Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

["Lyman Green" <daerid AT io.com>]

> I just got off the phone with Yahoo regarding two $86 charges for
> "domain services", and it would appear "someone" has stolen my check
> card information :-(. According to the Yahoo rep., spammers like to
> steal credit cards and then purchase domain names (with extra email
> services) for use in their spamming activities.
>
> Interestingly Yahoo believes it was fraudulent because the collected
> "my" birthdate from the transaction, and of course it wasn't my actual
> birthday.
>
> The strange thing this is a new card-- I just got it a month ago, so
> there's a limited number of places where he/she could have gotten hold
> of the information. I can easily cancel this card and get another, but
> if the security breach was in someplace I buy from frequently it could
> be stolen again.
>
> Arrgghh!
>
This is extremely frustrating.  I have had to replace my credit card twice
(well, the second time might not have been necessary) due to theft.  The
first time I started getting charges from a porn website (a hentai site,
to be specific).  I called and immediately cancelled my old card and
contested the charges.  I never heard back on those charges - they just
disappeared.  What I have read seems to indicate that the credit card
company often doesn't even bother to pursue fraud that is under a certain
amount (this was about 60 or 70 dollars in multiple charges) and just
counts it as an acceptable operating loss.  <sigh>
I never determined where the theft of my information came from - I still
had the actual card, so it was most likely stolen in some manner by
harvesting it.  Unfortunately, my wife and I have both bought from some
very unusual places on the web.  Though we've always received our
merchandise - even from foreign language websites and such, I don't have
any sense that every website I've ever used was secure.
The second time, I received an email that defied my spam filtering, and
though it was not clear, it seemed to imply I was going to be charged for
something.  Rather than even risk it, I just cancelled and changed again. 
Never saw the charges on my new card, not sure if they'd have come across
on my old card or not (don't particularly care).

Good luck - I hope your information has not been (as you suggest)
permanently compromised at some location (real or virtual).

Lyman Green

> ________________________________________________________________________
>  _________
> Some try to achieve immortality by performing grand deeds or the
> accumulation of
> great wealth. On the whole I prefer to achieve immortality by not
> dying. -- Pratchett
>          -- michael at czeiszperger dot org, Chapel Hill, NC
>
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-- 
Zim! There's a pigeon on your head. You have headpigeons. Get to the nurse
before they spread to the other children.