gas pumps, and then the one online purchase from AHS.

Austinhomebrew said:

We have not been compromised that I know of. The common denominator is that people on this forum order from Austin Homebrew. I will look further into this matter.

I assume the banks are taking care of you are refunding any wrong charges.

I will keep you posted.

Forrest

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And, this is why I like Austin Homebrew!

By the way, it could've been that we used our credit cards at some national grocery chain or something...

Employee, perhaps?

Co-worker of mine had excessive AmEx charges, turned out to be an AmEx employee skimming off dozens of cards...

Whatever the source of the cc numbers the fraudulent purchases seem to come very fast. The only time I had a card compromised was when I let it out of my sight at a very popular restaurant on Chicago's lakefront. Had an early dinner with relatives and got an email from the card company about 4 hours later. It sucks when you have automatic charges set up against that card, especially the toll road device that is almost out of money.

Due to federal laws it is much better to use a credit card than a debit card, reimbursement policies for debit cards are not controlled by federal law, only bank policies.

Before my story: IF YOUR NUMBER IS COMPROMISED, CLOSE THE NUMBER ON THE CARD. IF YOU MISPLACED A CARD, PUT A HOLD ON IT IMMEDIATELY and get it re-issued if you don't find it WITHIN your possessions.

I had a credit card compromised this summer, got called while I was out shopping but hadn't used it in about a week. I have done plenty of online shopping with it over the years and especially online brewing purchases from a handful of online shops. It had been at least several weeks since my last online brewing purchase.

They called me to check on a foreign hotel reservation charge and I confirmed that it wasn't me. They closed and re-issued the card, reversed the charges, and sent me a small questionnaire which I filled out and sent back.

Chipster27 +1 on the temporary credit card. Bank of America offers this and I use it frequently.

You can "estimate" how much you'll spend on the purchase OR you can get everything together in your shopping cart, total with shipping, and make the limit precise.

This is the way to go, without a doubt.

Hermit said:

According to the software there are almost 1200 people online to this site at this moment. Let's say during the course of the day they get 5K unique visitors. Let's say .5% of them have ordered from AHB in the last week. That is 25 people. 3 with compromised accounts? Not sure if that is statistically significant or not. It would be interesting to know how many HBT members place an order there over the course of a week.

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Hard to say as we have to make wild guesses at the inputs. It seems like it is enough data to notify Forrest, which has been done, but not enough data to jump to any conclusions. It might be prudent for those who have made orders in the last month or so to take a quick glance at their statement.

I had my -bank debit card- cloned. My bank thankfully caught it with the very first withdrawal, and I was only down 80$. I was lucky they caught it that fast; apparently, seven minutes later there was another withdrawal attempt from a city a good 500 miles away from the original withdrawal.

From now on, either I see the machine my card is getting swiped through and I swipe it myself, or I take my business elsewhere.

my bank just sent me new debit cards out of the blue. I have never ordered from AHS.

no fraudulent charges were hit on my account, but apparently one of the merchants who I used was compromised. they didn't tell me who.

this was about two weeks ago.

I would be very surprised if these card companies didn't have algorithms running to try and track down points of possible compromise as a matter of routine ongoing security. Problem is, like mentioned, they don't like negative publicity and won't release much of the details if/when they figure it out.

Hang Glider said:

Employee, perhaps?

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Heh what happened to the angry phone answerer that Forest removed from phone duties

Just happened to me right after I ordered some Chocolate Extract online. Maybe just a coincindence, I order stuff online regularly but hadn't for a while and these charges showed up shortly after I placed that order. I haven't used AHS for quite a while.

Somebody was trying to buy like $350 worth of cosmetics in the UK with it. Card was already closed by the time they contacted me and a new card was already on the way. No charges stuck.

I was on a road trip and making good time. Chevron/Texaco Gas called me up about my card being used several times that day hundreds of miles away. it was me using it, but I am glad they called.

-=jason=-

SwampassJ said:

Heh what happened to the angry phone answerer that Forest removed from phone duties

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Not cool. I really dont think it came from our site. We are investigating it.

People on this forum shop from me.

