I Funded My NetSpend Visa and Was Ripped Off..

**bernynhel** · 14th November 2009, 01:05 PM

...by the Time I Got Home and Online!

The most recent history showed my funding the card for $195.50 and within an hour or so there's an "IVR Balance Inquiry Fee" of .50 then a $4.95 debit labeled "P2P fee" and a final debit labeled "P2P" with a "user" specified by a 10 didget number (phone number) of $180.00!!! I didn't know that NetSpend was offering user to user transfers via phone! I also didn't know (and was never told) that a carbon copy of the form I filled out with the Visa number filled in was stapled to the back of So someone got my card number, invested $13.70 - $3.95 in a NetSpend account and $10.75, tax included, in a cell phone phone (number already no good) and cleared $166.30!

Their offices had been closed for a half an hour by then but here's what I think happened:

For the first time in 5 years I used Western Union to fund my NetSpend Visa at Rite Aid last week and have loaded my Visa there several times since then(Issued by Meta Bank the same as Western Union's branded Visa). Rite-Aid is closer to me than CVS (MoneyGram), the same fee ($4.50 up to $5k, I think) and easier than MoneyGram (MoneyGram you gotta go through the automated voice prompt dealio on the red kiosk phone - never 1 problem in years!) With WU grab a gray, "Pre-Paid Services Form", fill in your card number, the amount your funding and sign. Hand the form and the money to a checker and voil�! It was also the first time I had to write down my Visa card number in the loading process thereby exposing it to every Rite-Aid employee and, hence, probably their extended families, too! And now this!! I wonder what kind a damage control NetSpend is gonna jerk me around with tomorrow (er, today I mean - in 2 hours and fifty-five minutes!) when I call.....? We'll see!

**just play** · 14th November 2009, 03:06 PM

Why don't you go to the manager of the store? They can see who was working that night by timesheets and narrow it down to just a few employees I'm assuming. Not many employees ever work at the same time at RiteAid.

I think you will have more of a case with RiteAid than netspend. You said the number wasn't good, maybe the manager knows this number and can find out who it was.

**rockycatt** · 14th November 2009, 03:15 PM

P S if you funded it with a credit card call the credit card pronto

also the p2p transaction has a trail

**rockycatt** · 14th November 2009, 03:18 PM

Originally Posted by just play

Why don't you go to the manager of the store? They can see who was working that night by timesheets and narrow it down to just a few employees I'm assuming. Not many employees ever work at the same time at RiteAid.

I think you will have more of a case with RiteAid than netspend. You said the number wasn't good, maybe the manager knows this number and can find out who it was.

EXACTLY the employee did it

**nisosbar** · 14th November 2009, 04:45 PM

This has always been one of my fears using that card. You read about people hacking into poker accounts and such. I don't see any reason the same couldn't be done with this card. Nonetheless, I love their card, so hassle-free.

**love2winalot** · 14th November 2009, 06:18 PM

Hiya: Also, every place that handles money, also has security camera's. So it is pretty easy to see what actually happened to the, "Form" behind the window. Earlier this year in Vegas, an manager at a ,"smoke shop", had been scanning customers visa card into a recorder, and had made tens of thousands before getting caught. The instore Camera is what did him in, amoung other things.

Also, you need to make a police report. Not for them to actually go arrest someone, but you would need the report, in case it came down to you having to sue Rite Aid. It is one thing to to ask for your money back, and quite another to ask for it back, and to be waving the police report in their face. Also, if needed, you can mention that all the news stations that, "ch 5 investigates, ch 8 on your side, ch 3 watching out for you, and so on, LOVE STORIES LIKE THIS........

Hopefully you don't need to do any of this, but if your gonna wave a Gun around, it sure helps if it has some bullets in it...

**Stovetopp** · 14th November 2009, 07:05 PM

Originally Posted by nisosbar

This has always been one of my fears using that card. You read about people hacking into poker accounts and such. I don't see any reason the same couldn't be done with this card. Nonetheless, I love their card, so hassle-free.

I also enjoy using this card as its hassle free...I just go to my supermarket and they swipe the card and enter amount and I am all done no forms no nothing Within 5 minutes I transfer the amount to QT .. DONE!! and within an hour its given to 3 casinos :-((( sheeeeeeeet!!!!

Off topic a bit I did not know about all these options NETSPEND had such as depositig with a credit card and what's this p2p all about? I visit their website and the only thing they offer is direct deposit Can someone fill me in , please? Thanks

**rockycatt** · 14th November 2009, 07:13 PM

Originally Posted by bernynhel

...by the Time I Got Home and Online!

