Concerned about these credit card charges. How best to handle?

[omni550]

Odd situation. Not sure if I should be alarmed nor how to best handle it.

About a month ago, I received an e-receipt from Hollister (a clothing store for teens/young adults) for about $60 in purchases. It was sent to one of my two regularly-used email addresses which is not a common nor easily-confused-with-some-other address.

The store where this purchase was made is in a large mall about 40 miles from my Michigan home.

I was perplexed by this as I've been in Florida since Nov., have never shopped at Hollister, nor been in one of their stores, don't have any family who would be shopping at Hollister, etc. Within minutes of receiving the receipt, I called the store where the purchases were made, and the clerk said she had not had any issues with a credit card decline and suggested I call my credit card company. I called PenFed...and the agent asked me to read him the receipt (to determine whether or not it might be spam. He decided it wasn't spam.). And he checked my Visa accounts and there weren't any Hollister charges on them.

Since then, I've been getting Hollister sales/marketing emails periodically. And I purposely didn't unsubscribe, as I wanted to see if there would be more purchases.

Just now, I got another e-receipt for another purchase of approx. $60 at the same store today. These receipts are not only sent to my email address, but my (unusual) first name is the salutation on the ereceipt.

Looking at this closely, I'm wondering if this shows that the charges have been made to an American Express account ending in -3001? (See receipt below). I do not have any American Express credit cards, only Visa cards.

Any suggestions for next steps? (I'm hoping someone didn't waylay an AmEx credit card invitation meant for me at my Michigan address, and open a card in my name of which I am unaware.) If I were to call AmEx I'm not sure how they'd be able to figure out which of their cards, and to whom it is issued, was used for these purchases. Another fear is, if there is a card issued in my name, perhaps they are ringing up all sorts of purchases at a variety of stores, and those stores are issuing paper receipts (which I would not see.)

Adding to this situation, the USPS mail forwarding this year has been ghastly. I have that useless (useless because I get more notifications that say they don't have an image of the mail that is going to be delivered than I do images of real mail ) USPS email notification of mail that is being delivered to my Michigan address. And a lot of that mail has not made it to me in Florida.

Suggestions?

omni

 

[Aerides]

I would check my credit report for inquiries/new accounts, check my amex bill (pending charges), and then contact hollister (by phone). It says it is a hollister member, so they can track it down via a transaction ID and your email address.

The partial amex number won't tell amex anything. But that's a replacement card number, 3001 means a primary account holder, 3rd replacement issue ever. If you don't have an amex, that's not going to be a helpful clue.

 

[meierlde]

Odd situation. Not sure if I should be alarmed nor how to best handle it.

About a month ago, I received an e-receipt from Hollister (a clothing store for teens/young adults) for about $60 in purchases. It was sent to one of my two regularly-used email addresses which is not a common nor easily-confused-with-some-other address.

The store where this purchase was made is in a large mall about 40 miles from my Michigan home.

I was perplexed by this as I've been in Florida since Nov., have never shopped at Hollister, nor been in one of their stores, don't have any family who would be shopping at Hollister, etc. Within minutes of receiving the receipt, I called the store where the purchases were made, and the clerk said she had not had any issues with a credit card decline and suggested I call my credit card company. I called PenFed...and the agent asked me to read him the receipt (to determine whether or not it might be spam. He decided it wasn't spam.). And he checked my Visa accounts and there weren't any Hollister charges on them.

Since then, I've been getting Hollister sales/marketing emails periodically. And I purposely didn't unsubscribe, as I wanted to see if there would be more purchases.

Just now, I got another e-receipt for another purchase of approx. $60 at the same store today. These receipts are not only sent to my email address, but my (unusual) first name is the salutation on the ereceipt.

Looking at this closely, I'm wondering if this shows that the charges have been made to an American Express account ending in -3001? (See receipt below). I do not have any American Express credit cards, only Visa cards.

Any suggestions for next steps? (I'm hoping someone didn't waylay an AmEx credit card invitation meant for me at my Michigan address, and open a card in my name of which I am unaware.) If I were to call AmEx I'm not sure how they'd be able to figure out which of their cards, and to whom it is issued, was used for these purchases. Another fear is, if there is a card issued in my name, perhaps they are ringing up all sorts of purchases at a variety of stores, and those stores are issuing paper receipts (which I would not see.)

Adding to this situation, the USPS mail forwarding this year has been ghastly. I have that useless (useless because I get more notifications that say they don't have an image of the mail that is going to be delivered than I do images of real mail ) USPS email notification of mail that is being delivered to my Michigan address. And a lot of that mail has not made it to me in Florida.

