Norton, credit card number, fraud, screw up, or other (Read 965 times)

Not sure why I'm posting this specifically on runningahead except that I want to capture it somewhere and maybe y'all will have good input for me.

I use Norton antivirus. Have since 2008 (side note: please don't give me advice about the worthiness/suckiness of the product. Not the point of the thread).  This morning, I got email that it had auto-renewed and my credit card had been charged.

Hmmm.  I didn't think I had it set to auto-renew, and even if I did, there's no way that my credit card info at Norton Central could be up to date.  So I logged into my account to see what I had it configured to do.

Turns out, per the receipt in my account, this morning, Norton charged my Mastercard ending in 6900.  This is indeed the card associated with my account. They have my name, my correct billing address and this card info.

I do not possess a Mastercard.  I also do not possess any credit card ending in 6900. 

Hmmm.  That's weird.  I did not put this (fake?) card into my account, ever.  But there it is in my account info.

Of course, the "uh oh, someone has a credit card in my name!" thing went off in my brain.  I immediately checked my three credit reports.  They are clean.  AND... well, if someone is going to open a credit card in my name, why the heck would they go into my norton account and ensure that their hot credit card number is listed there?

I suspect that Norton has scrambled account info and credit card numbers and someone else got charged.  I don't know that this would be right either, because credit card companies do a small amount of verification... either by matching the card number to the billing zip code (or full address) or using that special 3 digit code on the back... so someone's random card should have failed out when they tried to charge it with my billing address (unless they live in the same zip code maybe).

I'm honestly a little stumped by what's going on here.

The Norton tech support rep wasn't helpful.  The first line of defense is a random person in India (in my case, Vipul) working from a script.  (S)he didn't understand my issue and all (s)he wanted to do was refund the bad card and have me enter my new card.  Which is fine, except that it removes all the details of the real problem.  I got her/him to tell me (s)he "escalated" the issue, but whether they contact me back remains to be seen.

I'm stumped.  What else am I not considering?

Seems similar to some other services which auto renew and charge to the old expired credit card, but then proceed to email/mail you for the charges.  This could just be a variant of that procedure like Ilene suggests.

No, it isn't that kind of a scam.  They have an easy way to prompt me for payment... deactivating my firewall and av protection.  Not only did they NOT do this, but they renewed it for a year.  They (think they) got their money from this bogus account.

(which is not to say that it is/isnt some other kind of scam)

yes, my license was renewed for a year.  Yes, I checked my account... per the first post, this is how I know they charged a bogus card.

I'm not going just by the email.  I'm going by what's in my norton account.  They renewed MY license, not someone else's license.  Also, my norton account is associated with my email address.  In fact, the email address is the account name.  And it is me for sure (just with wrong credit card info).  Unlike some systems, they would not allow someone else to accidentally or on purpose use my email for their account, because that email address is already my account.

I agree, though I don't want to delete it out of my account yet because I want them to have info about the problem.

There is a trail (an electronic receipt) that matches that account number with my billing address and me.

There is also an active case (with a case number) in their customer service system where I am telling them explicitly "this number is not mine."  My hope is that someone smart will get back to me asap, collect reasonable information, and then we can fix the card info... including refunding the incorrect card.  The dude in India was ready to cheerfully fix the credit card number and close the case, which would have obliterated the important issue.

I have a very common name, so I check my credit from time to time.  I have had to pull all kinds of dumb stuff from my reports before... usually medical bills for someone with a similar name that went to collection.  This one has me stumped.

Is it possible it just isn't showing on the bureau yet bc it's too new?

I suppose.

But still.  If someone is going to use my name to open a credit card account, why are they going to go into MY norton account and use it to pay MY bill?

I'm pretty confident you know all this stuff...but I'll type it, if only to give me a break from real-paying-job-stuff.

We can make a good guess that Symantec has a master customer record as a parent and related records (products/licenses, support calls, credit cards, email preferences, and the like).

Since the Account Info/Subscription status in Norton AV is telling you that the subscription was updated...we can assume that license management part is content that the billing management part as collected the money, and license management issued the renewal.

From your description...sounds like the billing management part of Norton has happily billed someone else's credit card for your transaction. There's another possibility, being that the billing has worked right and the reporting is coughing up bogus info.

You reported this to them.  I think all you can do is hope that, in  time, the other person will call and say "I don't owe you any money...what's this charge?" -- that will trigger them to look into it.

Personally, it would bug me that (1) there's been a hiccup in their system interfaces, and (2) they aren't willing to dig into it and get all CSI about finding the. answer. now.  and (3) that someone else may possibly be getting billed for my purchase, and (4) I got something that I didn't pay fairly for.

Sounds like you've made every effort to report it the problem and pay for the software you use.  It's shoulder-shrug for the next 30 days until someone in their data quality group sees things out of balance on 7/31.

I talked to my credit card fraud knowledge guy, who suggested that you work with Norton to find out the IP address that was used to make the payment.  Norton should have that information. 

Once they find it, and they can determine it's location, Norton's people should track that IP to determine whether there's some fraud going on from that individual with other Norton accounts.

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Since your Norton account is separate from the transaction, you might want to change the email / password link (in case somebody has your Norton information or cracked your code).  Reverse that payment that somebody made for you, and pay it yourself.

And, (as you know), be aware that somebody may be trying to hack into your information.

Last year my ATM card was stolen and used to purchase minutes on a pre-paid phone plan.  They charged $100.

In my case the card was used online.  Since it was for a phone, the number associated with the charge was known.  I think I know the person.  But even though my card was used, and important bits of data were known and easily retrievable, I was not able to get any satisfaction.

My bank simply issued a new card and the case was closed.  The police filed a report but if I wanted to pursue it further I would have had to file with the State Attorney.  The police said the SA would probably deny, but even if they did the CC processor would simply ignore any legal action.  Again, leaving me with more headache and less satisfaction.

I have a friend who is president of a small bank.  They don't even issue ATM cards as the insurance premium is prohibitive.  He said the big banks eat millions in CC fraud.  It's simply the cost of doing business.

My point is this:  I agree that these types of mistakes are maddening and leave serious concerns about our safety.  I'm guessing Norton's system simply made a mistake and charged someone else.  Change your password be glad you didn't get charged.  I might not have even called them in the first place.  They made the mistake, you win!  But you probably did the right thing.

As a side note, I use CC for ALL transactions now.  Luckily my checking account was only dinged $100 which didn't put me negative.  Even though the bank refunded my money, if it had been more I would have had an even bigger mess to clean up.