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Thread: My credit card number was stolen... can you figure this out?

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    Owner Dan Druff's Avatar
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    My credit card number was stolen... can you figure this out?

    When I was about to go out skiing on March 19, I got a text which made my heart sink.

    The main credit card I use -- one attached to a ton of auto-bill stuff -- was being used fraudulently. The text said that there was a suspicious $9 charge at sears.com. I knew that wasn't mine.

    I went online to look, and it turned out that there were 4 such charges, three of which were at sears.com, and the last at kmart.com. Two of the three Sears charges were for over $200.

    I reported the card number stolen, a new one is being sent, and the charges are being reversed. I will have to update all the billing sites. Pain in the ass.

    Today I called to investigate, hoping to get the info on the thief or his accomplices. I did this successfully in the early 2000s and threw a huge wrench into a credit card theft ring based out of Armenia and Maryland. I harassed the ringleader to the point where he finally changed his number (which he had been using to verify scam info), and he was furious, cursing me out.

    sears.com utilizes a Philippines call center. For once that was a good thing. I knew they'd be far less guarded about giving up info to me. Often when you report stolen credit cards to merchants, they refuse to give you the ordering info.

    The Philippines gave me everything.

    At first I thought I hit paydirt. Then I realized that the people set to receive the stolen merchandise were also likely victims.

    Here are the shipping addresses (partially redacted by me):

    Darin H****r
    304 T***r Ave Miami#103
    Peru, IN 46970

    Michelle H***s
    25322 R*****g O** Rd Lake#069
    Sorrento, FL 32776

    I looked up both of these people.

    Darin works at Chrysler, just recently framed his diploma to post in his office, and is in his early 50s.

    Michelle runs a small company with her husband involving equipment for street repairs, and is in her 40s.

    Both addresses are real, and are associated with those two people. The phone number given for Darin was fake, but Michelle's was real.

    Neither is a likely accomplice to credit card fraud.

    The items shipped to Darin include a cheap kid's backpack and a Craftsman mechanic's tool set worth about $220.

    The items shipped to Michelle include another cheap backpack, and a Kenmore vacuum, worth about $240.

    Notice the bolded part of each address -- the "Miami#103" and "Lake#069". Neither of those are a part of the real address. It must be some kind of code.

    It is now my theory that one of two things are happening:

    1) The package is being picked up off the porch of the address where it's being shipped, and then re-shipped to a different address according to the code listed. Perhaps these are being sold on eBay, and "Miami#103" is a code for the actual address of the eBay customer to re-ship the package. The person at the original address likely does not know the package was even coming to them.

    -or-

    2) Someone goes online later and changes the shipping address at the last minute, again according to the code listed.


    I can't figure out what else this could be. Surely there's an endgame here, with ordering this merchandise to be shipped to two entirely different locations.

    What about the billing name, address, e-mail, and phone number?

    The e-mail is completey fake. Laughably, it's witteless@spacex.com. Clearly this thief isn't an employee at SpaceX. Presumably there is no e-mail confirmation needed to make the Sears order.

    The phone number is also completely fake.

    The billing address is fairly close to mine, but there are a few small mistakes. Most notably, the city listed is wrong -- one which sometimes comes up in computer systems because my ZIP code is shared between two cities. So the thief just looked the city up by ZIP code. Not that this means much.

    Sadly, this is a dead end. There is nothing I can do to identify the thief. The police will not be interested in this, so I won't bother even trying to report it.

    Any idea what's going on here?

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    Diamond Pro Zap_the_Fractions_Giraffe's Avatar
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    i don't know about the codes, but I know that your cc info was likely obtained by hacking into a jew rewards program for one of the hotels you stay at to get your name, address and last 4 of your cc, then they social engineer hotel/casino staff into revealing the missing pieces.

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    Diamond Pro Zap_the_Fractions_Giraffe's Avatar
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    the fact that the zip code is right but city is wrong is also big clue that your info was obtained from a hotel/casino rewards program. all the software autocompletes cities, when the person signing you up is typing your license info they just put in the zip code. i bet the city listed is alphabetically lower than the one you live in

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    Diamond BCR's Avatar
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    Given both recipients are getting a cheap backpack, it wouldn’t shock me if both these individuals bought these items in good faith from someone on eBay or some fake online storefront, paid for the items with clean cash, and will think nothing when they get the items shipped to them. The codes are the strange part. I’d be interested to see if they disappear before the package ships. Possibly a large network keeping track of who sold what? That’s just a guess, but I’ve seen a lot of stories of people buying from an ad on eBay or wherever, and then once the identity thieves have the order, they fulfill the orders with stolen credit card numbers. I’d like to talk to the people at those addresses and see if they ordered a cheap backpack online? Or the other items. Those seem like items in the wheelhouse of stuff the people you described might order.

