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STOLEN CREDIT CARDS AND MFF
14 years ago
Hey guys, so I'll keep this short and sweet. If you were at MFF in Chicago, you need to check your bank accounts for strange charges. My Navy Fed card info got ganked some how and a 98 cent charge from the hyatt set off alarms with navy federal so they canceled my card. You can't even get anything for 98 cents at the hotel. I kept my card on me at all times, used it for a coffee at the store in the hotel, the ATM, lunch at the hotel, and paid for my art from the art auction with the card. It never left my sight except when the waiter took it to pay for my meal. Apparently card info can be stolen from across the room if a person has the right equipment.
On the drive home, my driving mate found his card to be disabled as well (took a bit longer than mine did to be disabled, mine was dead at the beginning of the trip, his was towards the end, actually at our last gas stop). He also had navy fed and there was a 20.98 charge on his account from Hyatt as well. He keeps really good tabs on his spending and knows for a fact that nothing he bought at the hotel was 20.98. He ALWAYS rounds up to an even number.
As such, both of us now have no debit/check cards for the next 7-10 days while our new cards are en route but luckily we avoided having the rest of our money stolen.
CHECK YOUR ACCOUNTS EVEN IF YOU DIDNT USE YOUR CARD AT ALL! Pass this info on to people, I want as many people as can be, made aware of this.
On the drive home, my driving mate found his card to be disabled as well (took a bit longer than mine did to be disabled, mine was dead at the beginning of the trip, his was towards the end, actually at our last gas stop). He also had navy fed and there was a 20.98 charge on his account from Hyatt as well. He keeps really good tabs on his spending and knows for a fact that nothing he bought at the hotel was 20.98. He ALWAYS rounds up to an even number.
As such, both of us now have no debit/check cards for the next 7-10 days while our new cards are en route but luckily we avoided having the rest of our money stolen.
CHECK YOUR ACCOUNTS EVEN IF YOU DIDNT USE YOUR CARD AT ALL! Pass this info on to people, I want as many people as can be, made aware of this.
I only used mine to pay for the room at the front desk, and *cough* at the bad dragon table.. Haven't seen any odd charges yet. I'll keep an eye out tho.
Hopefully it hasn't affected too many, but still, bastards :P
Aside from that, the waiter could have taken my info, there could have been a cleverly disguised skimmer at the ATM in the lobby (though how anyone managed to put it there with all the foot traffic day and night in that spot would be beyond my imagining), and then that leaves the final possibility which is someone used a remote scanner of some sort.
Lesson learned? Gonna get one of those wallets with a foil pocket that blocks RF energy.
I am assuming you did not touch anything in the wet bar in your hotel room. If you did the hotel would charge for anything that got moved in there. But i doubt anything in there costs 94 cents, but I did not check the prices on the stuff in there.
If this is going on we better alert the MFF Con Staff about this if the ATM was compermized then a lot of furs got their debit/credit card numbers stolen.
As of my activity check from yesterday there was no unauthorized charges on it. I did not use the ATM or use my CC at any of the hotel restaurants.
"As a convention, there is not much that Midwest FurFest can do about this, but I will pass this information along to my contacts at the Hyatt. It would be helpful if you could email me at hotel.2011[at]furfest.org with the following information:
- The names of the cardholders
- The amount of the charges
- The date of the charges
- The description of the charges (available from your online banking statements)
To be honest, from the description that you've given, there is not necessarily sufficient information to conclusively state that fraud has in fact taken place. The fact that both of the cardholders used the same institution could perhaps indicate faulty fraud detection algorithms on their part, for instance. Please do not take this statement as dismissing your concerns though - it's more my way of saying that things may not be as bad as they seem I will pass the information you send on to my contact with the Hyatt (who will be back in the office on Monday) and it will be investigated."