victim of Illegal "reshipping" NO POLITICS allowed

[Markfw]

Sorry if this is posted here, but be search did not reveal anything.

FIRST, NO POLITICS allowed.

So I got an email that said "welcome to afterpay", but I did not create an account there. So when I went into afterpay, it wanted my email address as the username, so I put in my email, sure enough that in as the username, but did not know the password, so I selected the "email me a password reset". I did, and reset it. So someone using a charge card that I know nothing about, created this account and used it to buy about $500 of products, and paid only less than $100 for getting it, and the rest was to come later in payments. They used my address as the shipping address in the profile, but something different for the ship-to of the items. And the cell / phone number is not one I even recognize. This seemed illegal, and I tried to call everywhere, but all I heard from banks on the charge card (since I only had the last 4 in the account) was "contact your local police and report this." So I did.

So the sheriff came over and I showed him everything on my computer screen. He said, "yes, its all illegal". He got screen copies, and I forwarded him all the emails.Then he sent me an email after researching this (only took a few hours) and he said I was the victim of re-shipping. He said that is when someone overseas wants to order American products and ship to him in his own country, but its illegal, so they create these bogus accounts using someone else's email, but ship to ME(my name, but not my address here), but at a different address than my own. At this other location is someone that get paid to accept the product , then ship to their country.

I don't remember who the originator was, a person or a government, but somehow they are both involved, according to the sheriff. The sheriff did not give be more details, but he did tell me that this happens in multiple countries and xxx(to be filled in below) was one of them as an example.

Now here is where the no politics comes in. The xxx he mentioned as a common problem example was China.

I feel violated that someone got my email, address and name, and it was used for this purpose. He is pursuing this, and no word on the outcome, just that it truly is totally illegal.

Comments ?

 

[lxskllr]

Sounds like it isn't really your problem aside from someone getting a hold of your quasi public information. Neither email nor physical address are sensitive, though they can be used as pieces to more fully adopt your identity if someone were to get more data.

 

[nakedfrog]

I guess I'm not sure exactly at what point you became a victim? Have you been harmed in some way by this?

Your name, address, and email are fairly likely public information somewhere (hence services like Incogni popping up to remove it automatically versus you doing all the manual legwork). Even if they weren't, odds are all of us here have had our information stolen/lost repeatedly.

 

[Markfw]

If you are 71 years old, and not as computer and high tech savy as many others (my son included) you feel violated and susceptible to fraud in general. You can't sleep nights when it happens, as you wonder what else can happen. The charges could become a problem and affect your credit score as they abandon the remaining payments in your name,

 

[nakedfrog]

If you are 71 years old, and not as computer and high tech savy as many others (my son included) you feel violated and susceptible to fraud in general. You can't sleep nights when it happens, as you wonder what else can happen. The charges could become a problem and affect your credit score as they abandon the remaining payments in your name,

In this case I would recommend freezing your credit
It's free and should provide you with some peace of mind.

How to place or lift a security freeze on your credit report | USAGov

Learn how to place a credit freeze. This prevents any new credit accounts from being created in your name and helps prevent identity theft.

www.usa.gov

 

[igor_kavinski]

I suppose the information could've leaked from your Aliexpress account since I think you got your 400W server coolers from there? It could also have been those sellers on Aliexpress who purposely sold your information to some scammers or even themselves are involved in the scam, taking a cut or something for every successful scam.

 

[igor_kavinski]

The charges could become a problem and affect your credit score as they abandon the remaining payments in your name,

Do they have your credit card number? Or is it possible in the US to charge you if someone just knows your full name and the name of a bank where your account is held?

 

[Markfw]

Do they have your credit card number? Or is it possible in the US to charge you if someone just knows your full name and the name of a bank where your account is held?

Not sure. This is the problem. If the payments default, even though its not my charge card, since the account was in my name, and I am the purchaser of the items, the companies can come after me for payment ? The sheriff will have to answer that. THIS is the problem. My credit rating is over 800 and I am very protective of that. Even freezing my credit, its too late now. The cat is out of the bag.

 

[igor_kavinski]

Unless you have received something official from your bank or something, I don't think you need to worry.

 

[Markfw]

Unless you have received something official from your bank or something, I don't think you need to worry.

