I Just Had My Credit Card Details Stolen (Confirmed through Discount Drug Stores Online); Check Your Recent Transaction Activity

Today around 2 PM, I was getting several messages from my credit card company, Coles MasterCard, saying to input the security code on the merchant's website for my online purchase. I was thinking, hang on, I didn't make any purchases today… So I logged into my account and checked - about 20 purchases totaling $2000 and my credit limit was down to about $17.

I called up Coles MasterCard to cancel my card and dispute my charges straight away.

I think it's very likely that they'll be able to write off those fraudulent purchases. My concerns are having to fork out extra to pay off the monthly balance, update my direct debits and use other credit cards for the time being.

I didn't think to post my story on OzBargain earlier but someone else had commented in my Discount Drug Stores deal saying that their credit card details were compromised.

Did any of you guys have your credit card details compromised after signing up for the previous Discount Drug Stores deal?
The two cards I used for the deal got compromised not so long after the deal…

Did anyone else have fraudulent activity on their credit card today, and if so, did you use it to pay for your purchases at Discount Drug Stores (at least partially)?

Edit:

Okay, so based on the responses, it seems Discount Drug Stores was the source of the leaks but not everyone were affected..

If you purchased from them and you haven't been affected yet, you may want to cancel your card and order a replacement as a safety measure.

If you purchased from them and you were affected please state the date of purchase so that we can roughly determine which period the card details were leaked. If you've made multiple orders, list the earliest and latest dates.

You can express your concern to Discount Drug Stores and Office Of The Australian Commissioner.


UPDATE: Discount Drug Stores has confirmed that card details have indeed been compromised.

Please be advised Discount Drug Stores recently detected a threat on our website from a third party, aimed at extracting credit card information from some of our customers. We immediately shut down this threat, however we suspect some customers’ credit card details may have been compromised.

No other personal information (e.g. names, addresses, passwords, health records, transaction history) was obtained. Discount Drug Stores systems are fully compliant to all PCI Data Security Standards. We have contacted the Australian Federal Police and are in the process of personally contacting customers who were potentially affected.

We recommend customers check their next credit or debit card statement, and if you have any concerns that a fraudulent purchase may have been made, please contact your bank or financial institution.

Please do not hesitate to contact us direct if you have any additional questions, [email protected]

Facebook Announcement

Related Stores

Discount Drug Stores
Discount Drug Stores

Comments

  • +3

    Yep same,CBA MasterCard used in San Francisco for over $1000 till I locked it.

    • +1

      So frustrating :(

      • Might start using the Coles reloadable card for online.

        • +48

          Why? Any money you have on it, would be used and you'll never see it back again.

          At least using a REAL credit card, the transactions are blocked, reversed etc.

        • +2

          @Level380:
          Well you only put money in coles reloadable card when you need it for the exact amount as the thing you are about tp purchase. That way, you are never at risk of unauthorized use.

        • +7

          @alizain1156: meh too much work to load each time…. I use my credit card everywhere, and only once in the last 15 years have I had a issue. Bank refunded transactions straight away and reissued card.

          I'll take that vs loading a card each time I want to buy something and have to wait for it to 'clear'

        • @Level380:
          Yep and arrange direct debits from your account - not the card, just in case you have to cancel.

        • @Level380:
          That's not true. Chargebacks are mandated by the schemes (e.g. Visa). So you can dispute transactions on a prepaid card as well. Done that before successfully on my L&G card.

        • +1

          @Level380:
          Get a debit card from ING or something, link to a savings account and anytime you want to pay just transfer money on your phone.

    • +3

      As it was YOUR details stolen, I think MY transaction history will be just fine :)

      Haha yes, the second part is more of a PSA.

      I don't wanna assume it's them but someone else made it sound like they used their cards exclusively on their website and I can confirm that I've purchased from there and I also had my credit card details leaked/stolen (not necessarily a correlation). It's hard to say especially when most of us on OzBargain buy from the same websites; but if someone else can say that their credit card details were also stolen and used today, but did not purchase from there, then we can easily rule them out.

      • hehe yeah I know, hence the :) at the end!

        Well give it some time and we'll see if it was the drug store I guess

        • +1

          Looks like it is, based on the comments below :\

        • @ronnknee: bugger…. but at least you know the point that your details had been leaked I guess :/

    • -2

      Geez, downvoted for tongue in cheek comment!

