Digital Star unauthorized charge
Complaint
Steve
Country: United States
A preauthorization for $74.95 from Digital Star with a bad phone number (208-123-7377) showed up on my debit card account 1/29/12. Called bank fraud department and had the account killed immediately. They stopped the charge since it had not completed. Do not know who Digital Star is or what the charge was for. I use the card for online purchases mainly through Amazon. No purchases in the last 30 dqays. However, I placed orders in the last 60 days from a company called Turncraft (woodworking plans), Personal Creations, and Entirely Pets. I wonder what companies others have used recently.
Comments
Information on this "Digital Star" comany is that they supposedly "dissolved" on 1-29-12.
The fraudulent charges started showing up on 1-27-12.
These thefts are probably being routed through a still active merchant account.
These are fraudulent charges, and if Chase is telling you to "contact the merchant", then Chase is a bunch of lazy idiots. They are a prime example of why this scheme is still running after over a week.
Send Chase notice, in writing, mailed certified, that the charges are fraudulent. That establishes that you have disputed them timely, and the dispute is deemed to have occurred on the date of your mailing.
It is not safe to use debit cards, due to poor security and weaker federal protections that credit cards. Cancel and block them, and use only credit cards for online or retail purchases.
Also FCBA has tighter limits on fraud losses ($50, but usually waived, by VISA and MasterCard fraud liability policy). By comparision, lose a debit card, and your liaiblity can depend on how quickly you report.
This stuff should fit under the VISA and MasterCard "$0 liability for fraud" policies, whether debit or credit, but some are reporting charges through "check cards" which might be back to FRB Reg. E rules.
if this scam is such a well known fact why has this place not been shut down by Visa?
Because all the banks appear to have policies about what threshold a disputed charge has to exceed to result in different types of actions.
If even fraudulent charges are small enough, they aren't routinely treated as fraudulent, just as "merchant disputes". If they are small enough, some banks will even just pay off the customer themselves and write it off, rather than spending money to investigate further.
The crooks know this, so even dumb ones like these, who almost always charge the same $74.95 amount, just slip under the poor radar of the banks' fraud handling policies.
Russian gangs have been exploiting this weakness for years, to the tune of tens of millions of dollars stolen.
been confetti for two weeks, and still no replacement in sight. Also, having an account with Amazon IS
apparently the culprit because I have been a very prolific customer of Amazon's for years.
I wonder why Interpol has not gotten into the act, since these people are apparently an international
gang. One of the "Directors" on the board of both defunct organizations associated with this scam is
also on the boards of about 200-300 other so-called "businesses!" (Busy little beaver...)
Perhaps those who live in big cities should get hold of the news media there, and have them spread the word about this; then, maybe the FBI and the Secret Service will get more actively involved, and with the help of Interpol (and Scotland Yard) the parties responsible can actually be caught - and punished.
a situation like this is allowed to exist.
For instance, apparently individuals set up shop with little investment, run the business for a few
years, then decamp - only to set up another business under another name, but with the same personnel.. There is a woman's name associated with the now-defunct "Digital Star" organization (who was "terminated" from the Board of Directors) - and I have now found out that she has been associated with a RECORD 1,294 "businesses" in Great Britain!
Obviously, this is a scam of megalithic proportions, and if I (as a private citizen) could find this out -
why can't the governments of the U.S. and of Canada do something about this? The criminal activities seem to be intensifying (as witness the greater amounts of money they are attempting to steal), and it could seriously undermine our already shaky economy if this cabal of international thieves are not stopped - PRONTO!