I had been trying to use my debit card online to purchase a greeting card from a reputable card company and the payment would not process so I wrote a query to the banks customer service.
I discovered today (because I happened to check my account balance online), that an unauthorized $475.00 charge was made to my bank account by epassport.com! There was a transaction number and a phone number listed so I immediately called to investigate and was told that they needed my visa/debit card number to track any purchases.
I declined, stating that I do not trust anyone unkown to me to give that number out over the phone, especially someone who's company has already fraudulently ripped me off! I asked him to track the purchase with the transaction number I provided but he stated that their system is not set up to look anything up by transaction number and repeatedly asked me for my card number.
I refused and he told me flat out that he could not report it to their fraud department or do anything to help me unless I provided him with my card number! Again I refused and told him that I was reporting it to my bank and law enforcement and they could determine what, if any, information to give this scam artist. He hung up on me at that point.
I called my bank and reported the fraudulent charge and discovered that my account had been temporarily frozen because they had noticed suspicious activity when this epassport tried repeatedly to charge amounts of $250 and $450 to my card. Thank goodness my Bank (Bank of America) had noticed and put the hold on my account because this epassporte.com would have made off with every dollar I had!
I have never heard of this company and never dealt with them in the past so this fraudulent charge is just out of left field! I tried looking them up online and their website only had their logo and a log-in and password prompts and no information whatsoever as to what kind of business they are or how to contact them or where they are located or anything.
I did glean from the customer service person i spoke with that the purchase would have been for a pre-paid credit card and in doing an internet search on them I found that they are a payment processing service of some sort for seedier sites such as casinos and adult content and since I have not frequented any of these places I cannot see how they got my information.
As this happened just today I do not have any resolution yet but will follow up with my bank and law enforcement, with the advice given for a similar complaint here on consumer complaints in hand!
Tania
Stehekin, Washington
U.S.A.
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