| reply to MGD
Re: [Credit Card Fraud] AMEX American Express Charges from SMS O Anxious to find other victims of the fraud charges. Did you line item charge appear as something like this:
Price .. SMS-OUTLET.COM CA 800-380-9809 ??
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No, there was no telephone number. I got the telephone number googling the address. The charge was made on May 8th. I caught it when I checked my card on-line.
The charge shows:
SMS OUTLET LLC SMS OBAKERSFIELD
78449 DIRECT MKTG MISC
DIRECT MKTG MISC
When I request additional information it shows:
TRANSACTION DESCRIPTION: SMS OUTLET LLC SMS OBAKERSFIELD
DOING BUSINESS AS: SMS OUTLET LLC
MERCHANT TYPE: INTERNET PURCHASES Transaction Date: 05/08/2009
Charge: $XXXX
Reference #:XXXXX DIRECT MKTG MISC
Merchant Number: 1044708386
Merchant Address: 658 MCCORD AVE
BAKERSFIELD, CA 93308-4716 USA
When I called Amex to ask about this, they wanted to simply credit my account. Apparently, when you set up a merchant account, you can agree to have disputed charges under a certain dollar amount just automatically credited back without any investigation on Amex's part.
So, when you dispute a charge, it just gets credited and the merchant is free to continue the scam. In order to have it treated as fraud I had to cancel my card. (Although it doesn't seem Amex is particularly concerned with this type of scam...) So, the card number that is on this hacked/stolen/purchased/whatever list will no longer work for them and I'll no longer be a good "canary in the coal mine" for spotting this particular fraud.
I do have reason to believe I'm not alone, however. When I called the folks with a similar name in Tempe they say they've had a number of calls from Amex card holders about this and that was before I mentioned my card was American Express.
Finally, I'll add that wherever they get their message recording it is almost exactly the same one I heard at 24-hour Corp before it was hastily cut it off.
Thanks to everyone on this board....you guys are amazing. |
