I posted this on RipOffReport.com until I realized I actually have a blog :)
Noticed a charge on my American Express (AMEX) for $19.95 on a Sunday (4/29/12). Looked at the info:
EXPERIAN *CREDITR 877-297-7790
Charge: $19.95
Doing Business As:
CONSUMERINFOCOM
Merchant Address:
535 ANTON BLVD #100
COSTA MESA, CA 92626
I thought that was odd, since I've never been to the website and don't do any business with Experian. Also, I'm one of those people that is fairly aware when there is a sneaky checkbox that will sign you up to an offer, or those "free" gifts that automatically roll over into a monthly charge later.
Reason I'm creating this report is because I've noticed a lot of people complaining about the same thing online, and a large uptick in complaints in the last few months (especially as of may 1st):
http://danbeahm.blogspot.com/2012/02/fraud-alert-experian-charging-peoples.html
http://complaintwire.org/complaint/EpUBAAAAAAA/mni-credit-report-monitoring
http://complaintwire.org/complaint/oCWHgTlFZAU/experian-credit-report
Not sure if my card was compromised, or Experian was compromised and already had my card from some other transaction. Regardless, something really screwed up is at hand, and I'm surprised it's still happening.
Update: Just got home and received a letter from American Express stating that my account was one of many account compromised due to a data breach from a payment service provider. I'm assuming this is related to the Global Payments data breach from last month and that's how they got my credit card number. From the information I've been reading, scammers are using these stolen credit card numbers to run credit reports on other people (to get more information for future identity theft).
Link to one of the articles about this
One thing that's kind of bugging me though is that it shows only 1.5 million cards compromised, and the letter from American Express only came today. Maybe there was another data breach since then that I haven't read about?
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