UPDATE Latest details:More reports in Capitol Hill credit card fraud wave
A wave of complaints from Capitol Hill and First Hill area residents of fraudulent credit and bank card charges has a local bank looking for answers and police working their way through a big jump in fraud reports on the Hill. It’s an important time to take a minute to check your accounts and make sure you’re not hit by it, too.
KOMO news is reporting that BECU acknowledged “about 100 cases” of fraud reported by customers “in the Broadway area.
“A limited, small number of members say their cards were compromised in that area,” Pietzsch said. “It’s too premature to make conclusions. We’ll be handing any information over to authorities.”
KOMO adds that customers of Chase, American Express, Charles Schwab and others have been hit in the wave.
According to our look at Seattle Police records, 19 incidents involving financial fraud or identity theft were reported on Capitol Hill in the past two weeks — more than one incident per day. For comparison, only 7 incidents were reported in the first two weeks of the month. Typically, we average abound one incident every two days, according to a CHS analysis of crime records.
The problem does, indeed, appear to be centered on Capitol Hill and the central part of the city but it’s not entirely clear that the uptick in fraudulent activity is limited to the Hill. Here is a look at maps showing the block location of fraud reports over the past four weeks in central Seattle, via SeattleCrime. Each map is linked to a live version of the mapped dataset.
10/15-10/28 Fraud & Identity Theft
10/1-10/14 Fraud & Identity Theft
If you find something fishy in your account, report it to your financial institution immediately and take a minute to report the incident to police.
We’re following up with SPD to learn more about what they’re doing to investigate this situation.
UPDATE 8:35 AM: One confounding element to understanding what is going on here and possibly the rest of the city — or more? — is the steady, day to day hum of fraud identity theft. It happens every day, of course, and with this information out there, police and banks will see an increase in reports. A quick search of Facebook posts and updates from CHS friends in recent weeks turns up a handful of reports.
10/25: Credit card breach. Someone tried to use my card at a gas station in Delaware, and a Sears Roebuck in Baltimore.
10/25: Odd, my AMEX had an attempted $100 use at a Canadian gas station this morning, got a call about it and canceled the account right away. Maybe a breach somewhere indeed.
I’m sure we’ll now see more. Like this one already posted to our profile by Jessica: “My debit card was used for $250 in Russia.” She tells us she is also a BECU member and that her fraudulent Russian charge happened on the 28th.
One more note: Please don’t post the names of individual businesses on the Hill if you want to let us know about fraud that has hit your account. As we’re seeing, this issue is widespread and very likely goes way beyond any one store or restaurant. We’ll remove any comments that include specific businesses unless the suspcicious charges were made there. With the 19 and counting reports filed with SPD, police can put together the information in the unlikely event that this is related to any local entity and if they do, of course we’ll report it. The banks and financial institutions, however, are part of the story and better equipped to deal with this kind of information. Thanks!
UPDATE 9:25 AM: Taking a closer look at recently reported cases of financial fraud on Capitol Hill and First Hill, 14 of the 19 incidents we know of that were reported to SPD came in this week.
UPDATE 9:35 AM: We’re waiting to hear more from SPD detectives on this investigation but department spokesperson Mark Jamieson tells us that SPD is definitely looking at this situation as unusual wave of incidents.
“Yes we have received a number of reports of fraud cases and they seem to be in the East Precinct right around Capitol Hill, Broadway that area,” Jamieson said. “We’re working with the various financial institutions and victims to see where we are.”
Jamieson said it’s not clear yet that this is truly a cluster of identity theft fraud in the area but it does seem unusual to see such an active geographic pocket of fraudulent activity. “This is the first I’ve heard of this in a long time,” he said.
UPDATE 10:10 AM: In case you miss it above, in addition to contacting your financial institution, you can report any fraudulent activity to SPD online here.
As pointed out in comments, fraud reports can’t be submitted online. Here’s SPD’s number for reporting incidents like these:
To report a crime that is not in progress to the non-emergency line, call (206) 625-5011 and select 8 from the menu.
UPDATE 10:18 AM: One name keeps coming up in reports we’re hearing about this: STD Solutions. I’ve found nothing on the Web or on any fraud lists related to that name — but every time I write something like that, one of you finds something I missed. I miss anything?
UPDATE 11:15 AM: Want examples of how this stuff happens?
