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
https://complaintwire.org/Complaint.aspx/-9bwM6wm8QCsagjOrZcpZg
Other older complaints consistent with sloppy order fulfullment, followed by recent complaints of fraudulent charges.
https://complaintwire.org/Complaint.aspx/wG42Kph4nQDJwgjKwhnxZA
Strange thing is complaints go up to early 2010, then a gap, and they just started up in Jan.2012 again. The 2012 complaints are ALL reporting fraudulent charges, just like you. In addition, the earlier complaints reported they were in Minnesota, while your information gives a GB phone number.
It appears that some overseas scammer has taken over the name and URL of a former legitimate merchant with a spotty complaint record, and is using it to cram fraudulent charges, possibly hoping to use the confusion with the former company to assist in delaying consumer disputes past the FRB Reg. E or FCBA 60 day dispute periods.
Your safest path to get your money back is to IMMEDIATELY notify your bank of the fraudulent charge, and to shut down the account due to fraud to prevent additional fraudulent EFT charges.
Once you find one fraudulent charge, you can expect more unless you act to cut them off.
Dispute unauthorized charges through your bank, and block the card number or close the account due to fraud to prevent additional fraudulent charges. Follow up with a written dispute or fraud affidavit sent to your bank's dispute address. Your bank can reverse fraudulent charges if you dispute within 60 days of the statement date of the statement showing the disputed charges.
Do NOT waste your time trying to get your money back from any scam through the scammer. Always immediately file a bank dispute, as that is usually the only way you will ever get your money back. If you leave your account or card number active, you can expect additional monthly charges, probably around $58 to $150, until you get wise and shut it down.
In particular, if your bank insists that you contact this "merchant" to do a "billing dispute", your bank is an idiot, and will give your money away to any criminal who asks. This is theft. Send your bank WRITTEN NOTICE of the theft, mailed certified, to preserve your dispute rights under FRB Reg. E or FCBA, and find a new bank. If you have any problems getting your bank to reverse the charges, contact the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, at www.occ.gov.
Above complaints include reports of fraudulent charges on more than one card, and multiple attempted charges against the same cards. In addition this flurry of fraudulent charge activity ramped up very rapidly, from a level of zero.
It doesn't appear to be consumer fraud charge cramming using card numbers disclosed to a shady merchant. Probably an overseas small charges credit card fraud operation. This looks like an organized crime operation (maybe Russian), using hacked card data. It looks like these guys are going to drain as much money as they can, as fast as they can, then disappear. They aren't being "subtle" with small charges under $10, either.
File fraud complaints with FTC, and at www.ic3.gov
In addition, contact the Secret Service, as they handle bank theft by EFT.
http://www.secretservice.gov/contact.shtml
It would be entirely appropriate for any of the victims to file a report with the Secret Service, as your information would be first hand.
Both LE and the banks appear to slip up on systematic, organized fraud, if the perpetrators simply make the charges small enough and add some layer of "confusion" to delay an investigation. A defunct company that still appears to be in operation, and even still has a website, is just such "confusion".
Each dispute gets categorized by each bank customer service employee as too small to be worth investigating, even though the cummulative total spread across all banks can grow large. My guest is that this scheme has already topped $1 Million or more, and it's still going strong. The fraudulent charges are even rising, from the original $75 to the now often reported $150, and occasionally $500. A lot of people won't notice until they get their credit card statements on a monthly cycle, and some might still miss it due to the small size, or if they confuse it with some other purchase.
Russian gangs have played this game for years, with much more finess, By comparison, this is rather amateurish, built on an opportunity ("open door" into a merchant account, presumably), so it doesn't scale up the way the Russian operation can, will Craigslist ads to enlist money "mules".
Sooner or later the payment processor or bank should notice the chargeback variance, but if the consumer banks only treat this as a "billing dispute", that might be later rather than sooner. Furthermore, if the fraudulent charge rate rises faster than the chargebacks, the chargeback ratio can stay below the cutoff threshold for some time, sort of a Ponzi-like condition known as an "ACH kite".