Its not my bank that paid for these. BUt the problem is, once you name is tied to something, OTHER banks will try to get money out of you if your name is somehow tied to a debt.

 

[igor_kavinski]

OTHER banks will try to get money out of you if your name is somehow tied to a debt.

Then those banks are scummy and you should be able to sue them. I don't think they would risk a lawsuit by bothering you. And I don't think it's a debt unless they have solid proof that you or your bank account was involved in the transfer of funds.

 

[Markfw]

Then those banks are scummy and you should be able to sue them. I don't think they would risk a lawsuit by bothering you. And I don't think it's a debt unless they have solid proof that you or your bank account was involved in the transfer of funds.

I hate to say it, but this is the type of scummy stuff that happens here. Banks want their money.

However, reporting it to the police as I did may save my but !

 

[nakedfrog]

Not sure. This is the problem. If the payments default, even though its not my charge card, since the account was in my name, and I am the purchaser of the items, the companies can come after me for payment ? The sheriff will have to answer that. THIS is the problem. My credit rating is over 800 and I am very protective of that. Even freezing my credit, its too late now. The cat is out of the bag.

No, it's not too late, if you're actually losing sleep over this, you should definitely be freezing your credit now to give yourself future peace of mind.
I don't see how you could be found liable for anything in this situation. Banks can't just "decide" that you owe them this money when you didn't enter into the agreement.

 

[igor_kavinski]

I don't know about the freezing credit part as I'm not aware what that entails and how it could affect someone.

 

[igor_kavinski]

By the way, on our official company email, we received some email from a Chinese company saying that they were the registered owners of OUR company name in China so using OUR company name in UAE was a serious breach and we could be persecuted to the fullest extent of law. They advised us to contact their legal department IMMEDIATELY. That email was like a decade ago. We are waiting for the lawsuit to begin

 

[manly]

What's wild here is that local law enforcement actually went to OP's house, and at the least tried to assuage his concerns! Like the actual sheriff?
Absolutely bonkers. 🤣

I guess I'm not sure exactly at what point you became a victim? Have you been harmed in some way by this?

Your name, address, and email are fairly likely public information somewhere (hence services like Incogni popping up to remove it automatically versus you doing all the manual legwork). Even if they weren't, odds are all of us here have had our information stolen/lost repeatedly.

ID theft is unfortunately fairly common. It seems that OP's excellent credit was illegally used to sign up for Afterpay. IMO that's the avenue he should pursue, to convince that company that he's been defrauded so at least it shouldn't recur.

What happens if the unknown CC is now invalid with some $400 left due is unknowable. In all probability, that's CC fraud against somebody else.

I wouldn't just dismiss this as OP hasn't lost any money, so there's no direct "harm" thus far. I do agree with you that all of his basic information is widely out there already, so nothing you can do about that.

Last year, my sister had very persistent attempts of ID theft and some CC fraud against her. Although there were no real "losses" in the end, she spent countless hours trying to fend off the perps.

Then those banks are scummy and you should be able to sue them. I don't think they would risk a lawsuit by bothering you. And I don't think it's a debt unless they have solid proof that you or your bank account was involved in the transfer of funds.

LOL no. OP isn't suing a U.S. bank for being "scummy" as that is their standard business model. OP isn't trying to waste his own money on legal fees; he just wants to prevent further damage and sleep better at night.

As an aside, a few years ago Zelle payments fraud was semi-rampant and the large U.S. banks collective response to regulators was "sorry, can't do anything about it."

 

[nakedfrog]

What's wild here is that local law enforcement actually went to OP's house, and at the least tried to assuage his concerns! Like the actual sheriff?
Absolutely bonkers. 🤣



ID theft is unfortunately fairly common. It seems that OP's excellent credit was illegally used to sign up for Afterpay. IMO that's the avenue he should pursue, to convince that company that he's been defrauded so at least it shouldn't recur.

What happens if the unknown CC is now invalid with some $400 left due is unknowable. In all probability, that's CC fraud against somebody else.

I wouldn't just dismiss this as OP hasn't lost any money, so there's no direct "harm" thus far. I do agree with you that all of his basic information is widely out there already, so nothing you can do about that.

Last year, my sister had very persistent attempts of ID theft and some CC fraud against her. Although there were no real "losses" in the end, she spent countless hours trying to fend off the perps.

