Credit Card Fraud = I Lose (Blizzard, Bank of America)
Scott Rippee @ 5:21 pm June 17th, 2007I really sucks that someone can obtain my credit card (bank ATM card) information, use it to charge 300 dollars to blizzard entertainment, and Bank of America can launch a full investigation only to determine that I am responsible for these “authorized” charges that someone else made and I have to pay.
BoA, this is not over
June 18th, 2007 at 2:13 am
That’s total bs. You should appeal and ask to see the said “authorization”. I’m sure blizzard has the IP of the purchaser logged somewhere. May be you can trace it that way.
It does not behoove BoA to harass the customers who keep their sorry little establishment afloat. Morons…….
June 18th, 2007 at 3:19 pm
Where is BoA’s proof that you were the person who bought stuff from Blizzard? You should switch banks and credit cards after this. Give me your personal information, and I’ll set one up for you. Haha.
June 18th, 2007 at 5:43 pm
Yeah, they must not have proof that it was me so I am not sure what information they used to make that decision nor do I know what “authorized” means.
I’d like to talk to Blizzard again, but it was a 2 hour of wait time last time I called and they didn’t help me, just hurried me off of the phone.
I’m off to the local BoA branch tomorrow to try to figure something out.
June 18th, 2007 at 8:59 pm
That majorly sucks. These websites, and perhaps a few others, may offer you some help:
http://www.consumer-action.org/english/articles/recognizing_credit_card_fraud_english/
http://www.consumer.gov/sentinel/
http://www.microsoft.com/protect/yourself/personal/fraud.mspx
June 20th, 2007 at 6:15 am
Hi Scott,
Direct your bank to this thread:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=450004
This is happening to people from America to the Netherlands. I was looking for more information when I cam across your site ;)
June 22nd, 2007 at 10:45 am
Thanks for the link. This seems to be very common and it seems that Blizzard is not able to deal with the problem considering their phone wait time and that they wouldn’t even look into my situation.
I got bank of america to reopen my claim. The person who first wrote up my claim in the first place didn’t include 5 of the charges and this seems to be the reason it was denied.
Thus far I’ve learned that
If you do business with the business that someone has used your card to spend money with your claim loses a lot of credibility. I’ve never spent money with Blizzard, but when they thought that I had it caused my claim to be denied.
If you show any sign that you know of the company, what they do, who they are it seems to put you in less good of a light.
June 29th, 2007 at 9:41 am
The same thing just happened to me, with Blizzard Entertainment and BoA. I found the same forum listed above and am now trying to find the right organization to report this to because it’s obviously a widespread issue.
June 29th, 2007 at 11:28 am
When you find out who to report this to please post here so that myself and others can do the same.
July 2nd, 2007 at 4:08 pm
Same prob here. 10 charges from blizzard on my CC dating from May to July.
My CC company is chase, and they knew of this prob when i called and quickly took the charges off. They told me they were having one hell of a prob dealing with the Blizzard situation
July 3rd, 2007 at 9:04 am
I think the problem is not the banks but Blizzard itself. No bank will spend 2 hours on hold just to investigate the charges. Blizzard need a separate line for fraud investigation.
July 13th, 2007 at 7:05 am
Blizzard isn’t going to do anything about it because I bet there are people who don’t catch it. They stand to lose that money.
Banks are all too happy to stick it to a person who bounces a check, by tacking on all sorts of fees. If they started charging the same sort of fees for false credit card charges, companies like Blizzard and NC Soft would be a good deal more motivated to upgrade prevention.
July 14th, 2007 at 10:50 pm
Hey… as per Federal Laws you can be held liable only upto $50 in case you file a fraud report.I just got hit by the Blizzard charges and AmeX revoked them. I filed compaint with FBI and FTC.
I’ve also sent email to Blizzard seeking explanation of the steps taken to identify the perpetrators. May be you all should do the same. Some kid playing game on their site is using our cards.. !!!
July 15th, 2007 at 10:32 am
My charges totalled $240 rangine from May to July 1st. Only reason i didn’t catch it sooner was because i had been away and just had a family member paying the bill for me. When i got home beginning of July, i noticed the charges.
Visa took them right off and was away of the Blizzard situation right when i made the phone call, so it was no problem. Apparently, this is not just 1 kid…but probably quite a few figuring they can play video games under someone else’s dime.
What exactly are they buying anyway? I’ve had charges range from $19.99 to $43.99 and in between.
I know who Blizzard is as i used to play Starcraft back in college.
July 17th, 2007 at 11:31 am
Got hit with 5 charges between 6/23/2007 abd 6/25/2007. My credit card company is Capital one and they called me to ask about these charges since they suspected they were not mine. I said they weren’t and they immediatly close my account and issues a reversal on the charges. Will receive a new credit card. It does seem the Credit Card companies are aware of this problem.
July 23rd, 2007 at 9:34 am
I just got 3 unidentified credit card charges on my bankstatement:
BLIZZARD-ENT*ELECUPGRD - 21.64
BLIZZARD-ENT*ELECUPGRD - 21.64
BLIZZARD-ENT*ELECUPGRD - 19.99
I called Blizzard about it last week, and they said these were three Upgrade Accounts from TRIAL to a Regular Account. I told them that I purchased my games at a Store, and that they were NOT Trials. They soon told me that I needed to call my credit card company, since this appears to be fraud and that someone has my credit card information. The funny thing is….if someone stole my credit card information, why are they charging ONLY World of Warcraft gaming items, and not other goods and / or services. I think there is a billing error going on within their company.
