So on Friday I get a voicemail from Apple.com saying that my orders have been canceled due to "processing difficulties". I call them to find out what's going on and turns out someone ordered about $1,000 worth of Ipods to be shipped to 2 different locations, one in WA and one in Kinston, NC. I never lost my debit card, so the # was obviously stolen. When I check my account, there's a check card hold for $400 for an entirely different Apple.com purchase I didn't authorize. I file a police report here, contact my bank, and then call both police stations where the products were to be delivered. The cops talk to the people on the shipping addresses and call back saying they don't think these people are involved at all.

I want to find out who the hell did this. Anyone think of any other ideas how to go about this? Also, do you think my account itself is safe? I wanted to switch account #'s, but the Wachovia representative told me it wasn't necessary at all. All in all, I'm pissed, want vengence, and want to make sure nothing like this happens in the future.

8/17/2008 4:08:56 PM

If you ordered anything online and you have some type of virus or spyware, someone could have gotten your number.

8/17/2008 4:14:48 PM

you pretty much did all you can do

8/17/2008 4:14:49 PM

Turn it over to the bank. They have more muscle in the form of attorneys, etc.

8/17/2008 4:19:16 PM

recently people have been ordering things to people's houses and picking up the package before the owners know there's one there

sometimes ups or usps employees are actually involved

here's a thread about a recent event where shit went crazy wrong

message_topic.aspx?topic=536762

8/17/2008 4:19:19 PM

let the bank and police do the work

8/17/2008 5:07:42 PM

^

there isn't shit you can do.

8/17/2008 5:17:47 PM

The bank said they don't go after people, they just refund your money. I was pretty ticked to hear that. And both police stations said that they looked into the people on the shipping address, and that's all they could do. I know they've got bigger things on their plate, but it ticks me off that these people can just do it again and again without anyone really looking into it.

8/17/2008 5:18:06 PM

Were I you, I'd be switching banks.

Not necessarily because of this alone, but because the major banks like wachovia and HBSC have very bad track records when it comes to letting customers know that their account's security has been compromised. Add that to their hit-or-miss customer service record, and I'd be doing all I can to avoid ending up with my money compromised at an unfriendly bank.

Last year some time, I got a letter from NCSECU saying 'due to a breach with [3rd party vendor], we have reason to believe that your account may have been exposed to unauthorized activity. We're watching it for you, but wanted to let you know. If you seen anything that concerns you, call us immediately.'

You will never get a letter like that from Wachovia. The laws concerning data breaches apply to identity theft as a whole, and not account numbers.
So short of switching banks, it sounds like you have done all you can.

Fraud just usually isn't too big a priority, compared to local crimes, parties and donuts

[Edited on August 17, 2008 at 5:19 PM. Reason : Not right, but that's life.]

[Edited on August 17, 2008 at 5:19 PM. Reason : the AG office is a good suggestion - they really DO care about fraud, and deeply so]

8/17/2008 5:18:10 PM

you can also call the attorney general's office

might help to speed things up


Be sure you called Wachovia's Loss Protection number...they are the ones you need to contact at Wachovia

8/17/2008 5:18:25 PM

local police dont give a damn..most of them honestly don't have a clue how it even works. until you get to the secret service level nobody is going to care--and at that level they've working on bigger people

8/17/2008 5:26:56 PM

you have to say that there were drugs involved or they don't care.

they will shoot your dogs though.

8/17/2008 5:40:39 PM

http://www.lifelock.com

8/17/2008 6:04:15 PM

^ That guy got busted. Turns out his SS number was jacked twice. Its supposed to help but its far from fool proof.

8/17/2008 6:15:15 PM

i too have heard that the life lock service is far from excellent

8/17/2008 6:20:23 PM

Quote :

"The cops talk to the people on the shipping addresses and call back saying they don't think these people are involved at all. "

lol - i'm sure they did a lot of looking into it, too

8/17/2008 6:41:34 PM

I mean all this stuff aside, you totally fail for banking w/wahcovia.

8/17/2008 6:53:58 PM

if wachovia was not so convienent, i would close my account right now...gonna do it once i graduate

8/17/2008 7:41:36 PM

The people at the shipping addresses may not have anything to do with it - there's been a ring lately where the people hang out waiting for FedEx/UPS to arrive, then say they 'accidentally inverted the house numbers' on the package, so the people at the house (who know they didn't order anything) hand the newly arrived box to them.

Been going on a lot lately.