The chargeback fees from older reversed charges get taken out of the cash from newer fraudulent charges, so there is a lag in the rise of the chargeback ratio, especially if the amount of frauulent charges is rising. If the fraud could rise exponentially, it could go on forever, while still maintaining a constant chargeback ratio due to the lag, but like any Ponzi scheme built on growth forever, it has to end sometime. The crooks no doubt know this, and are probably already draining off the cash and laundering it through banks across multiple "difficult" legal jurisdictions.
If the payment processor is actually expecting high levels of chargebacks, maybe because they already knew their client was "shady" and expected to cover their risk through chargeback fees, then when the money is gone and the sh*t hits the fan, they may have a bad "headache" as their reward. Problem is, a lot of consumers will get stuck, too, if they don't dispute promptly.
For comparison, see the Peel Inc. charge cramming kite scam a couple years ago.
It went from ramp up in November, to lawsuit by Illinois AG and shut down by mid January.
http://www.digitalstar.us/theater.cfm
Digital Star Ltd.~ 372 Old Street, London, EC1V 9LT England
tel: +44 20 8123 7377 ~ www.DigitalStar.us ~ email: sales@DigitalStar.us
Customer Service Hours: Monday - Friday 8am - 7pm UK Time
Address is a Mail Boxes Etc.
http://www.allinlondon.co.uk/directory/1257/45446.php
Mail Boxes Etc.
372 Old Street, The City
London, EC1V 9LT
Why does it have a ".us" domain, but a +44 phone number?
Why "U.S. and Canada only, if they are supposedly in "London"?
What is their real physical address, in U.S., or in UK?
Doesn't appear anywhere on the website.
So they are what, scalpers?
http://www.digitalstar.us/about.cfm
"...
DigitalStar. is an independent online ticket broker that specializes in obtaining premium sold out tickets to events nationwide. We broker tickets and the ticket price is dependent on the current market price, which is usually above the face value of the ticket.
We offer premium & sold out event tickets and we usually obtain them on the secondary market from current season ticket holders, promoters, coaches, players, and from the general public who purchased tickets from Ticketmaster.
We are not affiliated with Ticketmaster, nor do we endorse Ticketmaster, but we do suggest that you check the selection from Ticketmaster before buying premium concert tickets or sporting event tickets from any ticket agency or ticket service.
We are not connected with or sponsored by any of the venues, teams, performers, or organizations whose tickets we provide unless we expressly indicate that we are an official partner.
We are not affiliated with Telecharge, nor are we an official broadway ticket agency. All the New York Broadway theatre tickets we sell are above face value. We are not affiliated with the NFL, NBA, NCAA, NHL, MLB, WNBA, NASCAR, and PGA or any other professional sports organization.
..."
Expensive, sloppy "pinging" using hacked card data?
A lot of website work to create the impression they are legitimate?
Domain Name: DIGITALSTAR.US
Domain ID: D29447611-US
Sponsoring Registrar: WILD WEST DOMAINS, INC.
Registrar URL (registration services): www.wildwestdomains.com
Domain Status: clientDeleteProhibited
Domain Status: clientRenewProhibited
Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited
Domain Status: clientUpdateProhibited
Registrant ID: CR62286327
Registrant Name: Charls Brown
Registrant Organization: Digital Star Ltd.
Registrant Address1: 28 Old Brompton Road
Registrant City: London
Registrant Postal Code: SW7 3SS
Registrant Country: United Kingdom
Registrant Country Code: UK
Registrant Phone Number: +44.2075812800
Registrant Email:
Registrant Application Purpose: P1
Registrant Nexus Category: C31/us
Administrative Contact ID: CR62286329
Administrative Contact Name: Charls Brown
Administrative Contact Organization: Digital Star Ltd.
Administrative Contact Address1: 28 Old Brompton Road
Administrative Contact City: London
Administrative Contact Postal Code: SW7 3SS
Administrative Contact Country: United Kingdom
Administrative Contact Country Code: UK
Administrative Contact Phone Number: +44.2075812800
Administrative Contact Email:
Administrative Application Purpose: P1
Administrative Nexus Category: C31/us
Billing Contact ID: CR62286330
Billing Contact Name: Charls Brown
Billing Contact Organization: Digital Star Ltd.
