Card Fraud
- Thread starter Judge Dredd
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A big heist went down recently . But most the time it isn't the transaction itself but some ...... running off with a paper copy of info. I think most small vendors have this problem, not just vape places. So generally I use a prepaid or something like that.
Not really.
See the post from seahawkins link above. Paypal was hacked along with the others.
Sorry about your luck, but I'm curious... What can you buy at a hotel for $7? I would have expected those to be the other way around.
Well, there was EcigCharleston, Gotvapes, HoosierEcigs, Awesome Vapor, madvapes, and Stormy's Vapor Cellar.
Stormy's is a longer time vendor for me, probably 3rd in length of association behind Awesome Vapor and Madvapes. The first three were first time orders in the last 3 months or so. I also ordered from AV and Madvapes during that time.
There is a point. The point was to ask a question (in the second to last sentence of my post) to see if there's any similarities between the transactions.
supermarket said:
Could you please tone down your attitude?
Sorry about your luck, but I'm curious... What can you buy at a hotel for $7? I would have expected those to be the other way around.
Lunch or drinks in a bar? The last invalid charge on mine was lunch at a well known sandwich shop that features free wireless connections. That one was for $6 and change. It was denied. I hope he suffered low blood sugar from missing lunch that day.
I keep reading on these threads "Don't use a debit card... do use a prepaid" and it just doesn't make sense to me.
Prepaid = the money is there and and they get it... that could be $100 before your total purchases complete... and you'll see in the last paragraph where that could take some time.
Debit = you only transfer the exact amount for the purchase as your completing that purchase (both pretty much in unison online) adding it to the small $5.00 balance you usually keep in it (with no overdraft protection)... most the thief might walk away with is $5.00 but the bank is going to stop it anyway unless its local where you normally shop plus alert you if you've set it up that way.
The only problem I've had this way is one vendor who does not complete the withdrawal until the product is actually delivered. The first account hit is pending but that drops off (is added back to the balance) while the product is in route for 4, 5, or 6 days (with a weekend) only to be resubmitted when they get notice of delivery. A thief could get the amount of purchase setting there plus the $5.00 if they hit it for the right amount and if they're quick about it but so far I haven't had a problem with this vendor's processing center.
Prepaid = the money is there and and they get it... that could be $100 before your total purchases complete... and you'll see in the last paragraph where that could take some time.
Debit = you only transfer the exact amount for the purchase as your completing that purchase (both pretty much in unison online) adding it to the small $5.00 balance you usually keep in it (with no overdraft protection)... most the thief might walk away with is $5.00 but the bank is going to stop it anyway unless its local where you normally shop plus alert you if you've set it up that way.
The only problem I've had this way is one vendor who does not complete the withdrawal until the product is actually delivered. The first account hit is pending but that drops off (is added back to the balance) while the product is in route for 4, 5, or 6 days (with a weekend) only to be resubmitted when they get notice of delivery. A thief could get the amount of purchase setting there plus the $5.00 if they hit it for the right amount and if they're quick about it but so far I haven't had a problem with this vendor's processing center.
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Sorry about your luck, but I'm curious... What can you buy at a hotel for $7? I would have expected those to be the other way around.
Hotels will sometimes run a "test charge" to make sure the card is good. Usually it's only around a dollar or so, $3.49 seems a little odd.
Just a thought.
(an unnamed company) notified me Monday that a purchase made the day before was cancelled due to hackers stealing info. It seems that fraud is on the rise. I called my bank to cancel the card and they said it would take 10 days (instead of the usual 4) because of so many new reports on lost/stolen cards. I have worked out a system with PayPal I think offers some safety. I set up a paypal debit Master Card that will take the money from my bank for purchases made with that card. I set the limit at $200. If I know my card info is stolen I just unlink the card, worse case is they'll get $200 but not wipe out my bank acct. And my Visa is safe.
The last acquisition of my number made me go out and find a B&M near me.
All in all, the vendors know they are always going to have customers, and most not even knowing/wary of these incidents. So they aren't losing much if anything.
What it would take, god forbid people be solid and do it, is to willingly boycott/not solicit these vendors until they are forced to adapt.
God forbid though...
All in all, the vendors know they are always going to have customers, and most not even knowing/wary of these incidents. So they aren't losing much if anything.
What it would take, god forbid people be solid and do it, is to willingly boycott/not solicit these vendors until they are forced to adapt.
God forbid though...
What perplexes me is vendor/processing centers requiring that code on the back to complete the purchase. I've used my card for years and running into any entity to prove who I was was rare. What's the point of even having a security measure like that anymore? The way it is now, if the hackers get the card number, they also get the code with it. It seems to me that code should be handled just like passwords where no one, including the processing center, can actually read the code... only that the matching one was entered.
