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 widespread fraud, and sure enough, there was enough activity to generate an investigation. Phone calls went out to the card holders on whom Stein had reported sales.
I was one of the customers receiving a call from Citibank. The first thing I was asked was whether I had 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 had 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 a Sears/Citibank account number and the account holder's identity.
2. Transfer the account to another address.
3. Purchase merchandise online with the stolen account number.
4. Open a Sears store card using the stolen identity.
5. Open other accounts with the stolen identity.
Apparently, Sears/Citibank has had its servers hacked and is keeping it from everyone.
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