In response to a thread in the new member forum.

[siouxsie]

Have ordered from madvapes several times using CC lately. Just checked and no unauthorized charges but I did receive a letter and new card today stating that some credit card info from my account may have been compromised at an undisclosed third party location. So maybe that accounts for some of these people's issues. Maybe this happened to them to at this unnamed third party. Unlikely, but I hope this helps.

EDIT: I won't say which, but it's a major bank and one of the top two credit card types.

 

[simply me]

Who knows where it happened. I have saw a few post that people are saying that they had unauthorized charges and it was with other vendors. This seems to happen every so often. People are good at this and it hard to keep up with them. I believe mv is doing there best to look into this. madvapes is one of the best companys out there, so please litein up , especialy when nobody is even sure it was madvapes. Things aren't always as it seems.

 

[Foggy]

I'm a repeat customer. It would have been nice to have this portion of your response and information in your first post and without the defensiveness.

I understand that you must feel under attack, but I would recommend that you keep your customers informed and let them know that you are taking the situation seriously in a professional manner. I do understand that you have made every effort to ensure transactions are secure. I sincerely hope that where ever the problem lies will be discovered and resolved for all parties quickly.

I would like to add to the above to clarify that JMHO, but the breach is likely NOT at Madvapes or at their processor due to the controls that both have in place. There are many other things that the people who reported these issues might have in common.

- ECF: We know they all post on ECF. It's not likely they picked up some virus here, but it can happen anywhere if you click a bad link.

- Referral: Maybe they all followed the same referral link to MadVapes site that infected them, especially if it promised some discount or coupon.

- Verification: First, I'm not accusing anyone of lying. I just want to point out that without a third party, or MadVapes themselves confirming they have documentation for these transactions, anyone can post anything on a message board.

Frankly, it could be any bad link somewhere on the internet that is common to vaping, or they could all use an unrelated service that somehow installed a keylogger, and it just happened that MadVapes was their first purchase after doing so. The common sense answer is to be careful about what you click on the internet, and to have up to date protections.

Even with that, new bugs are usually out a while before software is updated to detect them, so have one card that you use for online purchases only. Limit the amount that can accessed on that card. Ensure that it has some form of buyer protection.

Also, I want to give kudos to MadVapes for the testing it's doing on its juices. I would love to see more vendors adopting this.

 

[hoogie76]

I would like to add to the above to clarify that JMHO, but the breach is likely NOT at Madvapes or at their processor due to the controls that both have in place. There are many other things that the people who reported these issues might have in common.

- ECF: We know they all post on ECF. It's not likely they picked up some virus here, but it can happen anywhere if you click a bad link.

- Referral: Maybe they all followed the same referral link to MadVapes site that infected them, especially if it promised some discount or coupon.

- Verification: First, I'm not accusing anyone of lying. I just want to point out that without a third party, or MadVapes themselves confirming they have documentation for these transactions, anyone can post anything on a message board.

Frankly, it could be any bad link somewhere on the internet that is common to vaping, or they could all use an unrelated service that somehow installed a keylogger, and it just happened that MadVapes was their first purchase after doing so. The common sense answer is to be careful about what you click on the internet, and to have up to date protections.

Even with that, new bugs are usually out a while before software is updated to detect them, so have one card that you use for online purchases only. Limit the amount that can accessed on that card. Ensure that it has some form of buyer protection.

Also, I want to give kudos to MadVapes for the testing it's doing on its juices. I would love to see more vendors adopting this.

Excellent foggy and totally agree!

 

[raluos]

Just chiming in here. I ordered from MadVapes for the first time around the end of last year and had my credit card information stolen. My credit card company contacted me to verify some unusual charges. They weren't mine and they took care of it...no big deal. At the time I couldn't make a connection because I had used my card quite a bit during the time it got stolen so I figured I'd be much more careful from then on. Well early this year I I placed a single large order to MadVapes again (My second purchase ever from them) only to find out today that my NEW credit card had been stolen. The only other times I used my credit card this year was my monthly payment to World of Warcraft and a couple payments to Walmart...that's it. I was really hoping MadVapes would be my new home for all my ecig needs but how can I even begin to consider using that website again when my only two transactions resulted in two stolen credit card numbers.

I have no complaints whatsoever about their quality (And certainly not their prices). Other than this, it's a great place to buy supplies.