- Alleged Credit Card Skimmers Nabbed at Popular D.C. Restaurant
- Three Arrested After Credit Card Skimmer Investigation
- Three men charged with stealing $150,000 in gas pump-skimming scam
UPDATE 12:15 PM: No major updates from SPD but we have been told that detectives are not yet ready to say that the crimes are linked or to make a statement on the scope of the fraud in the area. “We’re not ruling out anything,” SPD’s Mark Jamieson said. SPD has been in contact with the financial institutions involved but it is not yet contacting businesses in the area directly about the possibility of skimming technology being used on ATMs or payment consoles.
UPDATE 2:25 PM: We’re seeing a lot of anecdotes now that the story has come to light. Twitter, Facebook and the CHS comments document many incidents. Even the Capitol Hill Chamber of Commerce says it was hit, via Twitter.
It’s also difficult to offer advice on what to do in the near term. From Vics in the comments below:
It will be really difficult not to spend any money on Broadway/other parts of the hill this weekend so I’m wondering if we should be going into the banks directly to extract cash for now? Does this seem like the safest alternative?
UPDATE 2:59 PM: A few things to emphasize. SPD has not yet said that any of these incidents are skimming. What we know from comments is both bank cards and credit cards from a variety of financial institutions have been involved. Anecdotes include reports of people using their cards at all types of businesses in the area. None of the anecdotes describe a card that was exclusively used for ATM withdrawals — but that’s also not surprising given that many cards are set up these days as combination credit/ATM cards. Still, withdrawing cash from a bank ATM has its own risks — but it does not appear to fit the pattern of what is being reported around Capitol Hill. If you are concerned about using your credit card on the Hill right now, cash from a bank ATM appears to be the safest option. Right after not buying anything at all but what fun is that?
UPDATE 8:03 PM: So, remember those 14 police reports of fraud in the Capitol Hill area we reported above? Add 23 more that came in Friday as word of the story spread. Each dot represents the block location of where a person made a fraud report to police. Basically, it shows approximate location of where victims live (or work if they called while on the job) on the Hill.
UPDATE 8:11 PM: This view gives you a better sense of how centered on Capitol Hill this problem appears to be. If you have found that your account was compromised, you can report it to SPD at (206) 625-5011 (non emergency line).
UPDATE Latest details:More reports in Capitol Hill credit card fraud wave
BECU called me and my friend a few days ago saying there were potentially fraudulent charges being charged to our accounts from “STD solutions.” Good thing they caught it, but I really had no idea how they got the number. Craaazy shit!
i was hit once a few yrs back. how the bank caught it i have no idea but so happy they did. best of luck to those who are getting hit.
My pal has US Bank and lives on the hill and was notified a few days ago that someone in India was making charges all over the place! She doesn’t shop online, but she does pay bills online. I wonder how this happened in such a localized way.
Just got a call from Wells Fargo last night that my information was being used in Massachusetts.
Caught the STD?
I have used my card on capitol hill and I had my first fraud case 2 days ago. I believe this is not limited to just BECU banks.
Got a call from Chase on Tuesday that my card was used that day in the UK to purchase about $250 in groceries (!).
I was getting gas the other night and a woman pumping gas opposite me warned me that both she and the person pumping gas right before me, plus a friend of hers, had fraudulent credit card charges within the last 2 weeks. She said one thing they all had in common was the use of their credit card at that gas station.
There are very likely other locations the three have in common (ATM, autopay utilities, groceries) so I used my card anyway. No fraudulent charges have appeared.
Got hit too. $600+ at a K-mart in Maine, a $300 declined charge at a K-mart in Maine, and $50 declined charge at a Circle K gas station…in Maine.
I got hit to the other day, saying my chase credit card was used in new jersey grocery store. Scary!!! how can a single neighbourhood we should all check or statements to see where our number could have been stolen!!
Yup, I got hit on Monday. Chase caught the charges and blocked them, which I appreciate. A friend also was compromised, which got me wondering if someone’s been hacked and hasn’t said yet. This report makes that seem even more likely.
BECU called this morning, thousands of dollars in charges to my account in Tokyo. Replaced card with temporary card, but weekend plans kind of ruined. BECU rep told me it was probably a restaurant employee in Capitol Hill archiving card numbers for a while, no cases involved PIN number access.
