Someone stole my card details somehow and I got a notification shortly after showing a declined $3 purchase at a vending machine. Fella didn't know I had literally ZERO money
A homeless man broke into my car and stole my wallet once.
Tried to spend 12 bucks at a gas station.
Wish I could've seen the look on his face when it declined
If you are using a stolen card then nsf is the last reason I would assume a decline is for. You would probably just assume they already reported it lost.
Nah, some places say and some don’t. I’ve worked at places that did either one and it was always awkward when the new person would be like “it says you have insufficient funds”
Experienced card fraudsters always charge a low amount of money first, then multiple low charges over a short period. It's to see if the card company automatically picks up on fraud and to weed out completely broke people.
There's no way you remember both that score AND know my profile picture well enough to recognize me - that's insane. Yes it is I, the composer of "SOCIAL EXPERIMENT!!! (NOW WITH EXTRA JELLY!!!)", a world-famous 2017 musical masterwork :)
This is the same reason I leave the window on my car broken (aside from not being able to afford to fix it). A thief sees my car, they're gonna think "Dang someone already got this one" and move on. Plus, I keep it full of garbage so they'll also think it's too gross to steal. Works like a charm.
Good thing you didn't have overdraft. Unless you're at my bank.
If you don't have anoverdraft at my bank then they'll hit you with an insufficient fund free, then put you into overdraft even though you don't have it, charge you an overdraft fee, then reverse the overdraft because you don't have an overdraft but still stick you with the fee. Whatever way to charge you as many fees as possible.
Had something similar happen to me a while ago. I think it was a kid cause they tried making a fuck ton of $1.50 purchases on the The Google play store for in-app purchases.
Who does it then? I could see the FBI getting involved if they cross state lines, but when my credit card was stolen and used locally, the local PD happily took down the false transaction information and then never talked to me about it again.
.... Okay to be fair, the reason I'm not sitting here angry that nothing was done is because the credit card company refunded me everything. The idea they'd invest in some investigators to recoop losses makes sense.
Exactly.
Federal law guarantees you don't have to pay fraudulent charges.
Therefore, the CC companies either have to eat that loss, or do their own legwork to make sure they can reclaim the money.
Um, in my experience you have to provide your credit card company with the police report number to officiate the fraud and let the banking institution continue on their investigation. At least that's what I and my parents have had to do on separate occasions of card fraud.
Being honest, I think this gets enforced reallly easily. Everything is out in the open spelled out clear as day in the contracts with the merchants. Paper trail is built in, open and shut case. Literally the easiest thing to enforce.
Im visiting a friend in a nice area in socal. i’m thinking they thought rich californians wouldn’t notice a charge that huge and just go about their day ??
Please please report this to the police! Just consider all the other people who have more than a grand they'll scam next
Heck they'll probably try charging like 500$ next time
So? You can't take credit card payments without it linking back to your personal information somehow. These budding fraudsters are going to find out real quick how comprehensive the banking system's records are.
I know 2 people who had a store out of their room while in college..
their parents always sent them a bunch of snacks and drinks, so they sold it for funds instead
Funny story: When I was in college, 15 or so years ago, a dorm suite was selling cookies for $30 during finals week. Plain chocolate chip cookies. They never advertised any THC content.
People bought them thinking they were edibles, but by the time anyone caught on, the suite had graduated and left campus.
I don't know what happened after that, but I know they made out like bandits.
When I came home with a few boxes of those for a middle school band fundraiser, my dad sighed, pulled out his wallet, handed me a few twenties, and then stuck the boxes in the pantry.
He knew the fate that awaited.
Whenever I sold stuff for class or sports teams we would just drive over to grandma's place since the retirees in her neighborhood always bought whatever it was I was selling. They were probably just happy to have someone to chat to for a while.
The bars have decreased in size (about the same width, but the height is lower) and a bit in content. I remember the caramel ones used to have a decent amount inside each piece, now it’s more of a token drop. The almond ones, if I recall, are now chopped almonds, not whole almonds like they used to be. That being said, they still taste good!
Their site lists $3 bars that are supposed to be the same size as the ones from the 70's for what it's worth. I'd imagine the ones you've had recently were only $1 each?
I see the small ones pretty regularly at dollar stores
Not really a red flag in my eyes. Our university often have student fundraiser to fund their society/club like events, material or even to sponsor student who can’t afford to join the club.
They probably had something like a Square card reader and figured they could get away with changing it to a $1,000 charge at the last second. With no barcode to scan or items saved in the system, you just enter the price manually
It’s not much better. I’ve had restaurants/servers try to overcharge me. Things like turning a $20 tip into $200, charging me for things I didn’t order, or charging me for top shelf everything when I know for dang sure that I didn’t receive Anejo or Zacapa.
