Magazine Scam

[GabrielsThoughts]

Okay, so I pick up the phone.  he asks with whom he is speaking, I give him my first name and nothing more. he then tells me he's representative for platinum rewards Visa and they want to reward you for being a valued customer by giving you a $100 target gift certificate for taking a survey of some kind... first he needed to confirm my mailing address...  after taking the survey, a series of yes and no questions, and needing a Definite "yes"or "No" answers instead of "Okay" or "I don't understand" answers. I hang up the phone un-concerned because 1) he only has my mailing adress, not my street address and 2) I gave him no credit card information, nor my full name or any other information other than my mailing address which they apparently already had 3)I assumed if it wasn't Visa it was some other company trying to conduct a survey.

The next day a Fraud Alert guy contacts my mom because someone charged a number magazines to her credit card  Journey pass, Auto saver. Obviously my mom didn't order the magazines, and the fraud alert guy canceled her credit card and issued a new one. My mom gets her bill yesterday along with this letter thanking her for signing up for something like 30 magazines, all of which were charged to her credit card.

we figured out that the survey and the magazine subscriptions were related, what we can't figure out is how they , whomever "they" are got a hold of my moms credit card information to bill her. The representative/survey guy said his name was Robert Ellis and that is all we know about him. Another thing that concerns me is that since I took the survey in the first place, even though I provided no credit card information, is if I'm financially responsible in any way for the fraud since I confirmed the mailing address over the phone and gave them my first name before taking the survey.             

The day my mom told me her credit card company's  fraud alert notified her about the unauthorized access I contacted my credit card company, and my bank. The following day I contacted the police. this immediately following being contacted by National Reader Service, who were looking to speak with someone who had what sounded like my first name but my mom's sir name/maiden name. I have my own credit card and bank accounts, and I put up a fraud alert on my credit report, at the police officer's suggestion. however, I didn't file a report since nothing of mine was lost or stolen. I didn't order any magazines, and based on what limited knowledge I have of the magazines that were ordered, only one or two actually sounds like something I would be interested in based on title alone.

The credit card company's fraud alert person is sending paperwork for my non to fill out and we should be receiving it soon. I'm really confused and I don't know what else I can do.