(another) Fraud Alert

I ordered Some nic base last month from MFS. A week later someone in Georgia attempted to purchase a big screen TV using my credit card info. The only time I used that card in the last 3 months was at MFS. Anyone else had this happen to them?  

Got this email from Sourcemore at 2:01 this morning and thought I'd post it for those who aren't subscribed to their newsletter emails.

"Important Notice About Payment Methods - Sourcemore"​

"You should have heard of the ban of PayPal towards all vape-related payments.
Unfortunately, our PayPal account was just restricted. We are unable to use PayPal to make or accept payment any more. Our balance is frozen for up to 180 days.
We have to remove PayPal from our website.

New payment methods such as Credit Card will be added ASAP.
Please check us back in a few days for further information.
You may also write to us if you want to get the latest update: service@sourcemore.com.
We will make sure to contact you once the new payment methods are online.

If you have any suggestions or questions, please let us know.

Thank you so much for you trust and support all the time.
We believe we will overcome this together!"  

Because of items in my cart I can’t use PayPal or use a credit card. How do I make a payment?  

I've placed a couple orders with Fasttech over the last couple weeks. I just found 2 fraudulent charges on my credit card from "Elite Souvenir." All I can find on them is they're an Indonesian shop, which I've obviously never even heard of. So all I can really trace it to is my fasttech purchases.

I know tons of people order there with no issues, but if I don't get an assuring answer from the Chase fraud crew, I might have to just assume that's where this problem derived from. Scary! Now I should be sleeping for work in 5 hours, but I need a drink!  

I placed an order last night with no issues, but...

Notice--PayPal payment method will be suspended for most e-cigarettes items: FastTech Forums

Notice--PayPal payment method will be suspended for most e-cigarettes items

Dear valued customers,

We're very sorry to inform you that PayPal officially revised the Acceptable Use Policy regarding e-cigarette related products, transactions involving most of the e-cigarette products will be prohibited from now. Other payment methods such as cryptocurrencies and gift cards are not affected. Non-e-cigarette products on our website are also not affected.

Paypal claims that e-cigarettes belong to activities requiring approval. But the fact is there is no way we can get the pre-approval after confirming with Paypal.

We are currently connecting with new credit card payment processors and will try to get them online asap.

At the same time, we will keep communicating with PayPal at all times. Once there are any further updates of this policy, we will make an announcement.

We apologize for any inconvenience that this change may cause, and thank you all for your understanding and continued support.

Please do not hesitate to contact our customer service if you have any questions, as we will be very happy to assist you with anything you need.

Best regards,

FastTech Team  

Now I've seen everything. I put in my ENTIRE order including my credit card number and THEN they ask for age verification! I'M ORDERING ZERO NIC! They asked me to do some garbage with a cell phone and my driver's license. I take pictures with a camera, not my phone. That was after they claimed they could verify my age as long as I gave them my real birthday, which I did. I'm thinking of cancelling my credit card and filing a police report. I've been vape shopping since 2011 and have never been put through such malarkey FOR ZERO NIC. I'm 60 years old!  

I've just received a notice that Paypal is changing its terms and conditions, and buried deep inside the changes I found this.
PayPal said:
The Acceptable Use Policy currently prohibits use of PayPal for activities that violate applicable law or industry regulations regarding the sale of tobacco products or prescription drugs and devices. We're replacing that prohibition with new policy language covering these types of items, as well as e-cigarettes. Under the new language, use of PayPal for cigarette transactions will be prohibited. In addition, merchants will be permitted to use PayPal for sales of non-cigarette tobacco products, e-cigarettes, and prescription drugs and devices only with PayPal’s pre-approval.

...


The relevant parts of the chart under Activities Requiring Approval will be revised to read as follows: “PayPal requires pre-approval to accept payments for certain services as detailed in the chart below. [TABLE="width: 552"]
[TR]
[TD] Service Requiring Pre-Approval​
[/TD]
[TD] Contact Information​
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD] … selling … non-cigarette tobacco products, e-cigarettes or prescription drugs/devices.[/TD]
[TD] Please send contact information, business website URL and brief business summary to aup@paypal.com[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Click to expand...

Let's hope that this doesn't involve you telling them and them freezing your account while they sit on your application for months. But it seems like they might at least be warming to the idea that e-cigs are not the root of all evil.  

Just last Saturday I placed an order on Health Cabin and was able to pay via PayPal. However, last night I placed another order for items that were out of stock on Saturday. I placed my order, received the email confirmation, and info. that my order was pending payment, which has been usual since probably January. (There had always been instructions given then...about how to sort of "get around" PayPal's vape policy and still pay that way). I went back to HC to pull up my order and pay for it that same way, but found only Western Union as a payment option now. So, I contacted Support at HC. I just got the following email from them about paying for my order.