      Why so serious Ozbargain!?

      • -5

        yeah people around here are so serious…. Common on guys, that was funny!!

        Even the OP seen the funny side of it!? Oh well…..

        • +2

          Just because you are on level380, it does not mean you choose what is funny for the ozb community my friend.

        • As it was YOUR details stolen, I think MY transaction history will be just fine :)

          Self-interest rules😫 FU😠

          Many people having thousands of dollars each taken from their credit cards (after a now proven security breach at DDS - a business posted in deals here) & you think its not serious, but a laugh…

          Was a useful PSA & time did tell when/if others are reporting it.

      • +1

        Why so serious Ozbargain!?

        Up to thousands of dollars per person defrauded from so many buying from a DDS deal deal posted here. I think that counts as serious😯
        (OK unconfirmed at the time of your comment.)

        I guess you didn't have to contact banks, prove you didn't spend the money & cancel cards💩

        • -2

          Lol what? Youre being a bit precious no!? My comment was in response the the guy making an OBVIOUS JOKE and getting down voted, not in response to OPs issue, which yes, IS VERY SRRIOUS BUSINESS NO JOKES PLEASE PUT YOUR SERIOUS FACES ON!!!

  • I had this problem a few years back with Amazon, twice.

  • +2

    This is scary

  • +1

    happened to me whilst i was over in europe 2 weeks ago on a 5 week trip
    someone in the US purchased something for 1.8k on my citibank debit card
    i didnt notice it was taken until 8 days after when i checked my balance and realised i had such little money left
    went to a citibank branch in budapest and used their phone to call the aust branch
    locked my card right away, opened a case
    money was returned within a week, the only pain in the ass was the fact that i had no debit card to use anymore, so had to transfer money into gf's account and withdraw from there
    lesson learnt, always bring backup cards!

    • Same happened to my citibank plus debit card today after reading this thread!
      $80 was taken from my account towards "Coles Finance Services, Hawthorn East AU" 4 days ago while I was overseas.
      I believe my money was used to charge up a Coles prepaid mastercard…hmm… money laundering from card to card.

      Called up customer service straight away and got issued a new card. This is being investigated and I could have my $80 back in 4-6 weeks they said.

      Edit: After going through all the transactions, my card was compromised after recent VISA purchase through "Surfstitch". This is my ONLY online VISA purchase. Others were all done through Paypal. Paypal checkout was giving me a glitch during that purchase so I opted for visa checkout instead. Big mistake!

    • Did you purchase from Discount Drug Stores?

  • +7

    Anyone remember when eagleboys got in trouble for putting the dockets with cc details in their bin and they were flying across the carpark? Rofl.

  • +1

    I used my Me bank card with them which I only ever use at woolies and this one time at discount drug store. Bam both my credit cards I used for this store got effected. Pain in the ass for $1 toilet paper. I am more than convinced it was them. NAB sent me a sms saying I have over drawn my credit limit to some computer store in the US. Me bank had apple store uses. Both cards were used in the US.

    NAB says it will take up to 3-6 weeks to get my funds refunded. ME bank was able to stop it all before it started. Both sending me new cards.

    • +4

      If $1 toilet paper is a pain in the ass, maybe you need to spend a little more next time

    • What was the exact date (or earliest/latest dates) that you made the purchase?

      • 29/07/2016 DISCOUNT DRUGSTORES T-01:03

        Does it matter?

  • +65

    thanks for posting. I just my 28degrees card and there was like 35 purchases to Aliexpress over the last few days.

    Edit: sorry, my bad, they were all my purchases.

    • +1

      Haha clever :P What did you buy?

      • various small electronic circuits, sunglasses, hair ties, some earphone, kids clothing, some rings, hello kitty paraphernalia, other misc crap, etc etc.

        • +9

          Missed you last week at Hello Kitty Anonymous, mate. It was your turn to bring the donuts

    • I just realised you posted the Kleenex deal. Did anything happen to you?

      • I didn't get any Kleenex (the distance is a bit far + I bought 327 rolls of toilet paper in May)

  • Can you report drug store to the Privacy Commissioner? Not sure what penalties are but they should have better online security

    • +6

      I just did a quick Google search. It looks like you're supposed to contact the organisation first and wait for their response before lodging a complaint. Not sure how I would word my response "Hey, I have anecdotal evidence that you've leaked our credit card details." "Yea so, what do you want?" "I don't know."

