Yesterday I attempted to use my USAA credit card to make a purchase. To my surprise, and embarrassment, the card was declined. I knew this was unusual because I maintain a low debt on the card and have an ample credit line. I contacted USAA and learned to my dismay that their fraud prevention unit had placed a freeze on the account due to unusual activity. Sure enough, purchases were attempted trough "itunes" and "rapcity" and the card was clearly compromised.
Thankfully, USAA caught this quickly and the damage is minimal. I was hoping the security breach was isolated. I'm beginning to fear it is not.
Today I noticed my hotmail account has been sending spam messages to random people...people not even in my contact list. Clearly my hotmail account has been hacked, as well. I immediately changed the password and the security question, however, I do not know if this will stop the use of this account. I've had this account since 2001 and it is very valuable to me. The thought of closing it is dreadful and would cause almost catastrophic damage to me.
I'm still hoping this is an isolated breach. In other words, that both the credit card information and email information were stolen from the same source, ie. Steam, Sony, etc.
Obviously, I will be monitoring all of my accounts very closely.
Are there any other suggestions as far as precautions to take.
I feel so violated by this. I'm so infuriated and there is nothing I can do to strike back. These criminals are the lowest of the low.
Sorry to hear that.
I've got a story about this but not much time to tell right now.
My only suggestion is to watch all your electronic accounts and consider changing all the passwords.
There are myriad ways bad guys can steal that data these days. My guess is that you're an attorney hanging around areas where successful men with money sometimes go in public. Chances are somebody found you that way.
Maybe consider one of those insurance things that guard personal data? It's probably not expensive and you won't have to be so paranoid about watching your back all the time.
Sorry to hear this happened. It is a shame that people do this but I see it alot at my job.
Anyways a couple things I would look into doing. If you haven't done so in the past year get your free credit report just to make sure someone does not have more than just your credit card and email info.
Also if you use that email for any other financial mailing (bank, 401K, Paypal etc.) I would contact them to make sure nothing has been done or attempted to be done and see if they can put in place any other security measures for you.
Finally check and see if your bank partners with a fraud prevention service for a reduced price to keep track of stuff like LB suggested.
Good luck with everything.
Sorry to hear that JH. Especially about the hotmail account. I can fully appreciate losing my email address to hackers.
I belong to Lifelock, but I'm not sure how effective they are. It could be a sense of false security.
I too am sorry to hear of this.
The mail activity is the key methinks. Sony Et Al wouldn't be able to store your email password unless you used the same
password for Game sites, email and banking. Someone got your email password first and then used it to access your CC info.
Alternatively, you got burned by a keylogging virus that recorded your keystrokes after visiting certain websites such as your
bank/CC company. I'd definitely nuke your 'puter with a number of different AV and malware cleaners such as Malwarebytes.
Also check if any of the people in your address book have been affected before you.
If you havent already, I would use several different passwords with respect to the kind of sites you visit. One for CCs/banking,
one for email, one for shopping sites, and one for forums and the like.
Gah, that blows Jarhead. You have my full sympathies.
In terms of advice, I can't add much to what's already been said -- aside from one thing: As you'll recall, my email account was hacked...last year, I think? (I believe you received a spam message from "me" during that time.) Anyway, after I changed my password, the problem did not occur again, and I suspect you should similarly be okay (since you've now changed your password as well).
However, you might also want to consider changing your password every so often on a regular basis. I realize that's something of a pain, but I've read in a couple different places that it can really help in preventing your account from being hacked (again). I've since been pretty diligent in doing this, changing my account password every 90 days or so (in fact, I'm actually past-due to change it again), and I've had no issues since that time.
Granted, that's only my own personal anecdote, and you should definitely feel free to take my advice with a large grain of salt or two, but it does seem to help.
Ditto. I had this happen a few weeks ago. I discovered that my computer (which had steadily been running slower) was sending out tons of junk emails. After I changed my email password, it seemed to stop. At the same time I scanned my computer only to learn I had picked up 13 (!) trojans (and no, I do not mean the kind that come in a box). I ended up disconnecting my computer from the internet and running virus protection programs repeatedly for about a full day. Again, near the same time I had one of my cards get locked because of questionable (and fraudulent) activity. I suspect they were all related, but for the life of me, I'm not sure which porn site I visited that did the damage.
But thank God for USAA. They tend to be on top of things. Glad you didn't lose your shirt over this, JH.
