[carloscai]

I was charged by a company called LexBay Limited from California for $14.95 two days ago. I just found the following info on the website.

Transaction Date: 10/03/2006
Post Date: 10/03/2006
Transaction Description: LEXBAY LIMITED ROSEVILLE CA
RBB466F8 MOBILE CONTENT-GAMES

Charge: $14.95
Merchant Address: LEXBAY LIMITED/ALEXANDER
8592 LAS BRISAS CIR

ROSEVILLE CA 95747
USA

Merchant Type: BUSINESS SERVICE
Doing Business As: No Additional Information

Since i recently gave my credit card number to Verizon Wireless, and their billing address is also in CA, I would believe it has something to do with this! The address on the charges is actually a residential neighbourhood.

Luckly my credit card company gave the money back to me.

[AMS]

Thanks for the heads-up, Carlos.

[TheDiggler]

Transaction Description: LEXBAY LIMITED ROSEVILLE CA
RBB466F8 MOBILE CONTENT-GAMES

It does indeed sound related to VZW; however, it may not have been intentional fraud. The charge appears to be from someone who wrote a mobile (i.e. cell phone) game. That person/company may have an affiliation w/ VZW, and a VZW customer may have ordered the game through VZW. However, VZW could have simply applied the purchase to the wrong cellular account (in this case YOUR ACCOUNT).

In addition to being refunded, you should have your CC provider issue you a new card w/ a new CC # (it'll likely be almost the same number but w/ different last 4 digits). Furthermore, you should get a CC which supports virtual account #s. This way you can give VZW a Virtual CC #. With Citibank's virtual CC program, after the first merchant has placed a charge on a virtual CC #, no other merchant can charge to that account. Thus, in the case above, even if VZW had shared your Virtual CC # w/ an affiliate, assuming VZW had previously successfully charged to the virtual CC, the affiliate wouldn't have been able to obtain an authorization on that Virtual CC #.

Diggler

[wtf]

Citibank still hasn't refunded me for a fraudulent charge from e-store. . They did close my account though.

This post has been edited by wtf: 10-7-06, 11:17am

[SHANNI]

Must be in the air, yesterday I found these 2 charges

Handango 39.99
RSS INC 9.99

One is a software company for things like palm pilots, and the other is an internet advertising agency. My CC company is mailing me the fraud papers, and told me not to give it another thought, they would take care of it from here on out.

[vinhboy]

Holy Smokes carloscai. I got the same charge. Mine was for $9.95 on my Amex card. I have not used my AMEX card for least 2 months. So I have no idea how these people got a hold of my information. I had verzion way back in the days, but havent used it in a long time.

I am kind of pissed because I called Amex and they will refund the charge, but they did nothing to try and help me find out who did this or what I can do about it. I finally just asked them to reassign my card number.

I am thinking about driving up there and finding the address because I live about 45 minutes away. Anybody interested?

This post has been edited by vinhboy: 10-8-06, 10:52am

[carloscai]

If I was in CA I will definitely go with you. This is obviously a major screw-up, either on the AMEX side or the Verizon side.

[Monga]

I believe they don't investigate any charges below $20.00 - that's why so many of these companies are able to thrive on small fraudulent charges.

[dejavu]

...

I am thinking about driving up there and finding the address because I live about 45 minutes away. Anybody interested?

call the cops and take one with you...

[biggs01]

i got the same company listed on my green AmEx card. i have never heard of them, i don't use Verizon and its definitely fraudulent. i would think AmEx has a person working on this 'case' after they received enough phone calls. i mentioned this to the representative and she didn't seem concerned. bleh...this is definitely a criminal act and if anyone does find them and gets the police involved, i would gladly support the cause with my information.

This post has been edited by biggs01: 10-13-06, 9:23pm

[lovemytoys]

i too got hit with an $11.24 charge to my amex by lexbay. this is my main card and has been used with many vendors. called amex and they said they'd investigate and to deduct that amount from my bill.

[carloscai]

Don't know about you guys, but I haven't seen my $15 back to my account yet. Last time I called to complain they didn't give me 5% on gas purchase last year, it took them 4 months to "investigate" and reached the conclusion they didn't do anything wrong. I have already stop using my AMEX. Discover is way better.

[vinhboy]

I got my $9 dollar back immediately. I was lucky because its under $10. I think AMEX rule is, if its under $10 you get it right away.

Anyways, sorry to disappoint but I just do not have any time to go and look at this place. If i do, I will update.

