“It’s a risk for anyone selling anything online. It could happen to you,” said a local business owner.
NEW ORLEANS — Since 1998, Basin Street Records has been signing artists from the Crescent City.
“Kermit Ruffins was our first artist,” said Director of Operations Braden Piper, “We’ve had Rebirth Brass Band, Jason Marsalis and so many others.”
The record label is known for spreading its unique sound throughout New Orleans.
“It’s a dream job,” Piper says. “I’m not from New Orleans, but strangely enough I’ve always loved New Orleans music since I was a kid.”
Part of Piper’s role is to make music accessible everywhere, from hearing it live at Jazz Fest to playing it physically on vinyl or downloading it.
Last Wednesday, Piper and his team woke up to a flood of online orders.
“We were experiencing unusual activity on our website, with thousands of orders coming in,” he said. “New orders were being processed every few seconds.”
Even more unusual, the orders were all for the same low-priced product: digital music downloads. After investigating, Piper realized they were all scams.
“It was most likely a credit card test scam.”
Thieves use thousands of stolen credit card numbers to make small purchases, and if a purchase is successful, the fraudsters know they have a valid, active account.
“They’ll get the dollar first, then move on to bigger amounts,” said Matt Malone, a cybersecurity expert at Vistrada.
Malone said scammers hope that people won’t notice small charges being made to their stolen cards.
“Diligence is key,” he says. “In the old days, people would count their bank account balances in a ledger, but we don’t do that anymore. We have electronic ledgers now, and if you don’t know where your money is going, it could end up in a fraudster’s pocket.”
Basin Street Records was able to refund some of the stolen cards, and Piper and his team also implemented additional security measures on the website.
“This is part of our due diligence in running an e-commerce site,” Piper said. “It’s a risk for anyone selling anything online. It could happen to you.”
Malone also suggests that online stores install CAPTCHAs on their websites to catch fraudulent activity, and says that consumers should closely monitor their transactions and take advantage of any credit monitoring services offered.
And finally, he says you can report a cybercrime by clicking here.