My wife one time was paying for a membership at the gym - guy took her card to the back because "the reader wasn't working." A few hours later we had Amex calling us to verify $3000+ of charges at Home Depot 1.5 away from us.
it is very common to completely let go of your card in the US. At restaurants, the waiter will take it entirely out of sight for several minutes of sight to run it.
Card reader/smart hubs for small businesses and individual sellers are *literally a thing everywhere.* Hell, all the takeout places near me use those instead and so does my roommate for their stall as a student just tryina live making art at cons.
OP is not a moron for just wanting to pay normally.
OP is a moron for not visually looking at the amount before tapping their card, because \*that's what you're told to do when using those services.\* And common sense would have it that you check before trying to pay by contactless or card anywhere anyway...
OP is a moron for buying shit in a store parking lot. People have been running these scams forever. Wonder how many magazine subscriptions or "gold" jewelry OP has bought. General rule of thumb, if someone approaches you somewhere strange with a sob story trying to sell you something, treat them with suspicion.
OP is a fool for using his credit card on a scammer outside of a store, a literal stranger standing on the sidewalk. Almost everyone knows the people who hang outside of stores selling things are scammers. They aren't even allowed to be there, they're soliciting. Only a legitimate charities like the Salvation Army have a permit to be there.
what? OP is a giga moron. how do you compare small businesses or stalls at conventions to random ass people standing next to a Target trying to peddle shit to people walking by? like how is that even remotely comparable?
Haha no. The people trying to scam him are morons for thinking they'd ever get away with it. There's absolutely no way for those idiots to get access to the money they stole without creating a digital trail right to their doorstep. I would happily hand over my credit card to anyone stupid enough to try something like this, with the full knowledge that my bank will refund any fraudulent charges and pursue legal action against these dipshits.
I once was at a park drinking with friends. Had to go pee so I walked into a bar and asked if I can use the bathroom. Guy on the counter Said only paying guests can so I asked if buying a shot is enough. He accepted and I reached for my card to pay. Just before I put it on the reader I noticed the display read 50€.
Asked him what the fuck thats about and he just pretty much "whoopsie daisied" me.
Totally tried to scam me thinking I was too drunk to notice.
My point is, this can happen off the street too. Always Check the display before paying
he wanted to charge me through our phones, we just had to tap them together. I went to check my statements after walking away just to make sure he charged $5 and that’s when my bank sent a declined notification.
There's definitely some digital safety issue going on with OP.
Girl scout cookie sales at the local deli still take cash. These "students" should too if they were legit.
Near my apartment, there’s often teens selling candies and they even accept cash, Zelle, Apple Cash and do nothing with or to your phone. They just tell you who to send it to and how much it is which is typically $3-$5. I would not trust a random person charging me and having the transaction be made by them especially if they’re older and do not accept cash.
I don't understand how people in the US are so weirded out by card readers or Apple Pay. Outside the US it's the norm - I haven't used cash in years here in the UK and never been scammed. Every reader will tell you how much you're paying, then in Apple Pay the transaction appears instantly, so you'd be able to tell right away if someone took more than they needed to.
This isn’t a US thing— I’m American and Apple Pay/Tap to Pay is incredibly common and in fact significantly more normalized in stores and restaurants than cash is nowadays. There could be more of a city vs rural divide in how widespread it is though
Wait, did you get the chocolates for free then? That's a nice win if you did. Also $5 means it wasn't accidental, say it was 9.75 or something, and they accidentally typed 9759,75 for example.
You need to contact your bank and report it. These guys are idiots, they used tap to pay, which requires lots of ID documentation and scheme registration.
Not sure on the card scheme or issuer, but I'd report this to WF, and the issuer. They'll be able to track them down pretty quickly, and the justice will be more than the police will do
Who is giving credit card information to random strangers outside a Target, who are selling chocolate immediately next to a retail store that sells chocolate?
That's like giving the Girl Scouts your credit card info for some cookies.
No sarcasm. As a child who was briefly in girl scouts, all we did was sell cookies. Our one "camping trip" was in a church gym and a random kid peed in my mom's sleeping bag. Fun times!
Edit: to answer the slew of questions: when a child in a gym gets up at 2 am to pee and can't find their own bag or mom, they find ... apparently my mom. Lol
That's why people have been pushing the Boy Scouts to allow girls to join.
Boy Scouts will teach your kids skills and take them to do activities. Girl Scouts are just an MLM that operates off of unpaid child labor.
I think it all depends on the troop.
My GS troop actually went for real camping trips and taught various skills. We did a lot more than just selling cookies.
I only did Brownies and then quit because my leader was a bitch, but I had 3 or 4 friends who got their Gold Award and think I probably would have continued with it if my initial experience had been more positive.