I call a call yesterday about it; someone tried ot make a $300 charge at a Target in upstate NY; the presented a card – with the same informtation on my credit card. I have my card in my possession, so it’s very bizarre.
Went to use my debit card Wed., and it was declined. Got the call and went into the bank. They couldn’t stop the first 2 transactions, $20 at a NJ B,B,and Beyond, and then a $590 charge to some other place, but declined 2 other pricey transactions.
Somebody went on a spending spree in Paris with my card.
My partners becu card was also charged to STD Solutions earlier this week. Becu contacted him before the charge went through.
Who do we alert if it’s happened to us? My card was Household Bank; they called and the charge was declined but I want this to be looked into condsidering all that’s going on here…
‘limited, small number of members’?!?
13 of 16 commentors so far have either been victims or know victims within the last few days.
add my girlfriend (chase) and another friend who posted about it on facebook (also chase).
carefully check atm’s and gas pumps, and anything else you put your card into. a recent nytimes.com article (i will look for it to link) spoke of a recent practice of mounting card skimmers in front of card slots. they use materials and colors that match the atm or whatever machine they are compromising, so that it is very difficult to notice that there is additional hardware present.
You can file an SPD report online here:
http://www.seattle.gov/police/report/default.htm
here’s a pic of a device that was used to skim cards. it stores the magnetic stripe info, and has a pinhole camera that points at the keypad, to capture your PIN.
Actually you can’t file it online, you need to call them at the phone number on that page. The online reporting process states that it cannot be used for fraud reports (but can be used for identity theft).
> ●Does NOT include fraudulent use of an existing account, online or otherwise.
?!? forum doesn’t let me post a link? i will try again.
www2.tbo.com/content/2010/oct/27/271832/pair-accused-of-using-skimming-devices-at-clearwat/news-breaking/
Good catch. I’m also going to clean up some wishy/washy stuff in the post. This is a fraud situation not ID theft and setting up unwanted accounts. The ID theft possibility is better described as “mail theft.” I’m cleaning up the post now.
In meantime, from SPD’s site:
To report a crime that is not in progress to the non-emergency line, call (206) 625-5011 and select 8 from the menu.
I got the call too. My card was being used in Lake Elsinore California for McDonald’s, Wal*Mart, Big Lots and the some online charges too! Baby must have needed some food and diapers…plus whatever the hell “Big Lots” sells…what’s that, womens clothing? :)
Got a call on Tuesday saying that a purchase on my Discover Card of $300+ in New Jersey was flagged and denied. Luckily they caught it and froze the account/card.
My card was compromised back on october 8. Amex caught it immediately, canceled the card and stopped the charges. They were online purchases for tickets. I just called SPD to report it after reading this article and they told me there are 8 reports ahead of mine in the queue right now for call backs.
I woke up yesterday to a call from BECU about, yes, STD Solutions. I’m pretty impressed with how they caught it, but I’m thinking hard about going cashless well after I get my new card in the mail.
I also had some fraudulent charges on my credit card (VISA through WSECU) starting the morning of Oct. 28 at a variety of hotels. Good thing I have a low credit limit – it triggered the automatic fraud system but some of the charges were approved. WSECU also said that there were a lot more people coming in with fraud charges yesterday than normal. As per WSECU’s policy I filed a police report. Never heard of STD Solutions, though.
Hi, this is Todd Pietzsch from BECU. As you know, this compromise is not isolated to BECU members. However, if you are a BECU member, we want to let you know that we do have sophisticated fraud monitoring tools in place and if we do detect suspicious activity we will contact you immediately. While we will do everything that we can, we also ask for your help in monitoring your account and calling us at 800-233-2328 if you notice anything that is suspicious. If you have moved, or have a new phone number, please call us so we can update our records and get in touch with you if necessary.
I got a call yesterday morning about charges from an STD solutions. It was for just over $9. WTH?
There is this one website calling itself STD Retail Solutions (aka Spedi Retail Software) that happens to offer software for convenience stores. Appears to be UK based.
I have had two friends in the last two days that had fraudulent charges on their cards. I bet there is a card skimmer hooked up to a gas station or atm somewhere on the hill. That could explain the localized cases.
Yup, told my husband to check his account today. He has two charges from STD at $10 & two charges of $200 from some other company. Chase told him to fill out a form, they’ll fax it, give him a temp card and then refund the money within two days.