     
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      JohnCommode: Like this scenario.
      
      rum dick: Makes sense
    Last edited by BCR; 03-21-2019 at 06:57 PM.

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    Plutonium simpdog's Avatar
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    Druff why waste your time with this situation? Is playing detective helping keep your mind off your health problems?

    The credit card company is giving you your money back.....spend the time with your family.


    If you really must, why not contact the two individuals and ask if they have received suspicious packages?

    Or maybe these people bought items online and the fraudsters are shipping them using fake ccs (IMO this doesn't make much sense).

  6. #6
    Diamond BCR's Avatar
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    Update? You get ahold of the chick?

  7. #7
    Owner Dan Druff's Avatar
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    I haven't called Michelle yet.

    However, I doubt she even ordered any of this.

    Clearly that address code (Miami#103) is some rerouting code, and the actual shipping address of this merchandise is likely to just random people they looked up somewhere.

    A radio listener texted me that he thought perhaps those codes are a signal to certain corrupt delivery drivers (or delivery warehouse workers) to take the package out of circulation and send it elsewhere. I think that's the best guess so far.

  8. #8
    Plutonium lol wow's Avatar
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    welcome to cali you fat nerd I somehow had my boa card stolen i still had the card in my wallet and they used it at a chevron station for 99 dollars 2 days days ago

    shout out to lynwood?

     
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      GrenadaRoger: fitting post...very Druff like response to shift the spotlight to yourself my dear mr wow

  9. #9
    Plutonium lol wow's Avatar
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    also if were gonna do a deep dive so i paid 5.99 or whatever on vudu to watch widows its absolutely terrible like 2 good moments but todge can you also get this money back for me please

  10. #10
    Platinum GrenadaRoger's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dan Druff View Post

    Any idea what's going on here?
    yeah, a rich man is trying to get free detective work



    for your case my fee is $1000 a day plus expenses

     
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      MumblesBadly: Inflation! In Rockford’s original days, he only charge $200/day plus expenses.
      
      JohnCommode: Rep anytime the best show in the history of network tv is mentioned.
    Last edited by GrenadaRoger; 03-22-2019 at 11:27 PM.
    (long before there was a PFA i had my Grenade & Crossbones avatar at DD)

  11. #11
    Bronze RS_'s Avatar
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    Would be nice if credit cards could have an option to enable 2FA when making purchases. Like you have an app and whenever your card gets used, you get a notification.

    Have you tried looking online like eBay and whatnot for the same brand/type of backpack? That’d probably be the next course of action if you want to investigate.

    Lake#069 seems weird. Maybe it’s supposed to be like “Lake Charles”, but the city name got cut off due to the space.

  12. #12
    PFA Emeritus Crowe Diddly's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by RS_ View Post
    Would be nice if credit cards could have an option to enable 2FA when making purchases. Like you have an app and whenever your card gets used, you get a notification.
    I don't believe there's a single major credit card out there that doesn't offer immed notification of purchases if you want it. Just look, no doubt yours already offers this. CapOne calls it Purchase notification, surely everyone else calls it something similar.

     
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      rum dick: Yep

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    Serial Blogger BeerAndPoker's Avatar
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    I get one of my card numbers stolen at least once a year.

    Usually they try to run a test charge through first for a few bucks and if that goes through they will try to run some bigger charges through that flags the credit card company because it's out of my typical spending patterns where they put a lock on and ask me if I made this purchase.

    I even got this depositing on a certain fantasy sports site before where they sent me a text message asking if I was the one making this purchase where I text back saying yes and they put it through.

    This is a nice feature that acts quickly but not every credit card has this type of safety feature.

    I was surprised reading this that they provided names until I heard you say it was a call center not located in America so you probably got a person who was willing to give out information which many even outside of the USA probably won't do.

    Hopefully you can get information and out the person or find out info on who is providing them these numbers.

  14. #14
    Bronze hardeight's Avatar
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    Druff

    The codes are fip county codes ,
    Peru, IN 46970 is In Miami county Indiana fip code 103

    Sorrento, FL 32776 is in lake county Florida fip code 069

     
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      rum dick: Interesting

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    Owner Dan Druff's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by hardeight View Post
    Druff

    The codes are fip county codes ,
    Peru, IN 46970 is In Miami county Indiana fip code 103

    Sorrento, FL 32776 is in lake county Florida fip code 069
    Shit, you're right.

