Ever have a credit card number stolen???

[bob1852]

AHS is the only place I used that card ONLINE, but not the only place I have used that card since using it at AHS. It's entirely possible that my favourite waiter at the local tex-mex skimmed it or the cashier at Popeyes drivethru. I am starting to think, though, that as many are turning up here in a short period, the AHS link is starting to look more and more likely.

I thought so too, but I started to try and compile the actual facts based on the three threads (date purchased from AHS, and when "hacked"), and it's all over the board....the vast majority don't have a AHS purchase date, just a fraud date of 2/7/11.

And like many have pointed out - one or two say "I ordered from AHS and have been hacked" translates to "I've been hacked and I ordered from AHS, so it must be AHS."

Again, not saying that there isn't a connection, but I think the whole picture of how bad CC fraud is has been exposed here in the last couple of days....

 

[curlyfat]

I just checked my account, and sure-as-hell, a charge that neither me, nor my wife can can verify. It's at the top of the list as a Pre-auth for $29.99.

Granted, AHS is not the only place I've used the card, but I keep a close eye on my account (checking through all the charges at least weekly) and have never come across this. There's just too many folks with this popping up and an order from AHS at the same time. I'm sure they are not the nefarious ones, but I'm curious where it's coming from.

Oh, and I'm one of those idiots using my debit card because the only thing I borrow money for is my mortgage. My charge looks like this:

"MEMO PREAUTHORIZATION lalibco.com 6001 lalibco.com 6001 Portugal PT "

Does that look familiar to anyone?

 

[rustbucket]

Yeah, my card, i have used the same over and over again at the same places with the same people for the most part. i dont believe it would be those due to not having it happen before.


02/09/2011 DTV*DIRECTV HARDWARE -$495.32
02/09/2011 LINDA M GROUNDS PH D -$3.97

Forgive me for ranting, but im just royally "P*$$ed" because if i don't get my money replaced, that is a lot of money for me to be out of....

Sadly I love AHS but from hearing more than one person say something about it within just a couple days (more than just a couple a substantial amount) and we all have nothing in common but from ordering from AHS, the fault has to be somewhere around that, not saying it AHS directly but somewhere linked to them.

 

[curlyfat]

Question for everyone....

Is AHS the only place you've used your card on-line in the last ~3 weeks?? I see a lot of "hey, I ordered from AHS awhile ago and got hit the other day."

It's my experience that when they get your card #, they hit you quick. I think we all should be looking for purchases made closer to ~2/7/11, not these various "I ordered from AHS once" type things....

By all means, if your only purchase is from AHS, then yes; that should be a concern, but my guess is most people are making dozens of on-line purchases a month, and the only "connection" to AHS is because this is a beer forum.

I hope I'm right, but will gladly eat crow if I'm wrong...

I appreciate your point-of-view for sure. I just haven't seen any posts saying, "my card was hacked, but I haven't ordered from AHS. I did order from NB, though...". If those start showing up, then we'll be looking in a different direction.


That said, I have no reason to believe there's a direct issue with AHS, and would absolutely hate to be in their shoes right now trying to answer for something that may affect their business, but they had nothing to do with.

 

[Rev2010]

Wow, each of these people so far have had a recent order from AHS? I think they may want to do some internal investigating to be on the safe side.

My experience with this is the majority of the time it's an inside job from where you are ordering from or from the credit card company. People take the numbers, write them down, and sell them for people to use or charge themselves. This could happen in a bar, restaurant, online, anywhere you place your card info. I am SUPER careful with my card info and one time I got hit on my Chase credit card but it was caught instantly since a florist called asking me a question about "my order". I told them it wasn't me, cancel it, and I'm calling my card company now. They closed the account and sent me another card. Two months later it happened again. That said to me that there was someone inside of Chase stealing numbers. I canceled my account after that incident and told them that they have someone on the inside selling/using numbers. Luckily both times I caught it quick and didn't have to pay a dime. Second time I caught it cause I was checking my account frequently.


Rev.

 

[bob1852]

I appreciate your point-of-view for sure. I just haven't seen any posts saying, "my card was hacked, but I haven't ordered from AHS. I did order from NB, though...". If those start showing up, then we'll be looking in a different direction.


That said, I have no reason to believe there's a direct issue with AHS, and would absolutely hate to be in their shoes right now trying to answer for something that may affect their business, but they had nothing to do with.

I agree with you completely.

I guess my point is that right now, anyone on HBT who 1) has their CC hacked and 2) has ordered from AHS in the "last few weeks" is ultimately assuming the problem is with AHS.

It may be that. It may not. I just am trying to prevent a false herd mentality....

But again, I agree 100% with your post. If it looks like a duck....

