After being notified by the bank, Sanford discovered online that $600 was charged under her name. More frightening, however, was when she realized that the thief had stolen both her credit card and her identity. Using Sanford's credit card, the thief bought a subscription to a Web site called iFriends.net, a site that contains live adult video chats, creating a profile with Sanford's personal information. "They had my phone number, my address, my name, my e-mail, my boyfriend's e-mail and they even had my cell number. It was just kind of creepy," Sanford told The Collegian.
After discovering her phony profile, Sanford contacted iFriends.net explaining the situation. She was then informed that every time the thief updated his or her profile, Sanford's credit card was charged a fee-all amounting to $920 in total.
Luckily, Bank of America annulled the charges under the bank's Total Security Protection policy and the phony account was canceled. Sanford never contacted the police, although she is adamant that the perpetrator lives on the UMass campus. "It was scary," Sanford told The Collegian, stating that her credit card information may have been discovered because she did not properly shred all of her bills. "Luckily [the bank] cancelled the charges for me and it kind of just ended there."
UMass sophomore Provan Slys experienced credit card fraud over the Internet. Masked as an official solicitation from eBay, her debit card information was stolen from her, an occurrence that has come to be known as "phishing." According to The Collegian, these type of e-mails have become infamous among eBay users, appearing with all the typical eBay markings-the PayPal symbol, the logo and the official-looking e-mail address. The e-mail then asks for a credit card number, or username and password. "I didn't know that there were fraud e-mails that went around," Slys told The Collegian. "I'm usually really cautious about anything I do online with my debit card."
After the thief made purchases with her card, Slys had her Sovereign Bank account frozen for a week and had to wait days for her new charge card to come. "I'm glad they caught it," Slys said, according to The Collegian. "I think a lot of people just throw [information] around and are a little bit less cautious."
Sanford and Slys' incidents do not stand alone. Between January 2005 and April 2006, the UMass Police Department has dealt with seven credit card fraud cases, according to The Collegian. Deputy Chief Patrick Archbald stated, however, that the cases often deal with a victim and a possible suspect, but problems arise when attempts to prosecute occur. Prosecutions with these local incidents rarely occur because the credit card companies are not willing to prosecute a case that is not large enough to justify legal costs.
With credit card theft and recent identity scams, student exposure to fraud has occurred on the UMass campus and on the Web, forcing one local company to change its business routines. Sugar Jones, an Amherst-based cookie-delivery company, staples a pink slip on the side of each box the cookies are delivered in. Until last week, the slip had the customer's credit card number, expiration date and 3-digit CVC2 security code written in print, something that American Bankers Association spokesman John Hall told The Collegian should never happen.
After being questioned about the pink slip, Sugar Jones' owner Larry Severance changed the policy, with employees ceasing to record the private information on the slip. Even so, Hall informed The Collegian that fraudulent purchases can be made from either the 16-digit credit card number or the 3-digit CVC2 security code, the latter of which can be even harder to trace.