10k

Thursday, March 31st, 2016 11:29 pm
darkoshi: (Default)
On Tuesday, I surpassed 10,000 steps in a single day for the first time since I started tracking my walking. At 11:45pm, the pedometer showed 9900. Naturally, I decided I had to do at least another 100 before midnight arrived.

The sky was very beautiful while driving home this evening. Awesome layers of clouds and light that make you want to look up rather than down at the street. The sun was setting, orange.

The wisteria/kudzu smells lovely.

Azaleas in full bloom. I still have some azalea photos from a year ago that I never posted. Still haven't finished going through all of last year's photos.

I have some photos of the cute budding fig leaves from a week or 2 ago... Now the leaves are already full size. Last year, I took photos of the young fig leaves too. I'm sure I'll get to them eventually.

I ordered 7 small items from Amazon last night. Button batteries and a couple other items which I've had trouble finding in physical stores. Already got shipment notifications on 5, and USPS tracking emails on 2 of them. California and New Jersey. Interesting to think that around the country, stuff is moving just for me.

When ordering Amazon Marketplace items, the credit card charge may randomly show up from either "AMAZON MKTPLACE PMTS" or "Amazon Payments". Because of that, it's no longer convenient to use Shop-Safe credit card numbers (which for security purposes allow purchases from only a single seller) for those purchases. Half the payments have been getting declined, and I've had to submit them again using a different credit card number. The weird thing is that when Amazon resubmits the ones that were originally charged to "Amazon Payments", the 2nd time they actually charge them to "AMAZON MKTPLACE PMTS".
darkoshi: (Default)
After a credit card fraud incident 3 years ago, I procured two separate credit cards for myself - one for in-person purchases and the other for online purchases. Benefits:
- if I cancel a card due to it being stolen or due to fraudulent activity, I'll still have use of the other card in the meantime.
- if fraudulent use occurs, I'll have a better idea of where my number could have been stolen.
- the card I use for online purchases has a feature called "ShopSafe", whereby I can generate unique credit card numbers, limits, and expiration dates for each merchant. If one attempts to use such a number at a different merchant, or over the limit, the transaction is declined*.

However, it is best to use a regular credit card number for Amazon. The ShopSafe feature doesn't work well due to Amazon's charges being submitted under several different merchant names:
"Amazon.com" - items sold directly by Amazon
"AMAZON MKTPLACE PMTS" - Marketplace items, possibly including ones "fulfilled by Amazon"
"Amazon Digital Svcs" - MP3 purchases
"Amazon Services Kindle" - Kindle purchases
etc.

It is possible to create separate ShopSafe numbers for each of the above Amazon categories, but then you need to select the appropriate number for your order, and not mix items in a single order.

If you mix Marketplace and Amazon.com items in a single order using a ShopSafe number, part of the payment may go through, but the credit card will be declined for the other items. You can then select a different ShopSafe number for paying the remaining items. However, you may get declined multiple times for a single order, as you can't know which items will be charged together or separately. It seems to depend on which locations the items are shipped from, as well as whether they are Amazon.com or Marketplace items. As indicated on the Amazon Help page, "Orders may be split into multiple shipments [...] Because we charge for items when they are shipped, this may result in multiple charges."

For a while, I was able to deal with the above issues by not mixing Amazon.com and Marketplace orders. However, recently Amazon submitted charges under 2 separate merchant names, even for an order which only contained Marketplace items. The only way to see the merchant name is from your credit card account, after a charge has been successful.


*The credit card/bank does not notify you when this happens - it is up to the merchant to inform the purchaser. So unfortunately, I have no way of knowing if any fraudulent use of my ShopSafe numbers has ever been attempted. But from reviewing my statements, at least I know that no fraudulent charges have succeeded.
darkoshi: (Default)
Fucking great.

When I reported the fraudulent credit card transaction to my bank last week, they closed down that account/card number and said they'd be sending me a new card. In order to get the new card via "rush delivery" in 1-3 days, I would have had to pay a $16 fee. (That's more than the fraudulent charge was for!) I opted for regular delivery (7-10 business days) and am still waiting for the new card to arrive. In the mean time, I haven't been able to use it. (GRRR)

However, this month's statement for the new card has been posted to my online account already. Apparently, due to the closing of the old card number, last month's automatic payment did not go through. So last month's balance has been brought forward to this month, with *interest* added (ARGHHH!@). The interest amount is more than the fraudulent charge was for! (GRRRRRR!!!!) Not only that, but the new statement does not mention automatic payment at all, so it seems I will have to get it set up again. (GRRRRR....)

.

The fraudulent charge posed as being pet-store-related ("GOODFORYOURPET"). As I have made a couple purchases from online pet stores in the last year, at first I suspected that one of those sites might have been hacked or somehow related to the fraudulent charge. However, one of those orders did not involve the credit card in question, and the other one was done through Amazon Marketplace - I'm fairly sure Amazon does not pass credit card info on to the retailers.
That leaves just one other pet-related store that I've ordered from, but it was almost exactly a year ago, and I had ordered from them many times before - I ordered vegan dog kibble for Yoda from them, before I found local stores that had it.

So.... either that site may have been hacked, or Amazon was (both of which seem unlikely), or it's just coincidence that the fraudulent charge posed as pet-related.

credit card fraud

Wednesday, October 13th, 2010 10:05 pm
darkoshi: (Default)
FYI for anyone searching on this like I was...

I found a fraudulent $9.96 charge that was posted to my credit card last week. I reported it to my bank and had the card canceled. This is the first time I've had a fraudulent charge to any of my credit cards.

The info listed for the charge was this:
GOODFORYOURPET2066005593 206-6005593 NY

I googled "goodforyourpet" and the number, and found this page where several other people have reported similar fraudulent charges from that entity.

I wish I still had my old credit card which had something called "Shop-safe". It allowed you to easily (via an online page) create temporary card numbers with preset limits and expiration dates, which you could then use when ordering from websites. That way if the site attempted to charge more than the amount you had set, or if the card number got stolen due to lax website security, you were still safe because your real credit card number was never divulged.

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