But let's not be so quick to kill the duck.

 

[count_dookie]

I thought so too, but I started to try and compile the actual facts based on the three threads (date purchased from AHS, and when "hacked"), and it's all over the board....the vast majority don't have a AHS purchase date, just a fraud date of 2/7/11.

And like many have pointed out - one or two say "I ordered from AHS and have been hacked" translates to "I've been hacked and I ordered from AHS, so it must be AHS."

Again, not saying that there isn't a connection, but I think the whole picture of how bad CC fraud is has been exposed here in the last couple of days....

My order was on 1/29/11, but if they all did happen on 2/7 then something has to be up.

 

[vortexla]

I won't stop ordering from AHS because of this, I simply canceled my card.

Luckily I use an American Express as it provides a bit of another layer of protection that a Visa Debit or MasterCard Debit card don't.

I have given AHS a ton of my money, and will continue to do so despite all this.

 

[vortexla]

My order was on 1/29/11, but if they all did happen on 2/7 then something has to be up.

All 9 of the fraudulent charges on my card are from 2/6 and 2/7.

 

[count_dookie]

All 9 of the fraudulent charges on my card are from 2/6 and 2/7.

do you know where the charges were to?

 

[vortexla]

do you know where the charges were to?

The bank wouldn't tell me all of them, but one was to Dicks Sporting Goods, and one was to Ebookers.com

 

[curlyfat]

I agree with you completely.

I guess my point is that right now, anyone on HBT who 1) has their CC hacked and 2) has ordered from AHS in the "last few weeks" is ultimately assuming the problem is with AHS.

It may be that. It may not. I just am trying to prevent a false herd mentality....

But again, I agree 100% with your post. If it looks like a duck....

But let's not be so quick to kill the duck.

Agreed!

I'm searching right now to find if there's any nationwide cc hack issues occurring, outside of our little circle here..

 

[bovineblitz]

Could it be a computer problem? If you have an inadequately protected wireless network, someone could sniff your info out of thin air. Could be a virus or spyware or malware or whatever other fancy word you can think of. It might even be a problem with Visa or whoever. Or somewhere between AHS and Visa. All credit card transactions are sent over the Internet. Even when you run a card at a store.

Even if you have an adequately protected wireless network it can be broken with some time and effort.

 

[KevinM]

Another question to me would be did someone/thing take the credit card information a while back and not bring it out till now? For example, I've read many people's credit cards and cvc numbers a few years back due to working retail, and if I were unscrupulous enough to write them down, I could certainly have waited to try using it. Was there an old database compromise where the numbers have been floating out there, waiting for this batch to be used? Or is it something that happened recently

 

[n2fooz]

Glad I used PayPal the other day when ordering from AHB...

 

[curlyfat]

If you google lalibco (where my charge was from), it's all a bunch of cc fraud complaints (except, of course, their site). Is that the same company anyone else is seeing?

 

[count_dookie]

If you google lalibco (where my charge was from), it's all a bunch of cc fraud complaints (except, of course, their site). Is that the same company anyone else is seeing?

mine were on CCBilleu.com it seems like its a mix of known scam sites and random online retail sites

 

[Crash1040]

I hate my first post to be about this cause I'm usually just a lurker who knows how to search a forum for answers. But Me too.

Two recent AHS purchases and the bank blocked the fraudulent reg.repair.com attempt for $79 only after letting a $1.39 charge hit. It's silly but I am totally going to file a claim to get my $1.39 back.

And for the record my next order will still be from AHS. I think my personal expierencrs and AHS's long standing reputation should speak for itself. Don't blame AHS for a world full of thieves and cheats. It could have happened to anyone online and any online retailer

Does anyone here really think there's any kind of mal-intent involved from Forest. Give me a break. Witchhunt somewhere else.

 

[rustbucket]

mine was these, not to sure where or what exaclty

these are right from my bank statement
02/09/2011 DTV*DIRECTV HARDWARE -$495.32
02/09/2011 LINDA M GROUNDS PH D -$3.97

 

[Veinman]

I too had my card hacked last week but my facts were a little bit different.

I have never ordered from AHS but my last online purchase was for a brew your own subscription and then someone tried to use my card for something like a $9,000 purchase at a wine store (I think a homebrew store) in Indiana.

It could be completely unrelated but figured I'd add my experiences in case it helps at all.

 

[ThePipemaker]

My card number was stolen too. I placed an order with Austin Homebrew last week. Someone bought a plane ticket in Thailand with my card # this morning.

 

[Walker]

Does anyone here really think there's any kind of mal-intent involved from Forest. Give me a break. Witchhunt somewhere else.

Nobody has suggested any mal-intent from Forrest at all.

 

[Flomaster]

Crash, there are now three threads on here talking about fraud happening this month. Over 20 people who have been hacked have all purchased from AHS. there are a couple who have been hacked and haven't shopped at AHS, but when you have 20 plus people all getting violated and all shopped at a certain store is it just a fluke coincidence?

-=jason=-

 

[rustbucket]

i would not blame AHS right away, altho i have come to the same conclusion right off the bat, but i really think there is something bigger happening here than what we realize. This is to much of a coincidence for all the people on here having there cards stolen. when i looked at my credit card statement today i saw the two fraudulent charges, then looked when i ordered form AHS, and it was 1-10-2011.. just about one month difference

im just hoping i can get my money back due to it was a debit card that was charged and there is a sum of just under 500.00 taken out of my account (which im still overly mad, and my bank is dumb and wont allow me to talk to a representative until they open at 8am.) Note this, all i know is that im changing banks.

 

[Walker]

Another question to me would be did someone/thing take the credit card information a while back and not bring it out till now? For example, I've read many people's credit cards and cvc numbers a few years back due to working retail, and if I were unscrupulous enough to write them down, I could certainly have waited to try using it. Was there an old database compromise where the numbers have been floating out there, waiting for this batch to be used? Or is it something that happened recently

For me, it can't have been that long ago. My credit card had expired in Jan and I received a new one around the 15th. That's the one that got stolen. So, that card and number were only about 3 weeks old when the charges happened.

 

[ChshreCat]

Nobody has suggested any mal-intent from Forrest at all.

+1 Forrest and AHS are as much victims as the folks getting their CC #'s stolen are, assuming this is somehow related to AHS as it appears to be from the outside. I have a feeling that once this gets figured out, there'll be a big rush of orders at AHS as people buy stuff they might have held off on.

 

[Crash1040]

I was just making a point in defense of AHS that must not have come accross as intended in writing. And even without the direct accusations not addressing the few inappropriate under tones just didn't seem right. So i said what I said.

Now back to the shadows.

 

[JonW]

Does anyone here really think there's any kind of mal-intent involved from Forest. Give me a break. Witchhunt somewhere else.

I've not seen any posts to suggest that. Is AHS tryin to rip people off - ABSOLUTELY NOT! Does AHS have a problem somewhere in their system or staff - (in my opinion) ABSOLUTELY ! The number of posts indicating fraud in a short period after purchasing from AHS are just too overwhelming to ignore.

I posted up information today regarding this and it was promptly deleted by the admins (and replaced with their own post asking to keep this OT (on topic)). That was after an AHS staff person asked me to change my post so I didn't make him look like a moron (his words, not mine).

Here's a portion of a PM I sent to them today:

I think you guys should try communicating a little more with the people in the threads as to what you're doing to research the problem. Are you using outside forensics to research this or is it just in-house people trying to figure it out? Showing that you have 3rd parties researching this would go a long way to show that you (AHS) takes this potential breach seriously and are doing everything you can to make sure it is being handled. On the other hand, if there are just internal people at AHS running virus/malware scanners and doing simple log checking on the server, then you're not approaching this the right way.

Now, the only reason I post this up here is because AHS is failing on one important thing - They are not communicating with the people affected here!

 

[Flomaster]

well I've said it again and I'll say it again I bought from AHS Jan 20th. I paid with a debit card and I have not been compromised, but the other 20 plus people on here HBT have been. so what gives. one guy hadn't used his card since August of 2010 and the only time he used it was last week at AHS.


-=jason=-

 

[Crash1040]

It's obviously not a conincidence. But.....

It could have happened to anyone online and any online retailer.

 

[Fat_Bastard]

well add me to the list! got tapped for over 500 dollars on my account and YES I did recently order from AHS.thank god I saw this thread wouldn't have known to check.

 

[DankTheTank]

Hey all, first post. I had been putting off making an account but I guess this is as good a reason as any, right?

My most recent purchase from AHS was on 1/13, and on 2/8 I had a fraudulent charge of $186 show up. Spoke to my bank as well as paypal (the charge shows it goes through them), and they have said it is for baby equipment in Poland? I can't say this happened because of AHS because I use this card for the majority of my purchases, but just wanted to add myself as a data point.

 

[Fat_Bastard]

I got hit for over 600 dollars in 6 transactions on 2-7.YES I did recently order from austin home brew supply.

 

[r8rphan]

Just to add a little fuel to the fire, I stopped by may bank today on the way home from work... I asked the branch manager if there had been any news on my case.. So she made a call to someone (the guy investigating it), and then she was looking over my transaction history on the computer.. While she was still on the phone with the guy, she turned to me and asked me if "this purchase to Austin Home Brewing Supply is legit".. I said yes, and she told the guy on the phone yes, and then she turned to me and asked me to look at it on her computer and again asked me if it was an order I placed.. I said yes..

