Yahoo Scam?
Once upon a time, I used SBCglobal (a Yahoo company) for my phone and internet services. That was around 3 years ago.
A couple days ago, when visiting with a friend, she indicated that she had found a strange charge on her account for $2.99 for Yahoo voice. She called and disputed it with them. However, before she could fully dispute it, they requested so much information from her that she was very uncomfortable - passwords, addresses, phone numbers, and the number of the debit card that the erroneous charge was on.
Once they had all the information, they told her that someone had used her information to purchase the item, and they would refund the money. They recommended that she call her bank and get a new debit card.
My friend was a little surprised that someone would steal her card number to buy yahoo voice services. It seemed also sort of odd that they needed so much information to cancel an erroneous charge. She immediately ordered a new card from her bank.
Today the same exact thing happened to me. I found a charge to my bank account for $2.99 from Yahoo voice. My story mirrors hers exactly, except that the woman on the phone said, “Oh, yes. We can see that you did not make this charge.” Which seemed, to me, odd. I’ve also ordered another card.
Given the recent nature of these events, we wondered if other people hadn’t had this happen to them and they didn’t notice the purchase on their bank account. I’d recommend that you check your account. Whether the debit card numbers are being mined somethow, or if Yahoo has set this up on purpose (or at least made a huge mistake they aren’t admitting to), with all the purchases being done this week, who would notice an extra $2.99?
You might say that you’ve never used Yahoo. However, my friend never used Yahoo/SBCGlobal for anything - but used to use Flickr as a professional account, and Flickr was purchased by Yahoo.
Goes to show you that information never gets truly wiped away.
I did a search today and there isn’t much out there yet about others having this same issue. However, I found one other person had the same exact issue in the last week, and then I found another who had an issue with a different aspect of Yahoo in early November. Apparently, Yahoo charges accounts at their whim.
Just another reason why I’m no longer with them.
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For the record, they did refund the charge (I looked at my bank statement this morning). They didn’t ask for address and phone, though they did ask for the debit card number – I actually said “don’t you already have that?”
They implied that someone else found my info and used it to buy voice services. Either way, if lots of people are getting hit with this, someone’s making a mint.
I did a search on yahoo voice and found a lot of complaints from people who couldn’t get the service to work, or couldn’t get yahoo to charge their account (how ironic). I found 2 people who had the same problem we did.
It’s interesting to me that we both (being friends outside of the online) had the same thing happen.
I got my shiny new card yesterday, yay!
[...] doing some cross-linking here. Lane posted in her blog about a problem we’ve both been having with Yahoo and our bank accounts. I don’t feel [...]
I was contacted by my bank Dec 5 regarding suspicious charges against my VISA account. There were 2 $25 charges from Yahoo*Voice. Until then, I had never heard of Yahoo*Voice. My bank cancelled my VISA number the very same day (Dec 6) and issued me a new number, stating they would began researching the source of the charge. I looked at my account again on Dec 9, with the new VISA number, AND THERE WAS AN $0.81 CHARGE AGAINST MY ACCOUNT from Yahoo*Voice, 2 days after the old number was cancelled. I had some valid businesses that normally charge my account around the same day and their charges were rejected.
Just today I happened to check out my credit card statement and it has 3 separate charges for yahoo voice services. One was for $29.50 and the other 2 were for $10 each. I have never given yahoo any of my credit card information or signed up with any yahoo service. I have a feeling this kinda thing is gonna show up a lot more in the next couple months.
Just today I found a 25 dollar charge to my account and when I called them on it they needed my checking account number to see where it came from. Of course I didn’t give it to them and I am fighting my bank over it. I have never heard of Yahoo voice before
I just found 2 $25 charges for Yahoo*Voice also. This is the first place I found any mention of this scam. Has anyone checked the Better Business Bureau website?
I had the same $2.99 charge for Yahoo Voice on my last two credit card statements. I called them and they started asking me for info; credit card #, address, date of birth, etc. I got suspicious so I hung up. I then filed a dispute with my bank… Maybe I should get a new card too?
The 25 dollars did not go through I guess because of incorrect information. I thought I was in the clear. Just today I found another 10 charged on my account. I guess they are trying to get it to go through my bank again. I finally cancelled my debit cards. I hope that stops them. Something has got to be done abouth this.
This happened to me too. One US$25 transaction on Oct 29 2007 and another a few days later on Nov 2. Then there was a $1 transaction a few days later. When I notified the bank they send me a copy of the transaction details. The first transaction showed my card number and expiry date but a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT NAME. The second one showed the correct name. It seems that Yahoo doesn’t bother matching the name. So instead of giving them your own CC number, you can use just another one close to it and hope the victim’s card expires on the same month! It also seems that the correct name was passed on to the scammer to help make the second scam easier. The scammer didn’t need to STEAL my details because Yahoo didn’t require them. Yahoo needs to clean up their act, or get blacklisted by CC companies.
Same thing happened to me today… 2 $25 and 1 $1 charges to my bank account. Cancelled my card immediately. Bank says they can’t do anything until the charges clear. I’m hoping that they don’t.
