Kip patterson
Premium
join:2000-10-23
Columbus, OH
| reply to madashll
Re: Pluto Data Credit Card Charge
Some days I eat at Wendy's; each Wednesday. though, I eat lunch at a restaurant across the street from Wndy's headquarters.
What does that have to do with this fraud? A considerable amount, it turns out.
Wendy's has been plagued by an allegation that a woman bit down on a human finger in a bowl of their chili. Wendy's did not run and hide from this allegation - they faced it squarely and publicly, offering a $50,000 reward for the person who identified the source of the finger.
In the news this morning you wll read that the police got a warrant to search the property of the alleged victim, and it looks like Wendy's will be vindicated.
AnswerQuick, are you listening, or do you still have your head in the sand??? |
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panmus
join:2005-04-10
Plymouth, MI
| reply to legalbegal
I just returned from a two week vacation and saw my bank statement. I have two charges, one on March 11th and another one on March 29. I called the Quick Call and they told me that they were only the answering service and they had been with the Pluto Data for only one week. Reading the complaints in the "Broadband" I see, Quick Call has been answering for Pluto even in November of 2004. If Pluto was their customer for only one week, how is this possible? If so many people have been complaining since fourth quarter of 2004, how come nobody took action even after 6 months (I got a charge on March 29 the you know!)? |
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internetlol2
join:2005-01-04
Fairfax, VA
1 edit | reply to Kip patterson
Re:Pluto charge again on new card
»www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/credit/fcb.htm
It seems as though the posters who are saying their bank won't refund them the money since it's under $50 may be right. According to the FCBA you are only responsible for unauthorized charges "up to $50". That wouldn't stop me from raising holy hell with my bank though.
I've read about 90% of the pages in this thread and it seems pretty clear to me that Answer Quick was just the answering service. Is there any solid evidence that they are in on it? |
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panmus
join:2005-04-10
Plymouth, MI
| reply to legalbegal
Re: Pluto Data Credit Card Charge
I went to my Bank today. I thought there were two charges but one was the charge and the second was the refund. It looks like the Fraud Investigation division of Chase bank had seen this charge before I did and reversed it.
I took the news clippings one of the participants provided to the bank and they were surprised at the extent of this scam. They are going to alert their customers about this scam. I really thank all the people who participated on this bulletin board and provided the information. |
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weekell75
@gmit.ie | reply to legalbegal
Hi,
I have also got ripped off by thedownloadplace.com....I can't find a number by which to call them, where did you get yours?
Thanks |
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BB72
@12.96.x.x
| reply to internetlol2
Re:Pluto charge again on new card
There was some discussion further back that most of the operators at Answer Quick are just college kids. I am sure these kids are not involved directly but whoever is running the show at Answer Quick is. Why tell people that they will contact Pluto to reverse the charges right AFTER saying they have no contact info for Pluto. What happens when people question that, they hang up on you. |
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JoshNJ
Premium
join:2001-12-25
Freehold, NJ
| said by BB72:
Why tell people that they will contact Pluto to reverse the charges right AFTER saying they have no contact info for Pluto. Generally answering services do not give out contact info for the businesses they are answering calls for, probably is in their contract that they can't give out info. Just because pluto may be doing something illegal, doesn't necessarily mean answer quick can break the terms of their contract, besides, them giving you contact information wouldn't do any good, if pluto is wrongly charging people, you calling them yourself won't do any good.
--
I support the RIAA |
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Kip patterson
Premium
join:2000-10-23
Columbus, OH
| reply to BB72
Once again, Answerquick did not have any direct access to the Pluto merchant account. When you call them, or any other similar service, all they can do is look in the seller's order database and leave a request for the reversal of charges.
Obviously, Pluto never had any intent of processing any of those reversals. Answerquick was in the picture just to make the scam last a little longer. One merchant bank found them out and shut them down in three weeks. Another shut them down until contacted by the card company, so they go about a five week run there. Each extra day means more money for Pluto. |
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catseyenu
Ack Pfft
Premium
join:2001-11-17
Fix East
| Sounds like easy money to me, maybe we should all get in on it.
/sarcasm
The more I learn how half assed the credit industry is about security and customer protection the madder I get.
--
"Parched, dry and thirsty...Knee deep in the river of life." |
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DyerUser
Premium
join:2004-01-29
Dyer, IN
 ·AT&T Yahoo
| reply to legalbegal
GM Mastercard breach
»money.cnn.com/2005/04/13/news/fo···?cnn=yes
CNN is reporting on a breach of 187,000 GM Mastercard customers who shopped at an unnamed merchant. It has this to say, which makes me think it may be related to the Pluto Data scam:
HSBC said it was notified by MasterCard's Fraud
Management Department in March about the breach, but
was not provided with details on the unnamed retailer.