      • +4

        It could be that Discount Drugs Store is totally unaware of this. Could be due to either one (or more) bad employee there selling credit card details, or that their servers have been compromised.

  • +5

    I only ever used my new HSBC credit card at Discount Drug Store online purchase and my card is compromised.

    About 10 purchases totalling $890.

    I suggest anyone used their card(s) for Discount Drug Store online purchases, please check your account.Even if all good and card is not compromised, I suggest go head and deactivate the card as an extra safety measure.

    • +11

      I think this comment adds enough weight into deeming that Discount Drug Stores was highly probable the source of this particular leak.

  • +3

    Similar experience. Coles Master Card. Usually check my card transactions often. There was a charge of about $15 which was not by us. Called the provider and disputed the transaction. My bad., should have cancelled the card that day. Few days later noticed that there were three more charges close to $30, $60 & $300. Done over a three day period. All these transactions are paid to Facebook and I don't have my card details on my Facebook account. Card is now cancelled and these four charges under dispute. Yes, I used this card on the DDS deal!!

    • +1

      Exactly same thing happened to me including the transaction amount. Have placed a dispute request. I did use this card on DDS but not this year sometime last year.

    • I have the same experiences as you. I just found out a few days ago that my Coles credit card has been fraudulently used. Total spent was about $2022 within 5 days of usuage. I have already lodged this with Coles CC and suspended the card. Thre reference also show that the merchant was from Facebook and I don't have any credit card details on facebook too. Interestly, I have also recently bought something with Discount Drug Store with my credit card. Now I can see the link here………….
      Actually, recalling back, it could have been PayPal being compromised…..my card was linked to PayPal….so maybe it's Paypal website??

  • u better keep checking. my coles card being used as fraud, so someone using a duplicated card out there somewhere pagewoods.

    cancel the card on 2/7, guess what? after cancelling, there r STILL card using tge whole july & August.

    I called coles mastercard at least 10 times & still happening until end of Aug. GOOD LUCK!

    They just replied [o, this sould not be happening, thats weird.]

    I have placed mutiple complaint & talked with many supervisors from diff team (customer service, fraud team, invesrigation team, etc). after TWO months, they change the daily transaction on that cancelled card & finally stop the events.

    • Wow, I didn't even know that was possible even after cancelling the card. I will keep that in mind once I receive my replacement.

      • neither do I~ they keep saying that it shouldn't happen. But it keep happening~ every week $10-200 in supermarket for someone weekly shopping. The money is so small that I don't even realise.

        You can either check it under the coles mastercard app, view transaction and select the card number for your old card.

        Or, you can check it on each statement with card number (last 4 digits).

        • Ah right that's pretty handy. Last night, I tried to check my transaction activity again but I had to enter my replacement card number before I could proceed. I can now check the recent transaction activity. There have been no new transactions luckily.

  • Yeah I got stung.
    My bank noticed an unusual transaction for over $3000 worth of gym equipment.
    This happened very soon after I purchased some stuff (can't remember now) from a NZ company.
    I KNOW it was them because I never use my CC account except for an emergency. (and this purchase)
    Bank canceled card immediately and issued new card. Not charged for that transaction.
    BUT…. the unnerving thing is my bank knew before me.
    Big Brother in action.

    • NZ company - MacPac? Happened to me. Citibank CC blocked. Apparently bought something in America, which was weird. Called them and they asked if I could confirm the charge and I'm like… err, don't think so. Buy things online etc, but that one doesn't sound familiar. So, on the basis of safety / security, I'm going to not authorise that charge. New card issued.

      • Same things happened to me after buying some discounted Tees with Macpac. 1500$ in total 3 transactions Got refunded in 3 days.

  • Hubby had it happen a couple of weeks ago, nearly $2k spend at various places, coles, post office, Dan murphys, bras and things, east link, Telstra, Optus, they were declined at the good guys and that's when ANZ contacted us. What annoyed me the most was they put our credit limit $1,200 over, so annoyed that the transactions weren't being declined.

    We got all the money back, took 2 weeks.

    Hubby's actual card wasn't stolen just the details.

  • Does this happen on CC which is linked up with PAypal and used only through Paypal purchases?

