[thelist] Credit Card Scams, Legal Measures

Russ russ at unrealisticexpectations.com
Mon Jul 21 09:55:04 CDT 2003


Tom, 

I went through this just last week; same as you did.  I went through the
entire form, etc. just as you had done at around 5:30 am, especially
since all of the sites like PayPal, Amazon, etc. have been doing extra
little add-ons "for my security" etc.  It didn't seem too far out of
line from what I'd been doing and I was still a zombie.

In fact, it didn't really occur to me until later and I ended up having
to contact all of the credit bureaus and putting myself on a temporary
fraud status--they force creditors to contact you directly, so instant
credit is no longer an option, in the short term--PayPal temporarily
placed a hold on my account and I opened all new accounts at my bank and
watched them with a pretty intense degree of scrutiny.

Paypal was less than helpful--to the point of making me feel even more
ridiculous than I already did, which is a great feeling when you're
already feeling stupid and helpless and wondering just who is getting a
passport with your name on it or withdrawing what's left of your bank
accounts.

I would imagine that they do take a look into these things, but mostly
they appear to be hands-off and customer support-off.

Good luck,

Russ

> -----Original Message-----
> From: thelist-bounces at lists.evolt.org 
> [mailto:thelist-bounces at lists.evolt.org] On Behalf Of 
> tkissinger at softhome.net
> Sent: Monday, July 21, 2003 9:37 AM
> To: thelist at lists.evolt.org
> Subject: [thelist] Credit Card Scams, Legal Measures
> 
> 
> Hi people, 
> 
> I got a Paypal scam mail today, the third or fourth I've got 
> in the last 
> couple of months. it was realistic enough that I was blithely 
> filling it in 
> (yeah, it arrived before the coffee), until it asked for a 
> bank PIN number. 
> I've seen them for other sites too - Amazon, eBay, etc. 
> 
> I'm sure that the victims of these scams can get their cards 
> blocked and 
> reissued without too much trouble, but do the sites that the 
> scammers are 
> using names and livery from have any legal recourse? I'd 
> imagine that Paypal 
> have considerably more legal resources than, say, my Dad, if 
> he mistakenly 
> fills one in. 
> 
> Thanks,
> Tom.
> -- 
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