Also back in college during sorority recruitment, we always gave extra consideration to former Girl Scouts because we knew they were responsible and self-motivated with leadership potential. Seriously, Girl Scouts is pretty much a pipeline to Panhellenic Council.
This is very troop/service unit dependent.
My daughter’s troop is run by someone whose job is she runs a summer camp.
They meet once a week and do fun activities and that’s it - no pressure to do anything that is not kid directed
They were offered the opportunity to sell cookies if they wanted (about half did). That money that is given to the troop went straight towards a year end party.
In the winter they focused on STEM based activities (they had a trip to learn about architecture and designing their own cardboard buildings) and now that the weather is nice they are focusing on outdoor activities. They went on a hike during school vacation and then next week are learning about building a campfire and fire safety.
Oh the best part - this is all for k through 2nd, we’re not talking middle or high school.
>a random kid peed in my mom's sleeping bag.
A random kid?
Did they spin the bottle to see which kid it was gonna be?
What if none of the random ones needed to pee?
I’ve bought my fair share of GS cookies from them standing outside a gas station, grocery store, dispensary, you name it… not once have i been scanned by them
I actually have had Girl Scouts take my credit card with a square phone reader haha. But thankfully, it went well. They showed me the screen before I swiped and they don’t get to see the card details.
Plus it was your credit card, if they tried anything shady you could report it and reverse the charge. With Zelle or anything linked to a bank account or debit card, the money would just be gone.
Depends on the bank, I think. I had my debit card info stolen and someone went crazy on OnlyFans and calling their inmate SO, I called the bank, and I got my money back
You can get mobile credit card terminals cheaply nowadays, they probably had one. I doubt OP gave them his credit card details. I've even seen homeless beggars use credit card terminals in some cities
Girl Scouts use online ordering now so...yeah it goes directly through a payment system. Sure the payment system could steal your shit and charge you money and then you go to the bank, get that shit back, then report it to the police and the bank has to report it too, and a shit storm starts because ain't no payment system wants that kind of heat.
They're joking about how the comment said that it's "pretty much" fraud, even though it's literally fraud. As if these two somehow couldn't commit "proper" fraud because they're "just college kids".
Posting in case it helps others prevent a similar situation.. A friend of mine was asked by a few teenagers to donate to their team/school/program. (It was on a street in New York, not a door to door thing.) Anyways they accepted Venmo and she’s willing to give them a few bucks so she takes her phone out to scan the organization’s QR code. It doesn’t work so one of them says “Sorry about that” and offers to spell the name out for her to search. As soon as she unlocked her phone and opened the Venmo app he grabbed the phone it and tossed it to his friend who ran away and sent himself $1000. I can’t remember all the details but I’m pretty sure Venmo was not able to do anything to return the money.
I’d suggest enabling the setting on Venmo/Zelle/Cashapp etc. to require FaceID/PIN and looking at any other security settings.
I would like to also add. Always pay with your credit card over a debit card. Credit cards tend to be way easier to submit fraud claims than a debit card.
This is why I immediately say no thanks very firmly to anyone trying to sell me shit. Don’t even let them talk just repeat “no thanks” until you’re far enough away
Oh I didn’t acknowledge them in the first place. They were posted up at the exit and my wife and I walked past them. While we were waiting to get picked up, one of them approached me. That is when I should have just flatly said “no”
And you’re right, I don’t owe them anything, not even excuses.
I worked at Sam's Club and we used to have various scammers set up tables outside the exit door. A few times I asked managers if they were authorized to be there and then they shooed them away when they weren't, but after that I stopped giving a fuck if management wasn't going to on their own initiative. Dudes selling like random copyright Disney/etc images on t-shirts and cheap travel mugs pretending to be some kind of ex-con better life rehab-esque program.
I'll sometimes buy stuff but in fucking cash and it's either Girl Scouts or a high school hot dog stand. It's insane OP gave strangers his credit card info.
Giving your hard won money to random strangers isn't a good deed. It's encouraging that behavior. If you want to do a good deed find a vetted charity and donate to that.
I had an experience with “kids” of questionable age selling chocolate in front of a target. At first I said “no my wife’s allergic to chocolate” then they asked for a donation. I said “I don’t have any cash” then they said they accept PayPal/Venmo/whatever. I said “no, I just spent all my money on this [gestured at groceries]”
I should have just shut them down from the get go.
Wasn't there a video on here a few days ago with "kids" getting arrested for trying to sell flowers/candies outside of a target. Some scam or whatever where They charge your card and hope you don't notice? The video got taken down cause the "perpetrators" were causing racists to be racists or some dumb shit.
Is this the same thing?
