Need advice - stolen credit card numbers and...

[tmm99]

This is what happened.

Someone somehow logged into my amazon account and ordered an expensive cell phone. This person did 1 day shipping and fortunately (for me), this person picked a credit card (stored in my amazon account but you can only see the last 4 digits and each credit card is attached to an address - my home address in my case - and you cannot change the shipping address to something else without entering new credit card information.) that had already been cancelled.

Amazon sends emails to you when you order with Amazon, but I didn't read this particular Amazon email until 2 days later. Then I also realized that I received an email saying my card declined and I needed to fix the problem so they could send me this cell phone I supposedly ordered.

I never ordered this cell phone. I realized that someone might have hacked into my amazon account, so I changed my password immediately and removed valid cards from my account.

Anyway, the thing is... I am now a bit afraid... This order was addressed to be shipped to MY address with 1 day shipping. Does this thief live near me?? Was he/she thinking of coming to the front door of my house the next day and pick up the package??

One strange thing is that I did have a valid credit card on top of the list. He/she could have picked this one instead, and because I didn't notice the amazon emails, he could have come to my house the next day, find a package at the door and just picked it up! Why did he choose the credit card number listed below the good one?

Anyway, my biggest question I have is this.... If I had read my amazon emails in time, it would have been possible for me to have someone stake my front door and catch the thief in action when he/she came to my door to pick up the package. Who would you call for something like that? I was thinking I could call the police, but which department? Would they actually do something for a thief stealing my credit card information to buy a cell phone worth just a few hundred bucks?

tmm

 

[SarahW]

Did you contact Amazon? Maybe it was simply some sort of mixup on their end.

 

[tmm99]

Yes, I did contact Amazon, and they said everything looked legitimate. All orders at Amazon are online orders so if this was some mix-up, there would be tons more mix-ups and it would be on the news, is what I figure. I wanted to see if they pursue any fraudulant orders and they said no. All they would have to do is to give me the IP address of the order origination server and then I give the information to.. (whom?? I am not sure.) but they won't do that.

 

[SarahW]

Well, look at it this way. If some goober did place the order and expect it to arrive on a certain day, he/she would probably have been there waiting. Obviously they don't have access to your email account to see the rejected credit card email from Amazon.

 

[mathjak107]

most vendors wil only ship to the billing address, especially on a next day air.... we had someone try to ship expensive shoes somewhere else with our credit card once and they ended up here in front of our door

 

[Walt34]

Anyway, the thing is... I am now a bit afraid... This order was addressed to be shipped to MY address with 1 day shipping. Does this thief live near me?? Was he/she thinking of coming to the front door of my house the next day and pick up the package??

Anyway, my biggest question I have is this.... If I had read my amazon emails in time, it would have been possible for me to have someone stake my front door and catch the thief in action when he/she came to my door to pick up the package. Who would you call for something like that? I was thinking I could call the police, but which department? Would they actually do something for a thief stealing my credit card information to buy a cell phone worth just a few hundred bucks?

tmm

It is possible, but not definite, that the individual does live near you and was planning to pick up the phone. It is also possible that they simply did it "because they could" and live on the other side of the country from you.

Depending on how busy the police department is where you live, that may be greeted with a stakeout (not likely!) or more likely they would wait until Amazon complained, since had the transaction gone through Amazon would have sustained the monetary loss, not you.

Since you would not have sustained any financial loss the legal victim in such matters is the entity, be it a person or corporation, that would have sustained the financial loss. Therefore they have to file the complaint with law enforcement - and this is the kicker - be willing to spend the time and effort to appear in court. If they won't do that then any investigation is a waste of taxpayer's money and the police and state's attorney immediately lose interest.

The reason is that the first thing that the prosecution has to do in court is prove that a crime was committed. Without a legal representative from the corporation to testify under oath to that fact, the state's attorney cannot do that.

Dang U.S. Constitution gets in the way of common sense like that all the time.