EDIT:

Regarding the posts about blame the customer . I'm a very computer savvy person and have not once "typed" my credit card information into my computer since it got stolen last time. When I do rarely use my credit card number online, I now keep it hidden in a sea of random numbers in an obscure text file that I copy and paste from, so keyloggers are out of the question. Yes it's possible that it could be stolen from me copying it from the file but that's really far fetched, especially with the security I administer on my machine. I run multiple scans and different kinds of maintenance on my computer very regularly and know exactly what to look out for. I used madvapes' official link the last time I ordered from them and I never browse the internet for vaping information...only to buy more when needed. That's literally the one and only time I've searched for anything ecig related since I got my new card.

I'm not blaming them or anyone else. I fully believe they do everything in their power in the name of security. But I know that on my end, I take every precaution I can aside from simply not using my credit card online and this has happened roughly around the same two times I've purchased from them. If anyone wants detailed order numbers with dates and all that, I'd be glad to share them. I save every confirmation email from every transaction I do online.

 

[STILLSMOK9]

Yikes! There have been 5 cc theft transactions reported from using Madvapes.com in just the last month or two?

 

[six]

Yikes! There have been 5 cc theft transactions reported from using Madvapes.com in just the last month or two?

No. You should read this whole thread and the one in the general discussion area of the forum. -- The latest one being blamed is CCV in a thread I read yesterday and before that it was someone else and before that it was madvapes and before that....

One thing I noticed in the big thread in general discussion is that two and maybe three user names complaining use identical syntax, punctuation, and a couple of the same colloquialisms - and are never online at the same time. Looks like a sock puppet or two are involved. ECF doesn't seem to have a method of catching and banning sock puppets like a lot of other forums do... So, I think what you really see here is two people bent out of shape and one of them has at least three log ins for ECF. That is something that does happen on web forums and usenet pretty often. It would take a psychologist to explain why some people feel a need to do that.

And, while we are at it, let's reach back in time a little bit. Here is a thread from late 2010. Here is a thread from early 2010. Here's another from the middle of 2010 blaming tasty vapro or vapor 4 life... There's about 12 or 15 threads through 2011... there's about 4 or 5 from so far this year...

At least once every two months, these threads pop up and the one thing they all have in common isn't a specific vendor or cc processor. It's a lack of proof that anyone being blamed for the trouble is actually in any way at fault for the trouble.

 

[ChrispyCritter]

No. You should read this whole thread and the one in the general discussion area of the forum. -- The latest one being blamed is CCV in a thread I read yesterday and before that it was someone else and before that it was madvapes and before that....

One thing I noticed in the big thread in general discussion is that two and maybe three user names complaining use identical syntax, punctuation, and a couple of the same colloquialisms - and are never online at the same time. Looks like a sock puppet or two are involved...

I figured it might be something like that so I'm just ignoring the posts..I have made like a dozen orders from MadVapes the last year without issue so far...

 

[STILLSMOK9]

No. You should read this whole thread and the one in the general discussion area of the forum. -- The latest one being blamed is CCV in a thread I read yesterday and before that it was someone else and before that it was madvapes and before that....

One thing I noticed in the big thread in general discussion is that two and maybe three user names complaining use identical syntax, punctuation, and a couple of the same colloquialisms - and are never online at the same time. Looks like a sock puppet or two are involved. ECF doesn't seem to have a method of catching and banning sock puppets like a lot of other forums do... So, I think what you really see here is two people bent out of shape and one of them has at least three log ins for ECF. That is something that does happen on web forums and usenet pretty often. It would take a psychologist to explain why some people feel a need to do that.

And, while we are at it, let's reach back in time a little bit. Here is a thread from late 2010. Here is a thread from early 2010. Here's another from the middle of 2010 blaming tasty vapro or vapor 4 life... There's about 12 or 15 threads through 2011... there's about 4 or 5 from so far this year...

At least once every two months, these threads pop up and the one thing they all have in common isn't a specific vendor or cc processor. It's a lack of proof that anyone being blamed for the trouble is actually in any way at fault for the trouble.

Thanks Six, for your feedback! I always get nervous whenever I hear of this crap...

 

[Bostonsnboxers]

LoL! Whatever helps you sleep at night I guess.