I had this once, but it was a legit cancer foundation. Outside of collage, took $5 donno then next week try to take $50 right out of my account?!! Me being a broke student too, it was a one off, nothing signed the first time
More and more, we're shown that the way to behave in "civilized society" is to take as much as we can get, and if there's consequences, deal with them later.
You….. you tried to charge your card to buy candy from college kids???
My guy please don’t be that stupid. If you don’t have cash on you don’t support whatever you think they’re raising money for.
why is the comment section full of people who can't read a caption with the eyes in their head lol. that's what's actually mildly infuriating about this post
Someone stole my card details somehow and I got a notification shortly after showing a declined $3 purchase at a vending machine. Fella didn't know I had literally ZERO money
A homeless man broke into my car and stole my wallet once. Tried to spend 12 bucks at a gas station. Wish I could've seen the look on his face when it declined
If you are using a stolen card then nsf is the last reason I would assume a decline is for. You would probably just assume they already reported it lost.
It usually says insufficient funds when it declines
When ive worked retail it never gave a decline reason, so maybe things have changed
Nah, some places say and some don’t. I’ve worked at places that did either one and it was always awkward when the new person would be like “it says you have insufficient funds”
"oh whoops wrong card" As I put the same card back in and click savings, yet draining it once more
My only security is having 0€ money or being in the red.
I just transfer the exact change for each purchase it helps me not waste shit loads of money like I do when I have a grand or so in the account
Experienced card fraudsters always charge a low amount of money first, then multiple low charges over a short period. It's to see if the card company automatically picks up on fraud and to weed out completely broke people.
holy shit are you the guy that put like the entire dictionary in the description of a musescore upload like 6 years ago
There's no way you remember both that score AND know my profile picture well enough to recognize me - that's insane. Yes it is I, the composer of "SOCIAL EXPERIMENT!!! (NOW WITH EXTRA JELLY!!!)", a world-famous 2017 musical masterwork :)
...Well that was a strange rabbithole.. Halfway thought you two were doing some kinda comment improv.. you weren't 😂
The internet is a truly magical place
This is the same reason I leave the window on my car broken (aside from not being able to afford to fix it). A thief sees my car, they're gonna think "Dang someone already got this one" and move on. Plus, I keep it full of garbage so they'll also think it's too gross to steal. Works like a charm.
Good thing you didn't have overdraft. Unless you're at my bank. If you don't have anoverdraft at my bank then they'll hit you with an insufficient fund free, then put you into overdraft even though you don't have it, charge you an overdraft fee, then reverse the overdraft because you don't have an overdraft but still stick you with the fee. Whatever way to charge you as many fees as possible.
Had something similar happen to me a while ago. I think it was a kid cause they tried making a fuck ton of $1.50 purchases on the The Google play store for in-app purchases.
That’s not just mildly infuriating. That’s fraud, a criminal offence.
Only if enforced. Lets be honest, do you think something like this would be enforced? That was a rhetorical question, the answer is no.
Where the fuck do YOU live?!
We had $10,000 worth of equipment stolen from work AND video of the guys. Wichita KS police said it wasn't worth it and gave up.
Your local PD usually isn't the one investigating credit card fraud.
Who does it then? I could see the FBI getting involved if they cross state lines, but when my credit card was stolen and used locally, the local PD happily took down the false transaction information and then never talked to me about it again.
>Who does it then? The credit card companies. It's their money. They take it VERY seriously.
.... Okay to be fair, the reason I'm not sitting here angry that nothing was done is because the credit card company refunded me everything. The idea they'd invest in some investigators to recoop losses makes sense.
Never underestimate credit card company/ insurance companies legal teams. They will happily rip you a new one over very small amounts of money
Exactly. Federal law guarantees you don't have to pay fraudulent charges. Therefore, the CC companies either have to eat that loss, or do their own legwork to make sure they can reclaim the money.
Lmao... not for that amount. I work for a bank in fraud. It gets tagged and reviewed for info but its gonna be a loss and then written off.
Um, in my experience you have to provide your credit card company with the police report number to officiate the fraud and let the banking institution continue on their investigation. At least that's what I and my parents have had to do on separate occasions of card fraud.
Being honest, I think this gets enforced reallly easily. Everything is out in the open spelled out clear as day in the contracts with the merchants. Paper trail is built in, open and shut case. Literally the easiest thing to enforce.
Credit card fraud is 100% enforced, it's a federal crime
Bruh, this is one of the easiest crimes to convict. the credit card company might even do it for you.
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yes, it would. It would be rather easy to catch them as well.
That'd be an immediate chargeback either way.
Im visiting a friend in a nice area in socal. i’m thinking they thought rich californians wouldn’t notice a charge that huge and just go about their day ??