Billing Contact Address1: 28 Old Brompton Road
Billing Contact City: London
Billing Contact Postal Code: SW7 3SS
Billing Contact Country: United Kingdom
Billing Contact Country Code: UK
Billing Contact Phone Number: +44.2075812800
Billing Contact Email:
Billing Application Purpose: P1
Billing Nexus Category: C31/us
Technical Contact ID: CR62286328
Technical Contact Name: Charls Brown
Technical Contact Organization: Digital Star Ltd.
Technical Contact Address1: 28 Old Brompton Road
Technical Contact City: London
Technical Contact Postal Code: SW7 3SS
Technical Contact Country: United Kingdom
Technical Contact Country Code: UK
Technical Contact Phone Number: +44.2075812800
Technical Contact Email:
Technical Application Purpose: P1
Technical Nexus Category: C31/us
Name Server: NS1.LOCALDNS2.NET
Name Server: NS2.LOCALDNS2.NET
Created by Registrar: WILD WEST DOMAINS, INC.
Last Updated by Registrar: WILD WEST DOMAINS, INC.
Domain Registration Date: Thu Sep 09 14:10:24 GMT 2010
Domain Expiration Date: Sat Sep 08 23:59:59 GMT 2012
Domain Last Updated Date: Tue Oct 11 16:20:49 GMT 2011
"Charls Brown"?
Address is just another Mail Boxes Etc.:
Mail Boxes Etc.
28 Old Brompton Road, South Kensington
London, SW7 3SS
So what is their real address?
Why no older complaints, if they registered in 2010?
Why the sudden upsurge in fraud complaints in the last 24 hours?
http://vipnation.com/about/
VIP Nation, Inc.
10866 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 250
Los Angeles, CA 90024
The companies appear to be in the same business, resale of secondary market tickets.
Are the two companies connected?
Is one ticket seller outsourcing to another?
Or is the "London" website an elaborate fake, being used to appear to be a "ticket seller", so numbers hacked from another ticket seller can slip through with the possibility they will be "confused" with a "billing error"?
Are any other fraudulent charges occuring after ticket purchases?
"...
Start of Authority
mname: ns1.localdns2.net rname: hostmaster.digitalstar.us
serial: 8
refresh: 900 retry: 600
expire: 86400 minimum: 3600
Nameservers
ns1.localdns2.net
Mail Exchangers
mail.digitalstar.us(10)
A Records
217.195.47.42
217.195.47.42 > 217.195.46.0/23 > AS25128 > Hostway Europe
217.195.47.42 > 217.0.0.0/8 > AS3303 > Swisscom (Switzerland) Ltd
Domain Name: DIGITALSTAR.US
Domain ID: D29447611-US
Sponsoring Registrar: WILD WEST DOMAINS, INC.
Registrar URL (registration services): www.wildwestdomains.com
Domain Status: clientDeleteProhibited
Domain Status: clientRenewProhibited
Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited
Domain Status: clientUpdateProhibited
Registrant ID: CR62286327
Registrant Name: Charls Brown
Registrant Organization: Digital Star Ltd.
Registrant Address1: 28 Old Brompton Road
Registrant City: London
Registrant Postal Code: SW7 3SS
Registrant Country: United Kingdom
Registrant Country Code: UK
Registrant Phone Number: +44.2075812800
Registrant Email: brown.charls@ymail.com
Registrant Application Purpose: P1
Registrant Nexus Category: C31/us
Administrative Contact ID: CR62286329
Administrative Contact Name: Charls Brown
Administrative Contact Organization: Digital Star Ltd.
Administrative Contact Address1: 28 Old Brompton Road
Administrative Contact City: London
Administrative Contact Postal Code: SW7 3SS
Administrative Contact Country: United Kingdom
Administrative Contact Country Code: UK
Administrative Contact Phone Number: +44.2075812800
Administrative Contact Email: brown.charls@ymail.com
Administrative Application Purpose: P1
Administrative Nexus Category: C31/us
Billing Contact ID: CR62286330
Billing Contact Name: Charls Brown
Billing Contact Organization: Digital Star Ltd.