We just got a charge from a credit card we never use back in June. Like everyone else here, it was also for $25. Something has got to be done about this.
I have Bank of America and have found these same charges from Yahoo Voice. Mine were for $2.99, $2.99, $2.99, $5.98, and $8.97 respectively. I am filing a complaint with the FTC and would urge everyone else to do the same.
Here is the link for anyone who may need it:
https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/
I have had Yahoo voice charges on my phone since 5/2008. I have changed my card twice and the charges keep following me. So far it is a total of $275 worth of charges. AMEX is telling me since the charges have been going on for 90 days, the charge is following my card. I am really pissed!!!
I have had Yahoo Voice charges ($25.00 each!) for months and have never used the service… or known what it was! It has resulted in so many overdraft fees in addition to the charges themselves. I’ve been in touch with my bank, but I have to wait until even more recent Yahoo Voice charges clear before I can dispute them!
Terrible situation!
Got me also, $25 charge on my bank statement today. Luckily i am quite shrewd on my banking and have put a query in pronto. Then i did a google and found all these similar complaints.
Someone needs to do something
I also have the $25 charge. When I called the bank, they saw $1.00 transaction fron Napster, which I don’t use. The bank closed my card. I hope the yahoo voice charges don’t follow me like they did Marlene above! I also to wait for the charge to post before they investigate.
I had a $25 charge from yahoo voice on my acct at 1:00 am on the 1/14/09. I called and closed my debit card immediately. I have never even been on Yahoo. Then I called Yahoo, which forwarded me to something called GSA GSA (Spelling). They asked my name and first two and last 4 numbers of my Debit card, then the date and amt of the authorization. They found the charge immediately and said I would get a refund if the charge went through. The ease at which they found this makes me believe this is a well known scam or something internal to Yahoo.
Thanks everyone! I think we should take the advice of Isaiah above and file with the FTC. It can’t hurt and maybe our experience will help others!
I also found 2 $25 charges from voice.yahoo.com on my credit card bill. I also eventually got in touch with JaJa who is contracted out by Yahoo to handle their voice business. They refunded my money but when I demanded to know how they got my credit card number (which I cancelled) they responded that they will only divulge that information if I present a court order to that effect. Sounds like a scam to me. I’m very disappointed that a company as big as SBC Yahoo is directly or indirectly involved in such robbery. I am researching how to change my phone/internet service. I will also file a complaint with the FTC.
Wow. I had no idea this was so widespread!
2 charges today from the same company on my debit card — $29.90 and 10.00
The f*cking saga continues. Just had an unauthorized Yahoo JAJAH charge on my checking account statement, along with a whole host of other fraudulent activity from other places.
This just happened to me today. I’m glad I came here to find out that it wasn’t just me forgetting something. The worst thing is that the charge overdrafted my account. So…off to the bank.
I was called by USAA credit card fraud department who advised me that 7 fraudulent charges, $29.90 each, for a total of $209 dollars to Yahoo/Jaja were made on my credit card.
The only “iffy” times I had used my credit card recently was an online purchase of airline tickets through Orbitz.com and when I allowed my card out of sight to pay for lunch at Jake and Telly’s Greek Restaurant in Colorado Springs.
I just noticed a $2.99 charge on my card. When I called the number listed by the charge on my bank account, that conversation made me even more suspicious, they asked for the first 2 digits of the card, whether it was a debit or credit card, the last 4 digits and then the billing zipcode. I went ahead and cancelled my card just because of the skeezy feeling I got from the call to the supposed yahoo voice customer service.
I think Yahoo ought to be told about this, I think it is likely they don’t have a thing to do with it and scammers are just using the yahoo name.
Please tell me,
How long do I have to tolerate all the following bulshit supposed to be originated from Yahoo? Isn’t there anybody responsible to bring those people to Court, for trying to deceiving me into revealing my password which should then be used against my will and without my knowledge to all my contacts for illegal purposes?
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Final Warning!!!
From: Yahoo Customer Service Add to Contacts
To:
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We are really sorry for any inconvinience this might cause you. Due to the congestion in all Yahoo! account users, Yahoo! will be shuting down all unused accounts. In order to avoid the deactivation of your account, you will have to confirm your e-mail by filling your Login Info below by clicking the reply button.
Full name: …………………………………..
Username: …………………………………..
Password: …………………………………..
Date Of Birth: ……………………………….
Occupation: …………………………………
Country Of Residence: ……………………
After you must have followed the instructions on the sheet, your Yahoo! account will not be interrupted and will continue as normal. Thank you for your usual co-operation. We apologize for any inconvinience.
Yahoo! Customer Care
Case number: 2641930
Property: Account Security
Regards,
Yahoo! Account Services
————————-
We are really sorry for any inconvinience this might cause you.
I am having the same situation as everyone else it seems. I originally saw the charges June 2010 and reported the fraud to my bank. They confirmed that they were legit fraud charges and had them removed and also issued me a new card with a different number.
A month passes and I see another charge from JaJah for $25 dollars! I have no idea how they got my card other than a if there is a program on my PC that acts as a keylogger and forwards the information to them. It is the only thing I can think of.
Anybody have any thoughts on what it could be?