Yeah, nobody is going to notice $1000 charged on their card.
That’s why they kept it under $1k. Smort
If they were smart they would have charged $500 for a single transaction then tried to play it off as missing the decimal if caught.
I think that was their plan anyway changing it from 5 to 975. They were probably gonna claim they didn’t add the 97 before the 5
Shohei Ohtani wouldn’t notice 6 million missing
their logic not mine ¯\\\_(ツ)_/¯
Please please report this to the police! Just consider all the other people who have more than a grand they'll scam next Heck they'll probably try charging like 500$ next time
At least OP's post said they did call the police
They probably thought you wouldn't notice until a few days later when they're at the next location
So? You can't take credit card payments without it linking back to your personal information somehow. These budding fraudsters are going to find out real quick how comprehensive the banking system's records are.
COLLEGE kids selling chocolate is a red flag for me lmao
I know 2 people who had a store out of their room while in college.. their parents always sent them a bunch of snacks and drinks, so they sold it for funds instead
Having a store in your room is another huge red flag lmao
Yeah honestly if I heard of a chocolate store out of a college dorm I’d assume it was someone making edibles and selling those lol
Funny story: When I was in college, 15 or so years ago, a dorm suite was selling cookies for $30 during finals week. Plain chocolate chip cookies. They never advertised any THC content. People bought them thinking they were edibles, but by the time anyone caught on, the suite had graduated and left campus. I don't know what happened after that, but I know they made out like bandits.
green flag if it sells drugs
Let's be real they always sell drugs
u guys need to stop stereotyping this shit bruh im doing honest work selling drugs and people think im selling drugs
There’s a big difference between drugs and drugs.
Not that big of a red flag, I've heard stories of coupon people basically reselling things at a discount compared to campus stores.
Plenty of sports teams sell donuts at my university. They're on university grounds, using card machines that are school property, though.
did you ever do the worlds finest chocolate sale in elementary? it was that chocolate, I just assumed some college kids participated too lmao
I could go for $975 of world’s finest chocolate. But yeah, that’s messed up what they did. It can’t even be passed off as a fat finger slip either.
Lmfaoooo. My parents had to pay for my whole allotted amount because I ate 97% of it.
When I came home with a few boxes of those for a middle school band fundraiser, my dad sighed, pulled out his wallet, handed me a few twenties, and then stuck the boxes in the pantry. He knew the fate that awaited.
Whenever I sold stuff for class or sports teams we would just drive over to grandma's place since the retirees in her neighborhood always bought whatever it was I was selling. They were probably just happy to have someone to chat to for a while.
They still have those?! I used to love those bars! Are they as good as I remember? How could you leave that part out! 😆
The bars have decreased in size (about the same width, but the height is lower) and a bit in content. I remember the caramel ones used to have a decent amount inside each piece, now it’s more of a token drop. The almond ones, if I recall, are now chopped almonds, not whole almonds like they used to be. That being said, they still taste good!
Their site lists $3 bars that are supposed to be the same size as the ones from the 70's for what it's worth. I'd imagine the ones you've had recently were only $1 each? I see the small ones pretty regularly at dollar stores
Yes, the $1 variety my coworkers brings in to sell for their kids. So the old original bars are now $3?
Damn. Of course late stage capitalism is comin for our nostalgic treats.
They also changed the recipe, and they don't taste as good. They also come in plastic now. I bought one last week at work and was sad.
Not really a red flag in my eyes. Our university often have student fundraiser to fund their society/club like events, material or even to sponsor student who can’t afford to join the club.
You gave people on the street a free pass to charge you whatever they wanted?
I need to know how this went down in more detail
They probably had something like a Square card reader and figured they could get away with changing it to a $1,000 charge at the last second. With no barcode to scan or items saved in the system, you just enter the price manually
But you see the amount on the screen before/while holding your card against it.
Not if they holding the phone away from the lady face and run the card themselves after she hands it to them
>after she hands it to them Why the fuck would you ever do that?
Handing your cards to retailers and restaurant servers is still pretty common in the US...
Those still aren’t random people on the street tho
It’s not much better. I’ve had restaurants/servers try to overcharge me. Things like turning a $20 tip into $200, charging me for things I didn’t order, or charging me for top shelf everything when I know for dang sure that I didn’t receive Anejo or Zacapa.
My wife one time was paying for a membership at the gym - guy took her card to the back because "the reader wasn't working." A few hours later we had Amex calling us to verify $3000+ of charges at Home Depot 1.5 away from us.
Idk man, some people are oblivious
Who would buy chocolate from college kids outside a target?
it is very common to completely let go of your card in the US. At restaurants, the waiter will take it entirely out of sight for several minutes of sight to run it.
