Virtual MCGC Fraud Issues
Yesterday we started hearing about some virtual MCGC fraud issues. These are Mastercard gift cards that you get account numbers for but never receive a physical card. Many people have them from places like Swagbucks if you cash out that way or via Fluz’s Power Portal. If you use the Fluz app, a favorite of ours, often enough you could gain access to their Power Portal. This opens up access to more gift card options, sometimes including Visa and Mastercard virtual gift cards. The Mastercard gift cards (MCGC) are issued by Blackhawk and can be activated / registered on Blackhawk’s site.
What Happened?
Yesterday we started hearing about grumblings of some fraud issues with these cards in our Diamond group. Some had been drained, at least with pending charges, and others were unable to log into the site at all. We believe that Blackhawk’s site had been attacked and that is why some account’s cards were being drained and the site was buggy, or inoperable at all. It appears people that had an account on the site and saved the cards to their “wallet” are the ones that were attacked.
The site appears to be up now but there are still some issues. Our friend Derrick at Travel on Point(s) was able to log in but the site wouldn’t show the card info on one of his MCGC even with the show card details clicked.
Final Thoughts
It is unclear at this point what will happen with these cards. Did Blackhawk catch this quickly enough to deny the transactions and the amounts will return after the pending charges fall off? Will they automatically replace stolen cards and is that why some account numbers are not accessible right now? Or, will this be a long drawn out process? That remains to be seen at this point. I know some cards had pending transactions for more than the actual balance on the card, so that is why I hope some of these will be full value again. Once those pending charges drop off at least.
I am sure these gift cards are issued, and bought, other places as well. If you are aware of some let me know in the comments and I’ll add them in the post so people know to check their accounts.
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