Monday, April 28, 2008

Credit card phising scam

A question posted by a forummer in HardwareZone triggered my attention. Therefore I think it is good that I bring up this issue and share with everyone. I am surprised to the responses of many forummers who can’t immediately decide that it is indeed a phising scam! Now it is up to you to decide if it is a scam or not.

Someone made an online purchase from dELiAS store with a credit card. Two weeks later, the purchaser received an email from their customer service as below:

"Thank you for shopping with Delia's. Your order ******* has been received and is being held for additional verification purposes.

We can verify your order via fax if it is easier for you. However, we are unable to verify via e-mail. We will need for you to fax us a copy of the front and back of your credit card along with a copy of your photo id. We also need a written statement from the credit card holder verifying the amount of the purchase and the signature of the credit card holder.

Please make sure that everything in the fax is clear and easy to read. You can fax this information to 001-614-818-2730 or call us at 001-614-891-8354.
Please contact us or your order may be canceled."

So what clues can you gather from the above information. Photocopy your front and back of your credit card? Isn’t that sounds suspicious?

Firstly you are not supposed to give out your credit card details. By photocopying the front and back, you are indeed as good as giving out credit card information. Secondly this is the first time I heard a purchaser is contacted this way through email to confirm a transaction. Thirdly the site really looks crappy.

To me this is an obvious and classical case of phising scam. So you need to be aware with this kind of online transaction in future. Do not take any chance. When in doubt, it is better to give a pass.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm going through this now.
Now, after I sent the fax (my bank said that they do not advise me to do this, but that some clients have done that & it depends on my trust for the company - and as I know delias for 10 years or something, I decided to send it), they say that they have not received it, although my fax didn't send back any error messages.
I have purchased previously & have never been asked for such things. Their service is under any acceptable norms.

Mike Dirnt said...

i heard they are a legitimate and real company. but still i feel they need to revise their method of verifying the credit card details.

yes it all boils down to your trust with them. to me personally i would never fax over my compelete credit card details. you never know who is at the receiving end of the fax machine and how are the details being handled thereafter

pray that your credit card details are destroyed and not mishandled. terminate the card if you want to be certain

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