I am one person, with one account, as are a few others that have mentioned MV or others. I really don't care what you think. I posted a general 'heads up' for the community at large with the hope maybe someone else could be spared. If you choose to ignore it or point the finger back at me, that's your problem...my conscience is clear.

 

[six]

LoL! Whatever helps you sleep at night I guess.

I am one person, with one account, as are a few others that have mentioned MV or others. I really don't care what you think. I posted a general 'heads up' for the community at large with the hope maybe someone else could be spared. If you choose to ignore it or point the finger back at me, that's your problem...my conscience is clear.

Huh. Did I mention you at all? No. In fact I did not. Not even once. Funny you mention your conscience at the end of that post... and funny you posted at all since you "don't care what" I think.

The real testament to hoogie's good nature and customer service lies right here in the fact he hasn't banned you from his section of the forum yet. I'm pretty sure I would have if I were in his shoes.

I guess I'll continue the troll feeding. Since you are doing this so altruistically "for the community", please share with us exactly the evidence your cc company gave you that madvapes or their cc processor is responsible for your troubles. What exactly have they sent you in regards to this? Have they reported the incident to law enforcement? Have you? If so, have any details of the investigation been shared with you? If it hasn't been reported, why not? The FBI wants to investigate these things and they encourage all US citizens to report even the smallest cases of internet related cc fraud. Mike DeWine, the atty general in your State also encourages you to report these things and promises to investigate. Have you reported it to your atty general's office? if so, what did they find out on your behalf?

 

[raluos]

I'm going to make one more post about this and hopefully tie up some loose ends from my last post. I fully trust that MadVapes does everything they can for security and I wouldn't think otherwise. I have friends that order from them frequently and never have these problems. I'm just assuming I'm unlucky like that I guess. I work very hard to to maintain security on my end when making online transactions and have had great success up until I ordered from MadVapes. I'm not even close to upset though, they were small fraudulent transactions that have been dealt with. It's really hard to pinpoint where the fault is unless you have strong evidence so I never wanted to "blame" them. I just found it interesting that this just happened to me and there's a very recent thread about this exact thing. I still intend to order from MadVapes though because their service, products, and prices are pretty top notch. What I plan on doing is using a prepaid card from now on to avoid anything else like this from happening. I'll just load it when I'm about to make an order, spend the money in its entirety, and not have to worry about this anymore. A very easy solution and everyone is happy.

 

[St. Nick]

Hey six, this 4 headed monster just won't die, will it? No matter how it's explained or proven, some individuals still think it's MadVapes fault somehow. Well, the 1400+ orders they're working on right now shows that most people DO get it, eh?

 

[hoogie76]

Suprisingly enough, I posted in another thread that our Madvapes debit card got poked last week. We use it online but no questionable places, all big online retailers for non e-cig products we need. The bank caught it without us even knowing because the transactions were late at night. It sucks for everyone.

hoog

 

[JoshuaPerry]

i made my first order from them 2 sundays ago and I am so confident in the quality of work this company does I am placing another order today for myself and a few friends I have turned on to vaping in the past week. How about a job hoogie . keep up the good work.

 

[DeviantDe]

I had yet to use my new (3 month old) card with the madvapes site, but my info got stolen, can I blame you all anyway


Just wondering (been too lazy to read through all the posts here, yeah bad me) Have any of the people stating they have had info stolen ever had any trojans on their computer? Ever clicked on something they were unsure of?
There are things called RATS which are big bad remote access trojans.
Even after removal, which is a process as most antivirus software can't completely remove them on their own, your computer is considered forever vulnerable unless you do a complete reboot & reinstall.
They are not just keyloggers, they are remote access programs, open backdoors.
Anything you have EVER typed into your computer can be retrieved. They can do far more damage than that, but it seems the most pertinent here.
Heck they can even turn on your webcam and check you out, creepy huh 8-o

So just a little heads up, keep everything as updated as possible at all times, this includes any windows updates, java, flash, antivirus or security programs, etc. And scan your computers often.
One click is all it takes to get crap on your computer, so pay attention to what you click on.
You know the old "don't take candy from strangers" bit? Same concept with email, weird video links on facebook, random download sites, etc.
And watch for the https:// in your address bar when you are entering your info, it's important.


OK, I'm gonna go walk on the wild side and take my shiny new card over to the madvapes site and get some new toys.