Am I Paranoid, or is This Happening?

Log in

SmokingPipes.com Updates

New Cigars




PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

Status
Not open for further replies.

Egg Shen

Lifer
Nov 26, 2021
1,073
3,569
Pennsylvania
Not paranoia. Welcome to the Peoples Republic of Amerika, formerly know as the United States of America.
Credit card companies and UPS flag firearm and ammunition purchases and shipments. ESG scores for any transactions are coming soon.
Is there a specific credit card company doing that? Or is it all of them?
 

Egg Shen

Lifer
Nov 26, 2021
1,073
3,569
Pennsylvania
Paranoid? Yes and No. As technology advances, privacy diminishes. This, unfortunately, is inevitable. Our world 🌎 becoming a smaller and smaller place.
It will likely get to a point where trying to live within the system is more annoyance than it’s worth and it’s easier to split from the whole system. I actually look forward to this happening but many won’t be able to handle it.
 

AJL67

Lifer
May 26, 2022
4,489
24,341
Florida - Space Coast
Usually it's automated and i'd be surprised if someone had eyes on your account, some cards are automatically locked when you try to make a transaction in another country, happened with a bank card when i was buying cigars overseas, had to call them up and tell them to take that "check" off the card at first they told me they could only take it off for 6 months at a time, which was BS and they took it off completely. Usually these things are for your own protection.

Amusingly enough the same card was later used to pay off someone's cable bill and non-returned equipment fee to the tune of $300+ ..I had to literally wait for them to mail me forms to fill out and send back swearing i didn't ensure those charges, even though I told them i had the persons name and address would they like it to prosecute, i was told no they don't bother with those things. It would cost more than it was worth to go after people making those type of charges, yet i had to prove my innocence before they would refund the money to my account. Seriously pissed me off, only time I've ever had an issue with Chase.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Carol and Ebarber

anotherbob

Lifer
Mar 30, 2019
15,678
29,400
45
In the semi-rural NorthEastern USA
First off unfortunately we live in in the people's republic of NY.
Generally I buy tobacco online using paypal but the place I generally buy was out of one of my favorite blends so I found another site that had it in stock. I used my card to buy there.
And then the next day my card stopped working when I tried to buy something on Amazon.
It happened twice. i checked the balance and there was lot of money in the account so I called the bank and talked to a rep who told me that the account had been frozen because of a "suspicious transaction" which was flagged by the fraud department. We went through our charges together on the phone and everything was fine.
I asked how this worked. If it was automated or if it was a person actually reviewing the charges. He hemmed and hawed and tried to duck the question but eventually admitted that it was a human being that locked the account not a program. So basically I buy 8oz of bulk tobacco and some person locks my account 5 days before Christmas.
I have not heard back with a concrete answer from the Bank and assume that I won't.

This has me paranoid about about terms like "social credit scores" etc.
Anyway it got me googling and wow.
Go to around the 3 minute marks.
"The tobacco monitoring system".
WTF!!!!!!!!!

you're paranoid. All that happened and this is a thing that happens. Your card got dinged with purchases from enough different places in just the right way to look like possible fraud (a thief using your card). This is an occasional thing that happens now and pretty much means nothing otherwise then the bank would rather not have to deal with a stolen card being used to buy lots and lots of things and them having to eat the cost.
And finally I just have to point out that over 90 percent of the time some one says "that x or y is going to happen, that shit doesn't pan out at all". My recommendation is actually check and verify the hits and misses they make. Starts helping separate the knows what they're talking about from the talking sheet.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Carol and warren

Egg Shen

Lifer
Nov 26, 2021
1,073
3,569
Pennsylvania
V

Visa,Mastercard and american Express track gun store purchases using a specific merchant code.
I’m glad I’m at the point in life where I can pay for those things in cash. I hate when companies take up “social responsibilities“ as though they know what is best for us.

I’ll have to research this more. I have questions but don’t want to keep you tethered. What do they do with these codes? Is there a threshold that triggers an FBI visit or whatever? It could be some 1984 ish or they could be coding it to sell your info, not dissimilar to what Facebook and all those do. This seems pointless to track from a future-crime prevention standpoint though. I know a bunch of harmless old geezers that buy copious amounts of ammunition and they are plotting nothing more devious than another day at the range.
 

verporchting

Lifer
Dec 30, 2018
2,879
8,933
I’ve had a gas purchase declined at the pump because I drove 250 miles away - you know, like you do in a car that’s actually used to uh drive - and they flagged it as fraudulent.

Okay, but somebody’s using that same card fraudulently and simultaneously in 5 different countries for thousands of dollars didn’t raise any red flags???

Um, calling bullshit on their security protocols, lol.

In the end they reversed the fraudulent charges and the gas station thing was fixed with a quick (ish) phone call once I got through the phone tree but it is a brave new world we’re living in, ain’t it?
 
  • Like
Reactions: chopper and Carol

FurCoat

Lifer
Sep 21, 2020
8,770
78,529
North Carolina
Not paranoia. Welcome to the Peoples Republic of Amerika, formerly know as the United States of America.
Credit card companies and UPS flag firearm and ammunition purchases and shipments. ESG scores for any transactions are coming soon.
Which is why I don't use my credit card to replace the guns and ammo I tragically lost in a canoe accident.
 

georged

Lifer
Mar 7, 2013
5,491
13,920
Regardless of whether the OP's experience was triggered by tobacco or not, what's on display is the degree of observation and potential control that people in The System have over what you can do with your money.

The technical capability to do it is no longer theorectical.

Soon, assorted fine print paragraphs will be piggybacked to legislation about something innucuous to make such interference and control LEGAL (only small stuff at first, of course), and the real fun will begin.
 

carlomarx

Can't Leave
Oct 29, 2011
416
601
State College,PA
I’ve had a gas purchase declined at the pump because I drove 250 miles away - you know, like you do in a car that’s actually used to uh drive - and they flagged it as fraudulent.

Okay, but somebody’s using that same card fraudulently and simultaneously in 5 different countries for thousands of dollars didn’t raise any red flags???

Um, calling bullshit on their security protocols, lol.

In the end they reversed the fraudulent charges and the gas station thing was fixed with a quick (ish) phone call once I got through the phone tree but it is a brave new world we’re living in, ain’t it?
First time that happened to me it was in a gas station in a sketchy neighborhood in Baltimore. Fortunately I had a bank debit card that worked. I get the reason for this stuff but if I forget to notify Discover that I'm travelling it happens because my card shows up being used in a zip code far from home and it is flagged because it might have been stolen or hacked. Still, I do not want to be tracked, filmed recorded or now days having my face in a facial recognition data base.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.