Credit Card Fraud @ Wizard Chicago - anybody else ? 0

[Bomber-Bob]

Just thought I would share my experience today as a cautionary warning and see if it happened to others .

Today, Sunday, about an hour left on the final day of Wizard Chicago. I'm buying a couple comics from a prominent dealer and decide to use my Credit Card. Note, I am not going to mention the dealer, I think he was scammed also, to avoid any poor reflection on him. I think he used a tablet, not his phone and swiped my card. Denied. This happened to me earlier in the show on Thursday as a precautionary move by my CC company because of out of normal spending patterns, no biggie. I give him another credit card, different company. Denied. Oh well, I cut my purchase in half and use the last of my cash. Later, upon talking to my CC companies, I learned the following..

- Neither company could see a denied transaction, as if it didn't happen.

- On both credit cards there was a fraudulent transaction from the same location, ZIPY's,  a car wash in Florida. 

- The transactions both happened at about the same time as my original denied requests.

What happened ? I suspect somebody placed some hardware on the dealer's tablet. Anybody have a similar experience or can shed light would be appreciated.

[jsilverjanet]

48 minutes ago, Bomber-Bob said:

Just thought I would share my experience today as a cautionary warning and see if it happened to others .

Today, Sunday, about an hour left on the final day of Wizard Chicago. I'm buying a couple comics from a prominent dealer and decide to use my Credit Card. Note, I am not going to mention the dealer, I think he was scammed also, to avoid any poor reflection on him. I think he used a tablet, not his phone and swiped my card. Denied. This happened to me earlier in the show on Thursday as a precautionary move by my CC company because of out of normal spending patterns, no biggie. I give him another credit card, different company. Denied. Oh well, I cut my purchase in half and use the last of my cash. Later, upon talking to my CC companies, I learned the following..

- Neither company could see a denied transaction, as if it didn't happen.

- On both credit cards there was a fraudulent transaction from the same location, ZIPY's,  a car wash in Florida. 

- The transactions both happened at about the same time as my original denied requests.

What happened ? I suspect somebody placed some hardware on the dealer's tablet. Anybody have a similar experience or can shed light would be appreciated.

do you know how he was taking the payment i.e. Paypal or Square etc?

[Bomber-Bob]

2 minutes ago, jsilverjanet said:

do you know how he was taking the payment i.e. Paypal or Square etc?

No, but I will ask ? Please expound on how this is important. Thanks for responding, I really want to figure this out.

[jsilverjanet]

10 minutes ago, Bomber-Bob said:

No, but I will ask ? Please expound on how this is important. Thanks for responding, I really want to figure this out.

Well based on your first post if it's hardware then I'm curious which of the two he's using that's causing this. I've used the PayPal app and never had an issue. 

[Bomber-Bob]

Doing a little Google researching, I guess there is something called a skimmer, hardware that intercepts the transaction and steals the CC info. If you are diligent about keeping your device close to you at all times then you are probably fine.

[Transplant]

Question whether they were using public wifi for their connection.

[Bomber-Bob]

2 hours ago, Transplant said:

Question whether they were using public wifi for their connection.

Thanks, good question. In my case, the transactions seemed to be intercepted, they never went through to the CC companies. If it was stolen via Wifi, I would have thought the tranasctions would have gone through ?

[Stephen H]

I have never had the exact same situation, but I routinely have my card declined at Conventions due to AMEX Fraud protection. Since the square accounts are usually based out of their hometown, it flags because it things somebody is using the card in say, Missouri, when I am in Las Vegas.

Now the transactions don't show up as denied on my statement or account, I just get a text message that tells be to verify the purchase and have the merchant re-swipe. 

My guess is they were using the con's wifi and maybe somebody was intercepting your info (just for data), and maybe this was causing whatever merchant devise he had from getting your card info from the cc company, resulting in a denial. 

[blazingbob]

Since I use a surface pro the only "hardware" is the USB connection for the magnetic strip swipe. 

I am not sure why the cc company would not see the transactions because you cannot swipe the card unless you are logged into the online cc processing application.

Those declined transactions show up in your merchant account open batches for the day.   The dealer would see the last 4 digits of the card and status of declined.  If the dealer attempted to run the card again the application would flag it as a duplication transaction and would prompt you before running it again.

Normally my connection is made via a jetpack.  

The Rosemont convention center does have a WiFi connection that you can buy for the show dates.  There are actually two different bandwidth options,  one only works for cc transactions,  the other is more robust if you are pulling data and emails. 

It could be possible that the dealers laptop was infected with malware but not exactly sure how it is capturing the cc transaction from the Merchant's application software.

Edited August 28, 2017 by blazingbob

[Ghastly542454]

Bring cash. Problem solved!??

[Bomber-Bob]

3 hours ago, blazingbob said:

Since I use a surface pro the only "hardware" is the USB connection for the magnetic strip swipe. 

I am not sure why the cc company would not see the transactions because you cannot swipe the card unless you are logged into the online cc processing application.

Those declined transactions show up in your merchant account open batches for the day.   The dealer would see the last 4 digits of the card and status of declined.  If the dealer attempted to run the card again the application would flag it as a duplication transaction and would prompt you before running it again.

Normally my connection is made via a jetpack.  

The Rosemont convention center does have a WiFi connection that you can buy for the show dates.  There are actually two different bandwidth options,  one only works for cc transactions,  the other is more robust if you are pulling data and emails. 