I wonder why no one has gotten hit at BofA?? I have an account there and everything looks in tip top shape. I am thinking of (unfortunately) not spending any money on Cap Hill, for a bit. Sucks cause Halloween is coming up and I don’t want my neighborhood to lose money.
Our purchases are usually at the grocery store. We don’t buy gas and hardly use ATM.
I had my AmEx card’s information used in NYC…
You won’t lose a dime. Credit companies simply don’t pay on claims that were a result of fraud. You won’t have to pay, either.
Thanks, JSeattle for keeping us informed and bringing it to our attention!
Who knows, but I don’t buy gas on the Hill and while I have used an ATM it was with my debit card (not compromised) and not my credit card (compromised).
I know we won’t have to pay back the money but when this happens, your card gets frozen and then you’re unable to make purchases. My wallet was stolen over the summer and it was a hassle getting everything in order. I’d rather have my husband’s card frozen and not be a victim, myself, that way we can use my card to make purchases meanwhile.
got a call from bank of america on wednesday alerting me to a $0.00 charge from STD solutions followed by a $400 charge at toys r us…
But luckily my credit union has a 24hr 3rd party monitoring service. They caught a small “Test charge” and when I called them back we blocked access to my card. The charges were in NY, and they’d keyed in my card information. So far everything looks fine.
After reading this article and checking my account I realized that there were only a handful of CapHill businesses I frequented in the past 3-4 weeks. The only BECU connection is the atm inside the Broadway QFC building.
My USAA card was used in Pennsylvania gas stations for some $200. USAA caught it immediately.
Funny thing (?) is that it was a physical duplicate of my card. High tech!
I just check my account and noticed a pending claim for $7.70 from STD Solutions. I called Chase to let them know I never made purchases from this company and other people are reporting them for fraud, but was told that until the charges actually post to my account there’s no action they can take.
Just got a call yesterday from USAA and had to get my card reissued.
I bank with chase and was contacted by their fraud dept yesterday and asked to verify some transactions, all of which were legitimate charges. then today i woke up to $1500 missing. All the charges that were made were in PA at a place called WAWA. 6 of the charges are for the exact same amount. Kind of strange. Some people are just scum of the universe!
Restuarant employee stealing credit card #s was my thought too.
i bank with HSBC though, so i didn’t think it would happen. thankfully only $150 in charges went through and they put a stop on my account just in time to decline a $900 charge. what a mess.
just checked my statement today and my card was used in the brox and at a walmart. 3 of my friends were targeted as well.
Got a call on Tuesday that my Mastercard was being used in Australia. They charged almost $600 worth before my credit card company caught on and had a lot more pending charges that they declined. What pisses me off is not the egregious process of cancelling that card, writing a statement to get my money back and getting issued a new card, no it’s the fact that someone was making purchases in Australia and it wasn’t me.
There has to be some commonality in all these credit card thefts? Do vendors on the Hill all use the same processing company? Do we all frequent the same place that had a breach of security?
I received a call from Capitol One on Wednesday that my account had been compromised and I would be receiving a new card and to destroy the old one immediately. That’s the main card that I use locally, so it’s mighty suspicious.
Discount chain store…a cheap, cheap place to buy household goods.
It will be really difficult not to spend any money on Broadway/other parts of the hill this weekend so I’m wondering if we should be going into the banks directly to extract cash for now? Does this seem like the safest alternative?
I called my bank earlier and was notified that the fraud department would contact me if anything suspicious came up on my account, unfortunately they could not put a hold out out-of-state charges or anything of that nature.
I had STD solutions try TWICE to use my account, succeeding once. Also, a florist in Yonkers N.Y.!! All within a 24 hour period this past week. Any clues? Maybe we all used our cards in similar or same location and someone sold card numbers?
Mastercard through ING Direct. Charges in NJ and MD: Sporting Goods, gas, liquor, Wal Mart. Strange to see NJ/DE/MD popping up a lot in this thread.
Charges at, yes, STD Solutions and a sporting goods store in Delaware. (She’s with Chase.)
I bank with a credit union (not BECU) and saw a fradulent charge come through this morning. In Naples, FL? I’m in Seattle! I think I’m most upset about the fact that the bank didn’t catch it and call me.
I only used it at one Capitol Hill establishment, but I guess that’s all it takes.