A lot of people at FW is being hit too.

[stellamahonney]

i just got a 14.95 charge on my AMEX from lexbay limited. i read the tread and some people believe it was verison wireless. i don't have and have never had any account with them. the only thing i've done differently is stay at a holiday inn. i was just wondering if anyone else had the same incident.

[sparky]

Same here, another verse. I got a $13.45 charge dated 10/25/06 from Lexbay Limited. I have a Cingular phone and I don't do any games on it, nor ringtones, or any other things I could have been legitimately charged for.

My AMEX account is online, which is where I found the following info:

Transaction Description: LEXBAY LIMITED ROSEVILLE CA
MOBILE CONTENT-GAMES
Charge: $13.45
Merchant Address: LEXBAY LIMITED/ALEXANDER
8592 LAS BRISAS CIR
ROSEVILLE CA 95747
USA
Merchant Type: BUSINESS SERVICE
Doing Business As: No Additional Information

If you look at the location using Google maps in hybrid mode, it's an empty field. Streets are shown on the map, but the arial photo shows no structures. Very suspicious.

I contested the charge online and got a message that a credit would be placed on my account. So far, no hassle from AMEX, but I will do a follow up to see if it sticks, and I am thinking of asking for a new cc number. I hate to do that because it's my business account and I have quite a few automated payments being made that I would need to change. Damn this a**hole. How did he get my number?

[PCBiker]

Me too. $12.38 billed to my AmEx account on 10/31/2006 by this mysterious LEXBAY Limited.

AmEx voided the charges and their fraud representative said it will be investigated.
I questioned why they have not blocked this vendor? from making unauthorized charges, seeing that there are dozens of fraud complaints against it since at least September 2006. No response right now, other than a promise to investigate.

I use my AmEX card rarely, these are the three places I used it, all online:
Amazon.com
NewEgg.com
RCJ Enterprises (a hollywood sex toy store ... likely candidate for hanky-panky?)

An employee at any of these sites could have captured my AmEx information and used it,
since there is no other place that I have exposed my AmEx card or its information,
I strongly suspect that an employee at one of those companies might be the leak.

But then, so could an IT person involved with my internet server.
You would get very nervous if you observed what I did when I worked for a local internet service provider, seeing one employee late at night in the room with the server equipment, at a monitor and keyboard, looking at the traffic passing through the server into the internet. God only knows what he was looking at and for what reason. On the surface, he seemed to be troubleshooting someone's connection, but he had access to what was passing through the system (like account numbers and passwords?) There is a lot we do not know about the security details of our internet service providers.

[carloscai]

I don't know when you are going to see your $12.38. At least, I have not seen mine yet. AMEX really sucks big time.

I did buy things from Amazon and Newegg. But I suspect it is actually AMEX that is leaking the customer info. Or there is no explaination why after so many complaints, they are doing nothing about it.

[threeuncle]

Is there recently a leakage of CC information from AMEX? We have more than 10 victim here already. Shouldn't be a single case. It is fishy.

[carloscai]

An update for what's going on here:

I still have NOT seen my money back yet! AMEX has lost my business!

[carloscai]

Update: AMEX said they have never had a problem with this LEXBAY and I have never reported this issue to them. They asked me to contact the merchant myself since it's all the customer's fault.

WOW, that is really...

[vinhboy]

wow is that even possible? this lexbay thing is reported in alot of places on the web.

[tonka]

my inlaws auto shop they got one bad charge on a amex few weeks back
even though she voided the transaction since it was kinda hoky
being it was the so called wife using husbands card but when she
called him he had no idea..
amex last week killed the merchant account for to many bad transactions.
which it never really was paid since she voided it.
so 1 in 23 years and they kill the account and that lexbay gets a
that many just from you guys and there still active..
almost sounds like a amazon thing

[carloscai]

I know, I was shock to see how much the customer service quality drop on AMEX. Don't know who to blame here, computer problems? communication difficulties between two sides of the planet where the CSR center was located? difficulty in the finance world?

One thing I do know: I am going to get them!

BTW, AMEX suspended my account on "possible fraud investigation" today. So I guess they think I AM the guilty one behind all these LEXBAY charges on peoples accounts?

This post has been edited by carloscai: 1-6-07, 3:34pm

[carloscai]

AMEX just reactivated my account and gave $14.95 back. A letter states that they are still "investigating" but because I have been a "valued member", they are willing to give me the money.

The letter sounds like I was asking money from them. Sigh, thanks for the support.