FRAUD warning, NATA Computer.

[StageLeft]

Its a good idea to use CC cause then all you're liable for is $50-100 - a hell of a lot better than a couple of thousand!

 

[BoberFett]

Pretender

A few months ago somebody swiped my debit card number and ran my account down. I feel for you, if your card was used life is going to be a real pain in the ass for a while. Needless to say, I have no more debit card. :|

Does your debit card have a Visa or other credit card logo on it? If so, you should have the same fraud protection that a normal credit card would have.

 

[Russ]

<< would you really post a message on your front page like they did? Or would you simply disappear? >>



Viper,

Actually, that is exactly what I'd do. It buys time by making it appear as if it was some kind of technical error. If a customer believes it's a glitch, they're likely to be far less aggressive in seeking remedy then if they think it's fraud.

The fact is, it's flat-out NOT possible for something like this to happen without a Human Being pushing the buttons on the transaction.

Shopping carts and virtual terminals are not sentient. They do not act of their own volition.

Russ, NCNE

 

[Viper GTS]

I'm not saying that it happened on it's own, but let's say a disgruntled employee started racking up charges until the company caught him...

I dunno, it just seems strange that a company would change like that.

Viper GTS

 

[Senior Member]

Retail computer business is tough. Credit card fraud though is pretty desparate. Wonder if one of the owners skipped town? I too live within a few miles of NATA. Never had any reason to go in though. CompUSA, Best Buy, Staples, etc. are just a short distance down Rt. 2 from them, and I give them all my &quot;free after rebate&quot; business!
I remember someone from ArsTechnica making a (good) reference to them a while back.

 

[Viper Frag]

Yea, I hope they hang that bastard. I was charged $800 on my CC from Nata Computers. :|

 

[reitz]

<< Does your debit card have a Visa or other credit card logo on it? If so, you should have the same fraud protection that a normal credit card would have. >>

Not true. Actually, Bober, it was your experience that caused me to check it out with my bank. They offer almost the same protection as a good credit card, meaning if I make a legitimate dispute I will not be held liable for any of the charges, but the bank may take up to 10 business days to investigate before refunding the money. Most other banks aren't quite so helpful. Most states have laws now stating that consumers can only be held liable for up to $50 of a disputed charge provided the consumer notifies the bank as soon as he learns of the fradulent charge. Even then, it can still take a month to receive the money back, and it is very rare to not have to cover the $50.

Most (if not all) credit card companies will immediately take the disputed charge off the bill while it's being investigated. With almost all banks, you are out that money until the conclusion of the investigation.

 

[Russ]

One other thing. It is also possible that the owners of the business are honest people who made the mistake of handing over too much authority to an Accountant or Bookkeeper. Not uncommon in the small business world.

EDIT:

Viper,

You slipped in while I was posting. It would not benefit just any employee, only one who had access to the funds once they are in the account.



<< I dunno, it just seems strange that a company would change like that. >>



Agreed. But, the sad fact is that it happens all the time. In this case, it may very well be an employee, not the owners.

However, it should be noted that they really haven't been in business all that long. Their web site didn't even go up until the middle of last year.

Russ, NCNE

 

[Tripleshot]

Russ

It is also possible that the owners of the business are honest people

Just on this basis,you might want to rethink your post title before you land yourself in a slander lawsuit.

You have accused them of a criminal act in a forum that has 39,000 members,and they have no way to defend themselves against that kind of attack,and I suspect lawyers permiate that region of the country.

Just some friendly advice.

 

[Xanathar]

Tripleshot, ANY unauthorized charge on your credit card, be it a mistake or not is fraud. Be them guilty or not is still up for debate.

- I was personally hit for over 3000$

 

[Soybomb]

NATA's site isn't up now is it? It won't resolve for me....

 

[XL]

I see they got some bad reviews and also alot of good reviews. I would say they had an employee problem.
WOW the Mods are real nice, they fixed that broken link. Hmmm...

 

[StageLeft]

If you got mischarged on December 1, 2000, we apologize for the inconvenience. Due to the technical difficulties, we are not able to reverse the charge at this time. Nevertheless, please call your credit card company as soon as possible to dispute it. We have notified our bank about this issue; and you can get your credit back without any problems. We are terribly sorry about this matter which bring you troubles. Thank you very much for your understanding.