$150 where?
I Live, work, and shop in Capitol Hill. I got a call from BECU on Wednedsay 10/27 that some suspicious purchases had been made with my debit card in Central America: $560 to Groupe Marche Latin QPS, and $488 to Groupe Marche Latin QPS. I told them they were not my purchases and they cancelled the card. They caught the activity within 20 minutes of it happening which I found impressive, but I’m still fully ticked off that it happened at all. I had just made a purchase at a Capitol Hill retailer so I went right back there and talked to the manager, told him about the fraudulent use, and asked if there was any way his cashier could have been responsible. He was pretty reassuring that his registers are skimming/tamper proof. I really have no idea who got my debit card info or how they got it. It also turns out my account also got hit with $10 in ATM foreign trasaction fees. The bank is investigating but in the meantime I have to wait a week for a replacement card AND my account is now missing over $1,000. So infuriating
2 charges for ~$100 each found on my BofA Visa account a couple days ago for a “Stop Shop” [east coast?] that were made with a physical card. Like other folks, I still have my card, so that was weird. Good thing I check my account daily – caught them while charges were still processing. Customer service cancelled the acct immediately and issued a new card. I’m hoping that had they gone through, BofA would have called me to check.
If the police would call the person who filed case #2010-376295; they will find out the exact source of the problem. Until they do, they are spinning their wheels.
huh? that’s a little cryptic. care to share more?
I got a call from my credit card company(capitol one), i am a becu member. someone tried to charge 400 which got declined from a website, and another 7 which the merchant credited back to my account. used my card 2 times on first hill/cap hill, once in my apartment building(laundry card kiosk)…filing my police report tonight.
I never use an ATM with the card in question, and can count the retailers on Capitol Hill that I frequent with two hands.
I am concerned, as well. While I spend 24/7 on the Hill, I am leaving it today. And will be taking money out of an ATM in another part of the city. This seems like the best solution, for myself, as now my husband cannot access his card until after the weekend (his got frauded). While I am scared to use my card on the Hill this weekend, I will be using cash instead.
I got hit with this on my CapitalOne credit card (never used to withdraw money from an ATM). I got a call saying it was charged $400 at a gas station in Italy. Weird stuff. Hope we figure out what the source was.
Has anyone investigated wifi scanning or something like that? It looks like more than one bank is affected, and someone could be driving around, scanning for online debit/credit transactions that people are doing from unsecured pc’s. There was just a big stink about google collecting passwords as they drive by, and it doesn’t sound too difficult to do!
I checked my BofA accounts after reading this post this morning, and nothing unusual – I did use my card at four locations on Broadway last week, though, so will check more frequently than normal.
I did have this exact situation happen on vacation, though – pretty sure it was a card skimmer at a souvenir shop. Next day I had charges posted from Mexico and Romania – a few cents at first, then cleaned me out. Luckily the bank replaced the funds, but was a huge hassle.
I bank with Chase, and the only my ATM card. I got a debit for $7.70 from POS DEBIT STD SOLUTIONS 800-4490299 DE. Then I got a credit for the same amount. Seems like a credit sweep to me to check if my account is still valid. I called (800) 449-0299 and it sounded like a phone sex/companionship line… The only time I remember using my ATM card in the past couple weeks is at the parking structure in downtown Seattle, Arco, Lowe’s, the Post Office, Safeway, Tulalip Casino and University Teriyaki…
I thought that was odd. I got the call back and the police officer told me this happens all the time and to be careful with my card and that he can give me a phone number to call to learn how to protect myself from fraud. I mentioned I was concerend due to the spike in incidents in the Capitol Hill area and he said he knew nothing about it, it happens all the time and not to worry so much. He seemed to think I was just being overly paranoid. WTF?
@Michelle – The wifi explanation is pretty unlikely. I was hit with this and I use WiFi with WPA-2, which is non-trivial to crack. On top of that, any online merchant worth its salt uses SSL encryption, so even if a thief was on the network, they can’t sniff out credit card information because it’s encrypted end-to-end.
Same here, her card was used for a purchase at “STD Solutions” but BECU called and cut off the card.
Yep, my USAA debit card was scammed on Monday. Charges were in Pakistan to BIG GSM. I have always been in the habit of using my card nearly everywhere I go. I guess that habit needs to change.
