Credit Card Fraud

[I.B. Washincars]

He has an ATM? How come I didn't know about that?

I agree BL48, I don't know what it says either.

 

[cwguy.com]

It means he likes cleaning public restrooms? Plus Mike has those independent no fee atms.


Mike
I think I put all the pieces of the puzzle together and figured out your angle!

Your in the laundry business.... I was talking to a guy who closed one. Also there was another one that closed by my car wash.

How about this theory.... People are getting credit and are purchasing there own washer dryers? Which makes it really hard to compete? But if people had to pay cash they wouldn't have the equipment? Then the laundry business would be better? That's why everyone should only use cash?

When I was in college I had a credit card from sears and purchased just a washer for my apartment. Then line dried my stuff. Which I owed money on.... After I paid that off I purchased a dryer.

 

[Earl Weiss]

Around here at gas stations you have to also put in your zip code.

And how smarr is that? If a wallet is stolen what are the odds something else in the wallet has the zip code?

 

[Earl Weiss]

The company/store is taking all the burden on the charge back? ..... I also know everyone pays the price of card business.... Even cash customers. But the charge backs must not be that big of an issue.... Or no one would do it. Maybe companies only allow no signing to certain people? Plus gas stations have cameras?

I personally never goto cash only gas stations.... Or must go inside to pay. If I owned a gas station I would bring back full service.... People seem to be lazy and have to much money.

You have high;ighted the issues.

Card companies squeeze merchants for fraud. The ones least able to control the card companies poor security take the hit.

Cash customers shoulder the burden for the cost of credit cards which is equitable because?

Not a big issue so no one would do it yet you would not patronize such a place so, again the merchant gets squeezed.

 

[bigleo48]

All I can say is that if we need to try and figure out what and why your fighting what you think your fighting, then you won't get too far... Crap...I'm even sounding incoherent trying to explain why incoherent is not a winning strategy...S#it...I did it again

 

[mmurra]

The other side of the issue is for carwashes is that our fraud rates are almost -0-. Our customers must have the card in hand generally, in order to make a small purchase. There no fraud in our segment. This should be good for us, garnering lower rates as an industry. Unfortunately, there is no relationship between rate experience in our industry, and the rate we pay to clear a card. Generally small merchants pay more because we are unable to negotiate a favorable rate as a group. This must change in the future, IMO. Mark

 

[cwguy.com]

The other side of the issue is for carwashes is that our fraud rates are almost -0-. Our customers must have the card in hand generally, in order to make a small purchase. There no fraud in our segment. This should be good for us, garnering lower rates as an industry. Unfortunately, there is no relationship between rate experience in our industry, and the rate we pay to clear a card. Generally small merchants pay more because we are unable to negotiate a favorable rate as a group. This must change in the future, IMO. Mark

Some local associations have negotiated a lower rate for members.... I know secwa did. But they all probably have? The problem is developers want a piece of each transaction!

 

[mjwalsh]

The other side of the issue is for carwashes is that our fraud rates are almost -0-. Our customers must have the card in hand generally, in order to make a small purchase. There no fraud in our segment. This should be good for us, garnering lower rates as an industry. Unfortunately, there is no relationship between rate experience in our industry, and the rate we pay to clear a card. Generally small merchants pay more because we are unable to negotiate a favorable rate as a group. This must change in the future, IMO. Mark

Mark,

I really do feel this Is relevant to a more natural check & balance to help with the uncertainties of futuristic payment methods. Similar to when cwguy referred to what we laundromat owners have always been aware of as another source of competition. In our case no where in our state do they force zero home driveway car washing ... so I suppose some car washers in other areas don't have that as a competitive factor like we have here in North Dakota.

Hopefully, this will resonate with at least some of our fellow operators. Thanks for not being afraid to use your real name! I trust that you are someone who can more than handle your own during actual civic real live face to face sanctioned meetings where the better laws are being shaped in a non ZOO like manner!

I could not agree with you more: The way I see it if the credit cards &/or similar ... &/or as Big Leo suggests BitCoin &/or similar ... becomes even more dominant ... as us operators seeing them as an absolute necessity on every piece of our vending equipment ... the dynamics of the properly adjusted for inflation cash option as a competitive force could potentially not be there. Nobody has a crystal ball. It will also probably be great for people who tend to have a hold (entrenched or whatever) on those specific up charges for specific update costs ... whether they actually can take us a step backwards in geeky functionality or not etc.

Please do not respond saying that I am totally incoherent. ... I prefer nicer more gentle constructive criticism.

