Account, payments & subscriptions

[Me77]

Within 15 minutes of adding my credit card to a new Roku account I got a call about fraudulent activity on that card. Several charges, absolutely not from Roku, were charged for .01 and .99 to my card. 

is Roku compromised?

There is no legitimate requirement to make me provide a credit card for setting up a new account for a free service. The “convenience” for me in case I need to purchase something later is a bogus reason. 

Now my credit card has been shutdown for fraudulent charges minutes after adding it to my brand new Roku account, which is very inconvenient. Off to a great start with Roku!

[Strega2]

If I were in the “business” of stealing credit cards, I certainly wouldn’t use them in the same day I “acquired” them.  That would seem to point too clearly at me and my acquisition method. 

If you don’t want to use a credit card at Roku:

https://my.roku.com/signup/nocc

[andyross]

Who were they from? And are you sure it was a valid Roku link you used to create the account? There are many scam sites that act as fake front-ends.

It's also possible it's just Roku testing the card to make sure it's valid. I've seen various tiny charges from some services that are then reversed. You should go online to your card's website and check what is going on.

[Me77]

Well if you’re not in the business then you wouldn’t know their methods, right?

These three other charges were “test” charges the bad guys do to make sure that the card works. Charge were .01, .01, and .99. They often do these small charges first so that they are missed and/or are confused with legit test charge. 

The charges were from Gaia Brazil, Turner Falls, and CloudBounce. Any of those associated with Roku? I doubt it. 

[Me77]

The charges were from 3 other companies/organizations. None of which I’m sure are Roku businesses. 
I typed in the website directly and did not use a link from email or text. I used my secured mobile and browser which I do not save any CC info in. 
I and the fraud department saw Roku’s test charge of .0. The three others were 15 minutes later, all at the same exact timestamp, for .01, .01, and .99. 
This fraudulent activity so soon after entering my card info seems awfully suspicious. 
Thanks for the reply and no other help is needed on this. Thanks. 

[Strega2]

The last time my card was “acquired” the purchases were in the middle east, and the time before that, it was Hawaii.  I had a hunch what company they might have been lost at, but I left that to the fraud department since they have the data I have plus hundreds of thousands of other accounts to look at.  That gives the possibility of a real statistical correlation instead of my guess.  (Though my guess might have been correct.)  In any event, they take care of it and it’s all part of the business of using an insecure but popular payment method.

My small business sometimes gets orders from places like Nigeria.  I usually sit on these for a few days and by then, the charges usually don’t go through.