Credit Card Fraud – DRI*ELEMENT5.COM
Update: If any of this has happened to you, please leave a comment at the bottom of the page and let me know which state you live in, this seems to be happening especially to people who have paid traffic fines in NYC.
I had the unfortunate experience of having a fraudulent transaction posted to my Visa Debit Card this week. To make a very long story very short, someone, somehow gathered my details, including my credit card number, expiry etc and my billing address. They then used this information to purchase a software license online.
Luckily I pay close attention to my bank statements and picked this up while the amount was still “pending”. Unfortunately at this stage banks can’t do anything about the payments. But I did contact the merchant directly.
DRI*ELEMENT5.COM was the indicator on my account, and having visited their website it was apparent that they get a lot of queries such as mine, considering that their customer service page is entirely a form to look up orders (with email address and last 5 digits of the credit card used). I checked just in case, with multiple email addresses as I have a tendency to do a lot of online shopping.
It turns out that Element5.com is part of Digital River. They are essentially providers of e-commerce to various clients, predominantly software developers. While I cannot and do not blame the merchant at all, it does seem that they fall into one of those categories where a lot of fraud could occur due to the intangible product that does not need to be physically delivered.
If by chance you need to contact them, ELEMENT5.com’s phone number is 1800 406 4966. They were friendly about it all, confirmed that it definitely was not me that made the purchase and reversed the charges. What is interesting is that whoever used my card also created an email address with my name in it. They would not tell me what that email was, but just that it contained my full name – so they really tried to make the best of it.
So my card has been cancelled and I now have to visit a branch with ID’s and all the fun procedures just to draw cash, but at least they can’t use that number anymore. It does worry me that they managed to gather all of my information, though.
Three possible scenarios so far:
1) Someone, maybe at a restaurant who physically had my card tracked down my address somehow and used my details. But this is unlikely.
2) Someone who I have bought with in the past had their data compromised and they had stupidly stored all my details.
3) The most likely is that a recent transaction was handled insecurely and someone along the way had picked up my details. In fact, I paid that parking ticket just a few hours before the fraudulent transaction and they had picked a product which was a very similar price ($2 difference).
Either way, I feel highly violated.
Update:
A lot of people have been mentioning that they are contacting their credit card company, while I went the route of contacting the biller.
Here’s the difference. If you contact your credit card company they will open a case of fraud. You will probably never hear anything back from them but they will reverse your charges.
If you contact the company directly, they will refund you almost immediately but you NOT be able to file for fraud with your credit card company as well.
So the choice is yours.
Hey, Sebast Here, I enjoy this site I could definitely plant here.
Ripped off for 29.95 in state of arizona.
Same happened to me today – 22.46
just had this come bill and presently chasing Visa.
It happened to me. The charge was $29.25 to my debit card. Also an unauthorized charge of $66.95 to hostgator.com. I live in Kansas.
renewal without request charged !
Tokyo JP
Same thing happened to me. They bilked me for 39.10, and Visa refunded the monies stolen as well as closing my account.
Eight charges and same amount of credits to my visa card and then 8 more charges for another amount – all $65.20. This was from a place called DRI*Kaspersky.com Orderfind.com
All the charges and credits came through same day and still pending in my account. Thank God I check my account daily.
Sorry…Southern California
179.85 hit my debit card in Illinois. Opened a fraud case with Chase.
They tried to get me for $177.45. Amex flagged as Fraud and contacted me immediately. I pay alot of NYC parking tickets online.
I thought it was a fraud, but it wasn´t – i purchased a software called LOOKEEN. They used DRI WWW ELEMENT5 INFO ELEMENT5 to purchase my credit card. Everything is fine.
I bought Kaspersky anti virus online, they charge me twise for $185 be aware ! i have contact bank.
I found an unauthorized charge of 81.90. I called my bank and they reversed it. Then today (one week later) I see two new charges from DRI, which coincidently totaled: $81.90. Again called bank, and again, reversed the charges. My debit card is now canceled. Wish there was some way to sue DRI. I never bought any software of any type. So sure this is bogus
Jack
i found an unauthorised charge of 64.99 in english money taken out of my bank by this company i have never heard of. I live in England so how these people got these details i will never no but i will go through every channel possible to find these fraudsters.Sheer cheek by conmen.
I also found a suspiscious charge of 29.90 EUR from Dri Www Element5 Info. It was however no fraud. It was a charge for sound library I had bought from LinPLug Virtual Instruments that uses Digital River for their transactions. Just though I´d let you know.
I’m viewing your website from my Iphone and it’s loading the site correctly! Any ideas on what I should try??
