The other day I noticed a weird charge on our credit card from PicturesJungle.com. I went to the website, and didn’t recognize it at all. I wracked my brain trying to remember if I’d made a purchase from somewhere that could be related- since I do occasionally buy stock photos, it was a possibility. But I usually buy them from iStockPhoto and couldn’t for the life of me think of anything in the last month that could be this purchase. And the amount was strange: $9.87. On their website, the membership fees are $2.99 and $9.99… so where does the $9.87 come from? And I know I would have remembered buying a membership to a website like that.
So I did some Google-searching and found this. Looks like we’re not alone and someone got our info somehow and charged our cards. Not only that, but there are a ton of other sites out there that have been related to this scam as well. (So check your statements for anything that looks weird, EVERY MONTH!!!)
I just called my credit card company and they’re closing down our account and issuing new cards and numbers. And naturally, thankfully, we’re not responsible for the fraud charges. But a) I feel violated, b) I just recently memorized our credit card number and NOW I HAVE TO LEARN A NEW ONE and c) I have like a bazillion places that automatically charge my card every month for things like hosting and domain names and phones and argh… I need to go make a list of every company I need to contact with our new info. CRAP.
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I remember the good old days when people had to actually steal copies of your receipts or the old carbon paper… my how times have changed.
Somedays I think “this is why I hate technology”, and then I remember that I actually do love it. I just hate when bad things like this happen to good people. I’m certain with this kind of fraud there are thousand of good people who won’t even notice that little bitty charge.
Evil. Pure evil.
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@Kristin: oh I know- it’s not a huge charge, but if they do it to thousands of people who don’t notice it…?? That’s why it is SO important to check statement every month, because you just never know. It’s really scary!
Ugh. This happened to us a year or two ago… someone actually bought a computer in California with our credit card for like $600-something. Thankfully we watch our statements carefully so we caught it right away. But it’s scary how you have NO IDEA how they got your info and it makes you really paranoid about how easily it can happen again. It is hard to believe that there are so many people who are greedy and heartless enough to do this to others. I’m glad you got it taken care of though! And thanks for the heads up on these scams!
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Actually, I just checked my blog archives (the ‘good’ side of technology… hehe), and it was $850!
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Ugh, that’s like my adventure last week where some porn site somehow processed a CHECK or something through my BANK ACCOUNT.
Identity theft is freaking scary, big OR small, because it’s beginning to happen to almost EVERYONE I know.
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It is scary how much it happens and how easily. Have you tried to figure out how or where they could have gotten your information? I would possibly if not done so already place an alert on your credit since it said one guy had a credit card almost opened in his name by that place or something. Scary stuff. I am thinking of starting to purchase things off the internet with visa or american express gift cards so that way if someone gets a hold of that number they wont get much money.
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My bank called me when they noticed suspicious activity… I was like $3.71 at Walmart on Thursday? hmmm… was I at Walmart on Thursday? And then she said in Illinois.. UM nooo!! ANd it was $371.00…
These people had also bought gas and all kinds of good “little” stuff before it was declined. And I had my card in my wallet the whole time!
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@Jenn: I have no idea how they got our info… the cc company is going to be contacting the 3 credit bureaus on our behalf, and actually we JUST signed up for LifeLock a few months ago, so if anything does happen we should be safe. But we will DEFINITELY be keeping a close eye on things from now on.
I just found this article from a link on cnn. Apparently, its another version of the scam that got you Jen.
http://www.ketv.com/news/15557564/detail.html
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you know Jen I feel your pain.
They bought a boat on ours. Not kidding. It started in November, and we are still trying to get it cleaned up, and he is in jail.
Hopefully its only this one occurance, but check all your other credit cards too. You never know!
Bummer. Its super frustrating.
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oh yeah and so glad you got lifelock.. !! :)
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Hi – thanks for the link over to my post. Apparently they are hitting a lot of people as I am getting a number of hits from folks searching for the various URLs.
Is your card held by Chase perhaps? Mine is a United mileage card, but Chase holds the account, and it seems a number of others were Chase as well.
No idea how they got my info…
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It feels so violating when something like that happens. We were in an apt for a couple mos in between houses and we were robbed while there. We were so mad to think that someone had been in our personal space. They didn’t take as much as they could have, but it was such a headache changing over numbers and all of that, so I’m empathizing with you!
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I felt so accomplished when I finally learned my credit card number by heart. It made online ordering so quick and efficient. I feel your pain on the getting a new card number situation. Thankfully, I just got one because I switched banks.
I also HATE changing information. I move a lot, and remembering everywhere that has your address and updating takes forever. These things always seem to come up at the worst time too. So sorry! Hopefully now that a lot of people are noticing the problem, the authorities can get involved and find these people.
(And I don’t think I’ve commented here before…maybe a long time ago, but I’ve been reading since muted! I think I originally connected with your blog as a fellow Steelers fan ;) )
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You should also call all three credit agencies and report you are a victim of “identity theft”. You can ask that a “fraud alert” be put on your account. That will also entitle you to get one free credit report from each agency. Do not pay for those reports as you are entitled to free ones.
My identity was stolen by a store cashier in 1999. That old data has been reused in many different ways from 1999 to 2007, including opening a commercial lease for a store in my name–something that doesn’t even show up on a credit report. I only found out about it when a lawyer pulled my credit file to try to collect past rent on the store from me and when he phoned me I informed him this was yet another incident of identity theft that I had not even known about. THe store was leased for nearly two years at the time I found out.
The police have informed me that when your data is stolen sometimes it is put onto lists that are then sold to criminals. Therefore new identity thiefs can start new action using your data at any time in the future. Wonderful. Not.
BTW sometimes when a credit card is stolen to test the account, small charges are made, like $3 or $5 at a gas station. When they find that your account is active they then may go on to make much larger purchases.
I found your post through the BlogHerAd link. I am new to the BlogHerAd network.
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Hi! I was sent to your site by Janet (loveisblonde) because we are re-doing our tile floor. I haven’t gotten to that part yet because I had to comment that we had a funny photo-like charge on our Chase card too. I never thought to google it. I disputed the charge and closed the account, but I also contacted the site, who refunded the charge. So maybe it wasn’t the same sort of thing, but weird.