CWI* CallWave unauthorized charges Santa Barbara California
This morning when I was reviewing my bank statement, I noticed I had three charges on my bank account for $7.95 to Callwave. I was confused and looked up Callwave online only to find it was some sort of online answering service? I never signed up for any such service and never heard of it before today.
The crazy thing is when I called the number listed on my bank statement charge, the automated system wouldn't allow me to speak to a customer service rep. The prompt said something like, The phone number you are calling from is not a valid Callwave number. please call back using the number attached to your Callwave service. HUH? This is the only number I have and the phone system wouldn't even let me through to speak to someone about the charges.
At that moment, I got the sick feeling this company was bad news and I envisioned getting the runaround from them on the charges based on what I read out here. So I went straight to the fraud department at Wells Fargo. The crazier thing is I have made a habit to NOT use my debit card for online transactions for this very reason. A friend of mine religiously used her bank card for online transactions and had her entire bank account drained after someone stole her card number after a Fandango transaction. So, since I don't use my bank card for online purchases, I'm not sure how Callwave even got my card number.
My next steps will be to file reports with the FCC, BBB and FTC and anywhere else I can.
Erika
Denver, Colorado
U.S.A.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Erika
Denver,Colorado,
U.S.A.
Online identity theft
#2Author of original report
Fri, July 25, 2008
I learned today that my charges with Callwave are a result of simple identity theft. After everything I've read about Callwave, I have to believe they are responsible for it. I can't imagine that some random individual obtained my bank card number, went wild with my information and signed up for Callwave service. No shopping sprees?
I decided to call Callwave with a different number I found for them on the BBB Web site (after I filed a complaint). If you MUST have a phone number to even get Callwave service, I wanted to know what phone number was attached to the Callwave account I was paying for. After being re-routed to a call center in India, I learned that the account was for a cell phone number that I had in my name from 20002004. This phone number has been out of my name for four years!
At first I thought my old Sprint account info was somehow compromised or shared (which still may be a possibility). A far more likely scenario, though is that during the time that was my phone number, I used my debit card (sadly, yes, it was still the same number) along with other contact information during the 00-04 time frame to make an online purchase. This information has obviously been obtained by Callwave to make unauthorized charges to my account. ... Information that is your years old (or more) could still work to rip me off. Scary.
Since this incident, I learned that it's good practice to change your card numbers every year or two. Simply report your card lost or stolen and your bank or CC company will issue you a new number. It's a pain I have to get a new card number and can't use my bank card for 5-10 days until I get my new one. It's a small price to pay though. I don't think anyone can comprehend how damaging identity theft can be until they go through it. In terms of scale, I feel like I got off with a warning ... this could have been so much more damaging to my financial life. You can't put a price tag on peace of mind, though and it's going to be a very hard thing to get back when I make online purchases. I still won't use my bank card to make online transactions. Instead, I will continue to use credit cards which have fraud protection.
I did file reports with my bank, the BBB, the FCC, the FTC and other online resources. The more I think about it though, the more I want to take Callwave down.