Anyone heard of "Pop N Pay LLC?" Rando credit card charge

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BossMoss

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My friend said he got a random charge on his credit card from this merchant, and it's such a low amount of money that he doesn't know if it's fraud or not. We tried googling it, but nothing really comes up. We are in CA, and a "bizpedia" website says it's a company registered in Delaware in Aug 2018. It gave a phone number on the transaction in the banking app, and "the call cannot be completed as dialed." He can't recall if he actually spent the money or not. It looks really suspicious. he wants to report it as fraud but feels bad if the charge ends up being real. What should he do? Esp since there's like no way to contact this "business."

There's like no way to contact Pop N Pay, is there? What should I tell him?
 
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Dispute the charge as something he does not recognize and let the card company handle it.

You've done good research; share it with the card company. They will likely set aside the charge without penalty. If they decide it's valid, he will not be penalized.

Part of how scammers and fraudsters work is to ding card with the seemingly miniscule and innocuous charges that too many people never pay attention to, and thus never dispute, so they get their cash.

I have had this happen a few times through the years; no penalty for reporting as suspected fraud. If the merchant can show what was bought, fine. If not, they get no money.

Props to your friend for paying attention to detail!
 
Their website goes to a Go Daddy page that like reserves names or something. So they didn't pay their bill. If you click on the "cached" thing on Google, it's some kind of block chain tech website for moving money for businesses or something.

Plot twist!

He reported it as fraud yesterday, and today the charge showed up again- this time on his debit card! Wow. So they had his credit card info and his debit card info. That's too much for a "company" that cannot be contacted.

I saw a World Star video of a guy saying don't use your card at the pump, go inside because ppl can leave a scamming device at the pump. Perhaps that happened here. He canceled both cards.

He's telling me he's just worried that it may be a legit charge that he doesn't remember. But how can that be at this point? The whole thing looks way too sketchy.
 
It's good your friend is reading his statements and questioning this charge.

When I use my Credit Card, I always save ALL receipts and compare them to my monthly statements.
Maybe your friends needs to begin doing this.

Only once have I had my credit card scammed.
The crooks used my # to make (2 $10.00) purchases at a coffee joint (I don't drink coffee).
I called C.C. Co and charges were removed / new card was then issued.
 
It's not really a random charge if your friend got it on his credit card and now his debit card. I suspect his info got out somewhere.

They will be back. They keep track of cards that don't refute the charges. He needs to contact his bank
 
A small charge can be a test to see if a number is working or not, later to be followed by a large charge when the bad guys figure out it's legit. Your friend made the right call to cancel his cards.

As for not paying at the pump, well, it's not too hard to install a skimmer on the inside either:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5b1axnNK-wI

Cash would be better, but then, if people know you're carrying around a lot of cash all the time, you can become a target.

Best just to stay vigilant, I look for skimming devices whenever I pay at places. Grab the machine and see if anything loose is attached. If there is, it could be a skimmer.
 
Originally Posted by BossMoss
I saw a World Star video of a guy saying don't use your card at the pump, go inside because ppl can leave a scamming device at the pump. Perhaps that happened here. He canceled both cards

I use Google Pay. So far there is no way to skim info - as it is unique transaction data each time.

No wallet to worry about either.
 
Fraud, call the CC issuer and tell them he didn't make that charge and it's fraudulent. I had the same thing happen to me several years ago and it was $1+ at a fake grocery store in England. The CC issuer reversed the charge, cancelled the card and sent me a new one.
 
Originally Posted by PimTac
It's not really a random charge if your friend got it on his credit card and now his debit card. I suspect his info got out somewhere.

They will be back. They keep track of cards that don't refute the charges. He needs to contact his bank


Even if he does refute charges they may be back.

Two of my cards got hacked in 2017, and I know exactly where it happened. One of them has had no issues since the fraud was reported and the issuer sent a new card. The other one managed to get hacked repeatedly despite my getting new cards issued *and* not using the card online or pretty much anywhere else. Like clockwork, 2 months after a new card was issued, I'd get a text asking if I made a payment on a cell phone account in a state I haven't been to in at least 10 years. Fraud department would investigate, new card would be sent and 2 months later the cycle repeated. It finally seemed to stop in the Fall of 2018.
 
Originally Posted by eagle23
Dispute the charge as something he does not recognize and let the card company handle it.

You've done good research; share it with the card company. They will likely set aside the charge without penalty. If they decide it's valid, he will not be penalized.

Part of how scammers and fraudsters work is to ding card with the seemingly miniscule and innocuous charges that too many people never pay attention to, and thus never dispute, so they get their cash.

I have had this happen a few times through the years; no penalty for reporting as suspected fraud. If the merchant can show what was bought, fine. If not, they get no money.

