I never thought it would happen to me :(

[audreyh1]

Yes. Discover immediately closed the account and is sending a new card. My emails from PayPal show the email of the person the gift cards were sent to. Is there anything I can do with that info?

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Yes - call the Discover Fraud department back and tell them you have that info. They are usually interested in any details that help them track down the culprit.

Happening so fast is clearly some kind of automated thing. But still, you'd think their also automated system would shut it down after several identical charges.

Are you sure your Paypal account didn't get hacked? You had better check that to and remove any cards.

 

[audreyh1]

Curious... what is the best defense to this? Seems the normal advice is always just to do your part to hide your information, but these days it can get hacked or leaked even if you are diligent. I spent some time researching LifeLock and wasn't impressed enough with their services to sign up. Maybe I should?

Best defense is to have other cards you can use temporarily when a card is inevitably compromised.

There isn't really anything you can do about it ahead of time. Getting email or text notifications as soon as a charge happens is the best you can do, so that you can notify the card fraud department.

Any credit card will ultimately be compromised. The only way to avoid it is to not use the card.

I have one card that we only use at 4 non-retail companies for their monthly automatic charges and that card stays locked away. It's far less likely that this particular card is compromised, but it still could happen by someone hacking into a company system. Keeping this card separate cordons it off from cards that I use online and at retailers, so when those other cards are compromised I don't have to worry about redoing my monthly automatic charges.

 

[MissMolly]

I changed the password on PayPal. Since the card is no longer valid they can't do anything on there anyway. What a mess.

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[MichaelB]

MissMolly, sorry to hear you are the newest member of this club. It eventually happens to us all, and reaffirms once again the need to monitor one's finances regularly.

Edit to add: I don't understand how the credit card people let this get to $10K. High volume of gift card transactions is a dead giveaway that something is up.

 

[easysurfer]

I changed the password on PayPal. Since the card is no longer valid they can't do anything on there anyway. What a mess.

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When my tax info got hacked I added 2nd Factor Authentication (2FA) to all the accounts that support that. Don't know if you had 2FA on in paypal, that would have made a difference in the hack you are a victim in.

Nevertheless, I like having my account more than just a password or challenge question away.

 

[audreyh1]

MissMolly, sorry to hear you are the newest member of this club. It eventually happens to us all, and reaffirms once again the need to monitor one's finances regularly.

Edit to add: I don't understand how the credit card people let this get to $10K. High volume of gift card transactions is a dead giveaway that something is up.

+1

That should have been flagged immediately!

 

[ivinsfan]

Looks like PayPal might be the target..reports of fake emails saying your PayPal account has been compromised with a fake link that will help you fix it..my nephew just got one and says it looked very authentic.

 

[harley]

Edit to add: I don't understand how the credit card people let this get to $10K. High volume of gift card transactions is a dead giveaway that something is up.

+1

That should have been flagged immediately!

I'm suspecting PayPal as opposed to Discover. I bet the card was set up as the default payment on PayPal, and then PayPal allowed a few purchases of multiple gift cards, so it would only be a few Discover transactions instead of one per gift card. Or something like that. Because you're both right, Discover would never have allowed that many individual purchases.

 

[Texas Proud]

I know a lot of people here talk about CCs.... and I have had that happen to me also...


BUT, even if you do not have a CC you still can have identity theft... about a year ago my DW and I went to Dallas so she could do continuing education... about a month later I was getting a call from Telecheck asking me when I was going to make good on the checks I had written...

I say 'what checks?'.... I do not buy anything with a check.... have not for over 30 years.... well, someone just used my name and address and printed up some checks that looked good... bought a few thousand worth of electronic equipment using a couple of these made up checks.. now, they did NOT have my checking account and the checks were not even with my bank!!!

I had to report it to the police and then give them the case number.... later they tried to make me jump through many hoops (and trying to make me go through their stupid phone system) or they would sue me... I finally got fed up and sent them a letter saying that if they did not stop sending me a letter saying I still owed them that I would sue THEM for illegal collection practices.... they finally stopped....


Bottom line, there is no safe hiding place... even if I did not have a bank account, they can still make up a fake one and possibly get away with it...

 

[Walt34]

Yes. Discover immediately closed the account and is sending a new card. My emails from PayPal show the email of the person the gift cards were sent to. Is there anything I can do with that info?

Other than make sure Discover has the info, not much

I assume that the authorities have that email address and will chase the culprit down?

Well, maybe. Discover will end up eating the loss and thus becomes the legal victim of the offense. When she is made whole (the charges are removed from the account) Miss Molly's legal status changes from victim to witness.

Taking into account the costs of the investigation, placing criminal charges, travel costs for Discover personnel and paying for Miss Molly's transportation/hotel/meals, etc. if it is even possible to place charges Discover may well conclude that the expenses don't justify their expenses and decline to press charges. This is even more likely if the offenders are overseas. Don't take it personally, this is a business decision, not a moral one.

 

[Alan]

Taking into account the costs of the investigation, placing criminal charges, travel costs for Discover personnel and paying for Miss Molly's transportation/hotel/meals, etc. if it is even possible to place charges Discover may well conclude that the expenses don't justify their expenses and decline to press charges. This is even more likely if the offenders are overseas. Don't take it personally, this is a business decision, not a moral one.

In 2013 while in Europe someone racked up $23k over 3 in New York and Atlanta walk-in stores such as Target on clone(s) of my Penfed card. I noticed it after 3 days since I was expecting to see a zero balance because I was using my "chipped" UK card during the 5 months of my vacation, and I had been online and provided the countries and dates that I was going to be in.

Penfed refunded everything but never asked me any questions as to where I had used the card prior to leaving the USA 3 months earlier, so I assumed no serious investigation to find the perpetrators was undertaken.

