Caveat emptor!

There have been several developments.

1. The "soft" hotel reservation fraudster who guaranteed to me a nightly rate of $101.00 in an internet reservation but charged me $150 in an email confirmation continues its operations with impunity. 

They send me "offers" with "discounts" for hotel and resort stays all over the country.

As I explained, I canceled the reservation directly with the hotel. I also canceled the credit card I used for this reservation. My bank assured me that I would not be charged, because I canceled my reservation when the charge of $150 was "pending" but not "posted."

While the Federal Trading Commission only files the complaints but does not investigate them, and the local police tell me such an investigation would not be in their purview, the FBI remains mum after I filed Form IC3 on their IC3.gov website.

We are truly left to our own devices while various government "Consumer Protection Bureaus" busy themselves with passing "consumer protection laws."

In the meantime, the "soft" fraudsters continue operating with impunity, and if the consumer does not take any action, the "soft" fraudster's profit comes from the difference between the guaranteed rate they pay the hotel and the amount they charge the consumer.

2. Yesterday, I received a letter from TransUnion dated August 26, 2025, namely six days prior. 

TransUnion is one of the three repositories of credit information that lenders rely on when approving a credit application.

It appears that TransUnion has not been very swift in protecting my identity.

The letter advised me that there was a data breach by a hacker and that my Social Security number and date of birth had been obtained by a hacker. What this means is that the hacker can now sell this information on the "dark web," and another fraudster or the hacker himself can use this stolen identity to empty my accounts or apply for credit in my name.

So I called TransUnion. The first red flag was that the automated system asked me for my Social Security number, which I did not give to the automated system for security reasons. The live representative denied that there had been any data breach after I talked to several other agents, who did not know anything about this case. 

This now looked like the letter I received was written by a hacker and contained a mixture of genuine and fraudulent information in an attempt to elicit my personal information for the following reasons:

1. There was no date in the letter indicating when the data breach took place.
2. The four-page letter looked like a regular letter from a credit reporting agency, with the two other agencies, Equifax and Experian, mentioned in it. The red flag was that there were three or more telephone numbers for each agency in different parts of the letter. This is a regular part of a scammer's business—they establish several telephone numbers pretending to be a credit reporting agency. After they call each number several times, the number pops up in a Google search as a genuine telephone number.
3. TransUnion denied having any data breach.
4. Upon calling TransUnion, their automated system demanded my Social Security number, which I did not give them by phone for security reasons.
5. The letter offered a free 24-months membership in a credit monitoring service - this looked just like another attempt to elicit my personal information.

But I did not give up. I went on TransUnion Chat, and after getting through their automated bot, I was now chatting with a live agent. She did not know anything about this case and did not even have access to my TransUnion credit report. She suggested calling customer service again and gave me another telephone number—in addition to the numbers in the letter.

By a sheer stroke of luck, I was now talking to a competent person named Lukas. He searched their files and confirmed that the letter was genuine and there was indeed a data breach, and the hacker obtained my and my wife's Social Security numbers and dates of birth.

So I asked Lukas to "freeze" our credit files at TransUnion. Subsequently, I "froze" our credit files at the other two credit reporting agencies - Equifax and Experian. This is what each of us should do in these cases, and it can also be done online. As a result, nobody applying fraudulently for credit on my behalf can obtain credit until we unfreeze our credit file.

3. The following is likely not a fraud, but it requires attention to my credit nonetheless. I have received my monthly statement from PayPal. I have a credit line with them and a MasterCard.

I like to use PayPal for my purchases, because it puts another layer of security between me and the possibly fraudulent merchant—the merchant does not see my credit card. Also, I found that if I pay from my PayPal credit line, depending on the contract the merchant has with PayPal, I may or may not automatically get a six-month interest-free loan from PayPal. PayPal calls this "Special Financing Purchases."

The monthly statement says that in due time, I have to pay $1,109 to avoid the accrued interest charges on these Special Financing Purchases. There are four Special Financing Purchases on my monthly statement. One, in the amount of $155, has been refunded because the merchant accepted my order, but did not have the merchandise in stock.

When I total the remaining three Special Financing Purchases, they amount to $794, due between October 23, 2025 and March 23, 2026.  The amount of $794 is a far cry from $1,109.

I called PayPal but their live representatives, not an automated system, could not explain the discrepancy. 

Perhaps they are adding all the future accrued interest to the principal amount—but they are not saying that, and their representatives cannot explain it.

I will now monitor my PayPal monthly statements and the PayPal calculation of accrued, unpaid interest.

Von Mises is an occasional column on economics, written by Ivan Orisek of Forestburgh, NY. It’ll look at money, the way money works in America, and show you the numbers behind the headlines.