Help! Mystery credit card charges...

murasame4 · Post by **murasame4** » Sat Jun 20, 2009 6:32 pm

Hi everyone,

I really need help from people who use Rinkya or from anyone who orders rilezus and pays with a credit card. My credit card just posted three mystery charges to my account--all for $103.00 by something called "DALLTO". I have no idea who this merchant is, but the credit card company says that it is for a "service" and that the merchant is in Osaka, Japan.

The amount seems like a rilezu deposit amount, but I pay for rilezus by money order and never by credit card and haven't bought any recently. If someone buys rilezus with a credit card, is this the name of the merchant that gets posted to your statement?

The only other thing I can think of is that I tried to sign up for Rinkya like 2 years ago, and they asked for a credit card deposit. I tried to give it to them but my credit card company didn't like to have blanket authorizations like that and refused to issue it. I decided not to sign up for Rinkya after all, but this was a long time ago, so I'm hoping that no one at Rinkya is charging on my number (I thought they would delete my card number when I decided not to sign up but maybe I was wrong). Is DALLTO the name of the merchant that appears on your credit card statement from Rinkya???

Or, option three, am I just the victim of some scammer in Japan?

Any help would be greatly, greatly appreciated!!

Belldandy16 · Post by **Belldandy16** » Sat Jun 20, 2009 7:31 pm

did you call them and they said it was a service charge or did you just get a statement?

it wouldnt make any sense that your cc would not let you charge anything back then and now suddenly they will.

murasame4 · Post by **murasame4** » Sat Jun 20, 2009 7:42 pm

Thanks for the reply! ^_^

Well, I called my credit card company and they said that they can't ID what the $103.00 is supposed to be for because the merchant just listed it as "services." But there are three charges (all of them went through) for the same amount, and I've never heard of this merchant before...

As for what gets approved, it seems like it just depends on who is running authorizations on a given day. Sometimes that credit card blocks everything and anything that is from Japan (like when I order from a website) and sometimes it seems like they don't care what gets through.

If it is Rinkya or the Anime cellar, I was going to try to contact them next...

If no one know who this is, it makes it a little stickier. ^^

Belldandy16 · Post by **Belldandy16** » Sat Jun 20, 2009 9:09 pm

but when you called them you got the charges reversed, right?
id actually think of cancelling that card, you just never know with identity theft these days.

Caroline · Post by **Caroline** » Sat Jun 20, 2009 10:52 pm

as a victim of credit card fraud, i would immediately open a dispute with your credit card company. now. tonight. then call or write rinkya an email to confirm. if rinkya says it's not them, followup with the dispute and the card's fraud dept will handle the rest. they can temporarily refund you the disputed amount until your claim is either proven or denied.

teggacat · Post by **teggacat** » Sat Jun 20, 2009 10:58 pm

Caroline is right, open a claim/dispute with your CC co. right away, but it really doesn't sound to me like a Rinkya issue here but certainly contact them and AnimeCellar as well, please keep us posted as to how this works out as this could easily happen to any of us!!

Keropi · Post by **Keropi** » Sat Jun 20, 2009 11:02 pm

Credit Card fraud seems to be on the rise lately.

Now I'm trying to avoid giving out my credit card number since I've had it happen twice to me in the last eight months.

Never had credit card fraud before that.

Post by **JWR** » Sat Jun 20, 2009 11:39 pm

As a longtime Rinkya user , I can verify that they have never issued any such charges to my account.

The credit card # they ask for is just to set your bid limit and to only have charges to it in the case you either fail to pay for an auction you won or if you pass the 2 month limit for won auction storage and the automaticly send you your stuff and then bill you credit card for only the EMS charge.

Normal auctions you get an email directing you to their "paycart" where you then pay with credit card (you must enter in the info for it's not linked to your one on file) or via paypal.

As others have stated contact your credit card company and open a dispute on this to protect yourself and you might have to close that card and get another if it proves out someone hijacked you credit card info.

syan · Post by **syan** » Sat Jun 20, 2009 11:51 pm

murasame4 wrote: If it is Rinkya or the Anime cellar, I was going to try to contact them next...

Anime cellar appears as "OFFICEFAO OSAKA" on my credit card statements. The latest I have is from May though. I don't think I've ever seen "DALLTO" from any dealer in Japan.

Hope you get the issue resolved!

murasame4 · Post by **murasame4** » Sun Jun 21, 2009 6:27 am

Thanks for all the help and information, everyone! I really appreciate it! ^_^

I have already opened disputes for two of the charges over the phone and I have to mail in the third one, which I will do ASAP.

There is one last place I can figure the info leaked out--maybe due to a security breach that happened at Animaxis a couple of months ago when a hacker got into their site. I used to order from that site a lot in the past, so maybe people who had a card on file there should be on the look out.

If I find out any other information about this DALLTO scammer, I will let everyone know, since I'm sure a lot people here must buy things from Japanese stores/websites.

dbzmomma · Post by **dbzmomma** » Sun Jun 21, 2009 8:28 am

My card was put on hold (it's a Visa debit card) by my bank because of sudden activity in Japan! I didn't know because they were unable to reach me - I had changed my phone number to unlisted!

I had one unauthorized deduction for $4.94 from something called voguedesign.com. When I called I got an automated message service that sounded suspiciously Japanese.

Nothing big, though. I was charged twice for something but the company realized its mistake and refunded my money.

A couple months ago I got LifeLock for $100 a year. It was just 2 weeks before the great state of New York's Dept of Transportation (for whom I work) compromised all of our personal data. Nice, huh?

Good luck with yours.

teggacat · Post by **teggacat** » Sun Jun 21, 2009 10:07 am

Pheww!! Now that you mentioned it I remember when Animaxis got hacked, I just went into my acct there and my cc on file has expired, guess it has been quite awhile since I ordered there, but I feel alittle better now, Please Keep Us Posted On What You Learn!!! I don't recognize the DALLTO at all, and like everyone here, we deal alot in Japan!

metheus · Post by **metheus** » Sun Jun 21, 2009 9:44 pm

I put a short post in the speakeasy back in May concerning my own card issues. I half thought I was paranoid in posting about it, but the fact that the attempted charges were out of Japan seemed more than coincidental since it's the only foreign country I buy anything from. Dalto, or however it's spelled was the payment processor that the Visa rep mentioned when I called them. I never did ask if the attempted charge amount was in dollars or yen, not that it really mattered.

The only two Japanese dealers that I've used my card with would have been Animaxis or Mandarake. In my experience it was just mildly annoying, I was issued a new card and that was the end of it.

Cloud · Post by **Cloud** » Sun Jun 21, 2009 9:44 pm

May I ask where you got experience it was just mildly annoying he or she was issued a new card and that was the end of it?

metheus · Post by **metheus** » Thu Jun 25, 2009 6:02 pm

Just a follow-up. Got my bank statement in the mail today, the zombie charges have now shown up. Apparently they weren't killed off, even though they issued me a new card -_-

I now have 4 charges, exchange rate adjusted for 103.84 each from:

POS PURCHASE 076091 05/13 05:43 DALLTO OSAKA JP

Even though the flagged it as fraud, froze my original card, and issued me a new one, they never disputed the charges even though they said not to worry about it and that it would be taken care of. So after a half hour on the phone they're only now going to start the dispute process. On the bright-side it's a lot less than they originally alluded to before. Still... I'd sort of like the money back and all.