Have phantom orders been placed using your Best Buy website account that you had nothing to do with? Since the wee hours of this morning, we’ve heard from two separate readers who write that their accounts and credit cards were used to order downloadable content that was delivered to another person’s email address. And if posts on the Best Buy user forums are any indication, they’re far from alone.

H. wrote in first, telling us that three separate orders were placed on her account.

Just discovered today that someone had hacked my Best Buy account which I hadn’t used in over a year, and has been using my account to purchase downloadable content and is sending it to an email address different from the one I used for my account. I was never sent an order confirmation for the first transaction, but fortunately, I did receive a confirmation for the second and third, which tipped me off to the activity so I was able to contact the Fraud dept. After I called Best Buy’s fraud department and filed a report with my local police, I discovered that this is happening to Best Buy customers all over the country.

Amy, too, hadn’t shopped at Best Buy in quite a while, so she was surprised to see an order confirmation in her e-mail. The order was canceled a short time later, but

I recently had a run in with Best Buy. After the x-mas 2011 debacle I have steered clear of shopping there, and spend my money at other stores. On May 1st I received an email saying my order for a $50 PlayStation Network Code had been placed. I was surprised as I had not ordered this. I had another email from a few hours later saying the order had been canceled as they were unable to verify my information.

As I was concerned about fraud I called Best Buy customer service to try and get some help figuring out how this order had been placed. After a long wait time I finally spoke to a cust serv rep. He had a hard time understanding what I was saying when I told him there was an order on my account that I had not placed. He then told me that it could not be fraud because I had placed the order. I told him again I had not placed it. He suggested my child(ren) might have placed it while playing a game. I assured him my child(ren) did not place an order as the PlayStation had not been turned on at all that day, and no one had the password to my account. I asked to speak to the fraud department, and was told they do not have a fraud dept phone number or contact person for customers. In frustration I searched the Best Buy website for help. I stumbled upon the discussion boards, read about people having similar issues, and posted my request for help there.

Here is the link to my thread.

You might also want to check this thread:

When the “mod” finally replied to my request for help it was to tell me to go back to my bank and the local authorities (neither will help – my bank wont care as the funds weren’t withdrawn, and what is my local police department going to do about an issue with an Internet store’s information breach?) I was also told the “appropriate parties” had been notified of the situation. What does that mean?

He said that Best Buy phone and email support teams do not have the ability to investigate individual charges. My follow up request to be contacted by someone from the fraud dept, and my questions about why so many Best Buy customers are having the same issue have been ignored. Other customers are posting their same issues onto my thread.

If anyone else out there has experienced something similar, please let us know. Editors are standing by.

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