Billing Contact Address1: 28 Old Brompton Road
Billing Contact City: London
Billing Contact Postal Code: SW7 3SS
Billing Contact Country: United Kingdom
Billing Contact Country Code: UK
Billing Contact Phone Number: +44.2075812800
Billing Contact Email: brown.charls@ymail.com
Billing Application Purpose: P1
Billing Nexus Category: C31/us
Technical Contact ID: CR62286328
Technical Contact Name: Charls Brown
Technical Contact Organization: Digital Star Ltd.
Technical Contact Address1: 28 Old Brompton Road
Technical Contact City: London
Technical Contact Postal Code: SW7 3SS
Technical Contact Country: United Kingdom
Technical Contact Country Code: UK
Technical Contact Phone Number: +44.2075812800
Technical Contact Email: brown.charls@ymail.com
Technical Application Purpose: P1
Technical Nexus Category: C31/us
Name Server: NS1.LOCALDNS2.NET
Name Server: NS2.LOCALDNS2.NET
Created by Registrar: WILD WEST DOMAINS, INC.
Last Updated by Registrar: WILD WEST DOMAINS, INC.
Domain Registration Date: Thu Sep 09 14:10:24 GMT 2010
Domain Expiration Date: Sat Sep 08 23:59:59 GMT 2012
Domain Last Updated Date: Tue Oct 11 16:20:49 GMT 2011
>>>> Whois database was last updated on: Tue Jan 31 19:20:17 GMT 2012 <<<<
NeuStar, Inc., the Registry Administrator for .US, has collected this
information for the WHOIS database through a .US-Accredited Registrar.
This information is provided to you for informational purposes only and is
designed to assist persons in determining contents of a domain name
registration record in the NeuStar registry database. NeuStar makes this
information available to you "as is" and does not guarantee its accuracy.
By submitting a WHOIS query, you agree that you will use this data only for
lawful purposes and that, under no circumstances will you use this data:
(1) to allow, enable, or otherwise support the transmission of mass
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OF THE AVAILABILITY OF A DOMAIN NAME.
All domain names are subject to certain additional domain name registration
rules. For details, please visit our site at www.whois.us.
..."
brown.charls@ymail.com
http://www.companiesintheuk.co.uk/ltd/digital-star
"...
DIGITAL STAR LTD
Dissolved as of 29 Jan 12
Address
28 OLD BROMPTON ROAD, SOUTH KENSINGTON
LONDON
ENGLAND
SW7 3SS
Legal Information
Company Registration No.: 07264940
Incorporation Date: 25 May 10
1 Year old
Financial Year End: 31 May
...
DIGITAL STAR LTD
Form: GAZ2 - Second notification of strike-off action in London Gazette (Section 652)
STRUCK OFF AND DISSOLVED
Filed on: 27 Dec 2011
..."
Looks like someone is using their apparently still active merchant account to run through a bunch of fraudulent charges.
Contact the Secret Service.
http://www.directorsintheuk.co.uk/company-dir ... AFA+MEHMED+EMIN
Digital Star Ltd is supposedly disolved as of Jan. 29, 2012.
http://www.companiesintheuk.co.uk/ltd/digital-star
Mobile Zone Ltd. is supposedly dissolve", date not given.
http://companiesintheuk.co.uk/ltd/mobile-zone
Report of "Mobile Zone Ltd" being hacked, resulting in theft of credit cards.
http://www.cigarbid.com/Forum/c/posts/610965/ ... -Hacked-per-BoA
Had this happen to a CC and the company immediately credited the charges back to me, cancelled my card and issued me a new one. No waiting and no paperwork to fill out. Now that's what I call customer service!
No purchases out of the ordinary this week. Harris won't stop pending transactions or return the money until they get it back from the scammers, because we have a business account.
To say I'm annoyed would be an understatement.
Notify your bank it's fraudulent IN WRITING, to establish timely notification of fraud. Mail it certified, immediately, so that your certified receipt shows your date of notification. Do NOT delay, as whether your bank sticks you with this loss depends on your immediate action.
Shut down the account immediately, as others are reporting multiple fraudulent charge attempts.
You might also file a theft report with your local police, and send your bank a copy.
Someone's going to get stuck with these fraudulent charges. Make sure it's not you.