 

[tmm99]

Thank you all for responding to my thread.

Walt,

thank you for a detailed post. You are right, this may have been done by someone who doesn't live near me, but I just get the feeling it was, by a young person who lives in my neighborhood. Maybe next time (if there is a next time), I will stake out myself to see (would that be dangerous?) if someone actually shows up. It is frustrating that there isn't much else you can do about it and I see why this kind of crimes are growing - who wouldn't if there are no negative consequences. Seriously.

tmm

 

[dex]

but I just get the feeling it was, by a young person who lives in my neighborhood.

If it was, you should be very worried about how someone in your neighborhood:
knew where you lived
knew how to access your computer
knew you had an amazon.com account
was able to get into your account.
You should be looking into what spy ware is on your computer.

It is doubtful someone just knew you and guessed you had an amazon account, hacked into amazon, searched for your account, fount it and ordered the phone.

What do you use to access the internet? Wifi?

 

[ziggy29]

What do you use to access the internet? Wifi?

And if so, what security (if any) is being used on the wifi network?

 

[haha]

Thank you all for responding to my thread.

Walt,

thank you for a detailed post. You are right, this may have been done by someone who doesn't live near me, but I just get the feeling it was, by a young person who lives in my neighborhood. Maybe next time (if there is a next time), I will stake out myself to see (would that be dangerous?)

Speaking of stakes, be sure to take one. It could be the work of a vampire.

Ha

 

[tmm99]

...... OK, here is.... the rest of the story.

I have a wireless router. Security enabled. It was turned off once when I was trying to add a new machine and my work VPN wouldn't connect with my router for some reason . I tried a bunch of things and one of them was to reset my wireless router to the default. I got everything working but then I forgot to turn the security back on for a few days.)

I got hacked into my itune account last November (which I believe happened because of the incident above), and some songs (worth $50) were ordered and downloaded to someone's computer. Songs were hiphop and rap music. I changed passwords for my iTune account and for everything else I could think of (I know for sure I changed my email password), had my credit card company cancel the credit card number that was used by the thief, and got a new credit card with a new account number issued.

The order of the amazon purchase was attempted a few days ago with the credit card account that was cancelled last November (although the only account numbers the thief could see were the last 4 digits.)

I am guessing the same person who got into my iTune account attempted to oder the cell phone via my amazon account (I cannot remember if I changed my amazon password last November or not. If I hadn't, then this person might have been able to get in, although I don't know why this person waited this long to do it, so it could be someone else.) Like I said, it's just my guess that some young kid tried to order the cell phone because of the iTune song choices last November.

It is clearly my mistake that I had my wireless router open (security not enabled) for those few days, but it still doesn't excuse the actions of this thief.

 

[landonew]

Just to clarify; For theft/conversion the vendor is indeed the victim.
However, the DA has subpoena power over any corporation that is registered in the state. Consequently, If a crime has been committed then it is the DA's choice (not the victim's) as to whether or not to prosecute. Additionally, Amazon may not have to send a representative to serve as a witness. In accordance with the business records exception (to hearsay), an electronic record that the transaction took place may be sufficient to prove the existence of the crime (i.e. actus reus element). That being said, most DAs will not prosecute unless the victim cares enough to participate.
However, this is not the only charge that can be brought. Wire Fraud can also be brought. The difficulty will be proving who committed the offense. The mere act of picking up the package may not be sufficient to prove wire fraud. Regardless, I would contact law enforcement and see if there is anything that can be done. If the youngster is guilty of this, then a knock on the door by a police officer may be enough to "scare him straight." You would probably be doing him a favor.

 

[Alan]

It is clearly my mistake that I had my wireless router open (security not enabled) for those few days, but it still doesn't excuse the actions of this thief.

Even with wireless encryption enabled you can still pick up key stroke loggers from websites you visits etc So you also need to be sure to have virus scanning software on your PC, and also to do a complete scan now and clean-up anything suspicious.