The plot thickens…

Remember that Gmail account that was created mysteriously this morning?  Well for the hell of it I decided to reset the password on it since whomever created it was dumb enough to put my work email address in there as the secondary email.  Once I got in there I was shocked at what I saw.  There was a pile of emails confirming enrollment in various things including napster, cybertv and some other weird stuff like e-gold.com.  Son of a bitch!  Well these confirmation emails gave me lots of helpful information.

Through the confirmation email for the 65 dollar cybertv purchase, I was able to get in contact with customer service for the company.  I explained to the woman on the phone that I was the victim of credit card fraud and that one of the things it was used for was to buy stuff from them.  I gave her the gmail account the guy used.  I asked her exactly what information was given during the transaction.  The guy (or girl) had my name, home address, work email and work phone number along with the CC number.  They even had the 3 digit verification number on the back.

This narrowed things down for me quite a bit.  There are only a few situations that come to mind where I  have performed transactions involving my work email address and my credit card, namely the online stores where I get my protein powder which I have delivered to work instead of home.  Perhaps one of these site got hacked and exposed customer information.  The e-gold confirmation email had a gleaming nugget at the end of it, a little line that showed the time, date and IP address that was used to create the account, GOTCHA!

I did a reverse look up on the ip and it pointed to a Charter Communications ip located in Madison Wisconsin.  It just so happens that one of those online supplement stores is located in Wisconsin. Hmmmm…   So I called up this business and asked if they had any known security breaches.  I explained my situation and how there were very few situations where those pieces of information would be tied together and their site was one of them.  They said as far as they knew everything was fine and they have had no incidents.   Well I asked that they check into it and they agreed they would.  I called the other supplement site I had used and gave them the same information.

Then I focused on Charter Communications.  After a couple of calls I got in touch with their law enforcement division.  I explained what happened and how I suspected the person that stole my cc info was operating on their network.  The woman explained to me that the only way action can be taken is through law enforcement.  When a formal subpoena is entered, they will release the customer that was on that ip address at that time and date. 

So, I called the local sheriff department to find out how it all works.  I need to bring in a copy of my cc statement with the fraudulent charges and they go from there.   I have already done a lot of the leg work for them.  Because the dollar amount is small I am not sure how far they will pursue it, although I am almost positive if I didn’t jump on this immediately my credit card would have been maxed out in no time.  So I am going to pursue it regardless.  This idiot got unlucky and decided to f with someone who can track his slimy ass down.  Man, I hope he gets nailed. Piece of shit.

There is the possibility if the guy was smart he bounced off proxies to hide his ip address but I don’t think he is very bright.  Using my work email address as the secondary contact for the bogus gmail email account makes little sense and is not something a “smart” hacker would do.