    • +1

      Nope but if your PayPal account is compromised, it could be worse because you may have multiple cards AND a bank account linked to it.

      But I suppose it can be more accountable on PayPal because it includes the shipping address (could be the fraudster's address). However that's for online purchases. If they use it to transfer money from one account to another, I'm not sure if there's any protection there. Probably would have to go back to the banks.

      • Second factor authenication. THey offer sms as a second factor in the authenication well worth it.

  • citibank detected my card being used in Hawaii and immediately cancelled it. luckily I had my 28 degrees card so I could continue with my Waikiki holiday peacefully.

    • +1

      I've heard it suggested that if you are going overseas, let you credit card provider know so they will be able to recognise valid and invalid transactions.

      • +1

        Yea, that's what I normally do before going overseas. You can even give them a call a month prior so that it's not so last minute thing to do.

  • I have set up some of my cards to SMS me when a purchase over a certain lowish amount is put on the card. I don't buy much stuff so it's not too much of a pain to get the txt. I guess that would help in some instances.

    • Yeap, I agree. I love this feature, unfortunately, not all cards have it.

    • Setting alerts might not work for some online purchases where merchants transaction is not live. I don't know POS stuff but the transact doesn't show til much later, my alerts didnt work 100%.

  • The bank cancelled my card saying they had some issues with the card and had to replace.

  • +3

    Mate I used the Discount Drug Store also. My card was used in Florida at a service station…. Bankwest immediately blocked the card. $0 transaction however. I have now received my replacement card.

    • +8

      It looks like it really was Discount Drug Stores lol.

  • Yes, I found an unauthorised transaction made on 08/09/16 "7ELEVEN GIFT CARD MELBOURNE AU" on the card that I made a purchase with at the Discount Drug Store website on 28/07/2016.

    When I called the up the bank they told me there was 1c transcation which was reversed to test if the card worked.

    • My bank also said the same thing. Was a $0 transaction to "test" the card.

      • +1

        I also have this transaction for $100

        7ELEVEN GIFT CARD MELBOURNE AU

        I am going to suspend my citi card.

    • +1

      same

    • I also got the 7Eleven Gift Card Melbourne charge for $100 on 14th Sept. Only time I've used it was the 1 dollar toilet paper from Discount Drug Store.

      • That was the same charge on one of my cards

  • +3

    Damn you DDS exposed us. Can we report this to a relevant authority? It seems very large scale of fraud.

  • Nearly $1500 was used in Canada two weeks ago. I also used that card for the Discount Drug Store in July.

  • Well mine happened about 3 to 4 weeks ago when I got an SMS that someone wanted to purchase 5k with my cc but got declined as it went over my limit (per transaction limit).

    I quickly cancelled my card as this is the first time happened to me.

    Went to do police report and told them nothing was lost but had some details of the buyer transaction. Someone tried to buy via phone.

    Next week new card came so i activated my new card and saw 8k of unauthorised transaction.

    They all happened a day b4.

    Details are quite shocking.
    Chemist warehouse pagewood
    Cex parramatta
    Kfc hurstville
    Hotel dinner maroubra
    Proud jewellery maroubra

    Luckily the bank have all approved my disputes as I question how it all got approved without my pin as signature is mo longer used but they still did ask my permission for signature matching.

    Cut story short these people are not your normal criminals, they are the new tech era data stealing ones and there is always a mastermind doing the cloning distribution and some does buying and some selling. Don't believe? Look at gumtree when people are selling heaps of brand new goods (these are the cash converter)

    So because of this incident I have to monitor my cc everyday with lowest limit capped.

    On the other hand my other cc/bank seems to be reporting my transaction of s certain amount via sms.

    BANKS/CC facilities =

    You should have done live picture verification via merchant machine for onsite transaction and for remote transaction via ip/mobile number tracking app tracking to prevent further losses.

    Pins and …..pay wave (most convenient and dangerous method i believe) just isn't safe anymore.

    I guess cyber fraud has caught up with banks primitive security measures.

    Trying to pin point where it started is hard so just just learn steps or ways to minimize fraud chances. No point finding out who are these people as they could belong to dangerous criminal groups and its up to our police to catch them.

    KEEP YOUR MONEY SAFE OZBARGAINERS.

