Penwritingplace.com? Anyone hear of them? Unknown CC charge!

[tde44]

I buy most of my stuff online. Today while reconciling our credit card statement we found a charge from penwritingplace.com. We've never ordered from them before and couldn't get a hold of them so filed a dispute with AmEx.

Went to their website and it's pretty shallow.

Anyone hear of them before?

[Ron Z]

The Whois information (https://www.whois.com/whois/penwritingplace.com) for the website is redacted - any route to contact them is blocked. It would make me suspicious. If they're legitimate, and you had made a purchase and can't match it or don't remember it, you'll hear from them!

[tde44]

Appreciate the research you did on WhoIs.

My better half and I confirmed that neither of us had made any CC purchase that day and had no receipts for the 2 weeks prior even for the amount involved.

So we opened a dispute with AmEx who credited us right away (:applause:). I'm certain that if it was legitimate (not!), they will contact me. Just hoping that we don't have to cancel and get a new card.

[Skwerlmasta]

Do yourself a favor and cancel that CC anyway. If it was used without your consent then you know for a fact that the card is compromised.
I had a card get hit with 5k in charges in one day. One large hit of 2k for disney bookings and then a bunch of small hits of about 50 - 200 apiece from several different company names, all purchasing disney gift cards. I did get my money back, but it took a bit of doing. Hours on the phone with the bank going over every charge. Usually for an erroneous charge like this, they give you the money back pending an investigation. Since it was such a large amount I had to wait a while, I wanna say 10 days.
It might seem like a hassle to have the card replaced, but it's much better than that nightmare alternative.

[Chrissy]

Do yourself a favor and cancel that CC anyway. If it was used without your consent then you know for a fact that the card is compromised.
I had a card get hit with 5k in charges in one day. One large hit of 2k for disney bookings and then a bunch of small hits of about 50 - 200 apiece from several different company names, all purchasing disney gift cards. I did get my money back, but it took a bit of doing. Hours on the phone with the bank going over every charge. Usually for an erroneous charge like this, they give you the money back pending an investigation. Since it was such a large amount I had to wait a while, I wanna say 10 days.
It might seem like a hassle to have the card replaced, but it's much better than that nightmare alternative.
^^^^ This. How have they got your CC and put an amount on it? Better to be safe than sorry. Request cancellation of that specific card and get a new replacement. You don't have to cancel the account altogether, just that one card.