I wasn't sure where exactly to post this, but this forum gets the most readers, and is where the thread about it was.  Anyway, a friend of mine and I have both apparently had our credit card info stolen, as mysterious charges have been showing up on our accounts in the last few days.  They all seem to be from the same sources, and the only common link between his account and mine seems to be our orders for the Mario Galaxy OST from NCSX.  If you ordered from them, you might want to check things out.  If they ARE the source of the leaked information, then I apologize for recommending them and am extremely disappointed in the failure of what has always been one of the most trusted import stores.  Ugh.

That's interesting. I had some fraud on my card, but this was back in December.

I did however preorder Mario Galaxy with that card back when it was announced (I forget when that was) but since switched it to the new one to confirm the order.

When did you preorder and did the amounts just start showing up recently?

I preordered whenever they first opened preorders up, whenever that was (December, I guess).  The charges began to show up in just the past few days, but they didn't actually charge me until a couple days before that.

Wow, that is truly frightening. I just checked my statements and fortunately I seem to be okay so far, but I'm definitely going to keep a close watch on them for a while.  Thanks for the warning.  If I may ask, what were the fraudulent charges for?

Unfortunately I think this is going to be the end of my relationship with NCSX.  I was a little incensed at the last-minute "oh hay we're gonna have to jack your order price up", but I understand that that was not necessarily their fault.  But this? Even if NCSX employees are not the culprits here, at the very least it shows that they're not taking proper measures to secure their site, and that's more than enough to convince me I should be taking my business elsewhere.

Again, I appreciate the heads-up, and I hope you and your friend (and anyone else who finds themselves victimized here) are able to get things straightened out with your credit card company.

I can't imagine them being at fault. I said it before, NCSX has always been one of the 'good guys', and has survived where many other import stores have failed (remember Tronix? The Rage? Video Game Depot? Even the famously bad Buyrite and Gavecave? None of them are around any more...)

-Joshua

LOL @ The Rage. I had repeated good service there (and they were fast, too!).

I have my own Buy Rite scam story about ordering for overnight shipping and then OOPS! the game isn't in stock, comes a week late (does anyone remember the pre-recorded "Dude" over their 1-900 number?). GameCave was full of rude, arsefaces except for this one guy who was named Brian.

GameCave was historically a ripoff site oh and remember their advertising games that never came out? Just check out an old GameFan! They had a fading collapse -- they were apart of Express.com for a short while (last year or so of biz).

Yeah, I've heard plenty of bad things about buyrite too, AFTER I did business with them, but the ironic thing is that I never had any trouble with them whatsoever.

And Tronix used to be pretty good too.

why isnt tronix good anymore? must be five years since my last order, but i just want to know.

Holy shit! I pre-ordered Mario Galaxy from them but then cancelled that and later ordered Under Defeat LE Dreamcast from them a few weeks ago - so I had two occasions where I gave them my debit card info. I got a phone call from Staples yesterday saying that someone spent about $250 on items on staples.com and requested them to be shipped to Tennessee. Since I'm from MA it looked fishy and they called to confirm the charges, which were false. I had to freeze my account and get rid of my debit card, and now BOA is sending me a new card. I should also add that I have used my debit card a LOT over the past several years and have NEVER had a problem like this.

Long and short of it is that you can add my experience with NCSX to yours, man. Looks like someone there is up to no good.

Bummer, sorry this happened to you guys.

It can be a hassle, and yeah it does make a person seem 'violated' in a way.

I use Tronix to get US stuff all the time and they are great. I'm guessing they used to do JP stuff but have since stopped.

Wow, that's awful. I'm glad that I already vowed off of NCSX a year or two ago. I got burned by the aforementioned tendency of theirs to jack prices up at the last minute and then pass the blame off onto the suppliers. I personally can't accept that because, even if the suppliers are changing the prices, NCSX still continues to knowingly and willingly deal with scummy, shifty suppliers. If they deal with such unreliable and dishonest people, then it's no surprise that a leak in information would arise too. Back then, I decided to avoid NCSX unless "necessary" (in that the item is only available there or significantly cheaper there, and the latter pretty much never happens because I personally have to pay sales tax with them), but now I think I'll avoid them no matter what. Pretty sad when a company in Hong Kong is more reliable than one in the good ol' USA.

Have any of you contacted NCSX about this?

No, not yet. I called my bank and they said to contact the local authorities, so I'm going to get in touch with the Brooklyn PD this weekend and report it. NCSX has a 718 area code, which is that general area. Pardon my francais, but that's just f---ing low, and shady business. If someone associated or affiliated with NCSX did this I would love to see those fuckers get shut down.

If you look at their contact us page, their P.O. Box zip code puts them in Queens.  Initially, you need to contact the police in Queens, not Brooklyn.

Ah, okay. Will do. Thank you!

Well it sounds like you've taken the right steps but, if it were me, I'd be contacting NCSX too. Unless they are planning on shutting up shop and moving to Brazil or somewhere, they have been in business far too long and are far too traceable for it to be worth their while to start criminal credit card fraud.

It seems more likely that, if NCSX definitely turns out to be the link, that they have a serious system problem and something has gone badly wrong. While I would say that's not much better, without them being informed they won't know to do anything about it and more and more people are going to go through the same thing until the authorities and credit card companies get on it which, having dealt with credit card companies, could be a while.

Well, this is either a renegade employee or their e-commerce site/payment system has been compromised.  Since NCSX has been around for a long time, it seems stupid for them to turn evil.

Is this happening just to people with recent orders, because I haven't used NCSX in a while now, but maybe my CC info is still stored on their servers. Definitely should let them know first because there are probably hundreds of people buying stuff from them every day.

Well, I think somebody said the charges were made in TN.  You can ask if the charges were electronic or manually swiped.  If somebody in TN manually swiped the card, then it's not likely to be an employee.

I've had this stuff happen in the past, although I have no idea how my information got out.  Somebody bought a PS3 using my credit card!  $650!

It's been a few years since I ordered from NCSX, but I checked anyways.  Thankfully there were no fraudulent charges, so hopefully you're safe too.

The friend of mine who also had this happen called NCSX on Friday.  According to the rep he talked to, the orders placed go directly to the processing company and NCSX employees don't get to see the information at all.  They sent a follow-up email stating that they are going to do a security audit for all three of their shopping sites.  I'll let you all know what we hear next.

I see a fradulent charge on my card too, so thanks for the heads up.  I'm not going to pre-judge NCSX yet, but I will call my credit card company and have this charge killed and my number rebooted.

Thankfully anything I ordered from NCX was at least a card ago. I wonder if stuff like that helps catch fuckers like this?

-Joshua

I've had some really bad experiences with NCSX. Charging for orders I did not make, nothing arriving, even threatening to charhe my CC card!!!!

stay far away from them!!