July 23rd, 2007 at 9:37 am
I forgot to mention, the dates of these charges were: 07/08/2007.
August 20th, 2007 at 12:31 pm
Thanks for the thread
NC Soft 39.99 7/20
Blizzard-ENT*ELECUPGRD 39.99 7/21
Blizzard-ENT*ELECUPGRD 43.35 7/21
Blizzard-ENT*ELECUPGRD 39.99 7/22
Chase Visa is issuing me new cards with a new account
August 23rd, 2007 at 5:36 pm
found this thread by googling “nc soft”, as my debit card had 4 charges, all to NC SOFT 512 2256359NY. called my card issuer, citizensbank, who were already on it and had put a hold on my card. have to wait a week for a new card, but was assured that i am NOT responsible for the charges. yay, citizens! and booooo, BoA!
my question is… why isn’t the media all over this? found numerous hits on the internet re blizzard & nc soft fraud, but haven’t heard anything on the news.
November 14th, 2007 at 10:32 am
If you read the forum posts that the link above goes to it explains a lot. This is becoming huge and is hitting people all over. It is suspected that hackers from Russia, China etc. are involved in a scheme called gold mining. I don’t know how they end up getting money? Some think they use these initial small charges to validate credit card numbers and then they throw in big purchases directly to them once they see they are not detected by someone. My credit union immediately credited us, and is investigating the issue. Same deal, about $80 in 3 small amounts for BLIZZARD-ENT*DWNLO If you push your bank should back you up, and as someone else stated, should be max of $50.
Also, we cancelled the card immediately and had a new one issued. To the guy who made previous Blizzard purchases- you are going to have a harder case to build. I don’t think your previous purchase from Blizzard had anything to do with you getting hit. You just happened to buy some legit things from them before you were hit. Good luck.
November 14th, 2007 at 2:05 pm
I tracked down the source of the credit card theft. http://www.recreationconnection.com was the culprit. Someone hacked into their website and stole all (or some) of the credit cards used through this site to purchase tickets. I had bought tickets through my employer from this site.
Did any of you guys used the site?
November 14th, 2007 at 5:39 pm
I’ve never used that website at all.
February 29th, 2008 at 7:27 pm
Had the same thing happen to me on 2/21/08 but a hefty $77.94 from:
BLIZZARD ENT*WOW SUB 02/20 CARD
Because I play World of Warcraft and have the monthly $14.99 recurring bills also on this card, Im fearing its going to go nowhere with BofA. What is highly suspicious is this is the only charge on my card that is fraudulent.
Despite giving Blizzard their own transaction # on my statement, they still offered no help but instead gave me this canned reply:
“I was unable to locate the 77.94 charge on the account you provided.
Thank you for contacting the Blizzard Billing department regarding the recent charge against your credit card. If you feel that you have been fraudulently charged, please contact your credit card company to investigate this charge and inquire about further card security and fraud prevention. In the event that your card has been lost or stolen, you may wish to file a report with your local police department, as well. Please be sure that anyone who has access to the credit card has not previously purchased our services. Any disputes may result in action against the account or alternate legal recourse. In a majority of these cases, we find that the charges are the result of a friend or family member using the credit card. If this is the case, we **may** be able to assist over the phone. While we cannot look up transaction numbers or credit card numbers directly, we may be able to locate the account(s) in question by other means, including but not limited to contact name or email.”
March 16th, 2008 at 5:53 pm
“Because I play World of Warcraft and have the monthly $14.99 recurring bills also on this card, Im fearing its going to go nowhere with BofA. What is highly suspicious is this is the only charge on my card that is fraudulent.”
Yeah, that may make it more difficult. It was a big deal for Bank of America if I had actually purchased anything from the company in question (Blizzard) previously. When they thought I had because the first person I talked to didn’t mark every charge they turned down my claim. When they got it right that I was disputing every charge I finally won my claim. It’s not really fair that it should factor in whether you know of or have purchased from the company or not.
I would imagine that the Banks and credit card companies have software that can help them detect mass fraud cases like this. So why did I have such a hard time with my claim? Maybe they had not had as many cases with Blizzard as I suspect.
March 16th, 2008 at 6:05 pm
When i called my CC company, they were familiar with the case and knew all about it. All it took was a 10 minute call and it was all taken care of.
June 26th, 2008 at 7:54 pm
Just got hit for 41.97 on 6/20/08. Bank of America card had been stolen just previous, I got the charges removed but the account that was stolen was only for college with only 28.18 remaining in the account at the time. Got nailed with overdraft fees that Im required to pay. Any possible ways to get isp or home address of the person who charged it to play?
July 23rd, 2008 at 4:03 pm
I’m currently filming a documentary about Bank of America. I would like to hear from people that are willing to go on camera. You can e-mail me at ejgertz3@aol.com. The project is a 2 hour feature documentary.