Fraud department id'd it sometime in March and it hit thousands. May be unrelated. |
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JoshNJ
Premium
join:2001-12-25
Freehold, NJ
| said by DyerUser  :GM Mastercard customers Pluto charged both visa and mastercard, and wasn't only gm branded cards with pluto
--
I support the RIAA |
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BB72
@12.96.x.x
| reply to JoshNJ
Re:Pluto charge again on new card
Missing the point!!!!!!! I would not contact Pluto anyway since they are overseas and my phone bill would probably rack up to the same amount I originally lost from them.
The point of the discussion that I responded to was if Answer Quick knew or was involved in the Pluto scam. The operators saying one thing and then not being able to back it up when questioned and hanging up in your ear does not make any sense. |
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DyerUser
Premium
join:2004-01-29
Dyer, IN
·AT&T Yahoo
| reply to JoshNJ
Re: GM Mastercard breach
said by JoshNJ :Pluto charged both visa and mastercard, and wasn't only gm branded cards with pluto Correct. However, MasterCard fraud would have done its own investigation and if it found something, it would have then contacted appropriate issuers.
I was not suggesting that it only hit GM Mastercard users. What I was suggesting is that it could be that this is GM Mastercard's issuer finding out about the fraud from Mastercard.
If you read the CNN article, you will note that it says that "information may have been open to compromise when [consumers] shopped with an undisclosed retailer." So, that would hardly make it unique to GM Mastercards, it's just that GM Mastercard apparently has a policy of notifying its customers when a major breach like this occurs. It appears that most don't.
This may well be unrelated, but the time frame of March is right for an investigation into the Pluto Data scam--as is the recommendation to change your card.
For what it's worth, I have a GM Mastercard. I did not receive any Pluto Data charges and I have yet to receive any letter from GM Mastercard. Of course, if less than .1% of the letters have gone out, I still have a chance.
This is the first time that I have ever heard of a credit card company sending out a mass mailing recommending that cards be changed.
Since the article implies that it is a problem with an unnamed retailer, we should be hearing about this from more card issuers going forward. |
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Kip patterson
Premium
join:2000-10-23
Columbus, OH | The "unnamed retailer" is Polo Ralph Lauren, per the WSJ. |
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DyerUser
Premium
join:2004-01-29
Dyer, IN
·AT&T Yahoo
| said by Kip patterson :The "unnamed retailer" is Polo Ralph Lauren, per the WSJ. And according to the BusinessWeek write-up on this I was wrong to surmise it is related to Pluto Data. The article says:
MasterCard said in a statement that it was informed of a
possible security breach "of transaction data associated
with a U.S.-based retailer" in January 2005 and had launched
an investigation immediately. The statement said banks that
are members of the card association were notified.
.
.
.
HSBC's Cohen said the bank did not yet know if the thieves
had used any of the data they got.
Both a January notification and not knowing if the data were used would argue against a Pluto Data link. |
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Andy down under
@60.246.x.x | reply to funchords
Re: Pluto Data Credit Card Charge
Just got my credit card statement and had Pluto data charge of $39.99 on the 6th of March, found this site, contacted my bank, looks like it as spread to Australia as thats where i am. |
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wareps
@cox.net | reply to TwoMatchMike
I have a charge for 19.99 on my Master Card. Will call to stop it. |
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LauraB
@rr.com
| reply to legalbegal
I did not check my statements until today, 65 days after the charge on 2/15 for 39.99 on my BOA Visa from the pluto people, Is there any hope for me? I got the address to file a dispute. But I'm really mad that the fraud dept. that obviously knew about this in March didn't think to let its other customers know about the problem. That would have been nice.
I cancelled the card anyway.
Does anyone else have T-Mobile -- another site suggested there might be a connection. |
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LauraB
@rr.com | reply to legalbegal
I'm curious to see what credit cards were not hit. If you have multiple cards and one got hit and one didn't; which cards are "safe"? |
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Kip patterson
Premium
join:2000-10-23
Columbus, OH
| Mastercard and Visa were hit. There seems to be no pattern as to what issuers or where the cards were used, at least none disclosed so far.
Neither American Express nor Discover were hit, likely because of the different way those two issuers work. They create merchant accounts directly, whereas Mastercard and Visa work through banks. |
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