UPDATE: For AVE"s temp closing.

[Chicago Irish]

Just went to the site to order more juice...whaaaat? Hacked. Come here to read the thread. It caught my attention because our credit card was hacked last Sunday, a few days after my order from my first AV purchase. Had to close the cards and get new ones shipped. Explaining to the wife that I didn't sign up for JapaneseCupid dot you know what for 29.99 was a laughable conversation, but annoying none-the-less.
For what it's worth, I loved my first order of Boba's and Gorilla Juice. I now know that the 18 ml I ordered to try it out wasn't nearly enough...want to order more.
I hope you have luck getting it all back on track, Ben.

 

[BlazinZ28]

Another with cc hacked here.. $35 to an escort service in London. Really sucks! New debit card on the way

 

[RedhatPat]

Whoever hacked our cards seriously needed to get laid, that's for sure. I hope they find love in jail one day.

 

[matcas]

Another with cc hacked here.. $35 to an escort service in London. Really sucks! New debit card on the way

What can you possibly get for $35 bucks at an escort service? Except maybe a marked up box of condoms.

 

[mekks082]

My card was hit for $890 at some England/UK clothing store. My last order with AVE was at the end of feb. My bank did let the charge go though but is now looking into getting it reversed and sending me out a new card. I contacted AVE and Ben was 100% honest with me about the situation and seems to be doing everything he can to make things right.

10+ years of online orders and this is the first time this has happend to me, I was a little shocked.

 

[Odra]

Ah, this is surprising.

I was going to place an order since I ran out of juice, only to find that the orders were already closed, so I came here to see if anything came up.

I got a call from my bank about a week ago about charges made on my card in Dublin, Ireland which is kind of strange since I am in California.

Got a new card, but now I don't know where to buy from, AVE had my favorite juices (Pineapple, Strawberry and Hype)

This feels like a great loss.

 

[Traeh]

I just read about this hack in another thread. I was hit too. Mine were from TRUE dot com, some random dating membership from Florida , and 3 from newyork.spareroom. It was really discouraging to find this was from AVE. I am a newbie and this was my first e juice purchase EVER! I read all the reviews and I really wanted to try bobas bounty. I will get my money back from the fraud but it was still unsettling. I feel especially bad to those that lost hundreds of dollars. That can be a real hardship while waiting for those claims to process. I only lost a bit over a hundred. I don't blame AVE though. I may have to consider prepaid cards though for the future.

 

[Chowderhead1972]

What can you possibly get for $35 bucks at an escort service?

I have pictures.... But you Don't want to see them....

 

[Gatillero1980]

My card was charged around $650 (taking into consideration the exchange rate to COP) on March 14th without my consent. Now my last purchase from AVE was January 26th.

I have resolved this issue with my bank but I would like to know if the CC data was compromised even with orders from January or should I check my other purchases after that (Amazon, BWB, AvidVaper, AltSmoke)?

Anyway, I'm glad you guys caught the problem and solved. As an occasional online merchant I can attest that payment issues are a pain in the behind for a small company.

 

[Jackinkc]

Glad I found this thread. Same happened to me. Twice. Once back 2 or 3 months ago, and again 3 days ago. More of a hassle than anything else. I'm just happy to know the problem has been addressed. Rock On!

 

[bbb]

after some research I believe I was also hacked by this AVE hacker

there were 4 charges to my cc, 3 charges to the UK, and 1 in the US, on the same cc I used here back in Feb ... my bank denied all 4 charges so I didn't lose anything ... my banks fraud dept. called me about March 15 ... only 2 days earlier I had gone to a local restaurant, paid with same card, I thought an employee had stolen my info, even talked to the mgr and his boss ... they had not had this happen in over 9 yrs, the time the mgr has been there, the waitress is a long time employee, anyway, I now realize they didn't do it

reading about the UK charges is what alerted me, there was also a charge to some warez site, a site a hacker would go to

yes, it was a scare, a hassle and a new card required

I still want to purchase from AVE, but I have to know this site is safe now and will be in the future ... please reassure me

btw, my long time password to AVE no longer works, does that mean the hacker got it, then changed it ??? or what ?

 

[BentWookie]

Ah, this is surprising.

I was going to place an order since I ran out of juice, only to find that the orders were already closed, so I came here to see if anything came up.

I got a call from my bank about a week ago about charges made on my card in Dublin, Ireland which is kind of strange since I am in California.

