Broadband Tech > Security > Scam and Phishbusters > Pluto Data Credit Card Charge

reply to legalbegal

Re: Pluto Data Credit Card Charge

I spent 3 days trying the 800 number to no avail. (I always got a busy signal.)I called my bank at the end of those 3 days when I found the charge from PLUTO DATA. The bank is sending me a charge dispute form and, once signed and returned, will credit my account the $29.99 and investigate the charge more fully. They also had me cancel my debit card and get a new card issued. A bit of an inconvenience, but, thankfully, this isn't my primary account. I would recommend the same course of action for anyone else with this problem.

Once I hear back from the bank about their investigation, I will consider those other courses of action listed above, such as reporting this company to IFFC and the BBB.

reply to gonesupra
Don't call the company. Don't even bother. Just call your card company, the bank or whoever it is.. and they will do a chargeback. They basically take their money back from the company who got your funds.

Visa and Mastercard cards and debit cards have a zero-liability policy for fraudulent charges.

reply to gonesupra
They are spinnin their wheels

reply to gonesupra
I am in the same boat as the rest of you. Did the Google search and found this forum. What a great forum this is by the way. By reading this forum I was thinking to myself, has everybody bought or has downloaded something from www.thedownloadplace.com??? I know I have unfortunatly and seeing a couple of people mentioning that place I was just a little curious. It would be great if we could take a poll of people who have gotten these fraudelant charges and has given thedownloadplace.com their cc information.

I've read that there is quite an active community of fraudsters on IRC. I wonder if the credit cards aren't a compilation of several lists with a source like that.

I do not understand why the $.01 charges were run through. The perps certainly do not care if some of the accounts are bad. Perhaps they are concerned about their bank noticing a large number of bad charges?

It is also interesting that they have used several accounts to run the $.01 charges. At least one seems to have been a legitimate merchant. How did they get access to these accounts? It would be fun to be a little mouse with access to the workings of the fraud departments of Mastercard and Visa. I would think that things would not be in the least boring.

OK I just got an e-mail from Bob @ MSNBC asking for my phone #. Pinch yourselves maybe...

reply to gonesupra
So, I got this charge too ( 3/14/2005 PREAUTH 888-323-8955 PLUTO D 888-323-8955 PLUTO Nicosia NO ) As I read through this it sounded like a scam. Then I thought about what that college student was saying. My Wife purchased a dress online from (promgirl) The website looked somewhat shady but it was the only place she could find this dress. Anyway the same day Pluto pops up as a preauth. I belive that this went through as a preauth for (promgirl) handled by (pluto) and it should drop off the account in a few days. As everyone knows preauths either drop off or turn into charges. I will be watching the account and let you know. Hope this helps others with charge.
-Chris

I just got the same damn charge for 29.99 and my bank is acting shady about it. Mine turned into a charge after three days.

reply to gonesupra
I too got a charge for $29.99 on my debit card on 3/14/2005. I called my bank and they will do a chargeback. Personally, I'd like to help prosecute these people.

I just got my statement from my bank on an account I haven't used in 5 months, so there was about $5 in there to begin with, and I see that I owe my bank $82.33...I was a little puzzled.

Sure enough, PLUTO N NICOSIA was on my statement as well as a ton of overdraft charges. I typed in their name and phone number and I found a whole bunch of other people just like me. Crazy.

I've already filed a claim, not even bothering to call after what I just read.

reply to gonesupra
I am in Cincinnati and just got my mastercard statement with the $29.99 charge also--have no clue--customer service told me it was for management consulting.:(

reply to Jonathan M
question for Jonathan M. Are you saying this was a checking account that got charged not a credit card.. If so this would be a whole other topic.

It's been a very consistent part of this thread that both credit and debit cards accounts have been affected. It should stand to reason that some of these fraudulent charges might cause a bank account balance to go overdrawn if a debit card was hit.
--
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored - Aldous Huxley

You are correct, sorry

reply to gonesupra
Just for the record, I live in Ukiah, CA and I as well just today received a "PLUT:o" charge for $29.95 from March 15, 2005 on my cc statement. I closed off that cc and reordered- what everyone should do first- and will make the necessary reports suggested throughout some of these threads. KEEP CHARGING!!;)
Koko

reply to ddfgdfg
I received bank statement today for the card which I only used once for balance transfer (almost a year ago when received this card), and guess what - I found $29.99 charge from PLUTO D NICOSIA CY! I called the bank to report fraudulent charge and they say that I should first contact the merchandiser!

OHUYET, what bank issued the card? It's standard practice for them to say that you need to contact the merchant that posted the charge but seriously folks, they really should know about Pluto Data by now. My BOA removed the charge after my second call to them (after trying to contact Pluto Data) and sent me an affidavit form to fill out and either fax or mail. I filled it out and tried to fax it but it was busy every time I called so I mailed it. This Friday I received another affidavit from BOA stating that they had not received the first one and that they were going to reapply the Pluto Data charges April 8th. I filled out the second form and faxed it back to them along with a print out of a Google Search of "Pluto Data". Are there any actual humans working at these banks or just robots and computers? There definitely needs to be some kind of "clearinghouse" for the consumer to report these frauds and to get immediate action to be taken. The banks do not seem to care.

My card was issued by Fleet, but now after merge it's BofA's card. I called BofA twice yesterday, and the second time the representative also said that I should contact merchandiser first. But after I asked her to look at the MSNBC article (gave her URL), she immediately said that my card will be cancelled and a new one will be sent in 10 business days.
BTW I never used this card for online or any other kind of purchases, only used it for balance transfer at the time it was issued which was almost a year ago.

reply to AdelphiaKill
Sounds like BOA is trying to pass the buck onto unsuspecting customers...
Makes me suspect they are in trouble financially or trying to limit pending large losses.