Credit card warning

Subject: RE: Credit card warning
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 13 Jan 00 - 06:06 PM

There was another story in the (English) Guardian about a fella who had his details stolen and ended up in credit because the thief made some winning bets on the phone using his number.

Subject: RE: Credit card warning
From: jeffp
Date: 13 Jan 00 - 11:21 AM

lamarca - apparently some criminals don't have a devious enough mind, either. I heard on the radio this morning that somebody ordered some furniture with a stolen credit card and had it shipped to their house. The police showed up instead of the furniture. Somebody should go into another line of work.

jeffp

Subject: RE: Credit card warning
From: lamarca
Date: 13 Jan 00 - 11:10 AM

There was a report on this on NPR last week. It was billed as "the first attempted Internet extortion scheme", as the hacker was trying to extort money from cdUniverse in order to not publish the stolen credit card numbers. The hacker published the credit card info, including the cardholder name, card number, expiration date and billing address on his/her site - in short, everything a dishonest person would need to charge items illegally to someone else's card.

NPR reported that if you suspect your card has been used illegally, notify your credit card company to cancel the card. At least in the USA, your liability is limited to $50.

I've always wondered how illegal use of someone's card number could possibly work - if you're ordering something over the Internet or by phone, you have to give a shipping address for the goods, and that can be used to trace the illegal purchase. What's the point? Or do I just not have a devious enough criminal mind?

Subject: RE: Credit card warning
From: Roger the skiffler
Date: 13 Jan 00 - 03:44 AM

I think this is important enough (if genuine) to refresh.

Subject: Credit card warning
From: Roger the skiffler
Date: 12 Jan 00 - 10:10 AM

If this report cut 'n' pasted from today's London Telegraph Online is accurate, and you have used CDUniverse recently you may need to watch your credit card statements.
Internet hacker in credit card plot By Mark Ward

Security - cdUniverse cdUniverse AntiOnline [Computer security web site] The Hackers Home Page Hacker Community - About.com

A HACKER has published the numbers of more than 300,000 credit cards on the internet after a failed attempt to blackmail the company he stole them from.

The 18-year-old, using the alias Maxus, set up a web site last week that listed the 300,000 credit card numbers he stole from the American online music shop cdUniverse after the store refused to pay him $100,000 (£62,000). As news of the hack spread across the internet, messages were circulating in chat rooms from people saying that they were cancelling credit cards or advising anyone who had shopped at cdUniverse to check their statements.

It is thought that some of the stolen numbers have already been used to pay for goods illegally on the internet. The anonymous hacker says he got hold of the credit card numbers from the cdUniverse website because it had not plugged a loophole in a program, called ICVerify, that it was using.

The company confirmed that it had been targeted by a hacker and customer information it had seen was genuine. It said it was working with the FBI, credit card companies and private investigators to work out how the theft occurred and how big it was.

Alex van Someren, of the Cambridge-based security company nCipher, said that e-commerce companies must be constantly aware that people were trying to find ways to break into their computers and web sites. He said: "Every day we deal with someone who has a new idea about how to do it."

RtS