Forrest

seriously, if the bank thought AHS was compromised, i'm sure they would let him know.

Austinhomebrew said:

Not cool. I really dont think it came from our site. We are investigating it.

People on this forum shop from me.

Forrest

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I was joking. I don't think it was from you guys either.

I purchased from Austin Homebrew yesterday and just checked my account online. So far, so good. I'll be keeping an eye on things, but I always do.

FWIW, El Hubbo had his number swiped a few months ago. He got a call from his bank asking if he'd just reserved airline tickets to a certain Middle Eastern country. He replied "No, and as a matter of fact, I'm not allowed to enter that particular country." He had to quickly clarify that it had nothing to do with getting thrown out for some horrendous crime...and instead had everything to do with being Jewish. It was a confusing situation. His bank reimbursed him, but it took about a week to get it all settled out. Meanwhile, I marked all the food in the fridge as mine and ran a tab whenever he ate/drank everything, like the hotel mini-bar. I made a killing.

Man, I went to the bank to make a deposit, and had them check on my account balance before I did.. It was $400 overdrawn!!..

Somehow, someone got a hold of My Visa Checking Card info, and bought two tickets on Aeromexico.com.... So, I called Aeromexico and they canceled the reservations, but could not refund the money.. So the bank is dealing with that.. In the mean time, I can't use my account.. I canceled out the card and ordered a new one, but that's gonna take a week to ten days to arrive..

I had two purchases out there on the card (which is why I was depositing the money in the first place).. I just found out one already was canceled (to rockler.com) because the card was declined (and I was making a fairly large purchase for a customers job using a 20% off coupon that has now expired)... And I have no way to replace the order for the stuff 'I need now"... This will likely mean missed work while I wait for this to be straightened out..

And the other was to B3 for all the beer line and some other small odds and ends to get my new perlicks going... If B3 takes their time shipping (which sometimes happens), and the charge falls off the old card, then it too will be declined when they try and recharge it...

I also have an electric bill that 'must' be paid by next tuesday, but now I can't do it over the phone and have to find some way to do it in person.. Town is and hour away...

What a total PITA!! I asked the dude at aeromexico for the name and address of the person who ordered the tix, but he said he could not give it to me... Why the hell not? It's my card it was ordered on?

Azzholes.. I'd like to find the jackass who stole the info! People like that need to be punched!

Hard!

Repeatedly!

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f19/ever-have-credit-card-number-stolen-223663/index3.html#post2625615

epidemic?

I also have an electric bill that 'must' be paid by next tuesday, but now I can't do it over the phone and have to find some way to do it in person

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They don't accept checks by mail anymore?

Wow! I recently made a purchase at AHS this last week too.. I wonder if one of their employees there is selling info (or a spy bot was planted on their machines)? probably not...

I'm very careful with my info.. So it's likely that some sort of bot was planted on my 'puter to monitor keystrokes (but I have a Mac and a router firewall), or someone pilfered the card info and saw me enter the PIN..

It's more likely that someone got the info from an online purchase though, as the fraud purchases were also on line, and as such, they would need my address and ans all that... which isn't given when you use a debit in person...

That's the worst about this.. You have no idea where the breach is, so you don't know where to go and fix it...

Send a message to Forrest. There's just too many "coincidences" going on here for my liking....I posted something last week to the idea that, 1 incidence of something is an anomaly, 2 is a coincidence but three is an epidemic. It looks like there's an epidemic of this happening in the homebrewing community over the last 24 hours...I wonder if other brewboards are mentioning the same thing.

Is there any way you could call back the airline and have them help set up a sting? Just allow the person to attempt to use the ticket, then nab them at the gate... just an idea.

Revvy said:

Send a message to Forrest. There's just too many "coincidences" going on here for my liking....I posted something last week to the idea that, 1 incidence of something is an anomaly, 2 is a coincidence but three is an epidemic. It looks like there's an epidemic of this happening in the homebrewing community over the last 24 hours...I wonder if other brewboards are mentioning the same thing.

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The guy in the OP of this thread ordered from B3, not AHS. So I don't see how this can be related. Unless he also ordered from AHS, but didn't mention it.

weirdboy said:

They don't accept checks by mail anymore?

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Yes.. but you need to be financially stable enough to pay on time... And 'that' story is too long to go into here.... let's just say that this economy has hit this area 'hard' and my industry has been devastated, with my credit, business and personal finances along with it...

I'm just 'surviving' at this point.. and 'extremely' happy to do so.. because 'many' of my friends and associates have not been so fortunate..

This is just 'one more' PITA thing on top of the last couple years of 'that'...

weirdboy said:

The guy in the OP of this thread ordered from B3, not AHS. So I don't see how this can be related. Unless he also ordered from AHS, but didn't mention it.

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I ordered some perlicks from AHS last week... First ever order with them...

r8rphan said:

Wow! I recently made a purchase at AHS this last week too..

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i still don't think it's fair to pursue forrest. he said he was investigating, just leave him to it.

the fact that a lot of people on here place orders at AHS is statistically mutually exclusive to credit card theft. that being said, i wouldn't be surprised either way.

as i said before, if banks thought AHS was compromised, he would have been the first to know.

r8rphan said:

I also have an electric bill that 'must' be paid by next tuesday, but now I can't do it over the phone and have to find some way to do it in person.. Town is and hour away...

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You can buy a cash card at Amscot. Give them money, they give you a cash card with that money on it. Looks like a credit card. Pay your bills with it (I've never done this).

weirdboy said:

The guy in the OP of this thread ordered from B3, not AHS. S.

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Uh, he mentioned it in his next post....that's why I brought it up.....

r8rphan said:

Wow! I recently made a purchase at AHS this last week too.. I wonder if one of their employees there is selling info (or a spy bot was planted on their machines)? probably not...

I.

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I definitely think anyone this is happening to after purchasing from AHS needs to let Forrest know ASAP. If it really is one of his employees, then he might be able to spot a connection if he knows about more of them. If there's a bunch and they were all processed by the same person, that would be good for him to know about.

r8rphan said:

Somehow, someone got a hold of My Visa Checking Card info, and bought two tickets on Aeromexico.com.... So, I called Aeromexico and they canceled the reservations, but could not refund the money

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The proper method would have been to perform chargebacks on the fraudulent charges. That would have voided the tickets and held the funds in suspension while the airline has to prove the actual cardholder purchased the tickets. If they cannot, then it's credited to your account.

I also have an electric bill that 'must' be paid by next tuesday, but now I can't do it over the phone and have to find some way to do it in person.. Town is and hour away...

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Mail a check or just set up online bill pay which will directly debit your bank account.

What a total PITA!! I asked the dude at aeromexico for the name and address of the person who ordered the tix, but he said he could not give it to me... Why the hell not? It's my card it was ordered on?

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Because it's an alleged crime at this point that needs to be investigated by the authorities, not you. The airline also has a privacy policy in place.

Boerderij_Kabouter said:

Is there any way you could call back the airline and have them help set up a sting? Just allow the person to attempt to use the ticket, then nab them at the gate... just an idea.

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Of course not.

motobrewer said:

i still don't think it's fair to pursue forrest. he said he was investigating, just leave him to it.

the fact that a lot of people on here place orders at AHS is statistically mutually exclusive to credit card theft. that being said, i wouldn't be surprised either way.

as i said before, if banks thought AHS was compromised, he would have been the first to know.

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I'm not 'pursuing' anyone... I'm just trying to figure out where the leak is and plug it up...

I'm sure that if there is a security problem at AHS, they would be horrified and want to know ASAP... and I wouldn't be so sure about the banks being the 'first to know'...

what i'm saying is, Forrest knows people on here have had issues with their CC's, and he is currently investigating.

passedpawn said:

You can buy a cash card at Amscot. Give them money, they give you a cash card with that money on it. Looks like a credit card. Pay your bills with it (I've never done this).

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Whatever amscot is, my buying any sort of cash card involves the same 50 mile drive into town, as well as whatever charges are on top of the card for use of it...

Any way I look at it, this is a major PITA...