【美国电台节目】谁寄给我的咖啡机？（下）

TRANSCRIPT

HOROWITZ-GHAZI: Fundamentally, the case of the extra Nespresso machineis a credit card scam, a way to turn stolen credit card numbers into cleanmoney in a fraudster's bank account.

To figure out what happened to Nina, it's helpful to look at how thestructure of credit card scamming has changed over the years.

Like, credit card fraudsters are specialized. Different people are bestat different parts of the chain. So the person who steals your card isn't theperson who figures out how to get money out of it.

Nina's story is a clear case of cashing -people trying to make a buck from stolen credentials, mostly credit cardnumbers.

MCKENZIE: That was a classicexample of it.

FOUNTAIN: Yes. So here,finally, is the big reveal. We are going to walk you through exactly what washappening with Nina and the free coffee machine. Remember when Nina went toeBay, found those discount pods and pressed purchase? Her money went to thefraudster through the account that they had set up on eBay.

HOROWITZ-GHAZI: Meanwhile,the fraudster used stolen credit card info to make the purchase at Nespresso'sweb site and send Nina her order, plus a little bonus.

FOUNTAIN: And if the buyerhad been anyone other than Nina, it would have worked out beautifully becausethe thing about triangulation fraud is that everyone in the triangle comes outahead. Nina gets a great deal on coffee pods. eBay gets their commission. AndNespresso gets a sale. So when Nina tries to sound the alarm with Nespresso oreBay, they have no idea why she's complaining. Everyone's doing great.

HOROWITZ-GHAZI: It is brilliant. The fraudsteracts as a secret middleman, using George from Poughkeepsie's stolen credit cardnumber to buy Nina exactly what she wants while depositing her clean money intoa bank account somewhere. The only person who's lost out is George,  Eventually,George might notice an unfamiliar charge, but his bank will make him whole.Even George isn't on the hook in the end. So who does pay?

FOUNTAIN: When I firststarted working on this story, I thought that Nina's coffee and her extraNespresso maker all ultimately got paid for by the banks. But Patrick told meno. The banks also have a way of passing on the cost of the fraud. It's called achargeback. They call up the business that made the sale, in this caseNespresso, and say, hey.

MCKENZIE: The customer saysthey didn't authorize what happened, and the business will look at theirrecords and say, well, shoot; we just got defrauded for one case of Nespressopods, but this is the business we have chosen. OK, we're going to write thatoff to fraud losses and go about our merry way.

HOROWITZ-GHAZI: Patrick says this is the final,tricky detail working in favor of the fraudster. They are spreading thesechargebacks across tons of different online retailers. They're using stolencredit cards to ship sneakers and tote bags and podcaster microphones. And eachtime, a retailer is losing some amount of money, but not enough to take actionon it.

FOUNTAIN: But it seems likeNina did manage to shut down her particular case of triangulation fraud. Shecompiled all her documentation and sent it to the FBI, and then she kept an eyeon the eBay listings. A few months later, the discount pods pretty much vanishedfrom the site.

HOROWITZ-GHAZI: The funnything about this whole story is if the fraudster had never sent Nina that extrastuff, if they just sent her the things she ordered, she would never havegotten suspicious in the first place. So why send that extra coffee machine?

FOUNTAIN: Nina thinks the little bonuses were away to buy her love - to get good eBay reviews, to keep her coming back as acustomer, keep their eBay accounts alive. So it was meant to be a bribe. Butfor Nina, it was something else. It was the clue.

 if you're gettingsomething for free on the internet, somebody somewhere is paying for it. Andthat's - you know, you should know that, and you should...

FOUNTAIN: Oh.

KOLLARS: ...Probably thinkabout that.

FOUNTAIN: Ooh. That - I -ooh, that makes me feel personally...

KOLLARS: Attacked?

FOUNTAIN: Yeah.

These days, Nina says shedoesn't play the discount coffee game. When she needs the re-up her coffeepods, she pays full price.