Was robbed

[jimnyc]

We got an alert from American Express the other day with the following message:


Your account was used to make a purchase, however the Card was not presented to complete the transaction. This is usually the case with purchases made online or over the phone.

Transaction Date: Tue, Nov 25, 2014

Purchase Amount: 156.28 CNY

Merchant Name: CAIBAO NETWORK TECH SEV CO SZ

Transaction Location: SHENZHEN

So of course I was like WTF? I didn't buy anything for $156, nor anything online or on the phone that I was aware of. I did a tiny bit of poking around and saw that "Shenzhen" was in China, and the money was actually in Chinese Yuan, and the total was really $26.15 USD. We got in touch with them and they immediately closed my account, and re-issued me a new card with a new number.

We "think" it was Home Depot, where I used Amex several times in the past month. Home Depot recently announced they were hacked and compromised. We'll likely never know for sure though. But at least I now have a replacement cool looking card with some chip in it now.

But if any of you has shopped at Home Depot this year, you may want to check your cards just to ensure you weren't taken advantage of!!

[Abbey Marie]

We do credit transactions all the time now, to avoid using a PIN at stores. Does that make sense, or do hacked accounts get all the info they need either way?

[jimnyc]

We do credit transactions all the time now, to avoid using a PIN at stores. Does that make sense, or do hacked accounts get all the info they need either way?

That's what mine was, plain credit. I wonder if it would have mattered if I used debit? Maybe the thief would have gotten my number but without a pin? I prefer using credit with Amex, and you can see why. They emailed me this many times in the past, but it's always been proper charges. And even when something like this goes through, they of course reversed the charges ASAP.

[LongTermGuy]

That's what mine was, plain credit. I wonder if it would have mattered if I used debit? Maybe the thief would have gotten my number but without a pin? I prefer using credit with Amex, and you can see why. They emailed me this many times in the past, but it's always been proper charges. And even when something like this goes through, they of course reversed the charges ASAP.


`As you probably know already...Always use Credit card....harder / Longer to get money back using Debit.....`

[aboutime]

We got an alert from American Express the other day with the following message:



So of course I was like WTF? I didn't buy anything for $156, nor anything online or on the phone that I was aware of. I did a tiny bit of poking around and saw that "Shenzhen" was in China, and the money was actually in Chinese Yuan, and the total was really $26.15 USD. We got in touch with them and they immediately closed my account, and re-issued me a new card with a new number.

We "think" it was Home Depot, where I used Amex several times in the past month. Home Depot recently announced they were hacked and compromised. We'll likely never know for sure though. But at least I now have a replacement cool looking card with some chip in it now.

But if any of you has shopped at Home Depot this year, you may want to check your cards just to ensure you weren't taken advantage of!!


Good that you caught it so quickly Jim. And, speaking of being robbed. We also discovered, when dealing ONLINE with AMAZON, and making a few small purchases. How quickly our information was turned-around, and used to make purchases of $99.00, then a 2nd $99.00 for something AMAZON claims is like a notebook kind of thing.
Thankfully, my wife watches our bank account daily, and she was checking on our small purchases for one of our grandchildren. It was an X-Box game I think. But that generated the other two $99.00 purchases we never made.
Our bank also caught it, and asked us if we actually intended to make those duplicate purchases. So, we had our money restored the following day.
I want to think it is much easier to do things online. BUT...as most of us know. YOU REALLY CAN'T TRUST anyone anymore when it comes to money.

BEWARE, and CHECK DAILY.