Cyber Ripoff?

[Paul Wozniak]

Somebody ripped me off this morning. I was checking my E-mail when I found notification from Sony that money was added to my "wallet" on my PS3. Four games were ordered for download at about 8AM yesterday morning. Called the bank to stop the charges and now I have to get a hold of Sony. These games were not ordered by anybody in my house, we weren't even awake at that time. I guess it's time to can the wireless connection and hard wire my ethernet.

Just a warning to those of you using a wireless connection. Anybody else have this happen? What is the point of this? The games are sitting in my queue to download, so what does the perpetrator gain from this?

 

[lakebum431]

More likely a Sony error. Did you call Sony to question it?

 

[Paul Wozniak]

Update: Sony is erasing the charges. Apparently somebody "phished" me. Still don't understand what the purpose of this was.

 

[lakebum431]

Very strange indeed. Wonder what they had to gain? Glad you got it fixed!

 

[Zookster]

I wonder if that means they had access to your credit card info in your PSN account. If so you might have the credit reporting bureaus flag your credit report with a fraud alert.

Because I've always been wary of the security of the PSN set up (I seem to recall hearing it got "hacked" a year or so ago), I always input a temporary credit card number I get from my credit card company whenever I purchase something. It's a bit of a pain, so I just "gang" any purchases I make and really don't buy too much to begin with. The temporary number is usually good for about 4-6 weeks.

 

[lakebum431]

Although getting your credit card ripped off can be a bit of a pain it really isn't that big a deal. A couple years ago Amex called me to see if I had just made a $350 purchase at FTD.com (I hadn't). They cancelled the charge, and overnighted a new card to me. I literally had a new card about 18 hours after the fraud had happened. I was impressed. Especially since I'd made purchases at FTD before (for smaller amounts) and I shop online all the time. Still not sure how that one set off the fraud flag, but it was impressive.

 

[meStevo]

Although getting your credit card ripped off can be a bit of a pain it really isn't that big a deal. A couple years ago Amex called me to see if I had just made a $350 purchase at FTD.com (I hadn't). They cancelled the charge, and overnighted a new card to me. I literally had a new card about 18 hours after the fraud had happened. I was impressed. Especially since I'd made purchases at FTD before (for smaller amounts) and I shop online all the time. Still not sure how that one set off the fraud flag, but it was impressive.

AMEX does their own fraud research when retailers contact them... they'll find the card owners and verify the purchase for retailers... you can probably thank FTD in addition to AMEX for being cautions.

What probably didn't trigger it before was you providing verifiable information on your order, had you gotten the billing address and/or phone number wrong on a large-ish order, they'd have probably contacted you as FTD went through their verification process.

 

[Derwin0]

What is the point of this? The games are sitting in my queue to download, so what does the perpetrator gain from this?

Games can be downloaded more than once after purchase, to up to 4 different PS3's I believe.
Therefore it was someone trying to sponge off of your account in order to get the games themselves. No different than stealing someone's credit card to buy games at Gamestop.

Most likely your PSN account is what got hacked into (THEREFORE CHANGE YOUR PSN PASSWORD IMMEDIATELY), and since your credit card number is on file with the account (ALSO REMOVE THE CREDIT CARD FROM THE ACCOUNT, AND NEVER HAVE THE PSN ACCOUNT REMEMBER THE CARD NUMBER) they were able to load money from the card into the PSN account in order to buy the games.

 

[Paul Wozniak]

I removed the billing info yesterday. Keeping a close eye on the card for any other activity.

 

[Derwin0]

Out of curiosity, what games did they purchase?

 

[Derwin0]

I removed the billing info yesterday. Keeping a close eye on the card for any other activity.

More than likely, your credit card is still secured. Online accounts typically only display the last 4 once the information has been saved.

But if you want to be safe, you can always request a new card from the bank.

 

[cybok0]

That's why I always buy gift cards for my Wii and Xbox 360.

 

[cybok0]

Somebody ripped me off this morning. I was checking my E-mail when I found notification from Sony that money was added to my "wallet" on my PS3. Four games were ordered for download at about 8AM yesterday morning. Called the bank to stop the charges and now I have to get a hold of Sony. These games were not ordered by anybody in my house, we weren't even awake at that time. I guess it's time to can the wireless connection and hard wire my ethernet.

Just a warning to those of you using a wireless connection. Anybody else have this happen? What is the point of this? The games are sitting in my queue to download, so what does the perpetrator gain from this?

Do you have password protection on your router?