43 replies to this topic

[Hydrogen]

As you might have just seen, we have banned the user lyro34 from our site for using a stolen Paypal account to purchase Neocash cards. The paypal account which Lyro34 used was owned by someone else who had no idea what Neocodex is and issued a chargeback against us. This meant that we had to return the funds used to purchase Neocash from us while also losing the inventory that Lyro34 stole. If someone stole money from my paypal account like this, I would have done the same thing.

While it does mean a loss for Neocodex, it's nothing that we can't recover from. However, we need to beef up our security around these sorts of things. We blogged about a similar issue nearly six months ago. Back then, we put Maxmind.com fraud prevention in place. Today, we've changed some of the rules regarding how we deal with fraud to hopefully prevent situations like this in the future.

One of the changes we are making is that we are now going to require full billing addresses when you purchase items from our store. Many of you already use your full billing address in the store, so this won't affect you at all. I just wanted to let you guys know in case you started seeing errors that you didn't see before.

Please let me know if you have any questions or comments regarding this news post. You can also feel free to PM me directly if you want to keep what you have to say private .

Note: the theft occurred some time ago. We've just been a bit slow in announcing it . Personally, I've been incredibly busy at work .

[Strategist]

Lowlife scum of the earth. That is all.

[Revan79]

OMG that is simply horrible. I am so sorry this has happened to your site.

[Hydrogen]

OMG that is simply horrible. I am so sorry this has happened to your site.

Part of the business and part of life , but thank you . I still have to call paypal about this to see if they can do anything.

[Drakonid]

Are you going to report the NC codes to neopets?

[Hydrogen]

Are you going to report the NC codes to neopets?

I hadn't thought of doing that. That's not a bad idea. Can you link me to where I can do that?

[Drakonid]

http://www.neopets.com/contact.phtml

 

When did you remove the safe link thingy?

Edited by Drakonid, 21 March 2013 - 09:36 PM.

[Hydrogen]

http://www.neopets.com/contact.phtml
 
When did you remove the safe link thingy?

It's been gone since we upgraded the board a while back ... I need to add it back in.

I'll see about contacting them regarding this. Do you know if they are cool with reselling Neocash card codes?

[Drakonid]

Well, there's nothing against it in their ToS and it doesn't affect them in the slightest, so I don't see why not.

[Harlow]

They don't mind the reselling of NC Cards (people sell on ebay/etc to those who do not have access) but they won't do anything about it I'm afraid. My email got hacked and the codes that walmart sent for the NC Cards were stolen. I contacted TNT about it and they said that nothing could be done. Wouldn't even tell me if they froze whoever used them.   Then again, I guess it wouldn't hurt?

Edited by Harlow, 21 March 2013 - 11:30 PM.

[Drakonid]

They don't mind the reselling of NC Cards (people sell on ebay/etc to those who do not have access) but they won't do anything about it I'm afraid. My email got hacked and the codes that walmart sent for the NC Cards were stolen. I contacted TNT about it and they said that nothing could be done. Wouldn't even tell me if they froze whoever used them.   Then again, I guess it wouldn't hurt?

It's not about TNT giving the codes back, but about them disabling the codes...

[Eefi]

Umm.. I wonder how a full billing address would help? The user who stole a Paypal account could just use the address that's inside the Paypal account, create a new address in that account or create a new Neocodex account using the stolen address.

[Cript]

How do you know the person wasn't lying about the account being stolen?

[TheMysteryDoctor]

Ouch that really sucks that codex is the one that has to pay up even after it was someone else that stole them. is there any legal action to be taken or is it set in stone what has transpired?

[Chappy]

Umm.. I wonder how a full billing address would help? The user who stole a Paypal account could just use the address that's inside the Paypal account, create a new address in that account or create a new Neocodex account using the stolen address.

I was about to ask that. In Paypal you need your billing address so it's possible for them to retrieve it. I mean since they new the password. ;/ Idk really how everything like hacking works ,but I hope no one is low enough to do that again. I hope everything works out Hydrogen! (and thanks for letting us all know~)

[Waser Lave]

How do you know the person wasn't lying about the account being stolen?

 

That's probably not something we should go in to too much detail in public but we're pretty confident about it.

[CFaLLs]

Part of the business and part of life , but thank you . I still have to call paypal about this to see if they can do anything.

Good luck talking to PayPal, when i ran my site had to deal with multiple charge backs and they simply send you back and forth from person to person, and after about 3 1/2 hours on the phone they will say its a risk and the liability falls in your hands due to the fact they won't deal with virtual goods as it's untraceable and you can't provide tracking information to ensure the purchased good actually was received.

[Hydrogen]

Good luck talking to PayPal, when i ran my site had to deal with multiple charge backs and they simply send you back and forth from person to person, and after about 3 1/2 hours on the phone they will say its a risk and the liability falls in your hands due to the fact they won't deal with virtual goods as it's untraceable and you can't provide tracking information to ensure the purchased good actually was received.

I know . I've been on the phone with them regarding situations like these in the past as well. I really hate working with them and so does pretty much everyone else who uses them. But they have a virtual monopoly online right now. If we got rid of paypal, we would be turning away a lot of users who like using them. It's something we've thought of in the past. We just haven't made a firm decision yet.

[Harlow]

It's not about TNT giving the codes back, but about them disabling the codes...

 

 

Ah, I see. I didn't think of that. 

I hope they can. 

[Revan79]

Paypal is the only way I can buy things from people on here, so without it I would be out of luck.  Sure I have a debit card but I like that it's linked to paypal and if I bring in any funds like others do selling stuff they can easily use it to buy things.  I hope it doesn't come to you guys needing to not have paypal around as it's what I use when I pay some bills online and stuff such as this.   

 

Yes the hassles of dealing with them on the phone too.  I sure there's a lot of press 1 for so and so and 2 for cadbury eggs and 3 to go home. *lol*  All I know lately is when I have to make calls to something important it's all about pushing numbers I wish it could go back to the days you got someone directly than all this waiting!

[flea]

If I give my billing address, will Codex give me theirs?

[Waser Lave]

If I give my billing address, will Codex give me theirs?

 

Yes.

[flea]

Is it a PO Box or a physical address?

[Waser Lave]

Is it a PO Box or a physical address?

 

It's not a virtual PO Box.

[Hedwig]

omgoodness yeah definately agree with the need for more security. it just stinks when someone has to ruin it for the rest of us. world is really messed up today cuz of all the scammers out there....try to get a passport now and see whatcha gotta go thru!!