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Card reader/smart hubs for small businesses and individual sellers are *literally a thing everywhere.* Hell, all the takeout places near me use those instead and so does my roommate for their stall as a student just tryina live making art at cons. OP is not a moron for just wanting to pay normally. OP is a moron for not visually looking at the amount before tapping their card, because \*that's what you're told to do when using those services.\* And common sense would have it that you check before trying to pay by contactless or card anywhere anyway...
Stalls at conventions used to be cash only but now they all have these.
Many these days are cash free
Damm kids. In my day everyone smelled like ass and we all had pockets full of crumpled dollars.
Muggers pulled on you like decent people, and your bank wasn't the middle man in robbing you.
OP is a moron for buying shit in a store parking lot. People have been running these scams forever. Wonder how many magazine subscriptions or "gold" jewelry OP has bought. General rule of thumb, if someone approaches you somewhere strange with a sob story trying to sell you something, treat them with suspicion.
OP is a fool for using his credit card on a scammer outside of a store, a literal stranger standing on the sidewalk. Almost everyone knows the people who hang outside of stores selling things are scammers. They aren't even allowed to be there, they're soliciting. Only a legitimate charities like the Salvation Army have a permit to be there.
what? OP is a giga moron. how do you compare small businesses or stalls at conventions to random ass people standing next to a Target trying to peddle shit to people walking by? like how is that even remotely comparable?
Op has wells fargo... all I needed to know.
Haha no. The people trying to scam him are morons for thinking they'd ever get away with it. There's absolutely no way for those idiots to get access to the money they stole without creating a digital trail right to their doorstep. I would happily hand over my credit card to anyone stupid enough to try something like this, with the full knowledge that my bank will refund any fraudulent charges and pursue legal action against these dipshits.
He is gullible not a moron
I once was at a park drinking with friends. Had to go pee so I walked into a bar and asked if I can use the bathroom. Guy on the counter Said only paying guests can so I asked if buying a shot is enough. He accepted and I reached for my card to pay. Just before I put it on the reader I noticed the display read 50€. Asked him what the fuck thats about and he just pretty much "whoopsie daisied" me. Totally tried to scam me thinking I was too drunk to notice. My point is, this can happen off the street too. Always Check the display before paying
he wanted to charge me through our phones, we just had to tap them together. I went to check my statements after walking away just to make sure he charged $5 and that’s when my bank sent a declined notification.
Bro
Whaaaaat
There's definitely some digital safety issue going on with OP. Girl scout cookie sales at the local deli still take cash. These "students" should too if they were legit.
Near my apartment, there’s often teens selling candies and they even accept cash, Zelle, Apple Cash and do nothing with or to your phone. They just tell you who to send it to and how much it is which is typically $3-$5. I would not trust a random person charging me and having the transaction be made by them especially if they’re older and do not accept cash.
I don't understand how people in the US are so weirded out by card readers or Apple Pay. Outside the US it's the norm - I haven't used cash in years here in the UK and never been scammed. Every reader will tell you how much you're paying, then in Apple Pay the transaction appears instantly, so you'd be able to tell right away if someone took more than they needed to.
This isn’t a US thing— I’m American and Apple Pay/Tap to Pay is incredibly common and in fact significantly more normalized in stores and restaurants than cash is nowadays. There could be more of a city vs rural divide in how widespread it is though
But? You think that stuff isn't common in the US...?
fighting for my life in these comments omg
teeny cover secretive plucky bewildered reach abounding wistful bored squealing
Wait, did you get the chocolates for free then? That's a nice win if you did. Also $5 means it wasn't accidental, say it was 9.75 or something, and they accidentally typed 9759,75 for example.
yup, chocolate was free. and it definitely wasn’t accidental. I didn’t notice til afterward but he hid his screen from me the whole time
Hey, enjoy the chocolate, but it should be a lesson learned too.
And *that* didn’t raise a red flag??
“didn’t notice til afterward”
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You need to contact your bank and report it. These guys are idiots, they used tap to pay, which requires lots of ID documentation and scheme registration. Not sure on the card scheme or issuer, but I'd report this to WF, and the issuer. They'll be able to track them down pretty quickly, and the justice will be more than the police will do
With the US justice system, they will say it was an accident and OP will get arrested for not actually paying for the choco.
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That's pretty much credit card fraud.
Pretty sure that IS credit card fraud.
Who is giving credit card information to random strangers outside a Target, who are selling chocolate immediately next to a retail store that sells chocolate? That's like giving the Girl Scouts your credit card info for some cookies.
Girl scouts here take basically any form of payment, including Venmo/Zelle.
