<p>Discovered that someone (??) has set up a recurring charge at creditreports.com against my credit card for credit reporting. Not reporting on me… they are getting monthly credit reports on someone else, using my credit card. Assuming they are not dumb enough to be using their own name to pull the credit report, I can only assume they are pulling info for identity theft against someone else. Ugh.</p>
<p>It wasn’t a big charge ($14.95), and I didn’t spot it the first month, but did the second month. I have cancelled my credit card, which has clearly been compromised.</p>
<p>Creditreports.com is not the site for the free annual credit reports. AnnualCreditReport.com is the official site to help consumers to obtain their free credit report. Sleazy sites like creditreports.com depend on people not reading the fine print. Your credit card has not been compromised, and no one is using it to get credit reports on other people. You just unknowingly registered for some kind of credit monitoring service, and you need to cancel it.</p>
<p>No, actually, I did not “unknowingly register for some kind of credit monitoring service”. My name is NOT in their system, they confirmed that someone with a different name signed up for their service using my credit card number for payment. So they are not getting my credit reports, they are getting a person I have never heard of’s reports (but I was paying for it…).</p>
<p>I happen to work in credit card security & mortgage banking, so I know the difference between getting a free credit report and these sites. Also, I am VERY careful never to sign up for those “free trials” of anything because I know that if I forget to cancel, I will end up with a service I didn’t intend to purchase.</p>
<p>So this was an instance of an inappropriate use of my credit card number, although I agree they picked an odd thing to use it for.</p>
<p>How ironic really. They compromised your account to use your credit to monitor someone’s account they are likely using via some sort of identity fraud… Geez.</p>
<p>I was shocked recently when my card company called me to verify charges. They were charges I had never made in a city I had never made purchases in; well not in the last twenty years. AND I HAD MY CARD IN MY HAND. They got away with about $2000 in purchases until a store declined and alerted the card company: the card had my info on the strip that is scanned by the card reader but someone else’s name was on the front of the card. When I went back and checked, there was a fraudulent charge the month before for one long distance call to Europe. They reversed all the charges and send me a new card. I have yet to use it again.</p>
<p>No problem At first I thought what you did, that maybe I had accidentally signed up or something (or that they would claim I had). But it did not really seem to surprise them too much when my name wasn’t in their system, I am guessing this isn’t the first time they have seen it. I guess it could be worse for me, they could have actually been pulling my credit information.</p>
<p>I love the internet because you can keep a much closer eye on the charges to your credit card or bank account. Before, you wouldn’t know anything was amiss until you got your monthly bill.</p>
<p>To be honest, it first showed up last month and I did not notice it on the paper bill. I did scan the bill, but I am usually looking for larger items (anything over $100 that does not look right). The last time someone swiped my card number, they charged $1,500 in car repairs to it. And… left the vehicle in their own name. Ahem. They were caught.</p>
<p>But I saw it this month, and went back and checked. It just started last month.</p>
<p>Although I have online access, I don’t look at it very often.</p>
<p>You really have to carefully look for small charges too. Thieves often use a card for the first time and make small charges to sort of “test the waters.” Then, if the charge goes through, they get larger and larger. The small charges matter!</p>
At first I thought what you did, that maybe I had accidentally signed up or something (or that they would claim I had). But it did not really seem to surprise them too much when my name wasn’t in their system, I am guessing this isn’t the first time they have seen it. I guess it could be worse for me, they could have actually been pulling my credit information.</p>