Props to your friend for paying attention to detail!


All of this^
 
Originally Posted by MasterSolenoid
It's good your friend is reading his statements and questioning this charge.

When I use my Credit Card, I always save ALL receipts and compare them to my monthly statements.
Maybe your friends needs to begin doing this.

Only once have I had my credit card scammed.
The crooks used my # to make (2 $10.00) purchases at a coffee joint (I don't drink coffee).
I called C.C. Co and charges were removed / new card was then issued.

My wife was charged twice by a ladies wear store for the same purchase. They said sorry, we made a mistake and cancelled one charge. Seemed like an honest mistake.

A few months later my sister in law had the same thing happen at the same store. That seemed a bit funny. But we liked the owner a lot and did nothing more about it.

A few months later the store went out of business.

Both families could have afforded to pay twice if we hadn't spotted the "error". And the store owner knew all of us and knew we could afford it. I suspect she was struggling financially and was trying to stay in business by charging a few customers "who could afford it" twice. So checking your receipts and looking over all your charges is a really good idea.
 
I got the same recently, except it showed up as NJtransit, but with a san francisco phone number. I noticed a few within a week, and started looking back, and saw one or two here or there for 8$, 4$, 5.75$ etc, once a week for 4 weeks or so. Then for 2 weeks I had 5 charges each. I disputed them all, Amex refunded it right away, was almost 250$ I believe once I took a look. This was my shop account so I can have 30 transactions in a day, gets overwhelming to keep up with if I miss a week or 2.
 
As soon as he describes the charge(s) as 'unknown' to him, his card issuer is going to cancel the card. It's compromised as far as their concerned.

I ran into what I thought was fraudulent charges a few months ago. One Monday afternoon I got gas and used my card. At the end of the transaction, the pump said "Please see cashier" so I thought there was a glitch with the payment. I got in the car and checked my bank app and it showed a pending transaction for the fuel I just purchased so I figured, it's okay after all. Then I saw a charge for $12-15 from "Drunken Monkey, Celina OH". What ?? Never been there, never heard of the place.... Googled it and it's a bar/restaurant that closed 6 months prior. I called the bank, told them I didn't recognize the charge, and they told me the policy is cancel the card and re-issue a new one. Later that evening, I Googled "drunken monkey" more and found a Facebook page, then found posts related to the former owner and his carnival ride and food business. Turns out the funnel cakes we bought at our little town's downtown festival were from this guy's business and he was using the bar's credit card processing account ! I got in touch with my bank and they said they can 'stop' the card's full cancellation if it's within 24 hours or so and I was able to. I even told them I figured out what the charge was and they un-reversed it. Oddly enough, the fuel transaction never showed up on my card. I suspect what happened was they tried to process it, it was declined because the card was cancelled at that point. I tried calling the gas station's customer service and credit card department multiple times (I kept records) to pay for the fuel but after long hold times or getting run-around, I gave up...
 
Hey, just wanted to let you know that the exact same thing happened to me. Discovered a credit card charge from "pop n pay" and couldn't remember what it was for for the life of me. Couldn't remember what I bought on the day I was charged by them. My first thought was also that it was a fraud charge.

Until I remembered that I went to the cannabis disnepsary that day. (Actually specifically cookies on Melrose in LA) and used my credit card to pay. The payment amount checks out to exactly what I spent there that day.

It seems that pop n pay might be a merchant service that uses block chain and deals mainly with cannabis companies since federal banks are still reluctant to do business with them. Maybe your friend just bought some weed, smoked it, and forgot!!
 
Originally Posted by Chaosupport
Hey, just wanted to let you know that the exact same thing happened to me. Discovered a credit card charge from "pop n pay" and couldn't remember what it was for for the life of me. Couldn't remember what I bought on the day I was charged by them. My first thought was also that it was a fraud charge.

Until I remembered that I went to the cannabis disnepsary that day. (Actually specifically cookies on Melrose in LA) and used my credit card to pay. The payment amount checks out to exactly what I spent there that day.

It seems that pop n pay might be a merchant service that uses block chain and deals mainly with cannabis companies since federal banks are still reluctant to do business with them. Maybe your friend just bought some weed, smoked it, and forgot!!


Interesting. If that is the case, why does popnpay.com go to a Go Daddy page that says something about this page is pending deletion.
 
Originally Posted by BossMoss
He's telling me he's just worried that it may be a legit charge that he doesn't remember.


I log all my Visa and debit card charges ... takes very little time to do. Then it's super easy to match up my records with the card statements to find any fraud going on.
 
I don't know anymore. It might be like how this guy says about dispensaries .
 
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