Alert - STC SAWA Credit Card Fraud

[Brenny]

I only use my atm/debit card to pay certain bills online and over the phone. I just got two consecutive charges for 79.99 each and two more for .79 each. I filed a fraud report with my bank and am trying to get the charges reversed. I have no more information at this point but I will repost as soon as I do.

[darkfire001]

Hi,

I have also been hit. I was nailed for 3 * $80 ($240 Total) on August 23rd. My bank is BBT and this was a debit card. I too have a Paypal Business Debit Card, although I'm not sure if I've used it at all the last few months.

The fraud department at BBT had already locked my account down when I called, thanks fo rhte heads up It'd be nice to get a call, grr.

The woman was suprised to hear that many other people had been hit by this scam too. I noticed a suspicous drop in my balance a few days ago, and it sucks having to wait for hte transactions to post.

BBT is going to temporarly credit me the money I guess while they chase after it, this makes me so furious. I get stopped trying to buy a CD Player online, but a Saudi Arabian prepaid phone card, I'm loading up on those now

[T Grum]

Found this site today while searching on the charges to my Visa card. I'm only up to page 6 in my reading but thought I'd share my experience.

- Victim's location: Yuma, Arizona

- Name of bank/type of card used: Citibank Visa

- # and amount of each charge
- Date of each fraudulent charge
- Name of company spelled exactly that the charge was made to:

08/09 08/09 59010001 FOREIGN TRANSACTION FEE*FINANCE CHARGE Standard Purch 2.40

08/09 08/09 59010001 FOREIGN TRANSACTION FEE*FINANCE CHARGE Standard Purch 2.40

08/09 08/09 59010001 FOREIGN TRANSACTION FEE*FINANCE CHARGE ,000 Standard Purch 2.40

08/09 08/09 59010001 FOREIGN TRANSACTION FEE*FINANCE CHARGE Standard Purch 2.40

08/09 08/09 59010001 FOREIGN TRANSACTION FEE*FINANCE CHARGE Standard Purch 2.40

08/06 08/06 BDL8K*83 STC SAWA RECHARGE RIYADH SA SA ,300.00 SAUDI RIYAL SA Standard Purch 80.00

08/06 08/06 XDL8K*83 STC SAWA RECHARGE RIYADH SA SA ,300.00 SAUDI RIYAL SA Standard Purch 80.00

08/06 08/06 5QL8K*83 STC SAWA RECHARGE RIYADH SA SA ,300.00 SAUDI RIYAL SA Standard Purch 80.00

08/06 08/06 DQL8K*83 STC SAWA RECHARGE RIYADH SA SA ,300.00 SAUDI RIYAL SA Standard Purch 80.00

08/06 08/06 LQL8K*83 STC SAWA RECHARGE RIYADH SA SA ,300.00 SAUDI RIYAL SA Standard Purch 80.00

08/09 08/09 59010001 STC SAWA RECHARGE RIYADH SA Standard Purch 80.00

08/09 08/09 59010001 STC SAWA RECHARGE RIYADH SA Standard Purch 80.00

08/09 08/09 59010001 STC SAWA RECHARGE RIYADH SA Standard Purch 80.00

08/09 08/09 59010001 STC SAWA RECHARGE RIYADH SA ,000 Standard Purch 80.00

08/09 08/09 59010001 STC SAWA RECHARGE RIYADH SA Standard Purch 80.00

08/24 08/24 00000000 FOREIGN TRANSACTION FEE*FINANCE CHARGE Standard Purch 12.00

(Last charge looks like a Citibank fee for the fradulent foriegn charges as the Visa card was canceled on 9 August 2007.)

- If any online shopping is done and what companies used if you can remember:

Card was often used for online shopping. Linked to Amazon.com and Paypal, but I think the number was stolen from my use of a live chat service on 2 August 2007, which turned out to be in the Netherlands.

- Any past history of ID theft (just yes or no): Yes


I'm about as bugged by the inconvience of having to get a fraud statement notarized and mailed to Citibank within five days of receiving the paper credit card statement. They just released the statement today, so hopefully I'll have it by Friday, the only free day I have to go to the bank.