The scum who do things like this? Slather honey on them and tie them over anthills, all while playing Kenny G in the background. Cruel, I know.....I mean, to make the ants listen to Kenny G.
Well, I ran a full anti-virus scan last night with both kaspersky and malwarebytes and no threats were discovered. I suspect if the breach occurred from malware on a computer, it was from my work computer, which is always suspect. I do try to avoid conducting personal business on that machine, but sometimes it is impossible. I think I'll download and run malwarebytes on that machine today.
Thanks for all the feedback so far.
That sucks. Good luck getting everything set right.
Be careful you don't have some moron ant your workplace who has some money issues, etc.... and they have been stealing your info. Some IT guys have amazing access to stuff...........
Quote from: MIGMaster on February 28, 2012, 02:36:56 PM
Be careful you don't have some moron ant your workplace who has some money issues, etc.... and they have been stealing your info. Some IT guys have amazing access to stuff...........
I don't think anyone who knows me and that I have personal physical access to would EVER pull something like that.
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on February 28, 2012, 03:54:37 PM
Quote from: MIGMaster on February 28, 2012, 02:36:56 PM
Be careful you don't have some moron ant your workplace who has some money issues, etc.... and they have been stealing your info. Some IT guys have amazing access to stuff...........
I don't think anyone who knows me and that I have personal physical access to would EVER pull something like that.
Highly doubtful.
Far more likely is you were in some public-ish area where fat wallets are known to congregate. There are scanners that can read CC data, there are cameras that can be placed to monitor touch pads. And there is the old fashioned virus that can be opened on the unsuspecting. I doubt it is anyone at work. You can never be too careful, but you are in NYC after all. If it's going to happen, it's probably going to happen there.
It occurs to me that you might have been checking your email at a Starbucks or something and someone had a camera hidden behind you in a hat or whatever. Seriously, there is no telling.
So are companies like Lifelock worthwhile, or a waste of time?
Quote from: Epee1 on February 28, 2012, 07:43:05 PM
So are companies like Lifelock worthwhile, or a waste of time?
Never used one. I suspect it can't hurt to try.
Ugh, that sucks JH. I had my Gmail account hacked a couple of months ago (or I briefly signed up to pimp Viagra to friends in my sleep. It's probably 50/50...). Such a colossal pain in the ass. And I had some weirdness with my bank account a few years back, but I changes my card and numbers immediately and cut it off before it got really bad.
on a related note: if you use Firefox you can download the add on Collusion. it shows all of the cookies activity and is kind of depressing to watch.
I was at Home Depot the other night, and had placed an order for about $1900 in custom cabinets. The card was declined, and about 5 minutes later, my phone rang. It was the CC company's fraud detection department wondering if my card had been stolen b/c they saw a large and unusual purchase attempt on my acc't.
Jarhead - any update on the resolution on this?
At least USAA acted quickly and saved you from a pile of fraudulent charges. I wish all banks were prompt in acting.
Last year my corporate credit card was used to make over $6000 in fraudulent charges (all in Malaysian dollars and Euros) over a 1 month period before BMO put a hold on the card. Fortunately BMO reimbursed me because I am ultimately responsible for all charges on the card. In any case I cancelled the card and refused a new one because I had no confidence that this would not happen again. In fact a colleague has had the same thing happen several times with his corporate card. Clearly BMO just doesn't care!
Quote from: Shelldrake on March 13, 2012, 07:53:46 AM
At least USAA acted quickly and saved you from a pile of fraudulent charges. I wish all banks were prompt in acting.
Actually, it was Capital One. I thought they spent all their extra dollars on marketing/advertising and college bowl games, but apparently they have an on-top-of-it fraud department :)
late edit: just realized the USAA comment was probably directed at Jarhead. Yes, I'm a dolt.
Sorry I didn't see this until now. Same thing happened to me years ago and there was a total of 500.00 charged on my account, also to iTunes and similar stuff.
The fraud detection unit of my credit union was able to recover 480.00. How did the 16 year old girls get my info? At the gas station.
Turns out it was a village wide scam and the two teenage girls were arrested in a mini sting a few months later. Be careful at the gas station. The only reason these girls were caught is because I live in a small village and it happened to enough people at once for the police to actually do something.
LB is right above...it probably happened at some public sort of place. You can't trust anyone. I try to use cash at places I don't know well.
The way I figure it - if it can happen, it will happen in NY. Simple as that.
I've seen these TV segments about how your personal info can be stolen by all sorts of ways. 2+2=4 here, at least to me.
