Experian FreeCreditReport.com/ConsumerInfo.com Fraudulent Credit Card Charge for unknown purpose (wasn't me) COSTA MESA, California
Noticed a charge on my American Express (AMEX) for $19.95 on a Sunday (4/29/12). Looked at the info:
EXPERIAN
*CREDITR 877-297-7790
CA
19.95
558813280 877-297-7790
877-297-7790
Doing Business As:
CONSUMERINFOCOM
Merchant Address:
535 ANTON BLVD #100
COSTA MESA
CA 92626 UNITED STATES
I thought that was odd, since I've never been to the website and don't do any business with Experian. Also, I'm one of those people that is fairly aware when there is a sneaky checkbox that will sign you up to an offer, or those "free" gifts that automatically roll over into a monthly charge later.
Reason I'm creating this report is because I've noticed a lot of people complaining about the same thing online, and a large uptick in complaints in the last few months (especially as of may 1st):
http://danbeahm.blogspot.com/2012/02/fraud-alert-experian-charging-peoples.html
http://complaintwire.org/complaint/EpUBAAAAAAA/mni-credit-report-monitoring
http://complaintwire.org/complaint/oCWHgTlFZAU/experian-credit-report
Not sure if my card was compromised, or Experian was compromised and already had my card from some other transaction. Regardless, something really screwed up is at hand, and I'm surprised it's still happening.
Eugene
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Eugene
United States of AmericaGlobal Payments Data breach related?
#2Author of original report
Thu, May 03, 2012
Just got home and received a letter from American Express stating that my account was one of many account compromised due to a data breach from a payment service provider. I'm assuming this is related to the Global Payments data breach from last month and that's how they got my credit card number. From the information I've been reading, scammers are using these stolen credit card numbers to run credit reports on other people (to get more information for future identity theft).