Fraudulent credit card purchases

[iodeac 138]

Hope you don't mind a lurker posting, but this forum is full of helpful info so I thought I might check here.  Recently someone used my credit card number and billing address to make an online purchase on Hollister.  Apparently they created an account, used my billing address, used a different email address, and the craziest thing is that the mailing address they provided is in the middle of a parking lot in front of a grocery store about 3 miles from my house.

When I noticed the transaction about a month ago, I filed a dispute and closed the card   I just got correspondence from Citi today that after they checked with the merchant they are reversing the temporary credit.

The mailed correspondence also had an attestation saying I didn't make the charges, with a blank to add signature and date, so I scanned it and emailed back to them.  I'm hoping this means they'll take the loss themselves since the merchant is basically saying the dispute is invalid because as far as they're concerned, I was the one who made the purchase.

I googled the mailing address that the merchant provided, which according to Google maps is right in the middle of a parking lot.  I was also able to use the tracking info the merchant provided to go to the Fedex website and found that the stuff was shipped from Ohio, made it to my state (NC) and was sent back to Ohio because the address wasn't valid.  The thing I'm confused about is why would they provide that address, since it would defeat the purpose of using my credit card in the first place...unless it was to test the waters.  Shortly after another purchase was made online from Armani, so that one is still under dispute.

This is pretty new to me, so I'm wondering how this process normally plays out.   I was surprised to learn it was someone from my small town apparently, I figured someone would have found my card info somewhere online and from a different state would have used it to make fraudulent purchases.

Sorry for the long post, but any advice would be appreciated, thanks!

[CooterBrown 18031]

The most you are out by law is $50 if you report the fraud to the card holder bank. Most won’t even hold back the $50 when they reimburse the charges. Don’t sweat it.

[txhorns 2413]

You say it’s someone from your small town, does that mean that you know who it is?

[UTPhil2006 3817]

1 hour ago, txhorns said:

You say it’s someone from your small town, does that mean that you know who it is?

Send them this

[iodeac 138]

You say it’s someone from your small town, does that mean that you know who it is?

Nope, I just assumed that because of the mailing address they used. It's possible they could have been somewhere else and just pinged an address on Google Maps just to test things out.

Enviado desde mi SM-G973U mediante Tapatalk

[South Austin 52620]

I get fraudulent online porn charges on a frequent basis, so this thread hits close to home. 

[Bernard 879]

I share your testing the waters with the first charge hypothesis. Maybe just chose a near-to-you address for the first order to test the card, but not have a parcel hit your front porch which might alert you to situation. 

Bernard 

Edited December 9, 2021 by Bernard

[RPM 26356]

14 hours ago, South Austin said:

I get fraudulent online porn charges on a frequent basis, so this thread hits close to home. 

You, too?

[Nice Guy Eddie 13523]

Weird story. I've never heard of a similar scam.

One thing it could be is that someone anticipated that it would be shipped via USPS and used a change of address form. They ship their purchase to this sorta fake address and simultaneously submit a change of address to a real address. They hope that the USPS will redirect the package to the new address but the vendor has no idea it was redirected.  Just a guess.

 

[Quagmire 2147]

Buying from hillister means it was some douche for sure