Netspend sends out card that I didn’t order :

By Paul | May 14, 2009

I arrived home today with Netspend card in my Mailbox. The letter states that I ordered the card and it has arrived. So I am concerned because of the possible Identity theft that could be going on so I call them to find out what the heck is going on. I call to find out it who signed me up for this and to get some kind of information as to the people who had this information about me. I ask for the financial service that “recommended me for this Card” because I want to make a phone call to them about the security concerns about sharing my personal information. I say that because they had my Name, my mailing address. This isn’t totally hard to find had I had a Land phone but with me just having a cell phone.

I ask for the IP of the person who signed me up and they said they don’t have that information and they have no information on who did it. This sounds like a poor way to offer pre-paid card that has a VISA logo. I think this is poor security and if someone signs me up and uses my identity what ever happened to logs? This is what is most concerning to me, because I would have expected if someone signs up they would at least keep the IP in case of some criminal activity to know if it was one IP that is making so many creation of cards. This is a fundamental principle in financial institutions that hold our money.

I did a Google search for others who had this happened and I see a bunch of people complaining about the same thing. Some of the more important topics were, Netspend Is A Fraud! and Unethical Pirates! I found some really concerning complaints from people around the US. All these are concerning, I told them to close out the account and I will be watching my credit for the next 6 months. I think this was unethical by both Netspend and the Financial service, due to the fact that I didn’t give the financial services permission to give out my information. I don’t know if Netspend had my SSN but I didn’t activate the card so I don’t know but I am very concerned by the way Netspend did not keep logs on who and when something like this was done. If I find out what financial service did this I will be contacting the FTC and BBB over this. I want to hear if anyone else has had this happened? I will advise everyone who has this happened to call immediately to close out the account and complain to appropriate people.

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Lampolo

I woke up this morning to a text message saying:
'Your CARD has been DEACTIVATED. Please call 877-514-5983 to REACTIVATE your CARD.'
How the hell did they get my cell number?

netspend

an old marketing plans for most of credit card banks. Just send it to you at home...

netspend,bbandt
wamucards

babylove234491

yea i got one to.....................i say send me one for 5000 dollar ......

priscilla_PANIC

I just asked my dad about this situation and he told me about a website: bbb.com. he told me to go on this website and check if netspend was a legitamate company; and apparently it is. check for yourself. but they're still extremely sketchy for sending out this cards like this!

Guest

I too received this card in the mail from netSpend. It happened to be a coincidence that I recently received a letter in the mail from my bank stating that they were issuing all of their customer's a brand new debit card that will have the Visa logo on it instead of the MasterCard logo. Then I received this netSpend card that says: "You're new prepaid debit card has arrived!” with many other things in the letter that seemed so legitimate. But I, being a small-minded 18-year-old, didn't even think of the fact that this new debit card didn't have my current banks logo on it ANYWHERE and that it said "prepaid" on it! So I called and activated it, but when I went to go use it, I got declined. I was distraught. I didn't understand how I could've gotten declined when I had just transferred money from my savings to my checking’s to buy a few essential things. So I called the company, and they told me that there was no record of the 16-digit card number that I supplied them with. I called back several different times and still got the same response. Frantic, I went to my bank, in person, and they told me that this card had nothing to do with them and it must've been a coincidence that they sent this card to me in perfect timing (after they sent their notice out). They also mentioned that netSpend seems legitimate, but that I should definitely cut up the card and cancel my ‘account’. Unfortunately, this company has my information in their systems, and when I went to their website to cancel the account, it states that there is a fee of “$5.95” to cancel this card (which is absurd because I never asked for it in the first place!).

Guest

I too received this card in the mail from netSpend. It happened to be a coincidence that I recently received a letter in the mail from my bank stating that they were issuing all of their customer's a brand new debit card that will have the Visa logo on it instead of the MasterCard logo. Then I received this netSpend card that says: "You're new prepaid debit card has arrived!” with many other things in the letter that seemed so legitimate. But I, being a small-minded 18-year-old, didn't even think of the fact that this new debit card didn't have my current banks logo on it ANYWHERE and that it said "prepaid" on it! So I called and activated it, but when I went to go use it, I got declined. I was distraught. I didn't understand how I could've gotten declined when I had just transferred money from my savings to my checking’s to buy a few essential things. So I called the company, and they told me that there was no record of the 16-digit card number that I supplied them with. I called back several different times and still got the same response. Frantic, I went to my bank, in person, and they told me that this card had nothing to do with them and it must've been a coincidence that they sent this card to me in perfect timing (after they sent their notice out). They also mentioned that netSpend seems legitimate, but that I should definitely cut up the card and cancel my ‘account’. Unfortunately, this company has my information in their systems, and when I went to their website to cancel the account, it states that there is a fee of “$5.95” to cancel this card (which is absurd because I never asked for it in the first place!).

priscilla_PANIC

I too received this card in the mail from netSpend. It happened to be a coincidence that I recently received a letter in the mail from my bank stating that they were issuing all of their customer's a brand new debit card that will have the Visa logo on it instead of the MasterCard logo. Then I received this netSpend card that says: "You're new prepaid debit card has arrived!” with many other things in the letter that seemed so legitimate. But I, being a small-minded 18-year-old, didn't even think of the fact that this new debit card didn't have my current banks logo on it ANYWHERE and that it said "prepaid" on it! So I called and activated it, but when I went to go use it, I got declined. I was distraught. I didn't understand how I could've gotten declined when I had just transferred money from my savings to my checking’s to buy a few essential things. So I called the company, and they told me that there was no record of the 16-digit card number that I supplied them with. I called back several different times and still got the same response. Frantic, I went to my bank, in person, and they told me that this card had nothing to do with them and it must've been a coincidence that they sent this card to me in perfect timing (after they sent their notice out). They also mentioned that netSpend seems legitimate, but that I should definitely cut up the card and cancel my ‘account’. Unfortunately, this company has my information in their systems, and when I went to their website to cancel the account, it states that there is a fee of “$5.95” to cancel this card (which is absurd because I never asked for it in the first place!).

Anonymous103

The same happened to me as well. I plan not to activate the card. The thing I am worried about is identity theft. If they can make such cards then somebody might be able to use the card in our name!

dsafcdfcca

same here...i got one too...these people just send out the card without the individual applying for it. I believe it is the biggest fraud company with a Visa logo. Trying to reach customer service for past half hour.

spainerd1

Where you looking for a prepaid credit card? I have used them and they work pretty good, especially for paying for things online. I dont know about netspend though, especially the fact they sent you one without you even applying for a card; sounds kinda fishy to me.
i have used the rushcard, which sucks too, there is a lot of talk online about them. i would try the accountnow card. they are just as much as the netspend card but you can get a bunch of extra features for free that come with the card. i think the website is http:/www.accountnow.com but you can google it if that is wrong.