BTW, I know I am not totally illogical because I just got done with PLC programming ... so 1/3 of our led lights go on until the customer puts in some mooola (money) & I am so .. so .. so generous ... I leave the other 2/3 of the LEDs on for a whole 5 minutes after the meter stops. It is subtle & it helps us to know if the person is unreasonably holding up the line by drying without pay for more than 5 or 6 minutes. Also BLODRY LED lettering advert comes on in a timely way ... boy oh boy ... my customers really like my update from my 1987 blodrys to our brand new blodrys (with two fisted guns). Plus my backup air compressor is in much better sync with the main air compressor with the new PLC controls. Jason Baright from G&G KR was great to work with ... even though it was long distance over the phone. Yes ... I did have to read some info more than 3 times before it sunk in & registered properly.

Big Leo & some others,

We need to call a truce since we have lots of common ground from my perspective. Your below last summer post #5 shows that for the most part we are on the same page when it comes to our dollar coin agenda. Note: I said OUR.

http://www.autocareforum.com/showthread.php?10486-Interesting-Dollar-Coin-Read&p=78522#post78522

These posts below were also consistent to my objectives that are even more recent: http://www.autocareforum.com/showthread.php?11006-Dispensing-dollar-coins-instead-of-quarters

Just to show that I am sincere ... Big Leo .... I promise not to make any more references about your Toronto Area People voting & keeping Rob Ford in as the current mayor.

poor poor mike from Lawrence Welk's "a one a two uuhh" Nota Dakota www.kingkoin.com

 

[bigleo48]

But I still can't make out what you are saying exactly. I don't think your crazy, but I do believe you think that we are following along with what your saying. Everything you post I have to re-read several times before I start getting the meaning of what you are trying to convey.

With regards to Rob Ford, you must have some context to understand why this is happening. The Greater Toronto Area (aka GTA) is a recently amalgamated city that now encompasses all the surrounding burbs...some the size of fairly large cities themselves. So in the last elections, the GTA was completely polarized (old city vs. Burbs). Ford (from the burbs) got almost no votes in the city and got all the burbs. Why? Because the burbs don't want to pay for what they see as big ticket items (such as subway extensions) that they feel mostly benefit the city core and raise their taxes...Ford would do that. So the burbs who hold the balance in the vote would elect a squirrel for mayor...as long as the squirrel followed their fiscal plan. What they got is a obese, homophobic, racist, crack smoking, drunk driving, media whore...and the burbs don't car one bit. He's their yes man (in most cases, their 'No' man).

 

[cwguy.com]

It's called a random collect of random thoughts.... Or insanity? But Robert does the same thing in his posts so it's no big deal. I hate to even bring this up because I know I'm a terrible writer. I can admit I failed English in college the first couple times and "might" be dyslexic? Also might have ocd? My wife has a complex of diagnosing me of complexes.

Plus when did Canada even become independent? JK

I also noticed bitcoin was in the news which explains things. There is no way any one with a flip phone is going to agree with the terms. "Buying in" or "mining coins"? No logging? No returns if you mess up? No returns if someone steals all your money? Right.... But after 20-70 years I believe the average person might be interested? The money laundering thing is always going to be an issue also. So some government will want to tax or regulate whatever the next "coin" thing is.

I will admit I looked into litecoin and the transaction cost and no charge backs is intriguing. But you have to be honest..... no one but 20 year olds and nerds would use it. Which would be maybe 1 customer a year?

 

[mjwalsh]

http://www.businessinsider.com/bitcoin-is-a-currency-for-clowns-2013-11

 

[robert roman]

Perhaps the velocity of consumers is passing by some of you guys.

It took Apple two years to sell two million iPhones. It only took two months to sell 2 million iPads. When iPhone 4 came out, it tool one month to sell one million units.

Mobile accounted for 0.2 percent of web traffic in 2009; 8 percent in 2010; 16 percent in 2011, 23 percent in 2012 and 28 percent now.

Goggle finds when someone gets a smart phone the number of searches they make increases 50 times. Most of these searches are for local content.

Whether or not you read my posts doesn’t make them any less true.

When I was in carwash business, I took money from anyone willing to pay my price including 20-year old nerds.

18 to 30 year-olds are roughly one third of the potential carwash customer base in numbers and most of them own smart phones.

If you don’t accept plastic, have phone app, interactive website, e-mail and text messaging, customer loyalty program, etc. how are you possibly going to reach them?

 

[cwguy.com]

Oh since you asked.... I try and understand your angle to make yourself sound like an intellectual.... I personal think it backfires and is really funny.

I had no clue you were an Oracle..... I understand now I thought you just cut and paste random sentences. At least your not arrogance.... I hate that!

Also why are the predictions of the iphone and iPad mind blowing! Everyone predicted that.

http://autocareforum.com/kristian/s...ents-regarding-this-carwashing-quot-guru-quot

 

[bigleo48]

http://www.businessinsider.com/bitcoin-is-a-currency-for-clowns-2013-11

I do not believe in Bitcoin and I don't think its the answer. However, it is part of the early days of an international virtual currency. It's just the beginning. But this is not an 'if' it ever happens, but a 'when'. Just like every other new and disruptive device or technology, it takes time, problems must to be solved before it takes a foothold. But it will happen.