Do they not also need a SSN for Afterpay? I haven't used it, so I'm not sure. Either way I'd think it should show up on his credit report if it's truly tied to him, and if he's losing sleep, he should freeze his credit.

 

[Paperdoc]

My first reaction to OP's post would be to suspect STRONGLY that this is a SCAM of the phishing type. OP got an e-mail from an unknown company "welcoming" him as a new customer and then went to their site. There he had to enter an e-mail address and participate in creating a password and an account "in his name". But that company already had an account set up linked to someone else! Merely responding to e-mail from an unknown source is risky because it confirms they already have YOUR valid e-mail address. Adding more of your info to what they have is a no-no, in part because it MAY be considered in legal proceedings to be agreement to unspecified terms of the contract.

I would suggest that OP make every attempt to CANCEL this account completely. After all, someone ELSE already is using it and MAY be able to connect to OP's other accounts or banking info and steal or misuse badly. This MIGHT get tricky since the account already appears to have a SECOND authorized user on the account.

 

[manly]

Do they not also need a SSN for Afterpay? I haven't used it, so I'm not sure. Either way I'd think it should show up on his credit report if it's truly tied to him, and if he's losing sleep, he should freeze his credit.

Some of these BNPL services do a soft inquiry, so no SSN is necessary. I agree with you on the credit freeze being appropriate as a first step.

I believe how it works is there are some third-party service providers that have extensive consumer credit databases. So Afterpay just pays them a small fee to ask the question, "Is Markfw at XYZ address credit-worthy?* (And for what dollar amount)" If the answer comes back yes, they charge for the first installment and then accept the order.

You would think that the credit card's billing address MUST also match XYZ address, but that's not a huge barrier to a fraudster.

* Afterpay is owned by Block, so perhaps they just ask this question "in house" for essentially free.

 

[dullard]

I doubt that anything will come of this. Unlikely that the sheriff will find anything or that you'll have any true harm come from it. The bigger harm is where else your information is being used. Like frog said, freeze your credit as the next best step. At least then, further issues will be much harder for anyone to actually harm you.

As for someone getting your information, it is already out there. Just by clicking on your profile, I could see your email which gave me your full name, home address, family member names, phone numbers, past addresses, tons of information about your house, the vivid color of the car parked right outside your house on google maps (I could probably get the make/model from that), a very interesting mailbox, etc. All in less than 2 minutes. Your posting of your age here in this thread helped confirm that this information was all correct (hint, you should delete that email and age).

We lost the privacy battle decades ago.

 

[MrSquished]

are we having a conversation with ChatGPT's broke cousin?

 

[Markfw]

I doubt that anything will come of this. Unlikely that the sheriff will find anything or that you'll have any true harm come from it. The bigger harm is where else your information is being used. Like frog said, freeze your credit as the next best step. At least then, further issues will be much harder for anyone to actually harm you.

As for someone getting your information, it is already out there. Just by clicking on your profile, I could see your email which gave me your full name, home address, family member names, phone numbers, past addresses, tons of information about your house, the vivid color of the car parked right outside your house on google maps (I could probably get the make/model from that), a very interesting mailbox, etc. All in less than 2 minutes. Your posting of your age here in this thread helped confirm that this information was all correct (hint, you should delete that email and age).

We lost the privacy battle decades ago.

I think the main point of this thread has been missed. Someone using something as simple as someone's email to do something illegal, and from what the sheriff said, very common, is a very sad state of affairs for the world. I am done here.

 

[compcons]

On a related note, EVERYONE should have their credit fozen unless actively making a credit decision. All of your credit info has been compromised at least 2 times in the last year from the credit bureaus themselves.

It takes like 10 Seconds to unfreeze it for 24 hours when needed and it gets locked back up nagger that.

This is your important thing to do today if you have not. Do the major 3 and you shoukd be relaitively okay.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I'm surprised the sheriff even looked at it! Sounds like you have a pretty solid PD. Here they would laugh and hang up on you and tell you to call back if someone is actually in danger, then they'll show up next business day to take a report.

Wonder what the point of this scam is, it's a bit unnerving that they got your email and physical address though... But so many leaks happen now days it may have come from a leak.

 

[Brainonska511]

Report Identity Theft

www.ftc.gov

You can also file an identity theft report with the FTC. It gets something in writing that you can then save to help you in the future if any other shit crops up.