The most recent history showed my funding the card for $195.50 and within an hour or so there's an "IVR Balance Inquiry Fee" of .50 then a $4.95 debit labeled "P2P fee" and a final debit labeled "P2P" with a "user" specified by a 10 digit number (phone number) of $180.00!!! I didn't know that NetSpend was offering user to user transfers via phone! I also didn't know (and was never told) that a carbon copy of the form I filled out with the Visa number filled in was stapled to the back of So someone got my card number, invested $13.70 - $3.95 in a NetSpend account and $10.75, tax included, in a cell phone phone (number already no good) and cleared $166.30!

Their offices had been closed for a half an hour by then but here's what I think happened:

For the first time in 5 years I used Western Union to fund my NetSpend Visa at Rite Aid last week and have loaded my Visa there several times since then(Issued by Meta Bank the same as Western Union's branded Visa). Rite-Aid is closer to me than CVS (MoneyGram), the same fee ($4.50 up to $5k, I think) and easier than MoneyGram (MoneyGram you gotta go through the automated voice prompt dealio on the red kiosk phone - never 1 problem in years!) With WU grab a gray, "Pre-Paid Services Form", fill in your card number, the amount your funding and sign. Hand the form and the money to a checker and voil�! It was also the first time I had to write down my Visa card number in the loading process thereby exposing it to every Rite-Aid employee and, hence, probably their extended families, too! And now this!! I wonder what kind a damage control NetSpend is gonna jerk me around with tomorrow (er, today I mean - in 2 hours and fifty-five minutes!) when I call.....? We'll see!

isn't this card/account password protected ? if so it may be a electronic error just a thought

**vegetagirl2008** · 14th November 2009, 07:17 PM

On the Netspend Website it states you can file a dispute. Go to the police first in your jurisdiction file the report and fax it to Netspend . Attached is the form for unauthorized transactions.
Someone stole that money via Toll-free number and it might have been an inside job. I would get to the bottom of it and quickly you might have to change your card number and find another way to load your money.

https://www.netspend.com/account/i/e...authorized.pdf

**bernynhel** · 15th November 2009, 10:28 PM

Originally Posted by just play

They can see who was working that night by timesheets and narrow it down to just a few employees I'm assuming.

I used that method in that store half a dozen times at least since Nov 1. 5 diff employees minimum handled the deal. Besides, anyone with access could have got the info. Employees, employee's friends, 3rd cousins twice removed...But thanks, just play!

Originally Posted by nisosbar

This has always been one of my fears using that card. You read about people hacking into poker accounts and such. I don't see any reason the same couldn't be done with this card. Nonetheless, I love their card, so hassle-free.

Only fund your NetSpend via card swipe or similar, secure methods! That's the moral of this thread.

That NetSpend started making $4.95 per transactioin for P2Ps (transfers between NetSpend Account Holders, I know NOW, thanks a LOT NetSpend!) and that it can be done over the telephone coupled with the exposure to one's account number from the use of having to write it on forms and handing it over to God-Knows-Who (how much ya wanna bet none are even bonded!) all makes for a pretty damn tough case for NetSpend's liability in this. Thanks!

Originally Posted by love2winalot

Hiya: Also, every place that handles money, also has security camera's. So it is pretty easy to see what actually happened to the, "Form" behind the window...Also, you need to make a police report...you can mention that all the news stations that, "ch 5 investigates, ch 8 on your side, ch 3 watching out for you, and so on, LOVE STORIES LIKE THIS...

No "windows". Each time the checker would call whoever depending on who's working at the time (manager, shift bosses) and they'd meet me at the counter where they handle photo processing transactions, replace watch batteries and keep the counter-top thingy that holds the various WU forms.

Police Reports and Broadcast News Organization's consumer watchdog's desks are brilliant! Thanks!

Originally Posted by Stovetopp

I also enjoy using this card as its hassle free...I just go to my supermarket and they swipe the card and enter amount and I am all done no forms no nothing Within 5 minutes I transfer the amount to QT .. DONE!! and within an hour its given to 3 casinos :-((( sheeeeeeeet!!!!

Read up, this post. I never heard of "P2P" 'til my card wouldn't work for QT and I saw the notations for debits the crook made to rob me. And I've been using NetSpend ever since Bryan was just a Keno Runner.

Just keep swiping to load and you'll be cool.

