Possible Skype Billing Problem

[gll99]

Warning! Warning!

I tried SKYPE (free internet to internet) a month ago and now have a (25 euro) $40 charge on one of my charge cards.

I gave fake info to try the "free" software and even used a hotmail account set up with fake info but they found my real name and ip and tracked my card numbers. I had to cancel one card so far and am in the process of verifying my other accounts. Just stopped to issue a quick warning. At no time did I provide any charge card numbers online to anyone!

[Baldrick]

what is a "charge card"?

[makntraks]

Warning! Warning!

I tried SKYPE (free internet to internet) a month ago and now have a (25 euro) $40 charge on one of my charge cards.

I gave fake info to try the "free" software and even used a hotmail account set up with fake info but they found my real name and ip and tracked my card numbers. I had to cancel one card so far and am in the process of verifying my other accounts. Just stopped to issue a quick warning. At no time did I provide any charge card numbers online to anyone!

I find that hard to believe that they "found" your real name and ip....
Provide us with a few of your card #'s so we can verify them - ok?

makntraks

[bazooka]

what is a "charge card"?

Same thing as Credit Card.

Mastercard, Visa, American Express, Discover, and Diners Club

[makntraks]

what is a "charge card"?

You so funnay Baldrick....



makntraks

[Capmaster]

what is a "charge card"?

Credit card. When you "charge" something to your card. Like Visa, Master Card, etc. I think "charge card" is a name we just use over here.

I tried SKYPE (free internet to internet) a month ago and now have a (25 euro) $40 charge on one of my charge cards

You must have gotten the pay version with extra features. The free one never prompts for your card number.

Edit: Just saw the rest of your post. How could they do that?

[resnullius]

i've been using skype for several months and still no charge...

[Baldrick]

I thouhth it was something special...cause how do you track down someones credit cards number if you just got the name???????????????????

[Capmaster]

I thouhth it was something special...cause how do you track down someones credit cards number if you just got the name???????????????????

Nope. Regular card.

I don't think you can get someone's card number even if you do have their IP and full name. Unless someone already kyped your personal and card info and published it somewhere. In which case you have bigger problems than just Skype

[gll99]

@Baldrick
Mastercard used to be called MasterCharge here in Canada. I used the words charge card in a generic way. My generation still often call them charge cards instead of credit cards.

I raised the flags as soon as I saw the charge on my statement but I've spent all day checking up on this and it may be that Skype is not to blame.

According to my computer records, I downloaded Skype on Sept 30, 2004 but the transaction date on my Visa card statement is Sept 24, 2004. A full week before I even knew about this program.
I joined the free Skype with pseudo info. Like all of you I gave no card info and in fact have never used any online and don't have any of my financial information on my computer so it can't be scammed from there.

I talked to my cable isp provider and went through the ranks to their fraud unit and they said that tracing my ip would point them to a Toronto address not my personal info since it's on sepapate secure servers. They also told me that even they don't have direct access to the info and being a premium user with the highest speed service, I am on the newest and most secure server. They tested my computer and my firewall blocked them so they said I am safer than most.

The credit card company has cancelled my card and will send new ones in case someone scammed the number from a previous store purchase. In the meantime they will investigate to see how my number was used to pay the account and by who. They will only tell me when it's resolved in about 4 to 6 weeks but said that they cannot tell how or who did it because of their security and privacy policy. So if the last place I used the card last spring used my personal info online they cannot tell me. Kind of makes me suspicious of the last couple of places I shopped at with that card. It is also possible that the # was entered improperly ad the bill belongs to someone else but that is less likely since the expiry date of the card would also have to match. There are no improper credit charges on any of my other cards so the likelyhood that someone has stolen my personal profile info is slim.

In the short term anyway, I guess I can't prove that Skype is at fault. It may be an error or a crooked store clerk but that should be easy to find since the pay service reaches land lines. Skype should easily trace those and identify who was called and possibly even the ip of the one who set up the account and identify them to Visa. I don't want to reach Skype myself because I would have to provide too much personal info online to fix this so I'll leave it to Visa to do their job.
I'll let you know if I find out differently.

[gll99]

btw)
It's a great app works well on cable. Leaving power speakers on does cause reverb (echo). I was just about to try the group hug (conference call) when this billling issue came up. Scared the life out of me

[pacmania_2001]

I'd say that someone has stolen your card details from a previous transaction rather than Skype tracking down it from an IP address and name.

[gll99]

@pacmania_2001

I think you're right an employee of a local merchant may have stolen my card detail.

Looking back at my initial reaction, two months ago I wouldn't have reached the immediate conclusion that I did because I had not used any voice over IP type software but when I saw that the billing came from Skype.net I just jumped to a hasty conclusion. My initial shock led me to believe that a software I was using had done me in. I couldn't see how that was possible but that was my immediate reaction. My ISP is Rogers and after a number of bounces I finally spoke to someone in the president's office who finally convinced me that it was impossible for someone to track my ip to any personal info on their servers. With the info he and others gave me at the company I feel very reassured that there is no breach at Rogers.
I only used my VISA card once in the last 10 months or so and that was to purchase a microwave at Futureshop. I'll wait for the report from Visa in case it's a total error but if I get even a hint from them that it was an illegal transaction I will be visiting that store. All anyone needs is your name and address, account number and card expiry date to order stuff from the net. Any salesperson has access to that info. For repeat customers like me, my name, address and phone number are stored in their computers and the salesman can get the card info when he swipes the card at purchase. It's absolutely ridiculous. Good thing it's my least used card so it jumped out at me right away. I actually had been carrying a $5 credit on that card for many months due to a purchase promotion.