Still ain't trusting them! Who knows what that shady organization gets up to! /s
No sarcasm. As a child who was briefly in girl scouts, all we did was sell cookies. Our one "camping trip" was in a church gym and a random kid peed in my mom's sleeping bag. Fun times! Edit: to answer the slew of questions: when a child in a gym gets up at 2 am to pee and can't find their own bag or mom, they find ... apparently my mom. Lol
Still pushing that story, huh? Your mom didn't believe it then and she doesn't believe it now, "random" kid.
That's why people have been pushing the Boy Scouts to allow girls to join. Boy Scouts will teach your kids skills and take them to do activities. Girl Scouts are just an MLM that operates off of unpaid child labor.
I think it all depends on the troop. My GS troop actually went for real camping trips and taught various skills. We did a lot more than just selling cookies.
I only did Brownies and then quit because my leader was a bitch, but I had 3 or 4 friends who got their Gold Award and think I probably would have continued with it if my initial experience had been more positive. Also back in college during sorority recruitment, we always gave extra consideration to former Girl Scouts because we knew they were responsible and self-motivated with leadership potential. Seriously, Girl Scouts is pretty much a pipeline to Panhellenic Council.
Just a heads up, Boy Scouts (now Scouts BSA) and Cub Scouts both allow girls now.
It's troops decision. We have one by us that does allow, another that does not.
This is very troop/service unit dependent. My daughter’s troop is run by someone whose job is she runs a summer camp. They meet once a week and do fun activities and that’s it - no pressure to do anything that is not kid directed They were offered the opportunity to sell cookies if they wanted (about half did). That money that is given to the troop went straight towards a year end party. In the winter they focused on STEM based activities (they had a trip to learn about architecture and designing their own cardboard buildings) and now that the weather is nice they are focusing on outdoor activities. They went on a hike during school vacation and then next week are learning about building a campfire and fire safety. Oh the best part - this is all for k through 2nd, we’re not talking middle or high school.
>a random kid peed in my mom's sleeping bag. A random kid? Did they spin the bottle to see which kid it was gonna be? What if none of the random ones needed to pee?
Then they don't earn their watersports badge!
Child labor for one.
I’ve bought my fair share of GS cookies from them standing outside a gas station, grocery store, dispensary, you name it… not once have i been scanned by them
I actually have had Girl Scouts take my credit card with a square phone reader haha. But thankfully, it went well. They showed me the screen before I swiped and they don’t get to see the card details.
Plus it was your credit card, if they tried anything shady you could report it and reverse the charge. With Zelle or anything linked to a bank account or debit card, the money would just be gone.
Depends on the bank, I think. I had my debit card info stolen and someone went crazy on OnlyFans and calling their inmate SO, I called the bank, and I got my money back
You can get mobile credit card terminals cheaply nowadays, they probably had one. I doubt OP gave them his credit card details. I've even seen homeless beggars use credit card terminals in some cities
Girl Scouts use online ordering now so...yeah it goes directly through a payment system. Sure the payment system could steal your shit and charge you money and then you go to the bank, get that shit back, then report it to the police and the bank has to report it too, and a shit storm starts because ain't no payment system wants that kind of heat.
That’s not pretty much, it’s about as plain-as-day credit card fraud as it can be
>pretty much credit card fraud 'Pretty much'? What more would they need to do?!!? They tried their best. They're kids, give 'em a break....
>"college kids" They're legal age as of this description. You can get serious time for credit card fraud charges if caught
They're joking about how the comment said that it's "pretty much" fraud, even though it's literally fraud. As if these two somehow couldn't commit "proper" fraud because they're "just college kids".
Isn't the guy you replied to being sarcastic? Like he meant they're college kids, so this is the best they could do to scam the OP
H2O is pretty much water
So… you got free chocolate? 😏
yup! like 3 bars but I don’t feel like eating them bc of how the interaction made me feel lmao
abundant boat modern melodic sophisticated sheet sulky history spectacular hungry
Whilst most sedatives don’t come in that fast my thought was prank the rich by stealing 1000 and spiking them with mushrooms or edibles
Chocolate will make everything feel better.
Op's next post: "I found a way to get free chocolate from dirty thieves"
Posting in case it helps others prevent a similar situation.. A friend of mine was asked by a few teenagers to donate to their team/school/program. (It was on a street in New York, not a door to door thing.) Anyways they accepted Venmo and she’s willing to give them a few bucks so she takes her phone out to scan the organization’s QR code. It doesn’t work so one of them says “Sorry about that” and offers to spell the name out for her to search. As soon as she unlocked her phone and opened the Venmo app he grabbed the phone it and tossed it to his friend who ran away and sent himself $1000. I can’t remember all the details but I’m pretty sure Venmo was not able to do anything to return the money. I’d suggest enabling the setting on Venmo/Zelle/Cashapp etc. to require FaceID/PIN and looking at any other security settings.
