An expensive reminder that the internet is not a nice place sometimes

Well ... I thought it would never happen to me !!!!
3 weeks ago I noticed an unusal mail noticfication pop up on my screen from Google Checkout , so I tried to login to my gmail account to see what was going on ..
To my shock I couldn't access my mail , being on the cautious side I phoned my credit card company and asked if my card had been used .. Nope !! to my relief ..
That was Monday .. I'd been checking daily my accounts " just in case " then on Thursday I saw the shock --- my bank current account had been wiped out and overdrawn by a couple of thousand pounds !!!

Turns out someone had hacked my google checkout , waited a while then started having a spending spree at my expense .. Google have been a nightmare to deal with and I'm still waiting for the bank to refund my money ..

It's a Nasty feeling being robbed , especially from someone online :-(

I use very strong passwords and change them regularly .. and I only use my pc at work for making purchases ..

I used to be one of those people who thought "it'll never happen to me "

Oops :eek:

I'm not familiar with Google checkout.....PayPal, yes....but I wasn't aware that Google was getting into the financial transaction end of things...(and the big get bigger!)(seems kinda like my bank branching into 'internet search engines'!)

Sorry to hear abut your financial woes....was the account linked to your credit card? Sounds like you may have some recourse through them....but time and hassles, my good man....time and hassles.


-whatever

-Lou

So sorry to hear it. Sounds like you bank will make it right though. This is why I only use credit cards to purchase things on-line (on the rare occasion that I do make such purchases). If someone hacks into your accounts online, then all they get is your credit card, and not your actual cash money. You can still make mortgage payment, car payments, ..., and you simply tell the credit card that the transactions were not authorized, and you will not pay for them. Puts the burden of getting the money back on the credit card company and not me.

Bummer. When it comes to online paying I am paranoid.
I only use my cc on sites I trust, and I have a very long paypal password.
There is no way that I will ever leave my bank account online, anywhere.

I do have an account for getting money out of paypal, but that is just the number and not the access code. And the account itself is an acount that I opened at the bank for specifically this purpose, with no other things attached to it, and no link to our savings account.
It is just a place to park money where I trust it to be stored most.

I hope everything works out for you and that you get your money back soon.
Next time you suspect someone messing with your account, change your passwords and cancel the cards immediately.

Sorry if I ruin someone's sense of security now, but there are programs out there to generate valid credit/debit card numbers for most cards, and guessing expiration dates and whatnot. So, you may very well end up finding your bank account empty even if you never used your card at all. Happened to me once a couple of years ago. I caught it pretty quickly though, and the bank was pretty quick in getting the money back for me, changing my card, etc., especially since the purchases were made from the US, and I hadn't even been outside the country.

Even though I didn't suffer any real loss in the end, it was still a major hassle. People who do that kind of thing ought to be shot in the knees.

Just my 2 cents.

No, that's a waste of ammunition.:nono: A baseball bat to the knees, however...:tu

I'm really sorry that happened to you. And it sounds like you were pretty security conscious too. At least you twigged early and caught it fast. Thanks for the timely warning.

James.

That's really crappy. The place to look for a prime suspect may be your company's IT department. I hope you nail the bastard and have him serve some hard time.

LOL ... I am my company's ( well on this site of BigBlues ) IT/Network dept

I would be , don't know if nice is the correct word ! to know where the goods were delivered too , seemingly it's all to common in th euk for this sorta scam ... The scammers give a delivery address then await the compnay to being the good then when they arrive .. give them the order details claiming they will save the guy the trouble of taking the good in then -- wham !!! they vanish


Fingers crossed my bank will come good :-)

.. Oh yeah this was a visa typey card linked directly into my current account - it only allows you to spend what you have including your overdraft ..

No new razors for a few weeks !!!! The missus is gonna have kittens when my second Livi re-grind arrives as well ... LOL
Garry

Jeez that's awful Garry, hope you get it all sorted. Any idea how they compromised you? Do you think it was a random attack or were you targeted? :(

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Steelforge

Jeez that's awful Garry, hope you get it all sorted. Any idea how they compromised you? Do you think it was a random attack or were you targeted? :(

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It appears like a random yet welll executed attack ..
Reading a lot of the google forums it's happening frequently with google checkout users ... Google claimed my account was compromised on the 1st Aug .. the attacker didn't do anything until the 6th ... just letting the dust settle . My guess is they do this on a regular basis .. with any luck they'll be caught soon and get whats coming to them ..


I'd love to give them a piece of my mind , I know that for sure

Terrible. It seems even with goo secrutiy practices, there is always someone out there who can get through. Does you bank offer consumer protection services? Most US banks do...sometimes in the extreme. My bank has limits established for purchases so if a charge arrives over a certain amount, I have to call and approve it. Same for overseas charges, regardless of amount.

As for the culprit getting his/her just deserts. well...there's never a runaway truck loaded with pig-iron, careening down a street when you need one!

Greg

I'm still waiting for the bank to give me the nod as to whether they deem the case real Fraud .. the people from my banks fraud dept .. think it'll be an open nd shut case and the money will be returned Very soon ..
Until it's sitting in my account happily , I'm still optimistic ..
A lot of banks seem to call you up if theres unusal activity .. it appears mine does not .

Maybe they thought it was normal for me :-)

As an additional safety option, virtual credit cards are becoming more popular for one time use. In fact, I think Paypal makes this available now in addition to their random number generator thingimabopy.