My Checking Account Was Hacked or Hijacked, Need Help

[John Robertson]

Got a notice of Insufficient Funds yesterday on my PNC Bank account here in Pittsburgh, and the expected bank charge. Went to branch to inquire about it, and was given a printout of recent activity. On September 21, an outfit called "NET ANGELS" debited my account for $180.93, enough to tip me into insufficiency. I used ALL CAPS because that's the way it came out on the bank's printout. Also in all caps was this: WWW.NETANGE GB, the last of which may stand for Great Britain.

I cancelled the card (but not the account, which I use for my small business), the bank is sending me a protest form, and they have also flagged the account not to accept any more debits from this source.

I have never heard of this outfit. I went through two years of check registry, and cannot find anything I bought from any company with a name like this (under the theory that some shady operator tried to hit my account again, for the heck of it).

You can't Google it, and trying the URL is no help at all. Anyone have any ideas? I do so much stuff online that I am completely lost. Could it be some domain registry company? My wife says it sounds like it might be a porn site; maybe it does, but I admit to nothing! Seriously, I need to get to the bottom of this, and would appreciate any and all ideas/suggestions. Thanks, Freepers.

[freedumb2003]

CALL YOUR BANK NOW AND DISPUTE THE CHARGES

Then we can figure out what happened.

[John Robertson]

I did dispute, yesterday just before the close of business.

[freedumb2003]

Check this site for some hints on Netangels and hacking

http://www.techwarelabs.com/community/viewtopic.php?p=22489

[Tribune7]

Call your bank, explain what happened. If it looks like a crime report it to police/feds.

[Lazamataz]

They just messed with the wrong guy.

Why do I think their website is likely to be crashing a lot?

;^)

[razorback-bert]

Good luck, I had a bogus charge of $39 and filed a dispute over a year ago, haven't heard a word yet.

[Lazamataz]

My wife says it sounds like it might be a porn site; maybe it does, but I admit to nothing!

(drumming fingers, pretending I believe you)

[BlessedBeGod]

FYI, the URL ending ".GB" does indeed stand for Great Britain.

[Lazamataz]

is this the site?

Uh.... no.

[sinkspur]

I do so much stuff online that I am completely lost.

Do you have a firewall, like Zone Alarm?

The web is loaded with spyware, and every web site you hit leaves a cookie that enables somebody to come back into your system.

Exactly what happened to you happened to me a year ago. I installed Zone Alarm Pro and have never had a problem since. It will keep out whatever you want it to keep out.

Oh, and buy the professional version. The gimme version is worthless.

There are other firewalls out there, so wait for comments from other posters.

[freedumb2003]

Yep -- them is sure the dirdy dawgs what hacked ol' John!!!

[al_again]

I won't go into the details of how it all works, but the name on the statement is meaningless. This works o\by way of what's known as an ACH transaction - electronic debit. Part of this ACH transaction contains a name which can be ANYTHING. The meaningful part is the bank routing number and account number which is where your money ended up.

I'm not sure if the bank will provide you the info to find out who this is. You need the routing number to determine the name of the bank and then you would need to contact that bank to be able to get the name of the account holder - something they definitely won't provide to you.

You need to hassle your bank with dispute forms and follow-ups. They are required by law to make those funds available after 10 business days until they complete their investigation. Keep hassling them, they will end up eating the 180 as it will be two expensive for them to try and track down the real criminals.

[Lazamataz]

I did dispute, yesterday just before the close of business.

Well, the money went to SOME bank account. That account is owned by SOMEbody. There must be a trail to a perp.

[FormerACLUmember]

My 90 year old dad had $45,000 recently wired out of his account (in $1000 increments) to India in an identity theft. Cause: the bank was outsourcing back office paperwork to India.

We had to get a lawyer to get the bank to honor federal law and eventually (and with great resisitance) return all the money. This was a federal credit union for retired teachers in Florida.

[Lazamataz]

Keep hassling them, they will end up eating the 180 as it will be two expensive for them to try and track down the real criminals.

Yes, but you gotta know John. He's tech savvy, has too much time on his hands, and has a bit of a vindictive streak. :o)

The perps are gonna wish they nailed someone else. :o)

[finallyatexan]

I know this doesn't help you now but Everyone who orders online should always set up a seperate account for this purpose. Only keep a couple hundred dollars in it and use it only to order online.
Someone got ahold of my checking info and bought CDs from Columbia House. It took forever to straighten it out.

[al_again]

Make sure you do everything in writing - the law is based on receiving written notice within x number of days. Calling the bank has no legal standing.

[Lazamataz]

Aw hell. I just noticed: Wrong John.

John Robinson, you oughtta set this guy's screen name in a different color so I can tells ya apart. :o)