Just got a fraud alert this morning from Chase, someone trying to charge $128 from a gas station!
I too live by Broadway and received a call from Visa this week. Somebody in Poland attempted to charge nearly $1000 (but was declined). I never reported it since I haven’t lost any money and the bank is sending a new card.
Alaska USA contacted me to let me know someone was attempting a $300 purchase at Target in Dallas this week with my card. Luckily they stopped it but it makes me wonder if there’s a card skimmer somewhere on the Hill?
SPD is not too interested, course not they are looking for old war vets who use a bit of medical MJ to bust. BIG TIME drug crime.
Don’t believe me, read the Stranger account. God, who is running the mad house called the Police Dept? Really. And on my tax dollars.
My best friend got hit, he just closed his accounts at Chase and is doing cash for a while … he is from the carry cash generation, so knows how to count …
Someone tried to use my US Bank card to buy several hundred dollars in self-tanning supplies. Not sure it’s related to this wave of fraud though – whoever got mine had my phone number and e-mail, too, so that seems like an online shop breach.
everybody that got frauded should get together and make a google doc spreadsheet and put the names of all the places you’ve used your shady card in the past month – just the names of places, no identifying informaiton..
eventually some patterns will emerge
MATHS!
Why is this necessary? Other than the fact that you clearly have axes to grind with everyone and everything.
i got a call last night about $500 spent from my checking account at 2 wal-marts in california. reported it to spd this morning, and they had me use the online thing, but then told me it was identity theft and the loss wasn’t mine, when clearly their online report system says fraudulent use of a card is not identity theft, and it’s $500 missing out of my checking account.
i use the 7-11 atms on madison at 16th, 15th at denny, and the becu atm on broadway. could that be it?
But I got hit the same time and ways being reported here. Yesterday gas stations in Delaware and Virgiania, before the bank started declining the attempts in North Carolina and Canada.
The thing is that I have only used my card on Capital Hill 7 or 8 places, ever. And within in the last month, I think one gas station (inside for cigarettes), one restaurant, and maybe an atm, I will have to dig more.
But if the connection truly is Capital Hill merchants, I only have a few places it could be.
i realized that in my case they probably manufactured a FAKE card. they didn’t use it as a debit, and didn’t use it online. they actually went to two different wal-marts and made purchases. so i think it’s more than a capitol hill restaurant employee skimming numbers. it’s really organized. and i read a report this morning that seems to indicate it’s more widespread than just capitol hill. a texas community was having the same issue a few weeks ago: http://www.gosanangelo.com/news/2010/oct/08/debit-fraud-in-w
Thanks for the link to the Texas story. We had the same thing happen to us: Bank of America called my husband at work yesterday, as a few purchases were made in South Carolina (with a physical card)…..
I’ve had two cards (different banks) and my wife has had one cancelled because of fraud in the last week. STD was one of them and another was caught in a kids clothing store in Delaware and the third was Macy’s and a steakhouse in Chicago. The cards are from both US Bank and BoA.
These cases are the first times we’ve ever had this issue.
My Capital One VISA was getting charges in France, but I had the card with me in Seattle the whole time.
Ok, so here’s my guess….where do you use your card where actual persons are the one holding on to it? Restaurants? Diners? Droves of people from all around would wind up in a single location (in a general neighborhood) that someone could easily take ur information while you werent looking. Since swiping a card at a gas station or atm is rare to provide all the info…that’s where I’d start tracing my steps.
Most of the anecdotes are for real world purchases. This is definitely organized crime. The usual MO is to look for a chain that uses identical POS devices and rig some some to capture card swipe impressions and either cache them or phone them home. Then they put them up in place of the real ones when they are unattended.
It could be an ATM, though these days ATMs are designed with this in mind, so that’s unlikely. More likely is a large multi-site business (grocery, convenience store, chain restaurant) where the perps could engineer rigged POS boxes once and hit multiple targets. Given the numbers I’d guess a grocery store chain was most likely.
After my earlier comment, my wife phoned me with the news that her BoA card info had also been stolen, and used in a shopping spree in NYC.
The only business where we both used our cards: the Broadway QFC.
I really like the store and its staff, and shopped there again this evening, but I would guess that somebody got inside their credit card processing system and captured card data there.
https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0Ah3DgVyaZYOJdGJtcGl
I agree. If people just put it in there, we can sort and see if there is a pattern.
