Credit and Debit Card Ratings

Bomb Threats Over Prepaid Cards

The number of ways criminals are attempting to utilize prepaid debit cards increasingly seems to match the rapid proliferation of the cards themselves. As we have written about numerous times at BestPrepaidDebitCards.com, thieves have been especially attracted to the use of prepaid debit cards in a scam that involves turning people’s lights off: from California to North Carolina to Pennsylvania, reports about crooks posing as utility workers and threatening to turn off a victim’s power if they don’t pay a late bill using a prepaid card have prompted press release after press release and numerous news articles over the past few months.

While nobody wants to see their electricity turned off, another scam involving prepaid debit cards is even more alarming. According to a report in The Morning Call newspaper in Pennsylvania, a number of police departments in the area around Allentown were collaborating to investigate a series of threats aimed at local pharmacies.

In the article, reporter Manuel Gamiz, Jr. writes that the Upper Macungie Township police responded to a threat phoned in to a CVS on Sept. 18. “An employee had refused to load money onto a caller’s Green Dot debit card, and the caller said he would blow up the store,” reads the story. That same afternoon, police in Allentown also responded to the very same threat at another CVS. According to the article, it was the second time in two weeks that Allentown police had been called out to investigate a bomb threat at a pharmacy.

In each of these cases, police and emergency crews were dispatched to the pharmacies to determine whether or not any explosives were present. In each instance, nothing was found. This report out of Pennsylvania follows similar bomb threats involving prepaid debit cards made to pharmacies in and around New Orleans, Atlanta and Milwaukee.

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  • Bomb Threats Over Prepaid Cards

    Bomb Threats Over Prepaid Cards

    The number of ways criminals are attempting to utilize prepaid debit cards increasingly seems to match the rapid proliferation of the cards themselves. As we have written about numerous times at BestPrepaidDebitCards.com, thieves have been especially attracted to the use of prepaid debit cards in a scam that involves turning people’s lights off: from California to North Carolina to Pennsylvania, reports about crooks posing as utility workers and threatening to turn off a victim’s power if they don’t pay a late bill using a prepaid card have prompted press release after press release and numerous news articles over the past few months.

    While nobody wants to see their electricity turned off, another scam involving prepaid debit cards is even more alarming. According to a report in The Morning Call newspaper in Pennsylvania, a number of police departments in the area around Allentown were collaborating to investigate a series of threats aimed at local pharmacies.

    In the article, reporter Manuel Gamiz, Jr. writes that the Upper Macungie Township police responded to a threat phoned in to a CVS on Sept. 18. “An employee had refused to load money onto a caller’s Green Dot debit card, and the caller said he would blow up the store,” reads the story. That same afternoon, police in Allentown also responded to the very same threat at another CVS. According to the article, it was the second time in two weeks that Allentown police had been called out to investigate a bomb threat at a pharmacy.

    In each of these cases, police and emergency crews were dispatched to the pharmacies to determine whether or not any explosives were present. In each instance, nothing was found. This report out of Pennsylvania follows similar bomb threats involving prepaid debit cards made to pharmacies in and around New Orleans, Atlanta and Milwaukee.

  • Hackers Target Walmart MoneyCards

    Hackers Target Walmart MoneyCards

    Walmart MoneyCard holders around the U.S. report being swindled 

    by Chris Warren

    It has been a miserable month for a small number of Walmart MoneyCard customers. According to a story on the website ConsumerAffairs.com, a host of Americans who use the retailer’s general purpose reloadable prepaid debit card have had their accounts hacked recently.

    In the piece by writer Jennifer Abel, Walmart MoneyCard holders in Missouri, Ohio and California all reported very similar experiences in which a thief in New York City drains victims’ accounts by getting hold of their account information and then making purchases at a Target in Brooklyn. One of the victims, Kelly L. from Canton, Ohio, complained that she checked her account balance on Sept. 9 and discovered that it had just $1.41, thanks largely to 5 purchases made at a Target in New York City the day before. “I am waiting for [Walmart] to send me a new card so I can get the amount owed to me, then I am closing my account,” she wrote.

    In a follow-up story on Sept. 18 Abel wrote that Walmart had neither responded to her requests for comment nor resolved any of the earlier cases. Abel did, however, quote the Walmart cardholder policy, which urges anyone who believes their card or PIN has been lost or stolen to notify the company immediately. “You will not lose any part of the money on your card based on unauthorized use if you have exercised reasonable care in safeguarding your Card and PIN from risk of loss or theft,” it says. “However, if these conditions are NOT met, you could lose the lesser of $50 or the amount of unauthorized use from your Card before you notify us that your Card has been lost or stolen.”

    In other words, the terms of the cardholder policy give some assurance that those who were victimized by the New York fraudster will get most, if not all, of their money back. But as Abel notes – and as we have reported on in the past – prepaid debit cards offer far less protection than debit or credit cards in the event they are lost or stolen. That said, if you are unfortunate enough to fall victim to a criminal, the most important thing to do is to alert the card issuer right away and continuously follow-up with the company to ensure that you get as much of your money back as possible.

Credit and Debit Card Ratings