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Brick and mortar shops are not really any safer. They process credit cards in often the same way as it's done online.
I agree with trying to find a connection in the fraudulent charges:
There were 4 attempts from different sources all on 6/6/2013
To my BoA debit card:
FPBILLSUPPORT.COM, located in NV $1.00
RITZ-CARLTON, located in NC - $6.90 (This charge was reversed, the merchant noted the customer had canceled the transaction)
SAFEPLAYWLD FT, located in Ft. Lauderdale, FL - $44.42
BILLING SOLUTIONS LLC, located in Los Angeles, CA - $54.96
While I was on the phone with the debit card fraud department, I reviewed my credit card account and found two more charges I didn't make. I was subsequently transferred to the credit card fraud department.
Two charges were made to my BoA Visa also on 6/6/2013 (I rarely use this card - and didn't use both cards with vaping vendors)
AT&T - $5.00 (The BoA fraud investigator and I speculate this was a test transaction.)
PAYPALMASTER - $325.00
I checked PayPal and my account has had no activity in over a month. I don't have a PayPal credit card, but BoA contacted PayPal fraud department anyway to verify PayPal had no connection to the transaction. We had an interesting 3-way phone call. From some info on the PAYAPLMASTER charge they were able to determine it was made under the name (or names, they couldn't determine if the last two names were a separate person): Gandi Salem Reyes Pina in the Dominican Republic. The original charge was for "services."
There were 4 attempts from different sources all on 6/6/2013
To my BoA debit card:
FPBILLSUPPORT.COM, located in NV $1.00
RITZ-CARLTON, located in NC - $6.90 (This charge was reversed, the merchant noted the customer had canceled the transaction)
SAFEPLAYWLD FT, located in Ft. Lauderdale, FL - $44.42
BILLING SOLUTIONS LLC, located in Los Angeles, CA - $54.96
While I was on the phone with the debit card fraud department, I reviewed my credit card account and found two more charges I didn't make. I was subsequently transferred to the credit card fraud department.
Two charges were made to my BoA Visa also on 6/6/2013 (I rarely use this card - and didn't use both cards with vaping vendors)
AT&T - $5.00 (The BoA fraud investigator and I speculate this was a test transaction.)
PAYPALMASTER - $325.00
I checked PayPal and my account has had no activity in over a month. I don't have a PayPal credit card, but BoA contacted PayPal fraud department anyway to verify PayPal had no connection to the transaction. We had an interesting 3-way phone call. From some info on the PAYAPLMASTER charge they were able to determine it was made under the name (or names, they couldn't determine if the last two names were a separate person): Gandi Salem Reyes Pina in the Dominican Republic. The original charge was for "services."
About like a month back...I was ordering from various vendors, to try to find better values on cartos and etc. And from my debit account, there were at least...8-9 transactions of $400 and up made to some place in Russia...
The bank thankfully fixed it...but now I've installed this add-on called WOT: http://www.mywot.com, and ONLY buy from the approved sites they have on file.
The bank thankfully fixed it...but now I've installed this add-on called WOT: http://www.mywot.com, and ONLY buy from the approved sites they have on file.
Why will no one ever list the vendors they buy from? No one wants a vendor thrown under a bus, but we need to be able to make informed decisions about where we spend our money. This issue needs investigated further then just saying "It happened to me too, this is what they used it for". We need a comprehensive list so this can be looked into. Almost everything is somewhere on the net, if people knew what to start looking for we might have an idea of how this is happening.
The first thing I would be interested in actually is who is doing the web hosting for these vape sites. A good host will be handling the credit card processing for the websites that they host. The CC processing could be secure also, but the server security could be lacking. There may be a trojan on the servers storing credit card information and sending it back to someone. In that case any vape site on that server could be compromised.
It may even be trojans installed on a person computer just by visiting one of these sites and every time they check out on any vendors site their information is compromised. To just blame the credit card processors in useless and counter intuitive. The possibility's of how this is happening is almost limitless in scope but it can be solved professionally, and if need be, legally.
The first thing I would be interested in actually is who is doing the web hosting for these vape sites. A good host will be handling the credit card processing for the websites that they host. The CC processing could be secure also, but the server security could be lacking. There may be a trojan on the servers storing credit card information and sending it back to someone. In that case any vape site on that server could be compromised.
It may even be trojans installed on a person computer just by visiting one of these sites and every time they check out on any vendors site their information is compromised. To just blame the credit card processors in useless and counter intuitive. The possibility's of how this is happening is almost limitless in scope but it can be solved professionally, and if need be, legally.
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