FYI : Scammers Stole Millions, a few cents at a time

FTC Says Scammers Stole Millions, Using Virtual Companies


Robert McMillan / PC World
Sun Jun 27, 8:30 pm ET


The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has disrupted a long-running online scam
that allowed offshore fraudsters to steal millions of dollars from U.S. consumers --
often by taking just pennies at a time.


"It was a very patient scam," said Steve Wernikoff, a staff attorney with the FTC who
is prosecuting the case. "The people who are behind this are very meticulous."


Wernikoff doesn't know where the scammers obtained the credit card numbers they charged,
but they could have been purchased from online carder forums, black market Web sites
where criminal buy and sell stolen information.


The scammers stayed under the radar by charging very small amounts --
typically between $0.25 and $9 per card -- and by setting up more than
100 bogus companies to process the transactions.

U.S. consumers footed most of the bill for the scam because, amazingly,
about 94 percent of all charges went uncontested by the victims.

According to the FTC, the fraudsters charged 1.35 million credit cards a total of $9.5 million,
but only 78,724 of these fake charges were ever noticed.

Typically they floated just one charge per card number, billing on behalf of made-up business names
such as Adele Services or Bartelca LLC.



The criminals used a range of legitimate business services to make it appear to credit card processors
as though they were legitimate U.S. companies, even though the scammers may have never set foot in the U.S.

For example, using a company called Regus, they were able to give their fictional companies addresses
that were very close to the companies whose tax IDs they were stealing.
Regus lets companies operate "virtual offices" out of a number of prestigious addresses throughout the U.S.
-- the Chrysler Building in New York for example -- forwarding mail for as little as $59 per month.




those were the Highlights ...full story behind this link

WOW...I wonder if they ever got me...guilty of checking only big amounts on my statement
been doing quite a bit of shopping...maybe more than I knew

that'll teach me

glad i use cash