In mid-June, an Internet jewelry store, Stein Diamonds of Los Angeles, noticed a huge increase in the number of sales on Sears Mastercard accounts issued by Citibank. Stein called Citibank to alert them of possible wide-spread fraud and sure enough, there was enough activity to generate an investigation. Phone calls went out to card holders whom Stein had reported sales.
I was one of the customers receiving a call from Citibank. The first thing I was asked was had I recently moved from California to Indianapolis? No. Had I recently made a purchase of nearly $2900 using my Sears Mastercard? No. Well, then, I was the victim of fraud.
Not only had the perpetrators tried to use my credit card to purchase the jewelry, but they also changed the billing address to an address in Indianapolis and used my SS#, birthdate and name to open another Sears charge card.
Apparently, this exact same scenario has been happening for at least two years:
1. Steal Sears/Citibank account number and account holder's identity.
2. Transfer account to another address.
3. Purchase merchandise online with stolen account number.
4. Open up Sears Store card using stolen identities.
5. Open other accounts with stolen identities.
Apparently, Sears/Citibank has had their servers hacked and they are keeping it from everyone.
If this scenario has happened to you, please contact me at
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