[PLUG] Financial security on the net

[Aaron Burt]

On Tue, Aug 17, 2010 at 08:41:38PM -0700, John Jason Jordan wrote:
<snip>
> I have also used this debit account to buy other things for my printing
> business, including computer parts. I even used the account to pay
> tuition at PSU. Many of these transactions have been on the net, and
> many others have been in person using the actual card.

That's a lot of opportunities for leakage.  PayPal and Flea-bay should be
safe, but other online vendors and in-person transactions (e.g. PSU) can be
pretty leaky.  (My brother had his card# stolen by a kid at a local battery
store.)  Hopefully, Monster can cooperate in identifying the miscreant.
(Why would someone use a fraudulent card# to buy a job ad?  Some sort of
advance-fee fraud?)

> Once Tiffany and I came to the conclusion that the order was bogus
> Tiffany quickly canceled it. And upon hanging up the phone I
> immediately called US Bank. It turns out that there was a charge for $1
> to zero.com for internet services, and a charge to Lowe's for $2004.99.
> Both these charges had been immediately reversed by the merchants in
> question. Neither US Bank nor I have lost a penny. Whew!

Excellent, and good job on limiting the damage!
Was the Lowe's purchase in-store somewhere or online?

> The interesting thing is not that someone acquired the card number, but
> that apparently they also have my name, address, and phone number.

There's usually enough info in the transaction to get the rest.