    But why are they there? Who would put that in the address?

    I still think it's some kind of signal.

  16. #16
    Puts His Dick in the Mashed Potatoes
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    Quote Originally Posted by lol wow View Post
    welcome to cali you fat nerd I somehow had my boa card stolen i still had the card in my wallet and they used it at a chevron station for 99 dollars 2 days days ago

    shout out to lynwood?
    Similar thing happened to me. I took a couple hundred outta my bank via an atm and then 30 minutes later my bank contacted me that someone tried to use the same card to take out $500 at an atm in LA. They had the "card" and my pin. Only reason it didn't work was bc I just used it and was nowhere near LA.

  17. #17
    Bronze hardeight's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dan Druff View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by hardeight View Post
    Druff

    The codes are fip county codes ,
    Peru, IN 46970 is In Miami county Indiana fip code 103

    Sorrento, FL 32776 is in lake county Florida fip code 069
    Shit, you're right.

    But why are they there? Who would put that in the address?

    I still think it's some kind of signal.
    probably A foreigner , who knows could be there way of tracking in a spread sheet or something . easier to track all orders more then likely they do dozens of orders and reroute them somewhere else

    did they order from the same seller on sears.com ? could it be possible the seller put that on there ?

  18. #18
    Bronze RS_'s Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Crowe Diddly View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by RS_ View Post
    Would be nice if credit cards could have an option to enable 2FA when making purchases. Like you have an app and whenever your card gets used, you get a notification.
    I don't believe there's a single major credit card out there that doesn't offer immed notification of purchases if you want it. Just look, no doubt yours already offers this. CapOne calls it Purchase notification, surely everyone else calls it something similar.
    Ah yes, indeed. Although I was thinking more of a "you have to authorize the purchase" with the notification, instead of just being informed it was used. But I did just set that up on one of my credit cards to alert me if I spend over $10. I used it twice since then.....no texts.... =(

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    Owner Dan Druff's Avatar
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    BUMP

    Just happened again with the new card. Pretty convinced one of the companies I'm charging stuff with this card is stealing the info, or perhaps there's a leak inside the bank.

    Here's the address used for the latest stolen order, an online clothing one:

    To Witteles
    1 S. Avenue
    ThuanVo
    Garden City, NY 11530


    That address is Adelphi University, a private college.

    I assume the ThuanVo is some sort of code used to grab the package and identify it as stolen. I am assuming Thuan Vo is not the real name of the people involved, though it's interesting that a Vietnamese name was chosen for this. Perhaps the thief or thieves are Vietnamese.

    I still think certain mail carriers are in on this. They see these certain codes and grab the packages and never deliver them to the destination. I suppose it could be someone at the university who has access to the mail room, but I'm guessing not.

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    Serial Blogger BeerAndPoker's Avatar
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    ^ - This is likely the case that some worker is getting your number and selling it elsewhere.

    I've had my number stolen a two times from 5Dimes we all have heard the stories over there on that. I knew it was someone with access over there to card numbers because I didn't use anywhere else for probably 6 months and it got declined in the process then a month later someone was trying to charge on it several states over getting declined.

    I thought it lead back to them at the time and when I got a replacement card I didn't use it except for gas one time and decided to try it a few months later at 5Dimes only for the same decline and stolen result but this time it was maybe 2 or 3 months later when a person tried to pay for hotel rooms all throughout the world which I'm guessing they did this to try to transfer the room to someone else for a discounted rate and collect the money.

    Two other culprits I tracked back to are companies you would think to be legit and probably intend to be but they have call center workers that if you give your credit card number over the phone they can intercept it for illegal usage.

    The two companies I've had this problem with are SiriusXM and Magicjack when I went to cancel or addon service saying I'm going to cancel if I don't get the same promo I just had (this was with SiriusXM).

    Anytime I would call the toll free number it would be some Broken English speaking person likely working from a call center out of India. These people have access to the info you give them over the phone and some likely are grabbing a bunch of numbers to sell elsewhere or might try to use it themselves.

    So my advice to everyone even for reputable companies offering products/services is if you call them get an American always before you provide any credit information. This isn't to say that American couldn't do the same thing but it would be rare as they aren't thinking about doing this and could be prosecuted while I'd assume it's tough to do that for some call center guy out of India that likely will only lose there job over it.

    In your case with mail carrier codes that is definitely possible. It's also possible a worker from Amazon Prime could be doing stuff like this too for people using that service.

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