    • Lol wow these guys had the balls to shop in store. Did you contact the police again? I suppose they can link the security footage with the transaction timestamp from all those places to at least get the idea what your fraudster looks like.

      • +2

        Actually I did went to the police station the 2nd time and I wasn't surprise when they said they sort of couldn't find my first report. Well as a good citizen I did the whole reporting again and I will leave the rest to the police….

        I wouldn't be bothered to know what the fraudster looks like as long as he doesn't fraud my credit card again.

        Again this depends entirely on our local police force if they will take action :)

    • No Chemistwarehouse at Pagewood.

      Hotel diner is the pub at the beach i think.

      • Well it says in the statement for chemist warehouse and its mayjay for the hotel.

  • I had been victim of credit card fraud for the first time in life, after about 8 years of credit card usage.

    My first thought was that why and how it was possible. I try to remain very careful about using credit card (you can't be too careful, as there are lots of ways to hack these details) and avoid using it whenever possible (prefer paypal). Now reading this thread, I guess this store might be a reason, I used one of their offers in the last month and used my card to pay as there was no other option. This is just a guess though. :(

  • This is bs
    How can DDS do this?
    Are they banned on ozbargain now?

    • discount drug stores could be an innocent party. card payments processors have been hacked in the past.

      • But they were attacked, as we now know.

  • +1

    OP - Suggest you add a poll to this thread (1) People who used DDS online and the card got compromised after the deal (2) Did Not use the DDL deal online and the card has been compromised recently.

    • Yea I was considering that but I didn't want to particularly target DDS that early without some further responses (I just noticed that a mod had added DDS in the title of the thread for me); but I guess it's not too hard to filter through the responses to ascertain that DDS was the source of the leak in this particular instance.

  • I got stung after purchasing the sony headphones from deal, it was a major retailer, won't name as I'm filing report. The main office stuffed up my order then forwarded my details to the Moorabbin for despatch as they have stock. Shortly after a 1899 purchase was made then cancelled, probably to test the card validity. Next thing I know the fella started buying fastfood, topping up mobile etc. Card's been cancelled at my request thanks 28deg for quick action and investigation.Check your statements pple.

  • im with commbank, and only use my cc for some online purchases, and hotels where they require a cc, in other words, its not used too often. woke up one saturday morning with a whole bunch of sms notifications for online purchases. in my groggy state i thought it was just the mrs buying stuff overnight. when i did wake up a short time later and looked at the messages properley, they were all crazy amounts from all different currencies and countries. straight away i called commbank and told them what was happening, and they were very helpful. basically unless is was possible i flew to 5 different countries in the space of 5 hours, then its obvious the cc had been skimmed. the lady mentioned that it was possible the cc was skimmed many months ago, and they just got around to using it now, so its not nessecarily the most recent purchase that comprimised the cc. within a week they had re-reimbursed the $4k that was stolen and issued a new card. very happy with commbanks service and turnaround on this one :)

    • I was reading this post and you're the first one I've seen with a commbank account and a similar experience for me, my miney was reimbursed 1 day later pending investigation, if it turned out they were my purchases obviously they take the money back. But it was a great experience in the end. Especially when a $1700 room in dubai wasn't where I wanted my money spent!

  • +4

    i got done by it also, was definitely discount drug store, it was when the toilet paper special was on.

    • +1

      Lol got done by purchasing toilet paper on special. Sorry I couldn't stop laughing at this comment (not directly laughing at your situation with the fraudulent transaction).

    • That's shitty :(

  • I think DDS site has been compromised either by insider or outsider

    write a feedback on their facebook site:
    https://www.facebook.com/discountdrugstores

    • +1

      either by insider or outsider

      Well it's not like there are any other options.

      I'll probably drop them an email soon.

      • Anyone contacted them about this yet?

        I am suspecting the people who designed/built the website is involved.

        • I think police should investigate into this. This seems pretty serious, my cc had never been compromised in the last 5 yrs of multiple online and other uses except this one time DDS online purchase.

        • @bathuu:
          Well who's gonna take action?
          Call crime stoppers?

  • +5

    Guys, the easiest way to get around this is to just max out your CC or have no money left in it! Works for me :)

    • +2

      O_O

      you should open your own forum website Ozspender (The best way to get broke)

      • +3

        this website is already the best way to get broke

Login or Join to leave a comment