Jarhead is probably frequenting places like coffee shops near the courthouse where folks are likely to be successful and therefor worth targeting to criminals. If it's going to happen anywhere it'll happen in NY.
Welcome to the club. The smoking lounge is located in the back. Lads only, please.
I would humbly suggest that the two events were coincidental, and not consequential. Every now and then, some carpet-bagging email huckster will either compromise or buy a list of thousands of hotmail email addresses (just the name, mind you, not the account) and use them to spam every mother-loving person with an email. Less frequently, someone will temporarily compromise an email account and spam all your contacts. Microsoft is actually pretty good about identifying this kind of activity, and they will automatically shut-down your hotmail account as soon as an out-going email threshold is passed. Next time you login, there will be a "your account may have been compromised" message that will force you to re-verify and reset your password, etc. It's a hassle, but basically harmless.
Credit card and debit card fraud are increasing problems everywhere. My parents had their account compromised and they NEVER use their account in non-face-to-face transactions (web, phone, etc). My debit card was skimmed by someone who placed a chip-reader into the POS machine at a Whole Foods Market - hardly the place I would put on my "suspect places" list.
Point is...if you have a credit card and you USE your credit card, there are any number of ways and places it can be compromised. I change the PIN on my credit card and debit card every month (does some good at preventing hacking my debit card, but probably won't stop credit card fraud). BTW...if you go on vacation somewhere, make sure you tell your credit card company about the upcoming trip. Nothing like going to Florida, buying some luggage / golf clubs / etc on the credit card, then having it rejected at the restaurant that night because the bank noticed some uncharacteristic spending trends.
regards,
Jack Nastyface
Thanks for all the feedback guys. So far, knock on wood, there have been no further compromises. I received my new USAA MCA card and all is well and good. I changed my password and security question on my hotmail account and that seems to have stopped the spam.
I'm, of course, remaining vigilant.
^Excellent. One more thing I forgot to add and this may sound wonky:
When you receive deliveries (USPS, UPS, FedEx) and are ready to recycle/throw away the packaging, remove the tracking and address stickers.
I have heard horror stories of how people have had their personal info compromised by leaving these stickers intact and put them out at the curb where anyone can come by, scan them and gain sensitive information.
On every package I get (and I get a lot from Amazon, for the kids, The Wife, etc) I remove every sticker with a serial bar code/scanner code, just in case. Most packages have 2-4.
Quote from: Gusington on March 14, 2012, 09:20:29 AM
^Excellent. One more thing I forgot to add and this may sound wonky:
When you receive deliveries (USPS, UPS, FedEx) and are ready to recycle/throw away the packaging, remove the tracking and address stickers.
I have heard horror stories of how people have had their personal info compromised by leaving these stickers intact and put them out at the curb where anyone can come by, scan them and gain sensitive information.
On every package I get (and I get a lot from Amazon, for the kids, The Wife, etc) I remove every sticker with a serial bar code/scanner code, just in case. Most packages have 2-4.
Never heard of that, but it sounds like a good ideal. Thanks.
I can't remember where I read that but I've been doing it for at least 7-8 years. If you think about it, it really does make sense as any goober with a scanner can come by and lift your info from in tact stickers. In theory. So why give them the opportunity if it is indeed possible, you know?
Quote from: Gusington on March 14, 2012, 09:43:27 AMI can't remember where I read that but I've been doing it for at least 7-8 years.
I think you're being overly paranoid Mr Gus Gusington of 7734 Pitchfork Lane, West Point, NY.
Well like I said I don't remember where I read it. I'm only overly paranoid until my scratch gets compromised by some goober with a scanner! It makes sense to me...why leave it to chance? I was already compromised by the goober at the village gas station.
Quote from: Epee1 on February 28, 2012, 07:43:05 PM
So are companies like Lifelock worthwhile, or a waste of time?
up here in Canada we have zilch liability for credit card fraud ...
Quote from: TheCommandTent on February 27, 2012, 07:27:49 PM
Anyways a couple things I would look into doing. If you haven't done so in the past year get your free credit report just to make sure someone does not have more than just your credit card and email info.
Beat me to it.
That is the first thing that occurred to me, make sure you check for any hits on your credit report.
The surprising thing is the bank was on this without contacting you. When I went on a trip that resulted in "unusual purchases" the bank called my cell immediately to find out what was going on. They seem very proactive on this in the last few years. It also give a very positive PR image to the firm when they do that.