Page 1 of Could Amazon be unsafe?

I have been the victim of card fraud. I won`t bore you with too much details, but basically this is how it went:

- Random website called Watch Heaven rings me telling me that they think someone has tried to purchase 3 watches to be sent to VIETNAM with my card. They even had my 3 digit number. When he saw the billing address (mine), the nice man took the trouble to look me up in the phone book and warn me.

- I looked at my statements and a payment for £121 to Amazon (US) has gone out

- Another £208 pending (yet to be processed)

- Today I got an email from Amazon saying that my order couldn`t be processed and they would try again. I emailed them explaining things and asking them to cancel my order.

- Tonight my Amazon account has been disappeared. My email is no longer recognised. However Amazon have yet to reply to my email.

- The only websites I have bought stuff from recently were (surprise) Amazon (US), Ebuyer and Travelcare.com. Got a dodgy email from someone who had my travelcare.com reference asking me for my date of birth - this AFTER I`d received my goods.

Has this happened to anyone on this forum? How did they get my details?

you may be infected by a virus that included a key logger which will have picked up anything you typed into say ebuyer or travelcare (given that amazon will only require your email address and password and not card details).
What antivirus and firewall software is installed on your computer and is your operating system uptodate with all security patches ?

I use a Mac, and to date there are no known harmful viruses that attack OS. I use OSX (Panther). I am behind a physical firewall built in my router (Netgear). I have spoken to some very senior users of Macs and they all say it`s impossible - were Macs to be infected by a virus or spyware, the papers would have a field day (and so would Microsoft)!

However I guess everything is possible...

Someone will someday write serious viruses for the mac should it ever become popular enough to make it profitable for the criminal element. The suggestion that its impossible implies that apple software engineers are omnipotent though personally i suspect a similar word involving removing the o and n and suchlike might be closer.
Mind you the apple mac is not immune to phishing attacks since that involves the gullibility of the user.
The dodgy email suggests maybe travelcare but on the other hand how did they get access to your amazon account unless they used your password

This item was edited on Monday, 5th September 2005, 23:58

miptet?!

This item was edited on Wednesday, 7th September 2005, 15:45