thisisyourlife

Feb 10, 2013
ATL: 3637 Peachtree Road NE

Only the two cards below available but someone tampered with them. Did not buy.

exwannabe

There is clearly a scam/fraud going on. Way to many reports (one firsthand here) that the tampered cards were loaded by somebody before ImComm could fix the issue.

As to methods, there are a few theories. One is as you say, but I disagree with that.

I think the fraud is via a few CSRs that are working with the person who plants the cards.

. Card is bought with broken PIN
. Customer calls in and is asked to provide serial number and partial PIN.
. CSR is able to retrieve the full PIN from that (we know that is possible), and then "somehow" the theives get that information.

This is a fairly low tech scam (other than how they erase the digits), and does connect all the dots better than other theories.

The problem with the "watching the store" assumption is that there would be no need to tamper with the card. Just record the PIN and wait.

InComm is in BS denial mode. They just recently claimed to me that the recovery proceadure is confused "because this has never happened". What a crock of s***.

webazoid

Can u point to tampered area? I may need mms style circles and dots. Lol

Happy

The green edge all looked tampered to me.

The green edge of a good card in new stage is very clean and solid color. These shown all had faded area - they were scratched off during the tampering process.

Pointsloop

It happened again today to my friend at the CVS right inside 285 on Peachtree Industrial.

However, he should have known better because of the two cards he bought, one of them visible scratch marks outside the scratch off area.

I warned him about it but he was just happy to have found the last two VR cards on the racks that he didn't bother closely examining the cards.

Please carefully inspect the backs of the cards. If in doubt, don't buy it.

I used to think it was just a manufacture defect, but I don't believe that anymore.

If you look closely at the pictures posted, the green perimeter portion of the scratch off area is a thin transparent tape that can be pulled up if careful. You can then scratch out the numbers under the tape.

I've tried this with a used card I had, but it's not as easy because the green tape is fairly fragile. I was not able to take the tape off in one piece even with multiple tries.

But the numbers can not be scratched off without lifting away the transparent plastic tape above the numbers. It's there to prevent you from accidentally scratching off the numbers when you scratch with the coin.

My theory is that someone is taking off the labels, write the numbers down, scratching out the numbers, and then replace the scratch off labels with a replacement possibly bought on the internet.

Sure, it's a too time consuming to do at the store, but this can be done if they shop lift the stack of cards and do this at home and bring them back to the store and place it back on the rack.

Shoplifting the cards wouldn't be too hard because it wouldn't trigger any security alarms.

Low risk, high profits.

To their credit, they were able to give my friend the correct PIN number after calling them without even having to email a picture this time. They were able to do so after he gave them the serial number of the card.

But I can't imagine it being too difficult for InComm to track down who's doing this. The only two cards that you can use VRs are BB and Amex Prepaid. They both require registered identification. So why can't they just track down who's loading the stolen VR numbers.

And why is this only happening on VR cards and not Paypal cards? Is it because Paypal accounts are linked to bank accounts?

So my advice is if you see questionable VR cards, buy Paypal cards instead.

-Sam

amolkold

False, there are a large number of cards that can be loaded with VRs, but don't receive the same amount of attention as Amex Prepaid or Bluebird.

Good to know that there was a quick resolution, though.

Father-of-3

I continue to have no issues in Atlanta except for stores being sold out. I've hit the Peachtree Industrial store a few times with no issues. This is probably a small ring of folks as there are a ton of CVS stores in Atlanta they could hit if they wanted. I think nearly anything that can be loaded with VR is trackable or has significant limits. They would probably be better off selling the cards for the recycle value of the plastic when you look at the time and effort.

lwildernorva

Might be the first to report a problem outside of the Atlanta area. Bought one tonight in VaBeach. Got home several hours later to load the card. Only saw the first two numbers and part of a third number and nothing else--in other words, the problem is different from the ATL reports where only the last set of numbers appears tampered with. So tampered cards (or in the most positive view, cards with an incompletely printed PIN number), with many variations, may now be getting into a wider circulation.

A quick call to Vanilla resolved the issue. Three minutes on the phone and with the CVS receipt in hand to provide the requested information, the load was done without any hassles. The lesson: load ASAP and hold onto your receipt.

Pointsloop

I had cards with missing last four numbers and ones in the middle in Atlanta.

agoogilydoogily

I saw these two VR at this location the day after you posted this. Last two left. I turned them into the manager.
Unfortunately, the same day I purchased two VR at this CVS:
2350 CHESHIRE BRIDGE ROAD
ATLANTA, GA 30324
404-486-7289

There was a stack of 20 or so of them. The two I purchased were missing the last 4 digits. Still waiting on resolution from InComm. Originally told 3-5 business days. It's the 7th business day, and I was just told they needed another 48 hours.

Pointsloop

Have you tried contacting them again? They have been much faster lately about giving you the funds.

agoogilydoogily

I have called them daily. Most recently I was on the phone with them as I posted earlier.

PacificTwo

Last night I had the misfortune to acquire a VR with a 6 digit pin in Atlanta.

I called InComm ASAP that night and the agent apparently found the credit and applied it to the Amex BB number I provided him. But the credit never showed up! He also did not provide a confirmation number - which I should have caught and asked for, but the thought didn't register in time.

So now InComm are advising that I need to file a police report and start a rather involved process for resolution! Grrrrr.

Sadly, I'm not sure what one can do to prevent picking up the mis-printed/modified pin. I checked in store and there was no tampering evident.

For the record this was the CVS on Peachtree opposite Northside Hospital in Atlanta
Address: 1943 Peachtree Rd NE.

yOyOYoo

Yikes... this VR fraud in ATL is scary.

babycakes01

With all the noise about bad reload cards in the Atlanta area, why not simply scratch off the bottom to verify all digits exist BEFORE purchase?