Administrators Jeff Mottle Posted December 10, 2002 Administrators Share Posted December 10, 2002 I am so disgusgted by this! Whom ever is responsible will hopefully pay for this. I have people investigating, but it does not look good. As we have lost a source of revenue, it will be inportant to keep the banner visits coming and letting as many people as you can know about the site...especially potential advertsiers. Thanks guys! http://www.cgarchitect.com/news/article117.asp [ December 10, 2002, 11:21 PM: Message edited by: Jeff Mottle ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sawyer Posted December 10, 2002 Share Posted December 10, 2002 Jeff, I am very sad and pissed that this happened. I love this resource that you have given our community and some little shit does this. I just want to thank you for the work that you have done and hope that you can get back what was stolen although I don't know if that is an option. Sorry man. Let us know if we as a community can do something for you or CGA. Sawyer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STRAT Posted December 11, 2002 Share Posted December 11, 2002 just read it. wat a bunch of shiesters ppl can be Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nisus Posted December 11, 2002 Share Posted December 11, 2002 Simply awful! :-(((( Is it possible to track were the merchendise from the stolen creditcard went to? rgds nisus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quizzy Posted December 11, 2002 Share Posted December 11, 2002 This totally sucks!!! This kind of shit really makes me MAAAADDD!!!!! [ December 11, 2002, 03:45 AM: Message edited by: quizzy ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Jeff Mottle Posted December 11, 2002 Author Administrators Share Posted December 11, 2002 Hey guys, Not sure if anything will able to be done ot if they can track it but the product vendor is now looking onto seeing of they can track this guys ans report him to the FBI and INTERPOL. We'll see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbr Posted December 11, 2002 Share Posted December 11, 2002 I am saddened by this disgusting incident. It's always a shame that a few selfish crooks can ruin everything. I can't understand how you are liable for the funds, either. Credit card companies never hold an individual responsible for funds charged on their stolen cards. Best of luck sorting through all this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeDaCoM Posted December 11, 2002 Share Posted December 11, 2002 so sorry th hear that.... but I have to say that is easier to track than you can imagine... everything is logged and there are specialists against this criminal area. and they catch them many many times... I'm sure everything will be ok soon. I didn't know that the store is responsible to that.. not sure if is the same in europe.... but I had the idea of being the banks..... well... they'll catch them... you'll see Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ernest Burden III Posted December 11, 2002 Share Posted December 11, 2002 looking onto seeing of they can track this guys ans report him to the FBI and INTERPOL. We'll see.Guy? As in one? Please elaborate on the point about the merchant being held accountable. Doesn't the bank issue an authorization code, and isn't that your assurance that the BANK has taken responsibility by issuing the auth. code? Isn't it THEIR job to verify the purchase request and give it a thumbs-up or thumbs-down? Finally, if they are telling you that these purchases are good-to-go and then hit you for large bills, wouldn't you have a case against the bank for misleading you? How would YOU know what is a good card and what isn't, without the bank to verify the purchase? Otherwise, a credit card purchase is no better to a merchant than a check--and over the internet you don't even see the person. So I'm saying I cannot understand how you can be 'charged back' the purchase if the bank gave your merchant account an authorization code. Since I'm putting together a web store obviously this is alarming to me, not to mention my support for you and this site. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Griger Posted December 11, 2002 Share Posted December 11, 2002 Jeff, I’m really saddened that this has happened to someone like yourself who is just trying to have a positive impact in this field and finds himself taken advantage of. I’m also surprised that this guy can’t be tracked. Isn’t there an ISP address fingerprint left from whomever made the fraudulent purchase that could be traced? And the credit card/bank making the little guy take the hit for this smacks of lawsuit in my mind. I thought that the benefit of using CC’s is that the bank issuing the CC stands behind the transaction. What good is it if they don’t? I hope you can recoup your losses and find a way make this work out for you. It’s maddening where a site that offers tools for the professional would be taken advantage of by a common thief. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lildragon Posted December 11, 2002 Share Posted December 11, 2002 I have to agree with Ernest here. Jeff, when you get back from London, do look into this. Cause from the minute you told me this I found it incredibly bad business practice on the banks behalf. They're there to protect you from things like this, not hide behind you and let you take the blows... What purpose do they have if they don't? Do yourself a favor and dig deep into this.. salud Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quizzy Posted December 11, 2002 Share Posted December 11, 2002 welcome lildragon.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Griger Posted December 11, 2002 Share Posted December 11, 2002 Tito "Lildragon" Belgrave of CG Talk? Welcome, welcome indeed! