The 11 cent scam.

My wife is pretty high up in a bank's  security IT dept.   So she's on top of the latest scams.  An account she had with another bank was scammed for .11 cents by a boys little league club in Mass. 

 Close exam had  a slight change in the tittle and a different IP address. If you checked on it  it looked legit.  Innocent mistake you think. It's only .11 cents. Big deal.  
   Its's called fishing.  They find access to an account  track it and when the time is right they then drain the account.  Only thing to do is close that account and reopen another one. Different code, password.  etc. or next time the account is well stocked it will be drained completely except for .11 cents. 

Just happened to a friend of mine, except his was 54 cents to a massage parlor in Kansas. His bank caught it and locked his card down. The story got more amusing when he went to the bank to get his account unlocked and they asked for his driver's license. His birthday had just been two days before and his license had expired, so they wouldn't give him a new bank card. But he needed his bank card to get a new license.  I'm not sure how he got out of this Catch-22, but when I asked he said he "had resolved it, but there were a lot of layers. And the icing on the cake was when they were printing the new bank card, the printer started smoking and vibrating violently."

Wells Fargo is brutally quick to catch those. Anything that is outside my normal purchasing habits gets declined and I get a text or phone call to verify the purchase. If they don't get a response in a few minutes, they freeze the card. 

Occasionally it's a pain in the ass, but overall well worth the hassle. 

Just woke up this morning to find alerts on my phone for over $500 in charged to a FL travel agency that seems to specialize in theme park trips. 
 

I did not book a trip to Disney World. 
 

Odd thing is that the last four digits of the card used reported for the transactions on the issuers web site don't match our cards. 
 

At least it didn't take long to get the fraud case reported. 

The last couple of times my card has been hacked, there is always a first charge of less than $1.  Then they hit it good.  Fortunately the banks have caught it.  

I had an odd one years ago, like 87 British pence or something.  The nice lady at Visa explained it all to me when I phoned, and a new card showed up a few days later.

Karacticus said:

Just woke up this morning to find alerts on my phone for over $500 in charged to a FL travel agency that seems to specialize in theme park trips. 
 

I did not book a trip to Disney World. 
 

Odd thing is that the last four digits of the card used reported for the transactions on the issuers web site don't match our cards. 
 

At least it didn't take long to get the fraud case reported. 

Was the alert actually from your CC company? Or was it a phishing attempt?

paddygarcia said:

Karacticus said:

Just woke up this morning to find alerts on my phone for over $500 in charged to a FL travel agency that seems to specialize in theme park trips. 
 

I did not book a trip to Disney World. 
 

Odd thing is that the last four digits of the card used reported for the transactions on the issuers web site don't match our cards. 
 

At least it didn't take long to get the fraud case reported. 

Was the alert actually from your CC company? Or was it a phishing attempt?

Among others, I have alerts set up through the CC company for any "card not present" transactions over a certain amount. 
 

Was then able to verify the presence of the pending transactions by logging into the CC website. 

Toyman01 + Sized and said:

Wells Fargo is brutally quick to catch those. Anything that is outside my normal purchasing habits gets declined and I get a text or phone call to verify the purchase. If they don't get a response in a few minutes, they freeze the card. 

Occasionally it's a pain in the ass, but overall well worth the hassle. 

I believe it, and I bet they're pissed that they have competition...

https://uk.sports.yahoo.com/news/wells-fargo-scandals-the-complete-timeline-141213414.html

Karacticus said:

Among others, I have alerts set up through the CC company for any "card not present" transactions over a certain amount. 
 

Was then able to verify the presence of the pending transactions by logging into the CC website. 

Very good. I should have mentioned, the reason I ask is that my wife in particular has been getting a lot of phishing texts regarding fraud or billing on things she doesn't have...

In reply to Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) :

Your link is broken.

I've been banking with Wells Fargo since they bought Wachovia, who originally bought out SCB&T. So call it 40 years with multiple personal and business accounts. In all that time, I've had zero issues. They have always done their job with minimum fuss. I have no plans to change. 

