Got this note from a technology-saavy and faithful blog reader. Even he got nailed with this.
No matter how careful one is, it can still happen. Somehow, some one, got my debit/visa card info and placed a small $11.89 charge against my account. I check my account on a regular basis, and while small, it still grabbed my attention. I almost said, to myself that perhaps I bought something and forgot about it. The name of the company stood out though. “Infinity and Sons” with a GA id and phone #.
So I checked out Infinity and Sons into my Yahoo search and found a lot of references to some song lyrics. But in there, there were two listings under “WhoCalledMe” and “800Notes”. On both of those they mention the company in conjunction with unknown charges on peoples accounts. In one forum there was a post by “MGD” which referred to articles on DSLreports. I went and investigated that and was astounded at what I found. This is a small part of a Web Templates fraud that appears to go back to Russia through several money laundering banks.
This person “MGD” has done some in-depth research into this. I found it interesting reading. Of course i called my bank and told them of the charge and then of what I found out. The fraud division was interested in my minimal research and I got them the following links. They are refunding me the charge and are replacing my card. The pure inconvenience of having to carry cash with me, while I wait for my card is annoying, but it is for my protection mostly, and I do have my wife’s card that I can at least use at the ATM.
The main article is here, and the part that lists Infinity and Sons is here.
There are several long pages, but I really wonder how many of these that they get away with. There are also some case histories that show where even the people that run these ‘template’ websites are being duped as well.
Maybe you know of this, but I was amazed at the organization and complexity of this and that it just keeps on growing.
Very interesting. Any other tales out there about this outfit?
Alex Eckelberry