Originally Posted by rockycatt

isn't this card/account password protected ? if so it may be a electronic error just a thought

My NetSpend statment displayed the balance inquiry made by the crook so he/she'd know how much to transfer (-$0.50), the P2P Fee (-$4.95) and the crook's NetSpend ID on the transfer notation (-$180.00)!

Originally Posted by vegetagirl2008

...Go to the police first in your jurisdiction file the report and fax it to Netspend . Attached is the form for unauthorized transactions... I would get to the bottom of it and quickly you might have to change your card number and find another way to load your money.

https://www.netspend.com/account/i/e...authorized.pdf

Thanks veggirl! Of course I was on the phone to NetSpend at 6:01 PST, yesterday (Their offices open at 8Am in the mid-west) where Lorna of NetSpend (country of origin unknown but cute accent) gave me a Ref#, a claim# and when I balked at the mention of a fax (my automatic, knee-jerk response ever since my first scanner - fax's, IMO, are useless and obsolete - I can usually get an email address when I mention this to anyone, nowadays) along with the emaill address, disputeresolution@netspend.com to email my claim.

I emailed a rundown of the heist including attachments of my scanned, hand - scrawled note with my handwritten signature (required by NetSpend) stating the email was the facts, ma'am, nothing but the facts, plus examples of a WU receipt for a Netspend load showing the "exposed" prepaid services form stapled to the back.

Lorna said, "Well, I'll go check the other users account right now and any funds still in it I will transfer back into your account." Isn't Lorna just the cutest lil thing? I chuckled and said, "Lorna, my dear, if there's not less that $20 in that account, I'll eat a bug." Silence. Then she excused herself to put me on hold and go check. She came back in 25 seconds, "$16!", she actually sounded kinda happy for me, "and Ill transfer those funds immediately back into your account, sir." I think I love Lorna. "But, Lorna, my love, didn't we just block my account, permanently?" I said softly. And I said I'd eat a bug if you didn't find less than $20 left in my account because the thief couldn't extract a lessor amount via ATM."l Silence. "Oh my gosh, that's right!", exclaimed Lorna. Then, "Lorna? I think I love you."

The documentation:

The email:

Dear disputeresolution@netspend.com:

This email is to notify you that all transaction on my Netspend account # XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (now defunct) occurring after my funding my account with the load of $195.50 via MoneyGram at ALBERTSONS, WASHINGTON STREET, Palm Desert, CA 92211, specifically, the Debit: Balance Inquiry - IVR (-$0.50), Debit: P2P Fee (-$4.95) and Debit: $180.00 to user 2105718348 - (-$180.00) were made by a person or persons unknown to me and without my knowledge or authorization.
?
The only recent changes in the funding of my NetSpend Visa in over a year are that beginning about the 1st of November I began loading my card via Western Union at Rite Aid Store #5682, 74958 Country Club Drive, Palm Desert, CA 92260. Before that time no one has ever seen my NetSpend Card Number as all transactions prior to November 1, 2009 have been via card swipes and online, fully automated purchasing.
?
Loading my NetSpend account via Western Union at the above mentioned Rite Aid involved the Western Union Prepaid Services (gray) form (see example, attached) and my account number was required to be hand written, by me, in the spaces provided. I did not even know, nor was I informed, that a copy of said Prepaid Services (gray) form, with my NetSpend account number, in my handwriting. was stapled to the back of my Western Union Prepaid Services Receipt. From that point on November 1, 2009, and going forward to date, my NetSpend Account information was obviously compromised.
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Today I spoke with Lorna at 1-866-387-7163, who issued my reference and claim numbers. She informed me of NetSpend's requirements for claims and handwritten signatures (see attached). She also informed me that the "user" who stole my money still showed a balance of $16.00 from the original $180.00 in his/her account. $16.00 is not accessible via ATM.
?
I am sorry that the use of Western Union to load my NetSpend account is so severely flawed and vulnerable. Had I known I would have stuck with MoneyGram. That said, these facts are NetSpends business, not mine. It is the fault of NetSpend, solely, for the loss of my money in the amount of $185.45 due to negligence on NetSpend's part for implementing the above described loading method and, thereby, causing my funds to be stolen by persons, unknown to me.
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Please settle my claim for the amount of $185.45, forthwith. I will establish a new Netspend account for ease of expedition of this settlement.
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Sincerely,

(deleted by bernynhel)

The "hand-scrawled" note with signature and the WU forms leaving my fanny in the wind: