Credit Card Fraud - Heads up

There's a large number of people affected by this and I bet some of us here are, too.

On one of my cards is a charge fro $12.95 from something called INTERNET LOGOS LLC, which I don't recognize as a merchant I've done business with. That happens, and when it does, I google them which mostly produces a memory jog and all is well. This time I came across a fraud report at ripoffreports.com, here: http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/ripoff242782.htm .

I run an e-mail list and posted a cautionary note there and the response was stunning. Many of our members had a similar charge for $12.95, albeit from different merchants. What these merchants all have in common is that they don't exist.

Sleuthing some more, I came upon this link: http://www.veganrepresent.com/forums...ad.php?t=10866 . I especially like the entry by "Nigel" at the end.

At any rate, heads up. Take a look at your statements, paper or online. If you have a charge for $12.95, it's possibly fraudulent. You may want to follow through with your CC company.

The commonality within my e-mail list membership is that we ordered online from a merchant who uses safeshopper.com as her e-commerce portal. Maybe safeshopper.com isn't as secure as their SSL protocol claims to be. Maybe they've been hacked or compromised. Maybe they have a siphoning employee. Whatever.

It's a major PITA having to go through the cancelation of a card and all the debits associated with it but once that card number is out there, the card is history.

And how was your day? :)

With online access it only takes a few momemts to check accounts at least every couple days. I had some incidents a year or so ago where two different charges from a food place near Richmond, VA. appeared on one of my cards. Challenged both and they were removed. Then another from a landscaping place in a suburb or Richmond. Again, challenged and charge was removed. Made a call to the VA State Police at Richmond and got someone in the fraud division who was very happy to talk. Turns out they had no information on a 'grand scheme' but took all the info for their records. About three weeks later the officer called to update me on the status which was nothing. My advice to others, check often and if you see a suspicious pattern, call the State Police. They need to hear of these things and if people don't call, they have nothing to investigate. Have to mention the Virginia Staties get a big plus from me for their interest and followup.
Al