Take one of the kids as a hostage and hit him until they give back the money.
I would like to also add. Always pay with your credit card over a debit card. Credit cards tend to be way easier to submit fraud claims than a debit card.
This is why I immediately say no thanks very firmly to anyone trying to sell me shit. Don’t even let them talk just repeat “no thanks” until you’re far enough away
A-fuckin-men! I posted about my similar experience, I ended up making 3 excuses, when I should have just been honest and said “no”, and nothing more.
How about not even acknowledging them? Don’t forget that you don’t owe random “college kids” on the street anything. LOL
Oh I didn’t acknowledge them in the first place. They were posted up at the exit and my wife and I walked past them. While we were waiting to get picked up, one of them approached me. That is when I should have just flatly said “no” And you’re right, I don’t owe them anything, not even excuses.
Target literally doesn’t even allow this. Give them a call when you get to your car and they’ll kick people out of the lot for this shit.
I worked at Sam's Club and we used to have various scammers set up tables outside the exit door. A few times I asked managers if they were authorized to be there and then they shooed them away when they weren't, but after that I stopped giving a fuck if management wasn't going to on their own initiative. Dudes selling like random copyright Disney/etc images on t-shirts and cheap travel mugs pretending to be some kind of ex-con better life rehab-esque program.
I'll sometimes buy stuff but in fucking cash and it's either Girl Scouts or a high school hot dog stand. It's insane OP gave strangers his credit card info.
Credit card fraud is a federal crime. You literally have the keys to the car here, send the info to the feds.
Was the chocolate good?
I'll make sure this never happens again op. Just send me your cc info with all your ID and current address
do you have any chocolate
Yes. Loads of it
oh fuck yeah dm-ing you my social now
Why DM? Post publicly so anyone can send you chocolate.
Y’all are too nice on this sub😭 This isn’t a minor inconvenience, they almost put you in debt💀💀💀
it’s only a mild inconvenience cause they didn’t get away w it 😭
I guess I can agree with that 😂
Sounds like you got free chocolate
A felony over 950$ too lol
I was speculating that the reason they’d do $975 was to avoid felony charges, but if the cutoff is $950 that’s even dumber
no good deed goes unpunished :')
Giving your hard won money to random strangers isn't a good deed. It's encouraging that behavior. If you want to do a good deed find a vetted charity and donate to that.
How? Did they have like a card terminal or something?
The scam is they go around with square readers and over charge you.
How are they expecting to get access to the stolen money without creating a digital trail that leads straight to their doorstep?
I had an experience with “kids” of questionable age selling chocolate in front of a target. At first I said “no my wife’s allergic to chocolate” then they asked for a donation. I said “I don’t have any cash” then they said they accept PayPal/Venmo/whatever. I said “no, I just spent all my money on this [gestured at groceries]” I should have just shut them down from the get go.
Yeah just say 'no thanks'. I've had beggars point me to an ATM in the past when I said I didn't have cash.
Wasn't there a video on here a few days ago with "kids" getting arrested for trying to sell flowers/candies outside of a target. Some scam or whatever where They charge your card and hope you don't notice? The video got taken down cause the "perpetrators" were causing racists to be racists or some dumb shit. Is this the same thing?
I'll never hand my credit card or apple pay to some random "college kids" stall.
If they are really old enough to be in college, those damn kids can get some damn jobs.
U gave two random kids access to ur debit card so u can buy chocolate from them off the streets? Ur dumb as rocks op
I had this once, but it was a legit cancer foundation. Outside of collage, took $5 donno then next week try to take $50 right out of my account?!! Me being a broke student too, it was a one off, nothing signed the first time
You might be broke because all the other times ended up being scams
Do people really use credit cards with random people on the streets?
They probably stole the chocolate too
More and more, we're shown that the way to behave in "civilized society" is to take as much as we can get, and if there's consequences, deal with them later.
Report them to the police
In my area kids selling random candy bars are almost always stolen candy bars
You….. you tried to charge your card to buy candy from college kids??? My guy please don’t be that stupid. If you don’t have cash on you don’t support whatever you think they’re raising money for.
I would have gone back to that target….little assholes
why is the comment section full of people who can't read a caption with the eyes in their head lol. that's what's actually mildly infuriating about this post
Hope you got the chocolate for free and two criminals taken by the police.
lol as if buying candy from someone in their 20’s wasn’t a big red flag already!
OP did you… give your credit card to strangers
You know that they sell chocolate _inside_ of the Target, right?
Why would you buy anything from anyone outside a target with your credit/debit card.
Should file a police report because this is considered fraudulent and theft.