We got hit with a massive carding attack last month. Fraudsters either generate a list of viable numbers (it's an algorithm) or they get their hands on a list of stolen cards, and start running them through a vendor for low value items.Any cards that get approved for purchase are now verified good.

We have multiple layers of defense against this stuff. A few hundred thousand got stopped by the payment gateway, the bank turned away a few thousand, our anti-fraud software picked off the stragglers. I think two got to the point of being actual orders. It was a pretty sophisticated attack as these things go, it didn't trip the usual alarms and it took some concerted work to shut it down.  In our case, they started with a $1 product and since the BIN (first five numbers) was identical on all the cards, I think they were algorithmically generated. We are not allowed to block by the BIN.

One thing to note is that a typical way to confirm ownership of a bank account by PayPal (and others) is to make a small deposit. The owner of the account reports the value of the deposit and ownership is verified. So this 11 cent business is legit sometimes.

Toyman01 + Sized and said:

In reply to Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) :

Your link is broken.

I've been banking with Wells Fargo since they bought Wachovia, who originally bought out SCB&T. So call it 40 years with multiple personal and business accounts. In all that time, I've had zero issues. They have always done their job with minimum fuss. I have no plans to change. 

Dang, that's a bummer.  I'll try it again, but it's just a list of the various scandals and issues they've had recently (between 2016 and 2019).  There's been more than a few judgements against them.

Here's my attempt at re-linking the link:  https://uk.sports.yahoo.com/news/wells-fargo-scandals-the-complete-timeline-141213414.html

But if that one doesn't work, this one is a quicker version of the same list:  https://www.cheatsheet.com/money-career/wells-fargo-ripping-off-people.html/

My bank told me that some of their account numbers had been compromised and out of caution, my ATM / Debt card would be deactivated and a new one would be mailed.

My wife isn't well organized and since she's home all day, she gets the mail so mailing me anything is sketchy at best.

The new card was discovered a month after it was delivered while she was cleaning up for a visit from her sister (who is meticulously organized and recently separated - just joking, don't want).

I go to the bank all excited to be able to withdraw money like a grownup and the berking ATM machine eats my card and sprays plastic confetti in my face; slight exaggeration.

It's fifteen minutes before the bank opens and I have to get to work for a meeting.

An employee steps out of the building and I explain what happened...he tells me that I need to recover the card that day or the bank will destroy it.

Sorry frenchyd, not related, I should have posted this in the minor rant thread.

I had this happen while I was deployed. My debit card got compromised and it started out with a few transactions under a dollar. Then there were multiple transactions in quick succession. I didn't catch it until a month later. I called USAA and explained the fraudulent charges. The customer service rep went line by line through all of the transactions and had me verify if I made the purchase or not.

All in all there were almost 40 fraudulent transactions totalling over $600. USAA refunded me every cent.

The rep then cancelled my card and was going to send me a new one. That was an issue because he would only send it to my address on file, which of course wasn't going to help me because I was deployed in the sandbox at that time. Luckily, I had set up mail forwarding to have all my mail sent to my folks. I was able to get my card a month later. It sucked because I had all of my bills set up to use autopay using my debit card, which I had to cancel and setup again using my new card number. It was a huge PITA.

Moral of the story: keep a close eye on your transactions and immediately report any suspected fraudulent transactions. It can be very inconvenient at best and lead to financial hardships.

Have had this one hit me as well.  Annoying but thankfully the companies seem to be better at catching them much faster than in previous years.

In reply to Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) :

An interesting read for sure, but I'm still not changing banks. 

Toyman01 + Sized and said:

In reply to Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) :

Your link is broken.

I've been banking with Wells Fargo since they bought Wachovia, who originally bought out SCB&T. So call it 40 years with multiple personal and business accounts. In all that time, I've had zero issues. They have always done their job with minimum fuss. I have no plans to change. 

I've been with them even a little longer than that, also with zero issues.  It is kind of a mystery to me how they can tell what is your normal purchasing habits and what isn't - I once had a fraudulent charge show up for something that wouldn't have been out of the realm for me to buy, but they caught it right away.

paddygarcia said:

Karacticus said:

Just woke up this morning to find alerts on my phone for over $500 in charged to a FL travel agency that seems to specialize in theme park trips. 
 

