Bank account/Amazon account hacked, money gone :(

[Cactus Jack]

Hi, without going into too much detail because a) I'm still panicky and b) I won't bore you, I got a text message from my bank earlier reporting an overseas transaction on my Visa debit card that I didn't authorise. Immediately checked my email, and there's about 30 Amazon gift certificates been ordered from my Amazon account, both the .co.uk and .com versions of the sites.

Called the bank, they said to get onto Amazon. Called Amazon, and they said they can only refund the ones that haven't been spent already, which sucks. Called the bank again, and had the card cancelled. Now I have a few questions, I was wondering if any 'Crappers, UK or otherwise, could help:

• Does Amazon need any details specifically from the debit card, or is it just a one-click process? I'd be more worried if someone had my three digit security code than access to my Amazon account.
  
  
  
• Anyone had this happen to them before? How did it turn out for you?
  
  
  
• Amazon are refunding the damn unspent certificates to the card, the emails say, so I'm guessing that won't even go into my account because I've requested a new card?
  

Basically I'm just looking for a few comforting words haha, this is the first time something like this has happened to me

Apparently the bank can only take action on transactions that aren't pending, so I need to wait until money is actually gone before they can do anything (work that one out...)

[unoriginalalex]

I can't offer any knowledge or help but I am very sorry to hear! I hope you get everything worked out

[Kash Flagg]

Not sure what to do there but had my card hacked a week or so ago. Luckily all they got was 30 bucks (which I got back from my bank) but the annoyance of getting a new card bothered me.

[theryno665]

Yeah, my debit card got hacked too this past week for the first time. Luckily I caught it early so they didn't get much and I got it all refunded. I'm waiting for my card now but I should get it in the next day or two. Hopefully things work out for you.

[JIMBOB]

I've had my credit card info stolen from me twice over the years. After the second time I signed up for LifeLock and haven't had any problems since.

[VenomFang]

A few weeks ago I removed my credit card info from my Amazon account because I was worried about hacking. I trying closing my account also since I never use it but they dont make it easy if you want to delete it.

[CaptainFall]

That is very cheap of Amazon to not refund the certificates that have been spent. If you can prove to them that your card was stolen then writing off a few gift certificates would be a nice gesture, they can definitely afford it.

[Cactus Jack]

Amazon are refunding 4 of the 25 certificates. To the card they told me to cancel.

They're usually meant to have good customer service, I'll see what they can do if the bank prove themselves to be useless.

[B'Cup x]

I would suggest you get back on the phone to Amazon and not give up. They dont have to refund them to your old card, that is BS and you should stay on about them until they offer you something more thand 4 refunds. Is it likely that the card details could have been hacked through amazon somehow? even if thats not the case, stay on the phone to them until they show a bit more support for you.

Hope you manage to sort some of this shit out mate x

[Throwback]

hopefully the idiot used his real address to order off of Amazon and the cops can track him down that way.

this happened to my mom after we got back from Dominican a few months ago. She cancelled her credit cards, got new ones and changed all the passwords and everything has been fine since.

[dlg3000]

The same thing happened to me. You will have to be patient and repeatedly talk to the bank, who offered me advice on contacting the company directly, if it even exists. At least that is what happened to me. Sorry to hear that you went through that.

[Dave at the Movies]

If I were you I would have someone check your computer for any viruses and I would keep hassling Amazon until they give you a full refund.

I've lost my wallet before and someone found it and used my debit card but I had insurance with my bank and they paid me back for the stolen money. Do you have some type of plan like that with your bank?

[darthalexander]

These gift certificates for Amazon - they must have tracking numbers on them. Why don't they just delete them or flag them and instantly refund your money? Any time anyone tries to use them, they don't work. Seems like a crappy thing to do on Amazon's part - unless they've already been used. Even then it sucks to pass on the cost to the victim.

[Cactus Jack]

Got my money back from the bank. Thank God.

[hackedaswell]

Hey I feel your pain... I went to check my online mastercard balance and saw 8 X 150$ charges from amazon ...

first thing i did was call mastercard and @ them.. who then told me they need to cancel my card and send me a new one.. plus they will look into this and apparently refund me..

next with these charges being amazon, i logged into my amazon account which i have not used in a few years and there they were... about 40 30$ gift certificates purchased by some fake [e-mail] e-mail... apparently they then tried to purchase a 500$ card but were declined...

I then called amazon and they said we will contact and investigate this with your mastercard company and refund you..

i guess the difference between our cases is that in my case it was my account that i havent used in years was somehow hacked :S..

[Bo Rida]

Aug 9, 2011 6:06:15 GMT -5 Throwback said:

changed all the passwords and everything has been fine since.

That's a good point, if you use the same password on multiple sites then you should change it.