Egghead.com Was Hacked - See Article

[jsalba]

This article was posted on the msnbc.com website and explains about Egghead.com being hacked (relating to the Russian charges so many people are finding on their credit cards. Just thought I would show the article on here for anyone interested in reading it.

EARLY FRIDAY, EGGHEAD announced it had “discovered that a hacker has accessed our computer systems, potentially including our customer databases.” The firm said it didn’t yet know the extent of the break-in, but it did contact banks and credit card issuers warning them to watch for fraud connected to any card number in Egghead.com’s customer database.

The company added that it has yet to receive any complaints from consumers alleging fraudulent charges connected to the break-in. “At this point it’s unclear how much has been compromised,” the spokesperson said, adding the break-in was first noticed earlier this week. She added that Egghead.com customers will receive an e-mail from the company later today describing the break-in.

MORE CREDIT CARD TROUBLE?

The Egghead announcement came just hours after MSNBC.com reported another massive theft — a heist of some 3 million credit cards taken from a variety of companies.

On Thursday, GartnerGroup analyst Bill Malik told MSNBC.com about the theft of some 3 million credit cards from several Web firms. The criminals tried to wring financial gain from the cards through an elaborate scheme that was foiled by credit card companies, Malik said. The criminals created a fake adult porn site and then had the site bill a $10 charge to each card, hoping the small fees wouldn’t get noticed — or victims would be too embarrassed to come forward.

“The idea was $10 doesn’t attract a lot of attention,” Malik said. However, after quickly netting some $30 million, credit card issuers discovered the scheme and recovered most of the money, Malik said.

FRAUD VICTIMS COME FORWARD

Either heist might explain the flurry of fraud that has been reported to MSNBC.com in the past 24 hours.
The stolen card numbers appear to still be in circulation, Malik said, making their way through the Internet’s underground. That means consumers will continue to discover fraudulent charges during the next several weeks, similar to the aftermath of last year’s CD Universe credit card heist. That process may have already begun, as reports of fraud have been trickling in to MSNBC.com for the past 24 hours.

December 22 — MSNBC’s Bob Sullivan describes a rash of credit card fraud on The News with Brian Williams.

Meanwhile, credit card criminals apparently have a new strategy for milking money from stolen cards — small charges, a few dollars at a time. MSNBC.com research has revealed that for at least the past six months, hundreds and perhaps thousands of consumers have found charges between $5 and $25 billed to their credit cards.

The scheme appears to involve a group of Russian telecommunications and Internet companies. Since July, Net users have widely complained about charges from companies named Skiftelecom, Incomtel, Global Telecom, and Inetplat.
It was not immediately clear if the Russian firms were participants or victims of the scheme. After initial e-mail contact, InetPlat didn’t respond to a request for an interview. None of the others immediately replied to e-mail.

‘GLOBAL TELECOM’ FOCUS

There has been a fresh flurry of charges — at least 100 — billed this week by Global Telecom and Inetplat, which appear from their Web site to be the same company.

Because the CreditCards.com attacker was described as Russian, many victims suggested that recent incident may have led to the fraud. But most of the fraud victims were not in the CreditCards.com database, suggesting the incident Malik described may be the root of the recent fraud.

Even though the scheme Malik described was thwarted, stolen credit card numbers are easily copied and often find their way around the Internet quickly.


Net scams and fraud

• Scandal surrounds Net typo firm
• Making money off ‘typosquatting’
• Scam artist copies PayPal Web site
• Porn site settles bill scam complaint
• PayPal no friend to scam victims

About 100 eagle-eyed victims who are users of MyCoupons.com spotted fraudulent charges on their card statements recently, billed by Global Telecom or InetPlat. Most of the victims check their card statements daily.

“I’ve never had anything like that happen,” said Angela Downing of Logan, Utah. ” I’ve done extensive online shopping.” A $5 charge to her card was authorized on Dec. 18. “It ticks me off.”

Anna Lea Esposito of Comfort, Texas, was shocked to receive a bill on Saturday that included a charge of 275.32 rubles — about $10.20. “I would never make a charge for anything from Moscow, Russia,” Esposito said. “And then when the gentleman at Mastercard did not even give me a hard time about the charge I was wondering what was up. I guess maybe they have gotten other calls similar to mine and it was just easier to send me a new card.”

Many of the most recent set of victims visited IHateShopping.net to see if their personal information had been compromised in the CreditCards.com incident. IHateShopping has a link on the site which allows consumers to see if their card numbers were compromised in that heist.

But IHateShopping president Harry Widdifield said many of the Russian charge victims who visited his site indicated they were not in the CreditCards.com database, suggesting they are victims from another heist.

RUSSIAN CONNECTION

It’s not clear if the various flurries of Russia-based charges — Skiftelecom in the summer, Incomtel in October and Global Telecom/InetPlat this week — are linked, or merely copycat crimes. But at least one victim was burned in both incidents, suggesting a connection.

Goofs and Glitches

• Beware the Christmas virus
• E-tailers paid for glitch-free holidays
• Wal-Mart’s Web site suffers outage
• A good year for the bad guys
• Personal firewalls easy to breach
• Schwab site flawed, but risk low

Lauren Bricker, a Seattle-based software consultant, had her first brush with a rogue Russian charge in July, when a $26.30 charge issued by Skiftelecom in Stavropol appeared on her bill. Then in August, a slightly smaller charge billed by Inetplat.com appeared.

“I’ve been doing research on this since it happened in July,” she said. “People as far away as France had these charges on their card.” She said one of her fellow victims had received a reply from InetPlat earlier this year after complaining. In the e-mail, the company was said to reply: “Possible your credit card data was stolen by hackers and used to enter one of the sites of our clients. We refund you all the money charged from your card within one week. Please do not make chargeback within this week.”

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Meanwhile, even today, victims have complained to MSNBC.com about new fake charges billed by Global Telecom/Inetplat. Patricia Fike of Baltimore started keeping track of complaints after her card was charged on Dec. 16 — of the 60 or so complaints she found on a single bulletin board, nearly all the charges were between $5 and $20. She is frustrated that companies don’t inform consumers when their private information has been compromised.

“The secrecy thing really irks me. There’s got to be a better way,” she said. “I think if they went right to people and said what happened, said you have the option to cancel cards, this guy would profit a heck of a lot less. Forget the bad PR, you’re going to get bad PR when it comes out any way.”

[pandybat]

If that don't scare the tar outta ya.....