Stolen Credit/Debit card info

Thanks for the heads up jimmy.
I do think it is important to post when your CC cards get ripped off-
May help trace how many and where to other folks.

 

Same thing happened to my boyfriend last Wednesday!
I appreciate this. Thank you

 

The forum manager wrote an extremely helpful and accurate guide on how to avoid this sort of thing. It is worth reading to anyone who buys anything online: http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/general-e-smoking-discussion/315432-repost-discussion-thread-online-shopping-101-a.html

 

Yesterday had 4 unauthorized charges on my debit card, each for $19.95 within 3 hours from the same bogus place. I truly don't believe it's the ecig vendors fault... It the CC processing service they may use. Regardless, now going to start using a temporary card for online purchases.

Not sure which vendor it may be, made 3 different purchases involving that debit card in the last several months from 3 vendors. One of them is AVE, which is very aware of the issue, doing everything in their power to correct, as quite a few have had unauthorized charges after purchasing. Other 2 vendors I've used are in Asia, Fasttech and Vaporbreak, but these were PayPal purchases linked to the same debit card.

 

thanks for the link....this explains a lot. my card was used for fraud as well for $500.00. i had only used 3 reputatable vendors. i did notify all 3 vendors. i did not list the vendor names in my post about the fraud because i know it is not their fault and large losses can come from them being named. i don't want that for any reputable vendor. these fraud issues do need to be posted so that folks are aware, but i do wish vendor names were left out of the posts.

 

Another thread in this forum about this, I got hit also with 5 charges. A lot of different E cig places
being hit.

 

Tyvm for the heads up i think i will get a pay as you go credit card so i don't run into any problems. I am very sorry for what yous are going through

 

Understand & respect your opinion, I just differ

We are assuming the reputable vendors are personally not at fault. And truthfully, I would have a very very hard time believing that any legit business owner would ever stoop so low and risk their livelihood on this nonsense. Unfortunately though, these trusted vendors we know & love also employ others that may not have the same honesty, including the CC processing firms they've signed up with, the web hosting firms, and often software development firms for their websites, carts, and back end processing. We may trust the biz owner, but unfortunately have to put our trust (& cc info) in everyone down the line the vendor has either hired or contracts with, & often we have no control or idea who that may be.

By naming vendors (& contacting them as we both have), its very obvious a pattern quickly develops, and this info should be shared for the caution of others. Yes, a vendor may encounter losses .... but its also the vendors responsibility to either rise to the challenge or ignore it. AVE is a wonderful example of rising to the challenge, taking their site off-line for a few days, switching CC processors, and now having new forms on their site, entirely due to not only their business ethics & concerns, but the vast number of posts on this forum singling out the coincidence between orders placed and fraud.

My , and fyi, intimately aware of the potential loses, as I also own an internet business that accepts credit cards.

 

Light Seeker, well said! Agree totaly with you how AVE rose to the challenge and corrected the problem. Other venders would be wise to follow AVE's example IMHO.

 

I agree with light seeker, telling people there is fraud happening but not telling them where is useless info. We all know fraud happens online and in stores. I have seen credit card journals before and everything needed is there. Name, address, card number, pin, exp date. If the company does their own cc reports any employee there can gain access to this info. Naming the company could cause an internal look to see if it is inhouse. Not saying anything may allow many other people to get scammed and the crook get to stay in business.

 

This happened to me today. The card I used was only used with one vendor, definitely one of the more reputable vendors. I know it stemmed from this order because the card is a student refund from college. It had no money on it, so it went unused for 2 months. I got a refund on Friday, bought McDonald's for breakfast (self swiped) and ordered Ecig stuff on Saturday. Sunday the fraud took place, I found out this morning and I'm trying to hash it out with my bank. What a headache.

There were 4 fraudulent charges, totaling almost $300 bucks. $95.00 at deposit photos, 79 at studio press, 70 for bikini bottom shape up ebook or video (I called and I got refunded for this one) and 20 at bigfishgaming, a gaming website that also refunded me. The other 2 I'm still waiting for a response on. Trying to take care of it myself because the bank is so slow, but might have to charge back through the bank on the first 2. None of the purchases were for physical merchandise. I tracked down the merchants the money was spent on by looking at my statement and using Google.


All of this fraud and credit card stealing happening surrounding ecig vendors is getting really bad really fast. After AVE and others I have to ask.. What vendors are safe at this point and which is the next target for theft.

Edit: I decided to not name the vendor I purchased publicly, I don't want to cause their business harm. That being said, if you want to know privately feel free to pm me and I will let you know.

Sent from my SCH-R530M using Tapatalk 2

 

I was hit today also. Three charges using my email address and card number. I use this card for two reputable vendors. I contacted both and they replied that their sites were secure and that they were having no problems.

 

Do you guys realize that the vendors your buying from online don't even have access to your CC number? When you buy online it's done through a payment gateway such as authorize.net, and a merchant processor. The online vendor simply gets notification that you've paid for your order and the charge was approved, nothing more. I know, because I run an online store. I, nor any of my employee's, could steal my customers info if we wanted to. And no, my online store has nothing to do with ecig's, it's welding supplies.

That said, there are ways they could process themself, but I highly doubt any of the online ecig vendors are doing so. If they retain your cc number, they have all kinds of PCI compliance they have to deal with and it's expensive to do so.

I also don't understand all the fuss about it. Sure, it's a bit of a hassle to have to call your cc company and tell them you didn't make the charges, but do you realize that the stores that the theives are purchasing from ARE going to be out that money? As soon as you report the fraud on your card, their bank account gets automatically debited for the purchase and you get refunded, before they are even notified. In the meantime, the thief is off to sell their product on ebay.

There is absolutely nothing they can do about it either, other than file a police report and hope their goods can be recovered and returned to them. Yea, good luck with that.

 

Varrius, are there some processors that are cheaper and less reputable, and some that may take a bigger cut but are more reputable?

That's my gripe. These sites just shrug and say, eh, the processor was compromised, nothing we can do.

They can make a switch. Until the complaints stop, I am happy with B&M.

 

I hear you guys posting about this enough that it is making me a bit nervous.

 

There are so many ways that thieves can steal credit card numbers. Your ecig vendor being responsible is probably the least likely of any of them. It isn't just ecig vendors, trust me. Do you not read the news about hackers selling millions of stolen credit card numbers at a time?

 

Some are cheaper than others, sure. It's just like any business. But more expensive doesn't always mean better.

I personally chose authorize.net for my website, the biggest and most reputable payment gateway online. I haven't really paid much attention to whom the ecig vendors use, but I do know first hand from speaking with an owner that they have a VERY hard time getting any payment processors to accept their business. For whatever reason, they get lumped in with tobacco sellers, and most of the larger payment processors won't accept them. Does that mean they are having to do business with a shady company? I don't really know, but probably not. CC processing, believe it or not, is pretty well regulated, mostly by the credit card companies themselves (i.e. VISA). They don't want to have to deal with this either.

 

Yea, happened to me last week as well....They got me for almost 5000.00.....and tried to get 2100 more out of me this morning. Luckly bank squared me away and the lawn mower store that they were buying from actually called my bank and asked about it cause that was a lot of money in a weeks time. Good on them. I like many dont know what vender it was cause I put in a lot of orders here and there a couple weeks ago but the purchases were made at Toro lawnmowers and snow blowers are sold at National Lawn Equipment they are the ones that called my bank asking if it was possibly fraud. If anyone else got hit by someone buying stuff there, PM me and maybe we can narrow it down and help the vender figure out how our info got out.

 

Yes I am looking into the options for temp cc number now by the way haha