Anyone have creid/debit card fraud problems ordering from e-cig companies

[WeeItsnookies]

Just trying to run down who could be the culprit or if it's on my end (trojans and what have you)

[edited] The charges came from California...and I live in Florida :S

 

[RandyF]

So you know where the charges came from but not who?

 

[Tranquility Base]

Probably not a computer virus. Such information is often bought and sold in different places. One company rips you off, or gets hacked, crooks sell that info to other crooks, charges turn up all over the damn place. We got hit with a limo charge from a state on the other coast. Mother-in-law, a US citizen, got rip off charges in Canada. They'll often use your credit card data to purchase Gift Cards as a tidy and cleaner money-laundering attempt, as they are more like hard cash. Gift Card fraud is so bad many stores won't even take them anymore. Mafia is into it big time. Those kinds of crooks really grind my gears. Make it personal and try to rip me off, I have a chance at defending myself. But fighting organized crime is like trying to fight City Hall. Such squirming sneaky cowardly little scum bag crooks. Tony Soprano was cool, though.

 

[Quick1]

Where the charges came from doesn't really tell you anything. You said you ordered so you did not lose your physical card. Whomever is making the fraudulent charges is probably doing the same... ordering online? The best thing to do is simply avoid the problem altogether.

I have a Citi bank card. One of the services they offer is virtual card numbers specifically for online use.
Couple of clicks and you have a virtual credit card. If you want to invest a couple more clicks you can put a dollar limit on the card or an expiration date (defaults to 2 months).
I use a different virtual card for each and every purchase I make online and limit the card to $5 more than the purchase price.
Everything shows up on your monthly bill just as if you used the regular cc but there is a virtual number with it.
Basically zero exposure and no hassle to use.
If there is some problem with one of your card numbers then you know exactly where and when you used it (that one time).
If you wanted to use a card for some reoccurring charge you can set a larger limit or no limit but the virtual cards are only good for the first point of sale they're used for. Each and every place/point of sale that charges a credit card has a "merchant ID". A virtual credit card can only be charged from one merchant ID. So once they make the first charge on it, it can't be used anywhere else.

 

[bigrf85]

Ordered many times from [edited] and have never had an issue

 

[retired1]

Generally, most fraud occurs at physical locations from individuals who copy your debit/credit card information and then either sell it or use it themselves. Your information could have been compromised months ago and they're just now using it.

I've also edited out the company names. Unless there is absolute, concrete proof that a specific company is responsible, we'd prefer things to be as general as possible without naming anyone who is most likely innocent.

 

[wheelie]

No knowing your situation but one time I got gas and mintues later my Visa was used 100 miles away but the Visa Centre knew I could not drive that distance in that time and shut my card down. I thanked them when I had to call them.

 

[orangevic]

No knowing your situation but one time I got gas and mintues later my Visa was used 100 miles away but the Visa Centre knew I could not drive that distance in that time and shut my card down. I thanked them when I had to call them.

Same happened to me... except they bought 2,000 dollars worth of watches from the UK. Called the watch place in the UK and they refunded. BoA was none the wiser about it... UGH

 

[vaperature]

It happened to me twice in one year. The first one was charges made to a company in China. The second one was a series of charges made to companies in Mexico. I have fraud protection so I didn't lose anything but it was very stressful and worrisome. I'm positive it is from one of the companies I ordered from, that they must have gotten their website hacked, but I'm not sure and I have no way of knowing so I won't name names. If you want to private message me maybe we can compare what companies we've bought from because I too would like to get to the bottom of it.

 

[orangevic]

It happened to me twice in one year. The first one was charges made to a company in China. The second one was a series of charges made to companies in Mexico. I have fraud protection so I didn't lose anything but it was very stressful and worrisome. I'm positive it is from one of the companies I ordered from, that they must have gotten their website hacked, but I'm not sure and I have no way of knowing so I won't name names. If you want to private message me maybe we can compare what companies we've bought from because I too would like to get to the bottom of it.

Always got to check that the site has SSL certificate. I also got into the habit of just wanting to check out with PayPal versus putting in my personal cc on their site.

 

[vaperature]

Where the charges came from doesn't really tell you anything. You said you ordered so you did not lose your physical card. Whomever is making the fraudulent charges is probably doing the same... ordering online? The best thing to do is simply avoid the problem altogether.

