Beware Smart Deals Com

[tuttlejr]

While checking our our Visa bill, we came across some postings that were not familiar to us.
They were in small amounts. I checked Google and came up with some complaints about Smart Savings. Called Visa and their fraud division. Was given credit for the postings but had to cancel my present card and a new one would be isssued. That would insure that no more postings would appear. The Visa people said that a random number program created my Visa number. I believe that some individual working where they could see credit card transactions was the real culprit.

I do not know why people like Smart Savings can get by with their operations. It is fraud after all. So check your credit card statements as well as bank statements as some people had problems with those as well.

[cgallery]

I went to smartdeals.com and it said the site hadn't launched yet?

[crokett]

I check my all my statements every month. That is a side benefit to using Quicken and itemizing deductions for my wife. I review all the transactions. I caught 3 repeating fradulent transactions earlier this year. We cancelled the card and got a credit for them. My wife thinks it was on online print service that was making those charges. I've also weaned her off of using a debit card for online purchases. Credit card only and it is a low-limit Visa. If fraud does happen then the worst is your account gets maxed out, not that you lose all your cash.

[DaveS]

It may not have been them - it may have been someone else, hacking that company's account, checking that your card is valid.

We got a small charge one time from a OB/GYN office in Maryland - no, we've never been there, nor do we live in Maryland.

The credit card company actually alerted us to the charge, and we said it wasn't ours. They reversed the charge, but I did not cancel the card, thinking it was just a mix up.

A week later, we got a larger charge from GoDaddy - the credit card company called again and asked if it was me - I then had to go and check to see, because we use GoDaddy for our domain names, and we have the "auto-renew" feature, and I wasn't sure if it was time to renew.

After I saw that it wasn't renewal time, I called GoDaddy, and found that I had two accounts - my real one, and a new one that had registered about 50 "adult" sounding websites.

I canceled the card.

[crokett]

One more tidbit, both Chase and Citibank offer a program where you can generate a 1-time card # that links back to yours. Basically you generate the temporary # and use it for purchases. That way if somebody does get the # it is no good after that purchase.

[kbkreisler]

lots of shady companys out there, I once ordered a camcorder from a company out of ny, I will admit the price seemed too good to be true, the next day I recieved a call from a customer service rep, he told me for that price it did not include a battery, case, lens ect. I tried to cancel the order at this point, but the rep got irate, and told me I would have to pay shipping and restocking fees even though they had not even fully processed my order yet.
I insisted on canceling the order and recieved no charges on my visa.
That is until about 4 months later when I was billed for their web hosting.
Last time I will ever order anything without investigating a companys reputation first.

[jziegler]

One more tidbit, both Chase and Citibank offer a program where you can generate a 1-time card # that links back to yours. Basically you generate the temporary # and use it for purchases. That way if somebody does get the # it is no good after that purchase.

Discover has something similar, but instead of single use, they are actually single vendor. So if somebody gets the number, they can't use it anywhere else. Also get around the stupid partner offers that have been reported for some less than completely honest vendors out there.

Jim

[dkerfoot]

As an online merchant, I can tell you that the credit card owner can challenge a CC charge for pretty much any reason and they will charge back the merchant. It is then up to the merchant to prove that the chargeback has no merit (very hard to do) and the merchant nearly always eats the loss.

I lose approximately $3000 a year to out and out fraud. It is impossible to get the police to even investigate in most cases. The only way I keep my blood pressure under control is remembering that I don't have to deal with shop-lifters.

[tuttlejr]

I just received an email from smartdeals stating that my credit card had been declined and if I did not wish to be removed from their list to sign up again.

Some nerve but apparently their schemes work.

[stormdog74]

As an online merchant, I can tell you that the credit card owner can challenge a CC charge for pretty much any reason and they will charge back the merchant. It is then up to the merchant to prove that the chargeback has no merit (very hard to do) and the merchant nearly always eats the loss.

I lose approximately $3000 a year to out and out fraud. It is impossible to get the police to even investigate in most cases. The only way I keep my blood pressure under control is remembering that I don't have to deal with shop-lifters.

Yeah, but isn't this, in some way, sort of shoplifting? They "come" to your store and take something and never pay for it. I guess the benefit is that you at least know who these people are - and not to do business with them again - whereas you may never know who the shoplifters are. So, I guess that is better than dealing with shoplifters.

I recently have had three small transactions from companies back east. Each time when I contacted my credit card company they reversed the charges (we're talking less than $5 each time), but did not seem to think it was a big deal. They said it might have just been a mistake - the merchant might have typed in a wrong number. This seems hard to believe considering there must be matching data, like names and such.

[cgallery]

I just received an email from smartdeals stating that my credit card had been declined and if I did not wish to be removed from their list to sign up again.

Some nerve but apparently their schemes work.

I'm lost. I've tried looking at the smartdeals site (both smartdeals.net and smartdeals.com), and I can't understand how the site (screenshot of which I've included) can hurt you. It doesn't even seem to be launched yet?

[Alex Franke]

in light of all these complaints, I'm guessing that website is just a facade to make it look legit...

[tuttlejr]

The correct name is Smart Savings Com, not Smart Deals.
Sorry about that.