I did not book a trip to Disney World. 
 

Odd thing is that the last four digits of the card used reported for the transactions on the issuers web site don't match our cards. 
 

At least it didn't take long to get the fraud case reported. 

Was the alert actually from your CC company? Or was it a phishing attempt?

My wife checks accounts several times a day and caught it within a few hours. 

stuart in mn said:

Toyman01 + Sized and said:

In reply to Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) :

Your link is broken.

I've been banking with Wells Fargo since they bought Wachovia, who originally bought out SCB&T. So call it 40 years with multiple personal and business accounts. In all that time, I've had zero issues. They have always done their job with minimum fuss. I have no plans to change. 

I've been with them even a little longer than that, also with zero issues.  It is kind of a mystery to me how they can tell what is your normal purchasing habits and what isn't - I once had a fraudulent charge show up for something that wouldn't have been out of the realm for me to buy, but they caught it right away.

 I'm not at Liberty to explain things.  Just that banks spend massive amounts to protect things. The best and brightest work in security. 

The best in brightest work in security in industries that understand the value of security and pay for it.

Bank intrusion protection would be one exciting place.

Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) said:

Toyman01 + Sized and said:

In reply to Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) :

Your link is broken.

I've been banking with Wells Fargo since they bought Wachovia, who originally bought out SCB&T. So call it 40 years with multiple personal and business accounts. In all that time, I've had zero issues. They have always done their job with minimum fuss. I have no plans to change. 

Dang, that's a bummer.  I'll try it again, but it's just a list of the various scandals and issues they've had recently (between 2016 and 2019).  There's been more than a few judgements against them.

Here's my attempt at re-linking the link:  https://uk.sports.yahoo.com/news/wells-fargo-scandals-the-complete-timeline-141213414.html

But if that one doesn't work, this one is a quicker version of the same list:  https://www.cheatsheet.com/money-career/wells-fargo-ripping-off-people.html/

That is all true. It shows that not all managers are honest decent people worthy of the responsibilities they are given.  It doesn't matter what the Bank.  
  The old management was fired and  new people brought in. A sincere effort has been made to clean up their act.   The most recent case a mid level employee failed to do his job ( and since been terminated )   
   To be fair, threats occur not periodically but constantly. Criminals need to be successful only once, while anytime the bank juggles threats  and drops a ball it's news.  Partially because the amounts are so big to the average person while easily misplaced by those used to juggling billions or even trillions. 
Meanwhile loans go on, bank business is continued, and nearly everyone is trying their best.  

frenchyd said:

stuart in mn said:

Toyman01 + Sized and said:

In reply to Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) :

Your link is broken.

I've been banking with Wells Fargo since they bought Wachovia, who originally bought out SCB&T. So call it 40 years with multiple personal and business accounts. In all that time, I've had zero issues. They have always done their job with minimum fuss. I have no plans to change. 

I've been with them even a little longer than that, also with zero issues.  It is kind of a mystery to me how they can tell what is your normal purchasing habits and what isn't - I once had a fraudulent charge show up for something that wouldn't have been out of the realm for me to buy, but they caught it right away.

 I'm not at Liberty to explain things.  Just that banks spend massive amounts to protect things. The best and brightest work in security. 

Well, banks have access to some of your most personal data past and present. Including your location (especially if you use banking apps and check your accounts once a day). They run analytics based on your spending habits and location and use ML/AI to not only protect you but also for marketing opportunities and prediction. It isn't exactly secret squirrel information. But, if you're not somewhat familiar with cyber security and the power of data then it might seem kind of out there.

My card was compromised when I was on vacation. I charged lunch in San Antonio ten minutes after my card number was used for buying lunch for ten people in North Dallas. 

I guess the bank figured that nobody could get across Texas that fast. 

Credit card companies are often really smart about that sort of stuff.  They can also miss the bleedin' obvious.  A friend drove his motorhome from Saskatoon to Phoenix, buying gas all the way.  He then bought gas in the Arizona area for four months, and then, heading back north, his card was shut down somewhere around Denver because of odd behavior...