There had been a balance transfer of approximately $800 that showed up online as an unbilled transaction but didn't show up in the statement. That may be where the $12 transaction fee came from.

[T Grum]

I forgot to add in my post above that Citibank alerted me to the fradulent transactions on 9 August 2007, the day the card was canceled.

Doing the math, it looks like the $12 finance charge is for the transactions done on that date.

[konder8u]

Same thing happened to me, posted 7/22, not sure of the time. The operator at Citibank told me "Citibank is aware of the issue". Whether or not that means it's solely a Citibank issue is not clear to me. I too am a careful internet shopped. I feel like I've been slimed!

[T Grum]

Looking more into the Paypal angle with this, I checked my account. I made a Paypal transfer on the same day the first bogus charges showed up on my card. The Paypay transaction was paid through my checking account, but it was backed up by the card that this mess happened to. I'm hesitant now to put another card on file with them and wonder about the safety of my bank account.

[The Merg]

Well, my last two PayPal transactions were on Feb 13th and Jul 25th. My fraudulent charges occurred on Jul 12th. The credit card used is the credit card I had on file as a backup at PayPal.

- Merg

[curtiscflush]

They got me too.
It is my citibank debit card. the card itself is not on file with paypal, however, the checking account that the card is link too is the bank account on file with paypal.

I noticed when the first 3 charges showed up. Since the tried to make 10 charges in total. They also tried to buy songs from iTunes.

Citibank refunded the money (while they were just debit authorizations) ...then 2 days later they let the purchases go through
THEN also charged me the foreign fees. I canceled the card.
The theives still were able to get the money.
I then blocked the checking account.

Victim's location
(Bronx, New York)

- Name of bank/type of card used
(Citibank debit master card linked to check acct (which is linked to paypal.)

- # and amount of each charge
(79.99 + 2.40 foreign fee = 82.39)

- Date of each fraudulent charge
(8/20/2007, 8/21/2007 )

- Name of company spelled exactly that the charge was made to
(STC SAWA RECHARGE RIYADH and iTunes)

- If any online shopping is done and what companies used if you can remember
(I made a purchases to GoDaddy via paypal, shirtsupplier.com via their secure checkout, imprintableswearhouse.com over the phone, blankshirts.com over the phone standardscreen.com via paypal)

- Any past history of ID theft (just yes or no)
(no)

I am super vigilant when it comes to my vital banking and credit card info. I'm not sure how this happened to me. I always keep an eye on things

[CyMoo]

I posted earlier in reference to the fraudlent debit's to my Paypal card. My funds have now been returned to my Paypal account after eleven days with some losses accurred mainly from the stop payment charges and the time value of my currency. In the process I had one subscription cancelled which has now been corrected. This hosting company http://dawghost.com/ordernow.html was more than helpful in not shuting down one of my hosting accounts I had with them. Also by restricting the funds that were being made available from my backup bank source, funds were then taken from my business sales revenue by Paypal. Of course if I had let the backup bank cover the fraudlent demand on my account Paypal would of got use of my currency free of charge which some of my personal bankers would of said that I was not very smart in letting them use my money free of charge (I'm still trying to figure that one out). Of course if this is the cost of doing business I should be able to deduct this from my income taxes. Surely Paypal has been able to make a taxable profit.

Anyway, I'm now able to purchase that big king size whopper burger I was attempting to purchase 12 day's ago. I haven't even been able to buy a MacDonalds regular burger and fires with free ice water for 11 day's.

I do hope everyone is able to recoupe "THERE MONEY" soon. In the mean time I will be enjoying that BigO whopper and fries and keeping more of my money in my own pocket.

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[DealerDave]

my money was credited back today as well. Actual financial loss incurred due to this incident is approximately $41 (1.5% cash back bonus that I would normally have gotten).. due to having to cancel my card .. in turn changing my normal spend to my bank account instead of my pp business card. Definitely glad it's over with though.

Best of luck to the rest.