Groupon Credit card fraud at Groupon - inside job or hacked accounts. Chicago Illinois

GROUPON was the conduit used to lift my credit card number. Luckily, I check my credit card activity on a regular basis and found that there was a charge of $584.91 to my credit card charged to GROUPON. I immediately contacted my credit card company and they have closed the account.

The charge hit my account on Sunday and posted on Monday. It is the only fraudulent charge since Sunday which is unusual. Having been the victim of identity theft, many times a credit card will be hit with multiple charges over a 2 or 3-day period (gas stations are almost always one of the fraudulent charges). So, it's unusual that it would be just one charge to Groupon.

What is also strange is the dollar amount. I have used Groupon only once and it was back in July, 2013 for a $50 coupon to a restaurant. I would never charge such a large (and odd) dollar amount for a discount coupon. The other odd thing is that when I went to access the Groupon account I had set up in July to purchase the $50 coupon, my account was no longer active in their system.

I called Groupon and they said that my name was associated with the charge along with my email address. I explained to them that I couldn't even access my Groupon account. The guy took some information including my address, phone number, last 4 of the credit card, and email address and said he'd forward it on to another dept and that I'd be hearing from someone, but he didn't know exactly when someone would be calling. Clearly, not a priority for them.

I can't imagine this is the only case of this happening, but they certainly don't seem eager to work on the problem or figure out if it's originating with a Groupon employee or if Groupon customers' accounts are being hacked. I'll never use Groupon again and I would strongly recommend the same to others. If you do use them, keep a close eye on your credit card activity. Groupon employees may be having a vacation or a day at the spa at your expense.