One trend I noticed... there seems to be a decent amount of people who, before getting into vaping, didn't order massive amounts of stuff online. I can't even count how many times I've heard people say things like "I'm becoming best friends with my mailman now after getting into vaping" this says to me that some people are making vape-related purchases online at a rate that far exceeds any other online shopping they have done.
So, person A rarely buys stuff online, starts buying tons of vaping stuff, and their card info gets stolen. First thought is that vape vendors are fishy. It could just be a thing of chance, if you increase your online shopping by 500% you are going to increase your chance to get your card info stolen too.
I know that plenty of people were hardcore online shoppers before getting into vaping, and they have noticed an increase of their info getting stolen. It's bound to happen, I'm just saying I don't see any sort of concrete proof that buying vaping stuff is any more risky than buying anything else online. Stick to popular reputable vendors and you shouldn't have an issue.
I buy gobs and gobs of vape stuff online and not once ever had my info stolen. That means very little, just like 30 posts about stolen cards mean nothing, when you figure that potentially millions of people are ordering online, there is going to be a certain percentage that have issues regardless. I also don't buy from random vendors that come up on a google search. I only buy from vendors who are well established in the community.
That doesn't stop an employee at MBV (just using an example, I am NOT claiming there is any fraud going on there) from copying some card numbers when the boss isn't looking. But it does cut down greatly on the chance of buying from a vendor who's sole purpose in opening up was to farm card numbers.
A juice vendor would seem like a good honeypot for catching card numbers. People like to try new juices constantly, and are always buying from new vendors looking for something good. Craft eliquids are popular enough that they know there is a large market to tap into, potentially for some profit from the selling of eliquid, but also on the theft of card numbers.
If there were certain vendors who really are shady, we'll figure it out eventually. Card companies hate fraud charges, and they keep track of this sort of thing. If tons of people make a fraud claim, and a certain vendor processed all those cards, the card company looks at the vendor.
It's not unusual for a card company to cut off service to vendors (general vendors, not ecig companies) that have an unusually high number of card thefts that point to them. It's fairly easy to spot, if you have 100 fraud charges, you compare the history on the card, and find out 100% of those people shopped at "xxx vape'n'stuff" it paints a fairly clear picture.