It could be possible that the dealers laptop was infected with malware but not exactly sure how it is capturing the cc transaction from the Merchant's application software.

Thanks Bob, good info.

[Bomber-Bob]

2 hours ago, Ghastly542454 said:

Bring cash. Problem solved!??

You are correct. Usually, I always use cash at comic conventions. This was a first for me and obviously didn't work out.

[G.A.tor]

I found that every cc square transaction we did declined until cardholder called bank to authorize. More of a fraud protection I suspect but definitely inconvenient for the customer. It happened a little bit at Tampa but all but one at Chicago had to be handled this way. 

I don't do online sales and only take cc at a few cons a year, so I haven't invested in a more secure system but I might have to if this trend keeps up

[blazingbob]

8 hours ago, G.A.tor said:

I found that every cc square transaction we did declined until cardholder called bank to authorize. More of a fraud protection I suspect but definitely inconvenient for the customer. It happened a little bit at Tampa but all but one at Chicago had to be handled this way. 

I don't do online sales and only take cc at a few cons a year, so I haven't invested in a more secure system but I might have to if this trend keeps up

There really isn't a more "secure" system.  Since the US has only implemented half of the chip system without a pin it still won't prevent security issues with the card.  If the customer notifies the credit card company that they are in Chicago at a show the cc transactions they do will all show the Merchant's location.  If he buys from you the transaction show FL,  me NY,  Richard TX.  Security system will flag it since they think the card has been compromised and somebody is shopping away. 

[chrisco37]

16 hours ago, Stephen H said:

I have never had the exact same situation, but I routinely have my card declined at Conventions due to AMEX Fraud protection. Since the square accounts are usually based out of their hometown, it flags because it things somebody is using the card in say, Missouri, when I am in Las Vegas.

Now the transactions don't show up as denied on my statement or account, I just get a text message that tells be to verify the purchase and have the merchant re-swipe. 

My guess is they were using the con's wifi and maybe somebody was intercepting your info (just for data), and maybe this was causing whatever merchant devise he had from getting your card info from the cc company, resulting in a denial. 

That's been my experience as well.   My cc and/or bank will send a text looking for confirmation when multiple larger purchases are made within the same day.  

[G.A.tor]

1 hour ago, blazingbob said:

There really isn't a more "secure" system.  Since the US has only implemented half of the chip system without a pin it still won't prevent security issues with the card.  If the customer notifies the credit card company that they are in Chicago at a show the cc transactions they do will all show the Merchant's location.  If he buys from you the transaction show FL,  me NY,  Richard TX.  Security system will flag it since they think the card has been compromised and somebody is shopping away. 

Good to know

 

[comicquant]

On 8/27/2017 at 10:09 PM, Bomber-Bob said:

Just thought I would share my experience today as a cautionary warning and see if it happened to others .

Today, Sunday, about an hour left on the final day of Wizard Chicago. I'm buying a couple comics from a prominent dealer and decide to use my Credit Card. Note, I am not going to mention the dealer, I think he was scammed also, to avoid any poor reflection on him. I think he used a tablet, not his phone and swiped my card. Denied. This happened to me earlier in the show on Thursday as a precautionary move by my CC company because of out of normal spending patterns, no biggie. I give him another credit card, different company. Denied. Oh well, I cut my purchase in half and use the last of my cash. Later, upon talking to my CC companies, I learned the following..

- Neither company could see a denied transaction, as if it didn't happen.

- On both credit cards there was a fraudulent transaction from the same location, ZIPY's,  a car wash in Florida. 

- The transactions both happened at about the same time as my original denied requests.

What happened ? I suspect somebody placed some hardware on the dealer's tablet. Anybody have a similar experience or can shed light would be appreciated.

If I understand you correctly they disabled your card as part of their fraud protection which is why you were unable to use the card.  My guess is the Florida transactions happened near the same time as your attempt to purchase the books.  If there was a transaction with the same card in Florida 2 minutes before another in Chicago obviously something nefarious is going on so they block the transaction completely.  These do not show up as declined transactions; they will typically just give you an error code which always baffles the person running the card.  Did you use your cards for gas on the way to the con?  Gas stations are great places for individuals to nab your information.  Could've been collected at the con as well.  

[Bomber-Bob]

1 hour ago, comicquant said:

If I understand you correctly they disabled your card as part of their fraud protection which is why you were unable to use the card.  My guess is the Florida transactions happened near the same time as your attempt to purchase the books.  If there was a transaction with the same card in Florida 2 minutes before another in Chicago obviously something nefarious is going on so they block the transaction completely.  These do not show up as declined transactions; they will typically just give you an error code which always baffles the person running the card.  Did you use your cards for gas on the way to the con?  Gas stations are great places for individuals to nab your information.  Could've been collected at the con as well.  

Thanks for all the conversation on this, I'm learning a lot here.  Per the CC companies, neither card was disabled . In both cases, they did not see a failed/denied attempt for the comic purchases. They both showed the same transaction for the car wash in Florida but they were not identified as fraudulent by the Credit Card company. I noticed them later when looking at home and I called them in as fraud. I'm so confused. I contacted the dealer but he has yet to get back to me with any information. Again, no reflection on him, I just want to figure this out. With crowds of people at his booth and the tablet just sitting there, I suspect a skimmer could have been employed ?