weird. someone bought a kobo book on my account, not with my card

[stumped]

I gifted a couple of kobo readers at xmas

for that, i created a couple of disposable gmail accounts, in case I deecided to pass those on also ( but I didn't )

yesterday i got a purchase receipt from kobo for a £4.99 best sellet, on one of those accounts. payment details when I login show last 4 digits of a visa card - not mine. blank address details on the account

now, the kobo site logins for those gmails have fiendish passwords to pass their strong password tests, and were only set up in december. set up on PC because it was easier than doing all the typing on the actual kobos. I cant see how they could have been hacked. no security alerts from google about them being used on new devices, and they were blank accounts. no personal info included.
I am also not sure which, if either, were actually used to set up a kobo. i had terrible trouble typing strong passwords on device and resported to login with google eventually. also i never set up any payment methods or address details. [ the ( abandoned) plan was to give the logins with the devices ).

so to buy a book on a kobo, could someone do it by typing in a card number on the device, without typing any other info? when I login and view the kobo account, everythign is empty execpt for a visa card number for whcih they only show last 4 digits.

do kobo bookstore ever make billing errors.

as at now, I seem to own a best selling book, Little Disasters by Sarah Vaughn, ( which I was able to download on PC ) but no idea how it was paid for or ordered.

someone else, maybe, is missing a paid for book ?

[Asawi]

Edited: Realized my theory wouldn't work...

[stumped]

part of the puzzle is that when I log into kobo store from my PC, all fields are blank except for a visa card number. I have never met a store that will sell to you without also wanting the billing address of the card....

and if my setup notes are accurate, this login did not ever get used on a kobo device. It was a spare.
I did gift one device to a relative, which was set up with a Uk library link and and some sideloads. expectation was she would never need or bother to use the kobo store, and is it even possible to add a payment method by typing on the device?

there's no option at kobo so show what devices are linked to an account. and the gifted devices are miles away. my last resort is to start quizzing the recipients but I'd rather not.

i have never sold a used kobo on epay or similar so rule that out.

ps all this is with kobo store UK.

[stumped]

this from kobo site confirms aht billing info is needed . but screenshot shows blanks
If you've shopped with Kobo before and saved your billing information, go to step 8.
Use the keyboard to enter your billing address and credit card information. Note: We need your billing address to calculate taxes for your order based on your location.

[Cootey]

You say you gifted these readers, but you didn't say if you contacted the recipients of your gift and asked them about the purchases. Maybe they regifted your Kobos.

Also, maybe I'm dense, but why do you care how the Kobos are being used if you gave them away? Does the purchasing affect you in some way?

[stumped]

One is with my son. He has confirmed that it is not registered to the account showing the ghost purchase. The other is with my sister in law. I am pretty sure that is also registered to a different account.
So I am wanting to know how kobo can assign a purchase to an account I created and never used. How insecure or incompetent are they.
I tried replying to the purchase receipt email but it's a noreply address and it bounced.
So in a blank account I created a month ago is a purchase, a visa card, and no billing address. No other company accepts a payment without a billing address. Someone is presumably missing a paid for book and has a compromised card.

[Cootey]

Have you called Kobo? (I wouldn't try the text chat for this one.)


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

[stumped]

no, and aint going to. chances of them investigating a possible bug at their end are close to nil. they could offer to remove the visa card ( but I have that option anyway on web page) , and/or delete the book. but if the book is not on a kobo anywhere, that wont work

what they don't seen to have, unlike netflix and other streamers, is anyway to list the devices linked to an account. Without that, there's no obvious way to follow up

[rantanplan]

You could just delete the compromised account.

[stumped]

Originally Posted by rantanplan

You could just delete the compromised account.

i might do that, but I am wanting to preserve all the evidence for now just in case I do tacke kobo about it. I am not going to wait in a phone or live chat queue queue but if I can find a useful email where I can attach screenshots..

I guess what worries me is entrusting Kobo store with my own visa card, in the account I normally use. I think I will use the tactic of enter card, buy book, immediately delete card,,,, from now on

I am wondering if they have form for other charging snafus but google search is having trouble understanding the question

[rantanplan]

Originally Posted by stumped

I think I will use the tactic of enter card, buy book, immediately delete card,,,, from now on

It's likely that this will only logically delete the card details (set a "is_deleted" flag in the database record) and not really delete them.

[Witty Username]

Originally Posted by stumped

i created a couple of disposable gmail accounts, in case I deecided to pass those on also ( but I didn't )

yesterday i got a purchase receipt from kobo for a £4.99 best sellet, on one of those accounts. payment details when I login show last 4 digits of a visa card - not mine.

I might be missing something, but have you tried logging into the gmail account and looking at the activity information there?

[stumped]

all that's in the gmail account is the purchase receipt.
all that is in the kobo account is the book, which incidentally is only still 1% read ( and that 1% was me, on PC checking that book really exists

if anyone had gotten into the gmail [ so unlikely as it was only created a month ago, I'd be seeing google security alerts about new sign-ins, sent to my recovery account

I think kobo have placed the book, and the receipt, in the wrong account. hence the lack of billing address and lack of reading activity. [ yes, the mystery buyer could have bought it then immediately gone offline forever, btu that feels very unlikely] if kobo are like other companies, they will clam up if challenged about fraud, and will not disclose when, where, how their account was accessed. I sort of know the when, if it was just before the purchase receipt email time and date

[theducks]

Originally Posted by stumped

no, and aint going to. chances of them investigating a possible bug at their end are close to nil. they could offer to remove the visa card ( but I have that option anyway on web page) , and/or delete the book. but if the book is not on a kobo anywhere, that wont work

what they don't seen to have, unlike netflix and other streamers, is anyway to list the devices linked to an account. Without that, there's no obvious way to follow up

Are you sure that is not a Phish email? Read the full headers (inside)
The Geek Squad routinely sends me 'invoices' using a gmail account

[stumped]

False alarm folks
I had used the account to set up a kobo for my sister in law who just wanted one to use for library loans.
She had gotten a library card and I had set up the kobo link for her.

My setup notes were wrong as to which kobo account I had used to register it

I had not given here any login passwords as she did not plan to use the kobo store.

then a few days ago she bought a book for a book club discussion using only the kobo, and typing in payment info and was not asked to input a billing address.

I would have recognised her address if kobo had recorded it,
. But because billing info was blank I panicked..

so nothing has been hacked and the email was genuine.

Sorry for the paranoia.
In my defense we had just gone through an unpleasant wrangle with Amazon about fraudulent transactions on my wife's account so when I saw this unexpected purchase I was thinking on no, not again...

Then my own notes were telling me the kobo account had never seen used for a device setup, and so I fretted and fretted...

Luckily , I had not picked a fight with kobo about it, so we can all move on.