Suggestions?

omni

The least concerning issue is someone typed an email address wrong with Hollister.
You could call american express and say you are concerned that someone may have stolen your identity and ask if they have a card in your name that ends in the digits given. (Or pull your credit reports and see if there is an Amex entry other than one you expect).

 

[omni550]

I would check my credit report for inquiries/new accounts, check my amex bill (pending charges), and then contact hollister (by phone). It says it is a hollister member, so they can track it down via a transaction ID and your email address.

The partial amex number won't tell amex anything. But that's a replacement card number, 3001 means a primary account holder, 3rd replacement issue ever. If you don't have an amex, that's not going to be a helpful clue.

Thanks.

I will check my credit report.
I do not have any AmEx cards/accounts. (That I know of, anyway ). And then contact Hollister corporate offices.

omni

 

[omni550]

The least concerning issue is someone typed an email address wrong with Hollister.
You could call american express and say you are concerned that someone may have stolen your identity and ask if they have a card in your name that ends in the digits given. (Or pull your credit reports and see if there is an Amex entry other than one you expect).

Not only do they have my email address, but my first name is at the top of the e-receipt (I left it off the attachment.)

omni

 

[Rustward]

I would contact both the store and Amex and just tell them what you wrote here. Don't make any premature conclusions (like there is no Amex card in your name) as one may have been opened without your knowledge. The store should be able to access the card information in their system through the transaction number (assuming that is the store's transaction number) although they might not give you that information.

One question I would definitely ask Amex is is there a credit card in your name. You might likely have to jump through some hoops with Amex on this, especially if you don't have an account number to start the call with.

There could be another Omni550. I have an unusual last name -- last time I looked, there were 4 of us in the DFW metroplex phonebook (I know, phonebooks are so last millennuim, and not everybody is listed) (5.5 million people). That said, my PCP has another patient with my exact first and last names.

Probably the best thing would be to get Hollister and Amex to work together to explain what happened, but that might be difficult. This could be just a simple foo pas in the store's IT system. I have worked with card systems in three places that issue credit cards -- two megabanks with "America" or "American" somewhere in the name, and one retail place that uses a bullseye logo -- and sometimes errors are made.

Best wishes, good luck, and let us know how it goes for you.

 

[omni550]

Thanks for the speedy responses and suggestions, aerides, meierlde, and Rustward!

Whew, what a chore.

American Express's website is a mess and took me to all sorts of dead links. I finally found a fraud number and was able to speak to a rep and he confirmed that there is no account with my name.

Similarly, with the 3 credit unions it is difficult to reach a human. I finally spoke to a live person at TransUnion and he confirmed that I do not have any American Express accounts nor any credit cards ending in -3001 in my credit file.

After a lot of futzing around on their site, I found a corporate phone number for Hollister. By searching my email in their system, the rep there was able to see the 2 sales transactions for which I had received e-receipts. She verified that my first name and email are on them, but the phone number and last name of whoever made those charges is not mine. She is elevating it to a higher authority who will be in touch with me.

Hopefully, this is merely an email & first name mix-up somehow.

omni

 

[LOL!]

I have received e-mail receipts from someone in Australia. They just happened to give the wrong e-mail address. Clearly, they don't care about getting e-mail receipts.

 

[GravitySucks]

Thanks for the speedy responses and suggestions, aerides, meierlde, and Rustward!

Whew, what a chore.

American Express's website is a mess and took me to all sorts of dead links. I finally found a fraud number and was able to speak to a rep and he confirmed that there is no account with my name.

Similarly, with the 3 credit unions it is difficult to reach a human. I finally spoke to a live person at TransUnion and he confirmed that I do not have any American Express accounts nor any credit cards ending in -3001 in my credit file.

After a lot of futzing around on their site, I found a corporate phone number for Hollister. By searching my email in their system, the rep there was able to see the 2 sales transactions for which I had received e-receipts. She verified that my first name and email are on them, but the phone number and last name of whoever made those charges is not mine. She is elevating it to a higher authority who will be in touch with me.

Hopefully, this is merely an email & first name mix-up somehow.

omni

Looks like someone used your name and email at Hollister and you have nothing to worry about.

 

[cathy63]

This happens to me with REI. Since I also buy things at REI occasionally, I know that at the cash register you have the option to say that you want a receipt by email instead of on paper, and you can give them the email address where they should send it. Once you've done this, then that email address is permanently associated with that REI account. As a result, I get my own receipts and the receipts of the other person who erroneously gave my email address. The first couple of times I was worried about fraudulent charges, but now I know to just ignore them. I think you're in a similar situation here.