"Thank you for you big supports to HealthCabin.
Unfortunately, out of PayPal new policy to vaping related websites, we have to remove PayPal from our site now. You can see many vaping sites have removed PayPal about 1-3 months ago.

Now, we are sourcing new payment options and we will put them online in coming 2-3 weeks.

Right now, there are 2 options to process the payment:
1. Pay with Western Union, you can pay online or visit WU banks locally.
Check their website for more info: https://www.westernunion.com/us/en/home.html

2. Pay with deposit. For this option, you may send us money via bank wire transfer. We require minimum $200USD per transaction. Once payment received, we will add them to your account deposit, and you can use them to pay for future orders. We will show all detailed info about your deposit updates and happy to send you a receipt with our company official seal.

Let me know your thoughts, thank you."

I responded and definitely let him/her know my thoughts about it.

So, our options are steadily dwindling even more.  

since my last cigarette. I haven't been posting in recent months, I have been keeping up on the treadmill of life.
Thanks to ECF for being here, to the mods for keeping it sane, CASAA for working so that we can have a future, and all of you for helping each other and yourselves!

Like most of you, I spent too large a percentage of my life killing myself slowly, and eventually spending a lot of money to do so. In my particular case, I still loved smoking, but grew disgruntled over the health realities, BT, and the taxation of cigs. I have quit many times, in many ways, but never for more than a few months. During those few months, I was never pleasant to be around.

It's easy to make excuses to keep smoking, I made them all.

I am *not* an expert, and nobody asked me, but since I am waxing eloquent I will make suggestions about how it worked for me. YMMV

1. To quit smoking, you really only need two things. A device that works for you (charging, form factor, blahblah) and juice that you like.

2. Don't feel obligated to stop smoking immediately. I was an accidental quitter. Initially I wanted to smoke some and vape some. I could save some money, and not have to stand outside in the rain. It's OK to smoke while you are learning what works for you. You can do that for the rest of your life, if you want to.

2b. Keep an idea of where you are on supplies. You need backups of everything (home, work, car). After I decided to actually quit smoking, two weeks in I had two battery deaths in two days. I only had two batteries. After 12 hours of crazy, I had to smoke.

3. Learn your device well, before you start collecting more and more! It can be convenient to wind up with a couple of different styles that work for different life situations. If you buy one every week, you will spend a lot of money and could still be deep down unhappy that "it's not working like I thought it would". Many of us as smokers can be a wee bit OCD anyway. Don't let collecting get in the way of Not Smoking (tm)

4. Don't buy a gallon of the first juice that you like. It will take a month or more before your damaged sense of taste/smell start regenerating. What you loved initially you may hate in a month. Buy lots of small samplers, to discover what you like.

5. Yes, you will save money, lots of it. See #3 and #4 above.

6. At the end of the day, all PVs are just batteries. How long they last, charging, the form factor, the ability to adjust them during use are all just variations on a theme. Some of the cig-a-likes have a lifetime of 30 charge cycles. Some larger ones can be charged 500 times. Find the balance that works for you. What *does* matter, is the actual vaping end of it. Explore attys, cartos, tanks, RBA. Try them all, this is what determines the taste and vapor production.

7. Support your local vape shop. I know you can get this stuff from China for cheap. Your local B&M is spending a lot of money for rent and employees, and the ability to sample juice is not possible on AliBaba. They are also providing a valuable service in being a first exposure to vaping for many. Go in and hang out. If nothing else, buy some drip tips, juice, attys or doo-dads. Check out the new PVs.

8. With few exceptions, the kiosk at the mall is not a good deal, nor a good idea. Free trials online or from radio ads are always a ripoff. You will spend a lot more on much inferior equipment and then have a hard time getting it off of your credit card.

9. Don't be arrogant about vaping in public. They don't know that you are not smoking from 10 feet away.

10. Don't get in flamewars on ECF about your favorite PV. Yes, there are idiots here, don't be one. If it works for you, that is the best one for you.

11. Once you get comfortable with vaping, consider DIY. Juice is what costs the most in the long run. Start small, measure with precision, keep detailed notes, be safe. You know what you like better than any description on a web page.

12. Join CASAA, and do things.

13. ECF is great for support. Don't be afraid to bare your soul to kindred spirits here in a hard time, you can find a lot of strength.  

Im in Illinois, effective 5pm today all non essential business are being forced to close.

Im sure vape stores fall into that category.

And most online shops reside in California, which Im not sure if they are locked down yet, but likely will be.

What online stores will continue to operate?

Id order from misthub today, since they are in Illinois, but they are closed on weekends.

So what are the options for Juice supply?


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