Careful with Wilke Tobacco

[crawdad]

I ordered some bulk baccy from Wilke. Can't do an order online, so I called the order in. I used a prepaid AMEX card to cover the order which left me with a tiny balance. After the order went through there followed a row of micro transactions of .10 or .12 cents each unit the balance was gone. The transactions were by LIFELOCK INC, WPENGINE.COM, and DOORDASH.COM. Never heard of these names and the only purchase I made was with Wilke.

I don't know what's going on and I'll be calling AMEX tomorrow. Just be aware and watch yourself.

 

[BROBS]

Dang. Oddly enough I had similar stuff happen when I bought something over the phone directly from Peterson in Dublin.

 

[Smoking In The Fast Lane]

This is peculiar. DoorDash and LifeLock are legitimate businesses with a net worth in the Billions. Word Press is a well known web hosting company generating annual revenue in the millions.
If I understand you correctly the amount of the transactions and manner in which they appeared/disappeared is similar to when a bank account is verified for use by a third party... For example when linking a checking account to your brokerage there will often be small deposit/withdrawals to verify. Let us know what you find out, it would be unfortunate to scare customers away over a misunderstanding. That said, I'm glad you protected yourself by using a prepaid card. Good luck sorting it out.

 

[mikestanley]

The problem with pre-paid cards is that they can be compromised before the buyer ever gets it. I doubt these micro transactions have anything to do with Wilke
I remember a credit card fraud case I had. A fellow's investment account was compromised through a "debit card" he had for the account. He had just participated in a sleep study set up at an Hotel. He was certain someone entered his room while he slept and obtained the card number.
Turns out two people hanging around the San Francisco Airport, stealing baggage had obtained a credit card making machine in on bag and a large number of credit card numbers stored in another piece of luggage.
It can be as "random" as that.

Mike S.

 

[hoosierpipeguy]

So that's proof Wilke was the problem? You throw Wilke under the bus based upon that?

 

[BROBS]

Guys he’s just saying it happened after the Wilkie transaction. I don’t think he’s throwing them under the bus. It’s possibly related and also possibly unrelated.

@crawdad i thought you were unable to call in an order due to a hearing problem?

 

[mso489]

I think there are tens of thousands or more hackers making a living chiseling micro "donations" from millions of people. Online has become a fairly nasty neighborhood.

 

[anantaandroscoggin]

The "Numbers Racket" was famous as a source of cash for the mob. And, as I recall reading, each individual wasn't taken for very much each time.

 

[BROBS]

Someone could be hacking into whoever provides the merchant account as well.. so not even associated with Wilke but the place that runs their payments.

 

[Worknman]

Someone in the other Wilke thread said they were updating their website and payment processor.

 

[jpmcwjr]

his is peculiar. DoorDash and LifeLock are legitimate businesses with a net worth in the Billions

Er, no, not even remotely close. Where do you get this info?

 

[crawdad]

Guys he’s just saying it happened after the Wilkie transaction. I don’t think he’s throwing them under the bus. It’s possibly related and also possibly unrelated.

@crawdad i thought you were unable to call in an order due to a hearing problem?

I called AMEX but it was just too difficult for me hear and navigate the system. The damage was just a little over $2 before the account was sucked dry, so I really don’t care at this point. I just don’t know at which point the card was compromised. I’ve used the card before with zero problems.

 

[blues4goose]

Er, no, not even remotely close. Where do you get this info?

From Google

 

[jpmcwjr]

View attachment 13585

Re: Doordash


Market Capitalization (your "valuation") means almost nothing for a relative startup. It appears to be a private company, which lost a boatload of cash last year. I'd bet its net worth is negative.

Re: Lifelock

It looks like it went private following the 2015 fiscal year, when its reported net worth was under $1 billion. How it's valued in an acquisition has little to do with its current net worth, which could be grossly under or overstated.


Please post text as text. When you convert it to an image, it doesn't get put in a reply correctly.

 

[artvandelay007]

Thieves use legitimate businesses to test credit cards by charging very small amounts. If they go through then they spend larger amounts somewhere that they can benefit from.

 

[Smoking In The Fast Lane]

Er, no, not even remotely close. Where do you get this info?

You are correct that net worth is quite different than acquisition price and net worth may not have been the most appropriate choice of words. I never intended to have a Finance 101 discussion about terminology. I referenced the valuations to suggest that these companies themselves are not unsavory entities, rather established businesses as crawdad had not heard of them.

Since you asked for sources:

1. DoorDash - An article discussing SoftBank's valuation of the company: Bloomberg - Are you a robot? - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-11-13/doordash-picks-up-another-100-million-at-nearly-13-billion-valuation
2. LifeLock - An article about the acquisition by Symantec:

Why LifeLock Stock Soared Today | The Motley Fool - https://www.fool.com/investing/2016/11/21/why-lifelock-stock-soared-today.aspx

However, I fail to see how your comment added to the discussion. The point was to help crawdad and the community sort out concerns brought up over Wilke, not bicker over semantics/valuations of companies unrelated to the industry. We as a community owe that to each other AND to Wilke. It might seem trivial to some, but that is potentially another person's livelihood.

 

[jpmcwjr]

And yet you're the one rattling on and on.

Yes, we owe Wilke an apology; the title may lead some to avoid the company.

 

[anotherbob]

same thing happened to one of my cards that wasn't used for much of anything. Also it can happen even if you've not used the card just as long as it's been activated.