I asked her 'why?'.. She said, "Just making sure" I thought that exchange was 'interesting'... It doesn't mean 'anything'.. but is still 'interesting' in light of these threads...

It was the last time I had used the card before the day the fraudulent charges showed up... I made two other purchases that evening (on the 7th, the day of the fraud) to rockler.com and to B3.. The next afternoon is when I found out about the fraud.. My rockler order didn't get processed though.. because when they processed the order on monday, the card was declined.. due to the $400 worth of airline tix that had been bought on it...

I plan to continue buying from AHS.. Their prices and service are good.. I have no reason to believe that they acted in any way to purposely harm me... If they are the problem, it is becasue they have been victimized as well...

That being said, I'm not sure I will be using a CC to make the purchases.. possibly money orders (expensive way to go though) or if I do, I may set up a checking acct at another bank with no authorization to be overdrawn at any time.. and then put just enough money to cover in the account a few hours before I need to make an internet purchase... At all other times maybe have $10-20 in it.. might be worth the $7-10 a month for the peace of mind...

 

[pd230soi]

my just got hit for 414.94 at the The Golf Warehouse.

I use my card a bit - multiple charges this month.

Purchased from AHS on 1/28/2011, charges at The Golf Warehouse on 2/9/2011.

BTW thanks for raising this issue here on this forum. I saw this post, checked my account on line, found the fraud, got the charges pulled off and a new account is being set up now.

 

[MeatyPortion]

This just goes to show how much chaos can be generated by instances of identity theft. Let's assume that AHS had no part in this and the timing of purchases through them was coincidental but AHS would still be feeling loss of revenue or experiencing bad word of mouth. I'm sure this sort of collateral damage happens a lot regarding this sort of theft. So we have the customer defrauded, credit card company or bank spending money fighting the fraud and possibly pursuing charges, business servers compromised, companies involved directly, and finally companies not actually involved aside from guilt by association. Quite the **** sandwich, and all this equals higher interest rates and charges put out by banks and cc companies, not to mention the potential losses to other businesses involved.

Bear in mind, I'm not trying to accuse anyone of anything here, I'm just illustrating a point. I hope this gets wrapped up soon and everything goes back to semi-normal.

 

[jmendez29]

No. I was literally just the small amount that triggered it.

Not necessarily. I travel to Wisconsin several times a year to visit my family and to bring my kids to visit their mother's family. On one particular trip, I went to do some shopping at a mall. I used a credit card that had been paid off for a couple of months, and before I even left the store, my cell phone was ringing. The CC issuer was calling me to confirm that I had just made a purchase with that credit card. After talking to the representative, I was informed that my purchase history had indicated to them that I made the majority of my purchases on my computer (complete with IP address) or within a certain radius of my home. To see this purchase that was far removed from that radius was unusual and it got flagged.

Not to say that a small purchase wouldn't flag it, but I had once read an article about how some people were raking in millions from CCs, but only a dollar or two at a time. They would get a list of several thousand CC numbers and charge each of them just a couple bucks, maybe a few times a month. Even if only 25% of them went through, they make a bunch of money and if nobody notices, then they just keep doing it. After reading that, I checked my CC and sure enough, there it was. I called the number on the statement for the charge, and got no answer. After researching it online, I realized it was exactly what the article was talking about and when I contacted the CC issuer, they couldn't believe that their system didn't catch it.

 

[462studio]

Add me to the list of people who shopped at AHS and recently had their card compromised.

Not pointing fingers. Just saying.

 

[sudsmcgee]

It's not HBT in my case. I've only used PayPal for my HBT membership - they've never seen my card #.

I think the idea is that you USE HBT, not that you gave money directly to it. If HBT is somehow allowing malware to be installed on peoples computers, it wouldn't matter if you paid paypal directly.

Regardless, it still seems AHS is the more likely culprit.

 

[bp262]

As another data point, I placed an order through AHS on 1/15 and have had no fraudulent activity. That being said I'll be contacting Amex today and asking that they issue a new number.

rustbucket, Most Debit transactions are under the SAME protection as a regular Credit Card (Visa, Master Card, etc). However you will be out that money until the fraud case is ruled on internally or your bank sends you interim cash. I had my wallet stolen about 6 months ago, $900 charged in one evening. It took my bank about 2 weeks to issue me a check and then 3 months before the fraud was found to be actual fraud (dude is in jail now, police recognized his mug from surveillance footage).

Blake