Check Credit Card Statements For "STC SAWA RECHARGE RIYADH SA"
Check your credit card and debit card statement for unauthorized charges from STC SAWA RECHARGE RIYADH SA. The Saudi Arabian phone card company is fraudulently passing charges to consumer's cards, usually for sums of $80. If you find one of these unwanted charges, contact your card company to dispute the charges. This may not be enough, as consumers report being the charges hitting their cards multiple times, even after reporting them. In these cases, it may be better to cancel the account.
There's seems to be no correlation between vendors victims used their cards with, perhaps pointing to a breach at the credit card company level.
STC SAWA Credit Card Fraud [Reseller Ratings]
This is a test using rich text formatting and html links. It's the generic "company" ad that should appear on all posts with the Company category if they don't have an ad attached to a specific company.
Post a comment
Comments:
But you can just go to that nifty IRS site and fill out a survey to get your $80 back!
This happened on my card. I disputed the charges, but stupidly didn't cancel the card on the spot. Sure enough, about a week later, someone went to town, and racked up about 7 online charges, before the CC company (Citibank) started denying them. How my card number was stolen is unclear: either a database breach or an industrious waiter, I guess.
they took me for about $900 after all the overdraft fees from [citizens bank]. i caught the transactions after the second one, and asked for my account to be shut down. after having to convince them that i wasn't in Saudi Arabia the day before they reluctantly shut my account down [on a friday]... i went back on monday and found out that they didn't shut the account down and there were a bunch more charges. it's been a month now and although the money was credited to my account i have yet to receive a new debit card, and the account is still locked.
this is most likely what is known as a "BIN probe". essentially, the vendor (almost always in asia & eastern europe) literally makes up card numbers until they get one that works. they take advantage of the VISA merchant structure by applying for status under specific codes that can force transactions thru w/o an approval, name check, or CVV check. even card numbers that don't exist & "statused" cards (cards reported stolen) can be hit with charges.
i guess you could call this the "shotgun approach" to credit card fraud.
what i don't understand is why VISA doesn't revoke their contract & close the loopholes that make these probes possible. oh that's right, b/c they make money when the transactions go thru & then again when they're charged back to the merchant. silly me!
Another reason to avoid debit cards. If it had been a credit card, you would never have been out any money, and never had to deal with getting overdraft charges reversed.
@JustAGuy2:
But credit cards will crank call your boss at three in the morning!! They will put sugar in your gas tank and TP your house!! They will drink all but one drop of your milk and then put the empty carton back into the fridge!!! Also, THEY WILL KILL YOU IN YOUR SLEEP!!!
I declare jihad against this practice!
@MameDennis:
You forgot - they'll also call up the bank, and sign you up for more credit cards!!! They'll kill your pet!!! They'll make your twinkies expire!!!
...sometimes, the anti-credit people on here get a little extreme. :)
Does anyone know which bank(s) and credit card cos (visa/mc/discover/amex) this has affected? I got the VIP Tune on my Wachvoia VISA Signature card, but this one hasn't shown up on any of my cards yet.
i hope whoever is doing this... gets their hands chopped off!