Credit card scam story.

[kingscreen]

We all know the email...

I want to know whether you can have blank tee shirts for sale?am looking for blank tee shirts with no screen printing.Break down are the colors am looking for.

Brand ::Gildan
Size     ::Adult Small
Color    ::500 Black and 500 Maroon
             ::50/50 % Cotton/Polyester
Qtys     ::1000

Let me know the total cost of the tee shirts without shipping.
Kind Regards

But the craziest thing just happened. I got this email and instead of my typical $1,000,000. quote, I replied with a real one. I sometimes like to just waste these jerks' time and mess with them for as many emails as I can get them to reply to. Their second reply included a shipping address and wanted a new price including shipping. I play along and send them another quote. Now, I've jacked the price through the roof; nearly $5,000! The third email from the scammer includes a FULL MasterCard number, expiration date, CSV code, and the billing zip code. YIKES! Here's where I decide to get a bit creative (lunch break down time). I reply requesting the card holder's full name as shown on the card. Immediate reply. Now I go to Google. Using the billing zip code and the name, I am able to find the card holder's telephone number and call her! I explain to her the situation and she confirms it is her card (only giving her the last 4, of course). She was resoundingly grateful and was calling MC as soon as we hung up. Pretty crazy thinking all the headache she could have gone through. A bit surreal for me.

How do you guys handle these scams? Ever think about the person out there about to get scammed?



***I tried calling MC myself first and after 15 minutes chasing around their automated system, I gave up.

[ebscreen]

That's really above and beyond of you. It's been my feeling of not even replying in any way
so that I don't even end up on a "valid email list" or whatever.

I bet you could sit there and say nope, declined and they'd send you number after number.

All in all, it seems like CC companies could really give a rats azz...

[StuJohnston]

That's really above and beyond of you. It's been my feeling of not even replying in any way
so that I don't even end up on a "valid email list" or whatever.

I bet you could sit there and say nope, declined and they'd send you number after number.

All in all, it seems like CC companies could really give a rats azz...

That's basically my MO regarding scams. For some reason, I have been getting a rash of emails that are all basically the same. They have a seminar coming up in my city in a week or two and want shirts with the phrase, "arise and shine" with an attribution to a similarly phrased passage of the bible. One time, I got this email that had one name attached to the email address, another in the message and a third in the signature line!

[alan802]

I try to string them along and waste as much of their time as I can without costing me any serious time.  I haven't gotten as far as you have though.  I've done the quotes and then followed up with an eager email looking to finalize the sale but never have gotten them to take the bait the entire way.

[IntegrityShirts]

I've got a scammer I'm baiting right now for the CC number, name, and cardholder address.  Trying to do the same thing as King and let the true identity know! We'll see if they send it!

[Stinkhorn Press]

The part of this I've never understood -
If and when they find their sucker (and they must, they keep on coming) ... How do they profit? Do they accept delivery and re-sell the shirts "fell off the back of a truck"-style? Surely there are better ways to make bank off stolen number than to buy something like a blank which compared with many other things is incredibly bulky and low cost?? Am I missing something?

[IntegrityShirts]

UPDATE:

After telling the scammer that I only operate online and to send me the CC info, he did.

Tried contacting the owner by looking his address up on the public GIS information in his town.  He didn't answer so I left a message.

Found the bank issuer of the card by the first 6 digits (you can find these online) and called Chase card services and reported the fraud attempt.

They put a hold on his account and thanked me a bunch. lol wasted 30 minutes of my life, but at least I can say I did it once!!

If you feel like baiting them, I'd suggest just calling the card issuer by looking up the first 6 numbers on the card and reporting it to them, would have saved me 20 minutes!

[Gilligan]

You possibly saved that card holder way more than 30 mins... Good on ya!

[inkman996]

UPDATE:

After telling the scammer that I only operate online and to send me the CC info, he did.

Tried contacting the owner by looking his address up on the public GIS information in his town.  He didn't answer so I left a message.

Found the bank issuer of the card by the first 6 digits (you can find these online) and called Chase card services and reported the fraud attempt.

They put a hold on his account and thanked me a bunch. lol wasted 30 minutes of my life, but at least I can say I did it once!!

If you feel like baiting them, I'd suggest just calling the card issuer by looking up the first 6 numbers on the card and reporting it to them, would have saved me 20 minutes!

Wow this makes me think of a great program these banks and CC companies should implement. Have some type of incentive program for reporting confirmed stolen card numbers. Just look at us bunch we trash the stupid emails or hang up on these guys when they call, imagine we had an incentive to take the time and bag them.

[kingscreen]

Good work Inkman! At the end of the day it uses up a little bit of time but I'm sure all of us wish someone would do it for us if roles were reversed. We should all do this as much as we can.

[prozyan]

The part of this I've never understood -
If and when they find their sucker (and they must, they keep on coming) ... How do they profit? Do they accept delivery and re-sell the shirts "fell off the back of a truck"-style? Surely there are better ways to make bank off stolen number than to buy something like a blank which compared with many other things is incredibly bulky and low cost?? Am I missing something?

From what I understand of the scam, the profit comes from the shipping.  Something about shipping charges being non-refundable or something along those lines.

[IntegrityShirts]

Owner of the card called today to thank me for cancelling the card. Had a customer in so had to make it short. She said she had recently ordered some shirts from Zazzle.com. Not saying that Zazzle is at fault but we thought it was ironic that her last purchase was shirts!

[abchung]

Wow this makes me think of a great program these banks and CC companies should implement. Have some type of incentive program for reporting confirmed stolen card numbers. Just look at us bunch we trash the stupid emails or hang up on these guys when they call, imagine we had an incentive to take the time and bag them.

I believe they do have a reward for people that reports to them.
When I was back in Australia working for an electronic store, the register girl use to get AU$50 gift vouchers or something from the credit card company when she reports a fake card.