I have a Citi bank card. One of the services they offer is virtual card numbers specifically for online use.
Couple of clicks and you have a virtual credit card. If you want to invest a couple more clicks you can put a dollar limit on the card or an expiration date (defaults to 2 months).
I use a different virtual card for each and every purchase I make online and limit the card to $5 more than the purchase price.
Everything shows up on your monthly bill just as if you used the regular cc but there is a virtual number with it.
Basically zero exposure and no hassle to use.
If there is some problem with one of your card numbers then you know exactly where and when you used it (that one time).
If you wanted to use a card for some reoccurring charge you can set a larger limit or no limit but the virtual cards are only good for the first point of sale they're used for. Each and every place/point of sale that charges a credit card has a "merchant ID". A virtual credit card can only be charged from one merchant ID. So once they make the first charge on it, it can't be used anywhere else.

I actually thought invented that in my mind but it's good to know it actually exists (the virtual card thingy) but too bad my mastercard doesn't offer it. I think all cards should do that.

 

[Rickajho]

Hasn't anyone been paying attention lately to one after another report of credit card data theft from massive retailer's involving tens of millions of account numbers? Each time? The days of some schmoe copying your CC number down in a back room in a store are long gone. The Target breach is still following and causing problems for some people. And now we had a massive data theft at Home Depot. And three other places I can't even recall right now because they just keep rolling in. Don't be pointing the finger at itty bitty retailers, these rings doing data theft target places where they get the biggest bang for their buck. If it isn't major retailers then it's the transaction data processing centers themselves, and in those cases it doesn't matter where you used the card - all that matters is you used it. Anywhere.

No, fraud is not automatic. You used a card some place. You notice a fraud. So there must be a connection to the place you just used the card at and the fraud. It does not work that way. Stolen CC data is put on a dark market and sold weeks or months later after it is collected. When the data was stolen and when you get hit with a fraud are typically very disconnected.

The US is so freakin' far behind the rest of the world regarding CC security it's laughable. OMG! - A PIN number! Yeah - international standards require the use of a PIN code to transact a credit card. A PIN you can change as needed, among other security features we don't have on your cards and transactions. We don't get that here. Why? Our beloved "less regulated" industry here doesn't want to spend the money on it. Until the fraud starts to cost them more than updating their systems it won't happen in the US. In the mean time keep having fun playing Whack A Mole with frauds on your accounts.

You have to be sorta nutz to even have a debit card linked to your real money in a real bank account at this point. Sure - you will get your money back - eventually. In the mean time you get to bounce real transactions and checks, incur fees for your account going negative, have to deal with getting the bank to reverse the fees, apologize to everyone you tried to pay who got caught in the crossfire.... Really - lose the debit cards tied to a bank account.

 

[Quick1]

I'm positive it is from one of the companies I ordered from, that they must have gotten their website hacked, but I'm not sure and I have no way of knowing so I won't name names.

I believe very few online stores actually do their own billing/charges. Even if they maintain/host their own online store site. It is most often the case that the online vendor doesn't even see or have access to your payment information. So just because you used your credit card to purchase at xxx and it got stolen as a result, does not mean that xxx had anything directly to do with it.

 

[Quick1]

I actually thought invented that in my mind but it's good to know it actually exists (the virtual card thingy) but too bad my mastercard doesn't offer it. I think all cards should do that.

The ONLY downside (just a small inconvenience and actually a good security feature) that I've found is ordering multiple items from Amazon. Some items are serviced directly by Amazon and others are by the partner/vendor. So when you check out there is a single order with a total. When they actually complete the checkout it gets broken into multiple orders (same total). The virtual credit card only works for a single merchant ID. So the order that gets processed first goes through and the second gets rejected. This happened to me a few times before I figured it out. Amazon sends an email and you have to go and change the payment method on the ones that didn't go through (create additional virtual card). Now that I'm aware of that I look to see who is servicing the item. If it's going to be more than one I will just use a previous cc which only has a couple of dollars or whatever that satisifies the checkout and then immediately go and change the payment method on the individual orders. Not really a big deal but a bit of a pain the first few times when I didn't get the email until the next day.

Once I understood this I really liked it because previously I had worried about using cards for reoccurring charges over a long period of time. Something like a monthly or yearly subscription that you don't want to have to think about. You can put a virtual card on it (with or without a $ limit) and once they make the first charge on it the card is locked to that merchant ID. Cannot be used anywhere else or by anyone else. That particular merchant ID can continue to make their reoccurring charges until it hits the $ limit if you have set one.

Note: they are also handy for those "free" trial things where they require a cc card and if you don't cancel within the trial period they start charging the card automatically. Lol, I never "forget" to cancel...