8/17/2008 8:56:59 PM

lol, a "ring", "lately"?

try it's been common for years

8/17/2008 9:19:37 PM

Quote :

"want vengence"

rawrawrawrawr

8/17/2008 9:41:21 PM

Quote :

"I mean all this stuff aside, you totally fail for banking w/wahcovia."

True, but most of the other banks fail as well

8/17/2008 10:03:11 PM

Quote :

"Last year some time, I got a letter from NCSECU saying 'due to a breach with [3rd party vendor], we have reason to believe that your account may have been exposed to unauthorized activity. We're watching it for you, but wanted to let you know. If you seen anything that concerns you, call us immediately.'"

Similar thing happened to me, except they just went ahead and canceled my debit card and sent me a new one with a new number on it.

8/18/2008 12:18:10 AM

Don't use a debit card with a Visa logo. If they don't know your PIN then the cards/#'s are pretty useless. Use a credit card for transactions and pay it off each month.

8/18/2008 12:34:58 AM

Quote :

"That guy got busted. Turns out his SS number was jacked twice. Its supposed to help but its far from fool proof."

do some research before knocking it.

the service did as advertised. It does not FULLY PREVENT id theft, as advertised. However, the service did catch the fraud, and correct it.

One incident was someone got a small loan on his SSN. This type of loan does not verify SSN's, etc. And the guy was still caught.

And to be broadcasting your SSN for years and only have 2 successful thefts, is quite a track record. Still, the service corrected the situation.

[Edited on August 18, 2008 at 8:31 AM. Reason : .]

8/18/2008 8:30:35 AM

word, that site inspired me to make a couple calls and write a few emails to hopefully remove some junkmail:

http://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs4-junk.htm

8/18/2008 9:52:04 AM

Quote :

"Don't use a debit card with a Visa logo. If they don't know your PIN then the cards/#'s are pretty useless. Use a credit card for transactions and pay it off each month."

amen.
why in the hell do people think its a good idea to make it really easy for crooks to access their checking account? wake up!

8/18/2008 10:00:20 AM

Quote :

"Don't use a debit card with a Visa logo"

?

the only time I use my debit card anyways is at gas stations to get a better price but im still curious as to what the reasoning is there. mainly just because people can order stuff online with that number without needing much more confirmation?

[Edited on August 18, 2008 at 10:40 AM. Reason : ]

8/18/2008 10:31:07 AM

^ Because it's your money that they are using, not visa's. If your credit card gets stolen, regardless of how many times that card is used fraudulently, you aren't out any money. By contrast, if you get your debit card stolen, every time that card is used fraudulently, it comes out of your bank account immediately and doesn't come back till you sort things out.

8/18/2008 1:08:28 PM

right, that makes sense. like i said, I use my credit card for pretty much everything anyways. guess i just forgot its much easier to dispute a charge before a statement than get back money that is pretty much already removed from your checking account.

8/18/2008 1:19:02 PM

yeah.. basically if something happens and you call the bank they are gonna put a hold on your card/account and depending on the bank sometimes you're up shit creek until it gets sorted out. with credit card the worst that happens is you can't use it for a while--but that shouldn't matter since you still have your regular bank account to use or another credit card

oh, also, a lot of banks now have policies where they give you a temporary credit line while things are getting worked out

[Edited on August 18, 2008 at 1:19 PM. Reason : saf]

8/18/2008 1:19:11 PM

Quote :

"I wanted to switch account #'s, but the Wachovia representative told me it wasn't necessary at all."

ummmm what?

you might wanna get a copy of your credit report to make sure nothing looks fishy up there too. Or go ahead and put a fraud alert or credit freeze on yourself until you get things sorted out.

8/21/2008 2:17:47 AM

Quote :

"Last year some time, I got a letter from NCSECU saying 'due to a breach with [3rd party vendor], we have reason to believe that your account may have been exposed to unauthorized activity. We're watching it for you, but wanted to let you know. If you seen anything that concerns you, call us immediately.' You will never get a letter like that from Wachovia. The laws concerning data breaches apply to identity theft as a whole, and not account numbers."

that isn't true, i've gotten a letter like that from wachovia before.

also, it's strange that wachovia said that it wasn't necessary to change your account number. i've had my card number used twice, and when i called them up, they immediately cancelled my card, refunded my money, and sent me a new card.

8/21/2008 8:06:34 AM

They told me that just my debit card # was stolen, not my checking account #, so there is no need to change my account #.

8/21/2008 12:47:24 PM

Quote :

""I mean all this stuff aside, you totally fail for banking w/wahcovia.""

not true, I had my debit card information stolen online and wachovia refunded the fraud purchases in less than 24 hours and found out who was using it.

8/21/2008 5:05:15 PM