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/