 

[ivinsfan]

On a gift card isn't Discover likely to just not reimburse PayPal for the bogus charge? Since it is a PayPal gift card, with a gift card number won't PayPal just void out the gift cards. Otherwise it could even be an internal PayPal fraud.

I have another nephew who works retail and someone returned something for an in store credit.Ten minutes later an employee that was doing the restocking noticed the item was damaged and unsaleable and showed signs of use. Two minutes at the computer and the offending store credit was simply zeroed out. They put the item to the side in case the person returned to complain and planned to just give them the item back.

 

[Teacher Terry]

I have had it happen a few times but CAP 1 is very good about quickly figuring out fraud and asking if these are my charges. One time it was a bunch of small charges and they knew it was not us because we only charge large amounts. Then once someone took flying lessons and across the country and after 1 lesson was billed they contacted me.

 

[Aerides]

Credit Card fraud is the least "invasive" to you assuming your bank/issuer isn't stupid. Far easier to resolve than say a checking account. Credit Cards will eat the fraud to make you whole, then go about recouping from the merchant side with you all fixed up.

Any issuer who values you as their customer will also fedex you a new card. They might not offer it, but should do so if you ask.

Gas stations are often part of the first fraud charges as the fraudster can quickly validate the card is good without having a chance that a store clerk will go "i'mma need to take that card"

 

[MissMolly]

I'm suspecting PayPal as opposed to Discover. I bet the card was set up as the default payment on PayPal, and then PayPal allowed a few purchases of multiple gift cards, so it would only be a few Discover transactions instead of one per gift card. Or something like that. Because you're both right, Discover would never have allowed that many individual purchases.

I agree with this. I think it was a PayPal breech too. I also received one of those emails several weeks ago and ignored it thinking it was just a scam. But actually, all the charges were separate on both PayPal and Discover. Each one for $200. Altogether there were 47 gift cards. All processed in under 10 minutes. They must have just clicked the "Buy" button over and over as fast as they could.


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[splitwdw]

I only have my cards set up for email notification. Is it necessary to have text notification too?

 

[NW-Bound]

Over the years, we have had fraudulent charges on our AmEx cards about 3 or 4 times. Each time, AmEx spotted it before we did, and called us to see if it was really our charge. And they always asked us to verify that the card was still physically with us, although they always canceled it and issued a new one. In 3 cases, we suspected it was due to some crook at the vendor we last used the card at, but of course we had no proof.

On a gift card isn't Discover likely to just not reimburse PayPal for the bogus charge? Since it is a PayPal gift card, with a gift card number won't PayPal just void out the gift cards. Otherwise it could even be an internal PayPal fraud.

As this was detected right away, Discover would contact the vendor immediately, and I don't think the gift cards were even sent out.

 

[MissMolly]

The gift cards were e-mailed. The emails I received from PayPal show what address the cards were e-mailed to. I called PayPal myself as soon as I was off the phone with Discover. The girl in the fraud department said she had never seen anything like this. She said they get a lot of fraud but don't usually do anything about it. She escalated this while on the phone with me. Then I got 47 emails from PayPal letting me know it was escalated since they treat each charge as a separate event. It was the lady at PayPal that told me they were going to escalate this to the federal level.

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[ivinsfan]

Even if they were emailed, the unique gift card number can simply be cancelled....The question is how many of them got used before this happened. There is no way the scammer didn't know this would set off lots of alarm bells. Not exactly flying under the radar.

 

[Ed_The_Gypsy]

It does not work in every case, but we have been primarily cash customers for years, esp. For gasoline and restaurants. DW monitors our few CC'S constantly as well.

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[audreyh1]

The gift cards were e-mailed. The emails I received from PayPal show what address the cards were e-mailed to. I called PayPal myself as soon as I was off the phone with Discover. The girl in the fraud department said she had never seen anything like this. She said they get a lot of fraud but don't usually do anything about it. She escalated this while on the phone with me. Then I got 47 emails from PayPal letting me know it was escalated since they treat each charge as a separate event. It was the lady at PayPal that told me they were going to escalate this to the federal level.

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Good to know it warranted escalation!

So it did happen in your PayPal account? It wasn't just a Discover issue?

 

[audreyh1]

I only have my cards set up for email notification. Is it necessary to have text notification too?

No. Email can be just as timely. It depends how you prefer your notifications. If you don't check your email often, you might prefer texts.

 

[MissMolly]

Good to know it warranted escalation!

So it did happen in your PayPal account? It wasn't just a Discover issue?

It appears it happened with my E-bay account. They bought the gift cards on E-bay which is linked to PayPal which is linked to my Discover Card. What a mess!

This all happened Friday morning and I received my new Discover Card by FedEx on Saturday! All charges have been removed from my Discover Card. I can also see on PayPal where they are working through the charges. About half say "Under Review" and the other half say "Closed". I also received an email from PayPal advising me that all charges on my account will be reversed and that my credit card will be made whole.

 

[MissMolly]

Oh, and altogether, starting with the first email alerting me to the "purchase" of the gift cards, I have received 249 emails from E-bay, PayPal and Discover in regard to this situation

 

[audreyh1]

It appears it happened with my E-bay account. They bought the gift cards on E-bay which is linked to PayPal which is linked to my Discover Card. What a mess!

This all happened Friday morning and I received my new Discover Card by FedEx on Saturday! All charges have been removed from my Discover Card. I can also see on PayPal where they are working through the charges. About half say "Under Review" and the other half say "Closed". I also received an email from PayPal advising me that all charges on my account will be reversed and that my credit card will be made whole.

Wow - so it was your eBay account that was hacked! Ouch!

I guess someone doesn't have to enter a PayPal password to use it when logged into their eBay account?