Places I used my card on Capitol Hill
Major fraud – involving hundreds of people – all very upset – nice people, with credit, jobs, homes – and they are mostly blown off.
You think I have an axe to grind? Not at all. FOR me, it links to where police resources are spent, over and over, under senior police supervision for example, busting the most minor of med Mj users.
So – tell me – Sir or Ms Rain.something, you think so far police work/reaction on the situation, from the Chief, Senior staff of which there are many, others, thus far meets your standards? At my office I watched an older friend, has never broken a law in his life except maybe queer sodomy when he was a youth, he tried to get his report to police, no interest at all – blew him off. He is sending emails, because he thinks it is his duty “to participate in the investigation.” Hah.
I will read your reply avidly. (by the way, the culprit is, likely, the Russian Mafia, organized, savvy, immune, using world class software engineers, and they would tap batching feeds from several merchants on the Hill – also they transfer the take immediately to safe haven accounts, out of the banking chains reach, and do keep the money. The chains are all insured against these losses …. a tiny,tiny fraction of a percent of all the money moved about by the net.)
unfortunately i use a greendot personalized prepaid debit card. tried to spend $980 in granby at “groupe marche latino” spent $5.85 twice at solo mobile in mississauga, then the coup de grace, $480 dollars at a taxi company in montreal. meanwhile i was at work here in seattle.
problem with my situation is that bc it’s a prepaid card, i have to jump through hoops and a bunch of paperwork to get my money back. until then, i am broke and have to depend on my fiancee for financial support until my next paycheck. lesson learned: never put all of your eggs in one basket.
It’s not necessary. Just the usual incoherent comments that don’t help.
My Chase debit card number was stolen(first charge was to STD Solutions) and they racked up $1200 in charges. I’m pissed. Did anyone use their card at either of the two mini-marts on Bellevue Ave in the Pike/Pine corridor?
That’s one of the stores that my husband & I have in common. However, my card has not been frauded. I have been checking all day. Hmmm….
excellent idea.
i was thinking about “getting jesse”!
My card was charged 6.20 for STD Solutions, 913.88 for a company in Spain- POS DEBIT ELECTROCONFORT PERALTA LLEIDA. I then got an email from the bank when they tried to charge at the same company in Spain for 300-ish. The email came because that overdrew my account- I left class to figure out WHY my account was overdrawn and immediately got a call from fraud prevention.
Called SPD to report it at about 6pm when I heard this story, and the officer I spoke with said she’s had at LEAST 40 calls today reporting the same thing.
I use my card quite often around Cap Hill.
I just returned from a trip to Victoria this past weekend, and got a call from my credit card co on tues saying that somebody tried to buy $775 in electronics from a retailer in Toronto with my card on the 25th. The funny thing is, I just got a new credit card, and so I haven’t been using this card much in October at all. Exactly 6 charges, most recent was an online purchase 10/20. One for breakfast on Cap Hil Oct. 3 seems likely. Another for groceries on the Hill on Oct. 4 is possible. Will fill the police in tomorrow…
I found a charge on my debit card this morning from STD Solutions, with an “ATM Deposit” in the same amount immediately following. Apparently they were testing the waters. The charge had a toll free telephone number associated with it, so I called. A recording played, telling me how I could meet “exciting singles in your area” by calling another number. I cancelled my debit card and ordered a new one, before they can do any real damage.
Yesterday, someone charged a total of $12,000.00 (!!!) in agricultural supplies (fertilizer, soil, and the like) from two businesses in France to my friend’s credit card (Capitol One, for what it matters at this point). For the record, my buddy doesn’t own a farm…& certainly not one in France.
…I’ll bet that some of the City of Seattle parking sticker machines have skimmers installed. I use machines on Brooklyn Ave. NE between NE 42nd and NE 43rd pretty regularly. I’ve also used one on Broadway within a block or two of Denny within the past month, and on University Way NE just south of NE 42nd St.
The one on the east side of Brooklyn NE nearer NE 42nd has failed to work, which may be a symptom of a skimmer.
The fraud on my account was on the card I use for paying for parking. I’m putting a fraud alert on the ATM card I used because the other card was cancelled due to fraud.
I haven’t used the Broadway QFC in quite a while, so that’s not a possibility for my card # theft.