They tagged mine for 199.95! Scum bags! As you said the company was very nice!
order avast via element5 and am getting total runaround but no license or activation nr
Found a charged 07/27/11 for DRI*Copernic Inc. element5. info MN $49.95 Some Copernic Desktop Search Professional English Software. It will take 5 days to get a refund.
I’ve just had £41.99 taken from my credit card. I’ve never even heard of this firm before now, so never purchased from them. They have refunded it and have made card company aware of sites like this with many similar complaints on it. I’m in the UK so not just a USA scam.
I just found out someone charged 59.95 to my debit card and I have charges of 70.00 from ITunes which I don’t have a itune account or a iphone so tired of this crap this is the second time and even got a new card and here it is happening again!!!!!
Hi. My name is Thalia and i found an unauthorised charge of 44.03 € 11/8/2011
Note;
This is probably not a fraud. You should carefully check
your files for invoices. I thought it was a fraud and contacted
my bank and had my card canceled only to discover it was legit.
I’m in the middle of trying to deal with these people. Ripped off for $148.99 in Michigan while trying to purchase software from Fog-Ware I now find out that Fog-Ware cut ties with Digital River/Element 5 in 2007 over possible fraudulant activities. Shame on me!
the same two days ago in Texas
After reading all of the postings here, I am gettign the feeling that Element5 may actually be responsible for this problem. They seem to be the common denominator. Perhaps:
1. It is someone inside at Element5
2. Poor electronic security on Element5.
3. Poor security for Element5 paper waste.
4. Element5 has been compromised by a “man in the middle” attack, spyware, or other surreptitious means.
A. I agree with you – if it’s not one of the three you have listed it is still somehow tied to Element5. I don’t ever remember purchasing anything directly from them but if other companies are tied to them it is very possible. Can’t believe the authorities can’t do anything about it!
this person, has state that they will send the packet to my
mail///52607639@att.net//they ware fast to collect on the credit card..and has done nothick juan pena
I live in Brasil, and this happened to me this month. Totsl $48,90 in my credit card
I just noticed this now for $190.78. Going to call bank and have this fixed ASAP. >:-(
This will be a great web page, could you be involved in doing an interview about just how you created it? If so e-mail me!
I found out that what i thought was fraud was something i had actually purchased online. I didn’t Recognise this name so i looked it up and found all these stories so i assumed it might have been fraud. So I called my bank and figured out it wasn’t. thought anyone reading this should know
Good is the enemy of the BEST
Thanks for revealing your ideas on this blog. Likewise, a delusion regarding the finance institutions intentions whenever talking about foreclosed is that the lender will not have my installments. There is a degree of time that the bank can take payments here and there. If you are too deep in the hole, they are going to commonly desire that you pay that payment entirely. However, that doesn’t mean that they will not take any sort of installments at all. In the event you and the bank can find a way to work anything out, the actual foreclosure course of action may end. However, in case you continue to neglect payments in the new approach, the foreclosures process can just pick up where it was left off.
What i do not realize is in reality how you might be no longer truly a lot more neatly-appreciated than you may be right now. You’re so intelligent. You understand therefore considerably in relation to this matter, made me personally believe it from a lot of varied angles. Its like ladies and men don’t appear to be fascinated except it?s something to accomplish with Lady gaga! Your personal stuffs superb. At all times deal with it up!
Oklahoma – $338.00 and change. Mine was billed as DRI UK Writing, but showed up on the credit card company’s system as Digital River, so it’s the same retailer. I had not used the card physically at all, however, so I know the breach happened somewhere online.
I was actually contacted by the credit card company before the charge was processed, so I was lucky. They’ve opened the fraud claim and are handling it from their end, which is good. As you said, I’ll probably never hear if or how it was resolved, but it’s a relief to me that at least I’m not liable for the charge. That’s a pretty hefty amount!
What I find interesting, however, is that it’s close to an amount I had charged somewhere else on a valid transaction – and very different from the amounts I’m seeing on others’ reports here. I’m curious to know if the amounts others were fraudulently charged were close to amounts they had legitimately charged elsewhere? I’d be willing to bet they were…and that might provide an insight as to where each security breach is occurring.
i was charged $254 in california
Hi I’m in UK and DRI Kaspersky have just debited £59.99 from my bank account!! Never heard of them or bought any downloads. Bank not very interested – said “Contact DRI… and ask for refund!” So much for customer service.
fradulent charge on February 3rd 2012 for $59.95.
I do not know enough about computers to even order anything thing.
Had a pending charge show up on my Chase card today for $69.00 from “DRI*WWW.ELEMENT5.INF” – I live in NJ. I had also had a fraudulent charge for “Intuit Online Merchan” for $300 a couple of weeks ago that I immediately disputed with Chase. Then this charge and another smaller charge yesterday. Contacted Chase and they are handling it.
A mi lo mismo, 150 $ y estoy en Chile!