Not native speakers of english are they

 

[Russ]

Tripleshot,

It is fraud no matter what particular person inside the company is the perpetrator.

Russ, NCNE

 

[Pretender]

Quick question: Do the charges show up on the statement as Nata computer technologies or are they charging the fraudulent charges under a fake/alternate name?

 

[CoolTechie]

fk i orderd something 5 months ago from them... now i got to go home and fine the receipt :disgust: and call my cc company.. what a pain in the ass.. :|

 

[jonnyGURU]

Skoorb: I read that too.

compuwiz1: At TCWO we use IC Verify and do have to initially confirm billing address and phone number manually with the shipping address to prevent the sort of fraud that would allow someone to call up (or online) place an order with a stolen credit card number and ship it to another address altogether. But, once that data is manually confirmed with the bank and input into the system by an employee, though, one could have IC Verify charge anyone in our database that I want to, without manually verifying squat. Fully automatic. So I sincerely believe that a &quot;technical difficulty&quot; of some sort could cause the same problem over at NATA. No product would ship if I never put a method of delivery. For a store front operation like NATA, all of the orders could essentially be will call for all the banks know.

In their defense, note that all transactions are apparently from Dec 1st (a one day fiasco) and that they are asking people to contact their banks.

For the record I DO NOT KNOW THE PEOPLE OVER AT NATA AT ALL, I just think I know how something like this could happen.

Just wanted to leave the &quot;innocent&quot; door open in case I totally fsck something up over at Thompson's; I don't get my ass reamed out by Russ.

 

[Russ]

JG,

Considering the volume that TCWO does and the fact that nothing even remotely like this has ever happened, what do you think the odds are that this much smaller vendor has suffered an &quot;accident&quot;. Somebody punched the buttons.

They would have far more credibility with their claim of a glitch if they were picking up their phones and their eMail was being answered.

Russ, NCNE

 

[GreenBeret]

I'll keep my eyes pealed. I ordered a couple CPUs from them about year ago. It sounds like either
A) A genuine boo-bo
B) An employee ripping off customers since the Company is the one billing the cards, not a fake name (or so it seems)

 

[jonnyGURU]

Ok, Russ..

I'm unfamiliar with their size. It only takes once to screw something like this up to piss a bunch of people off.

Could be disgruntled employee syndome. I could charge a bunch of credit cards up if I knew I was going to be fired. NOT THAT I WOULD, but I have that access as anyone that has to do the occasional CC transaction.

It does concern me that they aren't answering their phones. The phone number is clearly listed on the website.

I wonder if they were so sick of the calls from screaming customers, they just don't answer the phones anymore! Sort of makes it hard to do business.

Guess we'll see what develops.

 

[Russ]

Well, it's January 5th and still no resolution to this. More customer allegations rolling in, while their site still says the same thing.

veryape,

Did you go by there and check on them? I'm curious if these people are still in business.

Russ, NCNE

 

[jonnyGURU]

Hmm... Bummer.

Guess they are a fraud.

That sucks. I was doing well just categorizing people into two groups: &quot;Dumb Asses&quot; and &quot;Not Dumb Asses&quot;.

I suppose frauds can be filed under &quot;Dumb Ass&quot;. My system isn't completely flawed.

 

[PG]

This is awful. I just wanted to bump this and keep it where everyone would see it. I sent some emails to them, but they just bounced back.
I really feel for anyone who has been ripped off. I hope you get your money back soon.

 

[Windogg]

It's not unheard of for a troll on buy/sell forums to build up trust and then stab people in the back. Yea it might have been a mistake if the company was still operating but they appears to have packed up shop. The amounts also seem to correspond to the limites each person had on their CCs. If it was a software glitch then we might see $99 charges across the board but the charges seem very selective.

Thanks for the heads up Russ.

Windogg

 

[Zenmervolt]

Just a theory, and if I'm way off base let me know, but could it simply be that the people NATA hired to process the online orders did this on their own? Perhaps some guy in the credit check department decided he could have some &quot;fun&quot; with all the credit card numbers he had access to. While it would not be completely unprecidented for a company to suddenly &quot;go bad&quot;, I like to think that my hypothesis is more likely.

Zenmervolt

EDIT: Oops, this has already bee brought up. My own fault for only reading halfway through the thread before posting.