As a kid I was an early adopter of tech...it was a pain and now I'm a trailing edge kind of guy. I will adopt tech, but only have a period of maturity.

 

[mjwalsh]

Just because a few of you guys think that the following items is not inter-related to Kevin James's original topic & follow-up ... does not make the following items less factual, true & most certainly relevant & related. Law enforcement is already tangled up with trying to solve these more "in the dark" cyberspace messes without us helping to fan & accelerate even more dominance of the fancier payment methods.

Jeeezh McCoy ... do you guys really believe that there won't be sometime in the future where law enforcement will not be able to help you because of limited resources caused by ... among other things bad "systemic" fiscal policies that hamper needed healthy private sector economic growth. By bad fiscal policies ... how much more evidence do you need on the wisdom of Canada & other countries replacing an inferior product with a better product (higher denomination coins)? Do you really think that it is wise to not listen to CAGW about the foolishness of keeping the inferior product along side of the newly introduced ... proven to be better product ... not to mention the reality of other criminal like impediments towards the dollar coin.

What really concerns me about some of you guys & gals is that at some point in your future in your specific state that ... does not now just require sales tax collection on vend items but on all services ... will be low enough on funds ... which will be a direct result of among other things ... following lesser studies. I applaud the Washington State Laundromat Owners for getting that devastating & crippling gross receipts tax taken off for their industry.

Having been a person who diligently ... at no charge to anyone but my own resources ... testified several times as advised by a legislator & a responsible media person (both in the trenches so to speak) ... to legislative committees in a timely way ... & also attended & submitted at the request of an open records attorney ... more than 5 properly moderated interim tax committee ... tax study meetings.

How many of you have done something similar? If so, did you have people come up to you (like me) afterwards to thank you for a well researched & concise presentation? Before my letter to the editor of our mainstream newspaper that voluntarily gave me (us) with picture ... the leeway of being positioned surrounding ... a "Congress Gridlock Political Cartoon" ... his exact words to me about the letter was "damn good". This was a letter whose main thrust was using the words "maintaining leverage" against the fancier payment methods & their accompanying fees & rates.

Since most of you do not have the same specific experiences along that line as me ... you probably would not have deep feelings about losing credibility ... by not carefully comparing the studies about the tax savings of the dollar coin & other higher denomination coins against the studies touting the one dollar paper federal reserve note.

mike walsh www.kingkoin.com

 

[bigleo48]

"by not carefully comparing the studies about the tax savings of the dollar coin & other higher denomination coins against the studies touting the one dollar paper federal reserve note"

Those have been done...the EU & CAN have adopted them a while back. Not sure what's blocking the US from following suit on a almost black & white issue.

BTW, we do have counterfeit large denomination coin ($2 coin). I have seen many of them myself..
<span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);">[video=youtube;HAVQ7ez1W9o]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAVQ7ez1W9o[/video]

 

[mjwalsh]

Bigleo,

Thanks for the info.

Since this type of fraud could be pertinent to self service car wash operators ... my guess is that MicroCoin QL, IDX, Parker, & Winnipeg's I Coin etc have no difficulty rejecting those counterfeits making the attempting person pretty obvious in person &/or on camera. You did not give me the proportion in relation to those in circulation so I am not sure if it is more than the Eurozone's info of less than 1 in 100,000 very acceptable level. Visual inspection definitely seems less practical for large numbers than some type of technology device checking its unique magnetic signature.

Mike Walsh http://kingkoin.com/USA_Deficit_Reduction.html

 

[cwguy.com]

That's crazy.... So does Canada not take counterfeiting seriously as a crime?

 

[bigleo48]

Yes, all electronic coin mechs reject them. That's how I come across them...people say "hey your machine isn't working!" You just need to bounced them on a countertop along with a real one and you can quickly hear the difference. But in your hand, you can't. They are somewhat rare, I don't know the % in circulation. Apparently they were made by organized crime who took over a closed down token manufacturer in Quebec.

As I mention before, the Canadian currency was once one of the most counterfeited in the G8. We are likely at the bottom now with mylar bills. So Canada learned its lesson and paid a hefty price.

This is a video of a Russian counterfeiter with older Canadian $20 bills at my wash. The Russian mob would fly them into the country, provide them with stacks of counterfeit bills and a rental car. They would drive the corridor between Quebec City to the Detroit border and stop a carwashes, laundromats, etc. How do I know this...this guy was caught after visiting my wash during the day by local police on my tip. He was deported back to Russia a few weeks later....likely only to be replaced by others the police told me. This type of activity is now unheard-off...their window of opportunity closed.

[video=youtube_share;ruxbT6oJinA]http://youtu.be/ruxbT6oJinA[/video]

 

[cwguy.com]

I was going to blame the French last post and would have been half right. (Quebec - French language.... bad joke? LOL )