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
I also called Bank of America back and chatted with the fraud department again. I thought they might like to know that they continue to authorize transactions from Digital Star and they do not care either. I asked the representative to tell me exactly where my money went (after all they sent my money to another bank using a routing number), the representative replied " I am sorry, I can not give out that information". Well, if the bank I have my money in can not tell me where my money is going then I am no longer banking with them. Looks like money is safer under the matress.
The dispute rates should be rising rapidly now, as people are starting to get bank statements that would show the charges, rather than just those who regularly check their accounts online.
The banks, and even the Secret Service, follow the same types of policies: setting some threshold below which they do nothing at all, not even collect and merge information from consumer complaints. The crooks already know this, and have been exploiting it by keeping their thefts small and maintaining some illusion that this is some "legitimate" business.
If you want something to happen, embarass them. Go to the press. Their interests are different from banks trying to balance "risk management" with "cost control". They like a story, and lots of consumers dragged through paperwork over unending fraudulent charges by their banks fits into a major topic of current interest: i.e. "What's wrong with our banking system?"
Bob Sullivan at Red Tape Chronicles has reported on similar scams in the past, such as small charges fraud by Russian or Eastern European criminals, and also reports on consumer "red tape" problems, which non-stop bank fraud disputes clearly create. Based on his stories, he gets his information from consumers with problems contacting him.
As a similar example, the Corona Scam languished for almost 2 years, with a steady stream of complaints rolling in to FTC, FBI, state AGs, etc. Only 3 or 4 news stories showed up across the country, although most of the complaint forums showed steady complaints of illegal collection the whole time. The scam kept going and growing by using and adding new names every few months, to hide that it was all run by the same people. The moment the FTC raid occurred, the local press was tipped off by a consumer, and it still took about a week for them to even believe it. After that, it spread to Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post, and on, and on, within about a week.
You are looking at lemming behavior. You want lemmings to move? Show them that another lemming is ahead of them. Start with the press.
The banks have oversold the safety and security of debit cards, to the point that many people have switched from credit to debit cards, and debit card transactions now exceed credit card transactions. They have also been very profitable to the banks, since they collect the merchant fees, and don't even have to advance the money.
The reality is what we are seeing here, that you are out your money until you jump through a bunch of hoops, and even if you get it back, that can cost you.
"Survey: ID theft on the rise again, card victims jump by 2 million annuallyIdentity thieves have regained the upper hand, suggests a new survey released Wednesday by fraud research firm Javelin Strategy & Research. The firm's annual survey of 5,000 consumers suggests a rise in the rate of ID theft during 2011, reversing a drop in identity-related that was found in last year's survey. The main cause of the new increase: A return to old-fashioned credit card fraud.
"There's been a rebound. … ID thieves have bounced back," said Javelin President James Van Dyke, explaining that meant about 7.7 million Americans were hit with credit and debit card fraud in 2011, or about 2.2 million more than in the previous year.
..."
And now we know why. The banks don't actually do anything to stop it.
When a member of Congress contacts any agency of the executive branch, someone at a fairly high level basically has to drop whatever they are doing and respond, and the responder must consider whether this might show up when their budget is up for approval, or whether it might become the start of some committee investigation.
It tends to get their attention.
These card numbers are NOT being obtained through RFID snooping.
Consumer complaints are reporting too many different banks, and too many different locations around the country.
Block your card number, and if it is a debit card, do NOT replace it. Block any debit cards you have.
The consistent pattern to consumer complaints is that they are having more problems when debit cards get fraudulently charged than with credit cards.
They aren't really trying to hide their activities much, or even to look like the defunct ticket seller.
The banks don't appear to have any way to shut it down, or at least they don't take the trouble.
They just demand more fraud disputes from their customers.
Once one source publishes, they will probably all pick up the story.
If so, who were they through?
Also ask them if this charge is reported to be made using the CCV number or not, and what bank or payment processor the perpetrator is using.
Appears to be confused with some other order.
http://www.scambook.com/report/view/78452/Digital-Star-+44-False-Advertising-for-19600.00-on-02-11-2012
http://mbd.scout.com/mb.aspx?s=136&f=2637
"Digital Star"! It is a foreign fraud. I caught it on one of my VISA Cards when I was billed almost 75 dollars. I went to the internet and found it and ...
Looks like a global fraud to me.