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3danim8d Posted December 11, 2002 Share Posted December 11, 2002 Jeff, I'm really sorry to hear that this happened. I hope that the vendors can track down the culprits and put it to them. Do you have any CGarchitect banners that we can put on our sites? Good luck, Jeff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris_A Posted December 11, 2002 Share Posted December 11, 2002 Jeff! Let us at 'em... We'll render their house with bad textures, wash 'em out with ambient light and darken them with bad shadows! Just thought I'd try to lighten the mood a little. They say it's darkest before the dawn guys. Stay in it Jeff, there are a lot of us out here on your side. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Jeff Mottle Posted December 12, 2002 Author Administrators Share Posted December 12, 2002 Hey guys, thanks for all of your support, I really appreciate it. To answer a few of your questions: Both the banks, credit card companies and the CC processing company are lookign into this, however I am initially being told that unless I received a signature and a CC imprint then I shit out of luck. Yeah don't even get me dtarted about getting an impring and signature. I'm not sure but the banks may try to get INTERPOL and the FBI involved, but I won''t know much for a week or so. Until then I am personally out $7000, which bascially wipes out CGA's savings. This is the nature of the biz I am being told and quite frankly I think it sucks. These comapneis are making billions of dollars a year and the merchant are held responible. BS!!! A friend, from Mr Furniture deal with a company that will cover fraud liek this but he pays 35% off the top of all his sales. Something I would have considered had I know that this was going or even could happen. I was contacted by the FBI for a stolen card on my site just last month and I was going to shut the store down then, but was encouraged to keep it open so I did. Not that it would have mattered because this order came before the last fraudulent order. And yes it is one person and one order. The BIG mistake I made was shipping a product to an address that did not match the CC address. To boot it was in Indonesia...Red flag all over, but I did not know becuase nobody told me. I tore a strip off the CC processor for not eduating their customer on safe practices. Instead they would rater just make a buck! Anyway that all I know for now. I am trygin to forget it for a few days whiel I concentrate on other things. I am out of town and this added stress was the last thing I needed. I'll let everyone know as soon as I find something out. Thanks for all of your support, Jeff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Hess Posted December 12, 2002 Share Posted December 12, 2002 I hereby curse the violators computers to never work again. Bastards always try to ruin everything good. If the FBI finds them, everyone in the forum should get a few minutes to test out the "punching bag" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lildragon Posted December 12, 2002 Share Posted December 12, 2002 Hmm so what I don't understand is that this product *must* be shipped somewhere, can't that be intercepted? or ceased? I mean if of course it took it sweet time reaching it's destination... Someone had to sign for it right? salud Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nisus Posted December 12, 2002 Share Posted December 12, 2002 Hi Jeff, Didn't you notice that the order was for such a big amount? rgds nisus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrCAD Posted December 13, 2002 Share Posted December 13, 2002 It is really bad that has happened..but we will do our best to help you get along with CGA. I've been through this and its a learning experience through time. Good luck with everything bro, MrCAD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Jeff Mottle Posted December 14, 2002 Author Administrators Share Posted December 14, 2002 hey guys, This is how is works. When someone places and order by CC it is Post-Authed. This means that the CC processor checks realtime to ensure that there is sufficient credit on the card for the ordered amount, and holds that amount on the card for a few days. You are not allowed to actually process the order completey on the card until the product is shipped. This is a rule set out by all CC companies. So once I take a look at the order I contact the vendor, in this case it was REALVIZ, and I ask them to ship the product on my behalf. At that point I finalize the order and the CC get billed the full amount. Now here is where the problem lies. If someone has used a stolen card I will not know until the real person complains to the bank that there was a purchase made without their knowledge. This make take a month or so depending upon how closely the CC holder exaamines their CC statments. There are some precautions you can take, but there is no way to 100% gurantee that you will not get burned. If you do get burned, like I did, then the merchant (CGA) is responsibel for reiembusing the bank for the ammount so that they can give it back to the CC holder. Although the banks and CC companies make billions of dollars per year, they are F**KING morons (sorry for my French) and screw me for the money instead of just eating the ammount themselves. So that my friends is how CC processing works. I have spoken to MANY sofware vensors and ALL of them have been burned, so for a lot of money. If you process CC online you have to be willing to take the risk of loosing a great deal of money every know and then. Unfurtunately I was not informed enough to know the risks becuase I did now know that these risks even existed and the CC processor I employ is too damn money hungry to bother telling their cutomers what to whatvh out for. Anyway I thik that clears this up and I hope they string the idiot who did this out to dry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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