AOL & Pay Pal

[Don Madge]

The following was posted on Motorhome Facts PM today. I've known the poster for quite a few years, he does not usually post "duff gen" I can't check it out as I don't have AOL or use pay pal. Regards Don Hi Folks!! Just a quick one for any users who are with AOL and have purchased items over the net using PayPal. I've had notification from my credit card company that there has been a security breech which has enabled access to credit card details registered (through AOL) with paypal. There have been a number of requests for exactly £1 from each of the card holders. Please take the time to see if a deduction from your card has been made for £1, from PayPal, on the 30th of August. If so, might be worth your while informing your credit card company (chances are, they will probably already know) There's been quite a few people stung, so it's worth checking it out!!!! Bummer! They've stopped my card, and a new one should arrive tomorrow!

[PetMice]

Happened to us last week - our bank's antifraud software stopped the attempt because it was an "unusual transaction" (of a type completely out of character for our use of the account, apparently) and froze our cards (which is how we found out, we couldn't use them - they have issued new ones). The offending source was "AOL Q stores" for 54p which I think was probably 1$ US. We are not with AOL. Google showed people with same experience who had not been with AOL or PayPal and had never made internet purchases, some with thousands of very small withdrawals over a couple of days - there was another attempt on ours at the same time for £1.59 (3 $?) from a music outlet, presumably bogus too. One suggestion from someone at the bank was that the AOL Q stores was a "feeler" to see if a particular credit card number is valid, before making other bogus withdrawals. The other attempt on our meagre funds has been emails from 3 "banks" (Abbey National, Egg, NatWest) all with genuine-looking logos etc, asking us to follow a link to check account details. The links looked genuine (AbbeyNational.co.uk eg) but it seems the crooks can hide a bogus link behind a real one. Obviously these were attempted fraud because banks don't ask you to do that (and they weren't our banks anyway). It's a jungle out there.

[Don Madge]

[QUOTE]Pet Mice - 2006-09-06 10:58 AM Happened to us last week - our bank's antifraud software stopped the attempt because it was an "unusual transaction" (of a type completely out of character for our use of the account, apparently) and froze our cards (which is how we found out, we couldn't use them - they have issued new ones). The offending source was "AOL Q stores" for 54p which I think was probably 1$ US. We are not with AOL. Google showed people with same experience who had not been with AOL or PayPal and had never made Internet purchases, some with thousands of very small withdrawals over a couple of days - there was another attempt on ours at the same time for £1.59 (3 $?) from a music outlet, presumably bogus too. One suggestion from someone at the bank was that the AOL Q stores was a "feeler" to see if a particular credit card number is valid, before making other bogus withdrawals. The other attempt on our meagre funds has been emails from 3 "banks" (Abbey National, Egg, NatWest) all with genuine-looking logos etc, asking us to follow a link to check account details. The links looked genuine (AbbeyNational.co.uk eg) but it seems the crooks can hide a bogus link behind a real one. Obviously these were attempted fraud because banks don't ask you to do that (and they weren't our banks anyway). It's a jungle out there.[/QUOTE] Hi Pet Mice Thanks for that input. If our cards were stopped while we are away it could cause us some problems, luckily we have back up cards and other plans. When you spend up to four months away at a time these transactions might go unnoticed for quite some time unless the card issuer is on the ball. Thanks Don

[Mel E]

ALWAYS make sure, when travelling, that you have two different credit cards and that your pertner has at least one that is not on the same account as yours. A friend learnt this lesson several years ago - lost his wallet in the Dordogne (it was returned 3 months' later minus money only), rang the stop number and then discovered this stopped all his cards and all his wife's. Result: no money and no way of getting any! Have a Nationwide credit card as one of your cards and you'll pay no foreign currency transaction fees on overseas purchases - worth about 2.5% to 3% and I know it works because I did comparison purchases to check with my Morgan Stanley Card.