FLORIDA — A Florida family says $3,500 was taken from their bank account after a series of strange transactions with Walmart they didn’t recognize.
The Hardy family told Jeff Diehl of sister station WFTV in Florida that within five minutes they saw 15 different charges on their debit card.
Their phones received numerous alerts detailing the fraudulent transactions.
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“One after another. And she said, ‘Maybe you should check your bank account because you keep getting these weird transactions,'” Jason Hardy said.
On Walmart’s website, all 15 transactions took place in 4 minutes. Hardy said someone used a Wells Fargo Bank card to purchase 60 nightstands.
“It wasn’t great, because I can’t afford to pay $3,500 for something I didn’t buy,” Hardy said.
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The package was shipped from Hong Kong and delivered to another address near Deltona’s home.
Even though all the nightstand models were the same, each package had a different weight.
“Some of them weighed less than a pound. One of them was 0.2 pounds. I think the tallest one was about 14 pounds,” Hardy said.
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Hardy told WFTV that Walmart immediately dropped the $900 charge and Wells Fargo returned the remaining nearly $2,500 as an interim loan.
But Wells Fargo got the money back and sent an email saying, “We have concluded that this is a dispute between you and the seller.”
Walmart instructed him to do business with the bank.
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“The reality is that when you find yourself in a no-man’s land between merchants and financial institutions, they don’t have much recourse,” said James E. Lee, chief operating officer of the Identity Theft Resource Center. .
Lee said a good first step is to try to make a deal.
He also said consumers have more protections when using credit cards for online transactions than using debit or ATM cards.
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It’s unclear how Hardy’s account was compromised, but Walmart had a debit card on file for her grocery orders.
According to Lee, cyberattacks against financial institutions are increasing.
Regarding the mystery surrounding strange package deliveries, Lee said drug traffickers often use this strategy to import illegal substances into the United States.
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“They come in different quantities, different size boxes, and may look like genuine products,” Lee said.
When he filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and contacted Walmart, Walmart sent him an email acknowledging that the transaction was not his and the seller was removed from the site.
The email prompted Wells Fargo to refund $2,500 after a fight that lasted more than two months.
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“[I’m] It was very frustrating and I was very frustrated because I didn’t buy it,” Hardy said.
Consumers are reminded that if their accounts have been compromised, they should report it to law enforcement, report it on the FBI’s Internet Crimes website, and alert the Federal Trade Commission.