Got a new card, but now I don't know where to buy from, AVE had my favorite juices (Pineapple, Strawberry and Hype)

This feels like a great loss.

Ben had acknowledged the issue and corrected the technical issues as well as adding security monitoring services per his post here.

Additionally he requested that if you were affected by this that you open a help request on their website which I did.

They promptly replied to me with an individual note apologizing for the inconvenience.

From what I understand RAWR vapor is also experiencing some issues with stolen credit card info so this is not something unique to AVE or to any online CC transactions.

The difference is that AVE took the time to personally reply and apologize to me and took the steps to beef up their security to deter these things from happening again. There is no way you can guarantee these things will not happen. Even my wife's Paypal account got hacked last year.

With that being said I feel confident in placing orders with AVE since they are aware of the issue, taken necessary steps to increase security, and I have now seen first hand at how quickly and seriously they respond to these issues.

I still have yet to receive any type of apology from Paypal.

 

[Porphy]

I still have yet to receive any type of apology from Paypal.

Give up on the PayPal apology it's not in their CSR's scripts.

UPDATE: We are answering help desk tickets of those contacting us on this issue. Firstly, a big thank you to everyone for the information you've shared on this issue. We've been able to get a much more complete picture due to various details. Better picture = better solutions.

If you have submitted a help desk ticket and have not heard back from us please flex your patience muscle for another day. I'm hopeful I'll be able to afford everyone the personalized response they deserve. (Note: some of it might be pretyped, my fingers are starting to curl in on themselves.)

Lastly, though I have to express gratitude for the understanding most of you show. It is SUCH an easier task taking care of this issue when I feel like what I've done is "enough" and all of your comments, replies, and offered solutions have reflected empathy, compassion, and a knowledge of the internet and its pitfalls.

 

[RedhatPat]

Just for the record folks, I'm one of the ones he evetually got around to and practically shoved a gift certificate down my throat even though I refused. So I had no other option except to place an order for 330ml of juicy goodness today.

 

[bbb]

Ben and Christy,

thank you for the help desk reply and the gift certificate, which I may never use, this wasn't your fault ... thank you for the additional measures you've taken to insure this won't happen again, or at least make it much more difficult ... as you say, no online tranaction can be 100% safe ... pre-paid cards are a good idea

I have changed my pw ... my long time AVE pw has not worked for the 2 days I've been trying it, so I am still leery that the hacker got my pw, then changed it to his ? I don't know why my pw has not worked ? ... anybody else have the same issue ? ... if I have used the same pw elsewhere, I may have to change it as well, just be safe

thanks

 

[matcas]

Give up on the PayPal apology it's not in their CSR's scripts.

UPDATE: We are answering help desk tickets of those contacting us on this issue. Firstly, a big thank you to everyone for the information you've shared on this issue. We've been able to get a much more complete picture due to various details. Better picture = better solutions.

If you have submitted a help desk ticket and have not heard back from us please flex your patience muscle for another day. I'm hopeful I'll be able to afford everyone the personalized response they deserve. (Note: some of it might be pretyped, my fingers are starting to curl in on themselves.)

Lastly, though I have to express gratitude for the understanding most of you show. It is SUCH an easier task taking care of this issue when I feel like what I've done is "enough" and all of your comments, replies, and offered solutions have reflected empathy, compassion, and a knowledge of the internet and its pitfalls.

Thanks Ben you are busy enough fixing the issue you dont need to respond to me thru the help desk. Your posts here are enough.
Thank you for fixing the issue I will be ordering soon.
Matt

 

[RedhatPat]

bbb, if it's any help I'll pass on 2 rules I've always lived by online. Never use the same password on multiple sites and never set up "secret questions" sometimes known as password reminders, with honest answers. I think the security world should take a lesson from the banking industry and make passwords simple 4 digit numbers with 3 attempts max. Just like ATMs lock you out if you enter incorrectly. That would limit brute force and make it easier for us to remember. Maybe even throw in a 6 month password expiration period. Just my ::2cents::

 

[Mohawkharry]

They tried to use my card at napster.uk for a zero amount then my bank contacted me and shut my card down. They caught it quick in my case.
Harold

 

[doots]

Hi Ben
I sent you a support issue that happened on the 18th. Just wanted you to know..
Thanks for the good service.!

 

[zippersnapper]

there was also a charge to some warez site, a site a hacker would go to

Hmmm...Not to make light of a bad situation, but not the type of "warez" site(s) I know about...