Is Incomm SPYING on me?
 

Had something very unusual happen to me the other day. I will be brief, and hopefully I can get some input from other people...

I went to a store that sells Vanilla Reload cards (the good ones, scratchoff) and I bought 4 cards at $500.00 each. I go there quite frequently and some of the cashiers recognize me. Well, the other day as I'm buying my reloads, the cashier calls the manager up to the checkout as I'm checking out...

She looks at him and says, "Pete, this is the gentleman that buys the Vanilla Reloads all the time...,". He says, Oh, OK, or something like that. He then goes on to explain that he got a call and he was just checking out who I was - then he said, "they called, and they don't want to have any misuse of tranferring money," or something like that.

I explained that I travel a lot, and these cards help me pay my bills. I offered to show him my I.D. and he said no, that wasn't necessary. I then asked, "Who called you??" He responded that it was INCOMM and they are just concerned about possible fraudulent behavior. He didn't seem really interested in me and the entire episode was over in a minute or two.

I had the following questions, if anyone can be so kind as to reply:

1.Has something like this ever happend to you?
2.Does INCOMM really call the individual stores, and inquire about people that buy a lot of Vanilla Reloads?
3.What the heck was he checking - just to see who I was?
4.If this happened to you, would you buy less VR's at one time so as not to raise any awareness?

Any thoughts or opinions would be most welcome.
Thanks,
bb

The most important question: Were you able to buy the VRs with a CC?

Yes, I was.

Incomm called my local CVS too. They told the manager to sell VRs only to me, not to anyone else.

I think there's a better question. Why, oh dear god why, was purple text used? This isn't AOL in the 90s. =P

Be careful, they likely hid cameras in your home when you were at work and tapped your phone as well.

i would recommend you check your left front car wheel for a gps unit sir...

OK, OK, take your wise cracks, it's all fun. But I'm serious, does INCOMM actually call the stores and attempt to "track" people?

Not really spying....just their Risk management/loss prevention doing their job...happened twice to me....the first one at SW buying OV....bought 2 OV in separate transaction...few days later the same cashier recognized me when he saw me buying OV again and told me that someone (Incomm) called shortly after I left and apparently just wanted to make sure it's not fraudulent (check ID/CC blah blah)...and had no problems buying more of them until it died...
The second one was at a different place and they called while I was still there! ,which I believe triggered by the cashier trying to activate the cards!....awkward experience ....but still,didn't have problem buying them again...

So yes they are watching...

I think there are two important questions:

1. Where were you able to buy VR with CC.
2. Why why why.....the PURPLE ink???

I hope others don't feel the need to stand out with colored posts. It would be very annoying to read. :(

Yes, do tell us where you are buying VR's with a CC. Please!!!!! I am going through withdraws and need a fix.

I will give a very informed opinion. Halt all MS activities.
The NSA is on to us!

I don't think this has anything to do with you in particular. Incomm probably noticed that this particular store is selling a lot of their products, so they called the manager and asked him to look into it. The manager looked at you and determined that the purchases were legitimate. If Incomm calls back, he will tell them that he saw the guy who is making the purchases and found no cause for concern.

Indeed, spying would imply that Incomm shares data with the NSA and CIA. But no major US companies do that now, do they? Oops, let me rephrase that...:p

Just buy the OVGC and you wil be ok

See, that's how it escalates. VR as gateway drug. $3.95, nice and manageable. But that stops, and now you spend $4.95 on OV, next step is try to the seasonal gift cards at $5.95. Then you find yourself living under a bridge, wondering what the hell happened to your life.

You are too funny.

Yes, it is a gift. But to be fair, we got a head start from your chosen thread title.

Yeah, but it's a bridge in Venice, and I flew here in Biz on LX.

Hey, I stopped by because I heard that someone was buying VRs with a CC. That's...that's cool.

So...hi, y'all.

This

Big Oopsy as to who has been spying on you! Unless you believe the NSA, in which case you might be interested in buying this bridge from Florida to Cuba I have for sale.:p

April 11 (Bloomberg) -- Ghostery Senior Director of Research Andy Kahl and Bloomberg’s Michael Riley discuss the NSA’s knowledge of the Heartbleed bug on Bloomberg Television's “Street Smart.” (Source: Bloomberg)

...The U.S. National Security Agency knew for at least two years about a flaw in the way that many websites send sensitive information, now dubbed the Heartbleed bug, and regularly used it to gather critical intelligence, two people familiar with the matter said.

The agency’s reported decision to keep the bug secret in pursuit of national security interests threatens to renew the rancorous debate over the role of the government’s top computer experts. The NSA, after declining to comment on the report, subsequently denied that it was aware of Heartbleed until the vulnerability was made public by a private security report earlier this month...

Same thing happened to me in 711 a while back I was still in the store when they called. The teller confined I was a regular and then hung up.

True, me too. That was back in the good ole Summer of Aught-thirteen. I tell ya, good times.

Billy, we're not from Incomm. Because if we were, we would already know the answer to the question "where were you buying 4 beans at once with a cc?"

But we don't.

So we're just asking politely.

Bought 3 more VR's yesterday. Now all the cashiers know who I am. I was immediately questioned "whether or not I gave them my ID - wait...let me call the manager..." Within 3 seconds, there was a lady at the register asking for my ID, of which a copy was made. I was allowed to make the purchase. The reason they made a copy of my ID (so they said) was, "The company keeps calling us because you buy so much..."

I ASK YOU - WHAT THE HECK? Is this going to get worse? Am I on borrowed time here?

But the most important question we all want to know is *where* did you buy the VR's with CC??? I'm having withdrawals too... (can you at least advise which part of the country, if not the retailers. Or a hint?). Thanks! (typed with shaking hands. Just the THOUGHT of VR's with cc has my blood racing!)

Deleted.

To all the people sending me PM's -

I don't want to reveal my source, because I'm afraid it will go away. Plus I really don't know who I'm talking to. I can tell you this much - I'm not near any big city. I am at least 5 hours (by car) from any major airport.

The best advice I can give - go to the webiste for Vanilla Reload. Click on the link where it says "All Retailers." Look there. The source that I have is somewhere hidden therein. Do some homework one day when you have an hour or three.

Most people have already given up since CVS stopped selling. But there are other sources out there, believe me. I'm taking a wild guess but I think that maybe 85% or more have just simply given up. It's like rock-hunting. You have to keep looking. DIG. I even found a back-up source from digging into those links. Dig deep.

^