Prepaid gift cards from brands like American Express and Visa make a lot of sense in theory. Like gift cards, they release you from the psychological horror of handing your loved ones cold, hard cash, but you can use them anywhere you can use credit cards, so they offer the receiver more flexibility than a store gift card. Great!
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OneVanilla review rated 5.0/5.0 with 1 Comment: The operator is sending out a dispute package for us to fill out and also gave me the number to call PayPal. Our daughters prepaid card was hacked when she was in OK last week. Vanilla Card Scheme 5: TV. Of services such as Facebook hack. Got me for $800.00 $500.00 was a gift card from One Vanilla and the other one was 3 $100.00 gift.
A series of gift cards Caput took from one retailer show how their numbers increment by one, making them predictable after a hacker bruteforces the four random final numbers. Another common route is using gift cards to quickly monetize the value in other hacked accounts, such as credit card rewards programs or hotel points. This is how it works: A cybercriminal will obtain the username and password to a person’s credit card rewards program, usually through reused credentials or malware.
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However, if you’ve ever received one, you may have discovered that they don't work like store gift cards in one major, critical way: if you swipe, say, a $25 Macy's gift card when making a $50 Macy's purchase, it'll take the $25 off your purchase and then you can pay the remaining balance with cash or your debit card. But if you try to use a $25 Visa gift card on a $50 Macy’s purchase, the card will get declined — because you’re essentially asking it to go over its limit. The only way to keep this from happening is to tell the person ringing you up, “I want to put $25 on this card” before you swipe the Visa gift card, so they can split the tender accordingly. This isn’t ideal, but it’s fine for a nice, solid number like $25.
But! It becomes a much bigger hassle when your $100 Visa gift card now has, say, $14.77 on it. It’s highly likely that at some point, there’s going to be such a weird/small amount left on the card that you’re going to be too embarrassed to ask a retail worker to “just put $4.36 on this card,” so instead you’re just going to deprive yourself of the full value of the gift card. I’m not saying this is what Big Credit Card wants to happen, but I do think these little amounts of cash left on thousands of gift cards add up for them in a way that they…do not hate. The whole thing has annoyed me for years, ever since I was on the other end of the transaction when I worked in retail in college.
(Also: to even be able to do what I outlined above, you have to keep track of the exact balance on the gift card, which requires going to a website and inputting the card number and PIN every time you want to check how much is left on it.)
All this to say: Visa and American Express and Mastercard prepaid gift cards are way more high-maintenance than they should be, and even though this is a minor hassle in the grand scheme of things, it’s still a hassle at the end of the day. But! After receiving a high-value prepaid Visa gift card last year and getting sick of checking the balance all the time, I figured out a really simple and easy workaround that allows you to actually use every penny on said card: Once the gift card is down to a stupidly small amount that you don’t feel like fucking with, you can just go to Amazon and buy yourself an e-gift card for the exact amount on the Visa gift card. So if there’s $7.83 on the Visa card, you can simply buy yourself a $7.83 Amazon gift card.
Once you’ve put in the exact amount and your personal details (including your own email address), add the gift card to your cart. Then head to check out, choose “add new payment method,” and put in the details of the prepaid gift card there (just like it’s a regular credit/debit card). You now have now successfully turned your prepaid gift card into a normal store gift card, and it’ll work as such — deducting that $7.83 from your next Amazon purchase, and letting you pay the remaining amount due, just as God intended. 🛍
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Credit card fraud is currently the most pervasive form of identity theft, with 14.2 million credit card numbers being exposed in 2017, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center.
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Yet a separate study reveals that too many Americans are careless when it comes to protecting their personal data, which only invites more fraud. Read more here about credit card fraud.
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According to the Pew Research Center, 41% of Americans reported a fraudulent charge on their credit card, yet only 12% use password management software and 41% say they've shared a password online with a friend or family member.
Password carelessness is only one way that fraudsters can hack into a user's online account and steal their credit card data. Cardholders should know that identity thieves have myriad paths to their card data and take active steps to block those paths, once and for all.
Data security experts say one way to thwart credit card hackers, or at least minimize the damage, is to know the signs that your card has been hacked in the first place.
That knowledge not only allows you to alert your credit card company and law enforcement, it also teaches you a long-term lesson in how card data thieves operate, enabling you to better plug data vulnerability gaps with your credit card.
Here are the biggest 'red flags' that alert you to credit card data theft, security experts say:
1. You Notice Strange Purchases
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The single biggest red flag when it comes to credit card fraud is finding unknown purchases on your bank account statement, says Doug Brennan, a cybersecurity expert and blog manager at Digital Addicts. 'Because this type of fraud can happen at any time, it's important to remain vigilant, and check your bank account statements on a regular basis,' Brennan says.
2. You Notice Small Charges on Your Account
The moment a data thief gets access to a stolen card, they will make small charges that won't trigger any red flags, says Robert Siciliano, a security analyst at IDTheftSecurity.com, in Boston, Mass. 'That could include a few dollar charges at a convenience store. If the card works, the thief will move into incrementally larger charges as quickly as possible.'
The most effective way to catch fraud in real time is to sign up for alerts and notifications of all your charges via text and email,' Siciliano advises. 'Otherwise, if you're not paying micro attention to your charges in real time it is likely by the end of the month you will have ended up paying for the lifestyle of an identity thief,' he notes.
Learn more about reducing the risk of identity theft here.
3. You Have Unfamiliar Company Names on Your Statement
When you make a payment on your credit card, the name of the business' parent company will actually appear on your credit card statement, notes Jennifer McDermott, consumer advocate for Finder.com, a credit card comparison website in New York City.
'Often when processing a credit card purchase, companies will flag what you can expect to see on your account,' McDermott says. 'If unfamiliar names appear on your statement, notify your credit card company as soon as possible to dispute the charges.' You can also Google unfamiliar names you see to make sure a name isn't something you did charge before calling to report fraud.
4. You See Payments in Other Locations
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Since you likely reside in a certain area, it makes sense that payments appearing on your card will be in the same location unless it's a payment to a business that is registered elsewhere, McDermott notes. 'Double check every single purchase appearing in another destination when you haven't been there, as it can denote a fraudulent transaction,' she advises.
5. A Lower Available Credit Balance
A big red flag to most consumers should be the appearance of a diminished credit line from unexplained pending charges. 'If your credit line is $5,500 and you suddenly see that only $3,500 is available, you may want to investigate further to understand what triggered the change in your available credit line,' says John Buzzard, an industry fraud specialist for CO-OP Financial Services, a provider of payments and financial technology to credit unions.
Many card issuers today provide valuable information to their cardholders by way of online banking and account activity alerts to aid in the detection of questionable transactions, Buzzard says. 'It can often take a few days for transactions to settle to the actual account, so heightened awareness on credit limits, balances, and pending transactions are always a great idea to stay one step ahead of fraudsters,' he adds.
Buzzard makes a good point. Recognize the warning signs of credit card fraud is one thing, but taking the necessary steps to stay ahead of fraud activity is even better.
Find a healthy balance between the two, and keep your plastic better protected in the future.