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But when she tried to activate the first of the cards over the phone, she had no luck.
This is for a WalMart MoneyCard (same concept as MoneyPak). The card had already been redeemed when the customer tried to load the funds (presumably to a reloadable prepaid debit card) using an IVR (Interactive Voice Response) system.
So the problem is either at that specific WalMart, with the IVR system, or with Green Dot's system.
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Cote returned to Walmart with her two cards the next day, spending more than an hour with store associates. She said they even unsealed Cote's other card and tried to activate it themselves, and they couldn't do it.
So a second, sealed card also couldn't be used as it too had already been redeemed.
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someone outside the country had stolen her thousand dollars electronically before she even got home.
Green Dot told us that the card, the money from my card, was transferred to another card in Jamaica," Cote said. "Less than 30 minutes after I purchased the card."
Green Dot told us that the card, the money from my card, was transferred to another card in Jamaica," Cote said. "Less than 30 minutes after I purchased the card."
Somewhere there's a problem, and this lady seems to be in the middle of it.
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When we asked a manager at the Walmart store on Sheridan Drive about Cote, we were told it is not a Walmart problem, it is a police matter.
No, if the second card was sealed then this issue is between WalMart and Green Dot and this woman should be given her money back immediately.
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After getting the answers we did at the Sheridan Drive store, we contacted Walmart's corporate offices in Arkansas and learned this is not an isolated incident.
Yowza!
- http://www.wivb.com/dpp/money/4_your_wallet/woman-loses-1000-on-walmart-moneycard
So, the caution is if you are accepting MoneyPak or MoneyCard, then it might be this Jamaican source trading it for bitcoins. There's no reports on #bitcoin-otc of this happening yet, but caution is advised. Even though the code might be redeemable if it happen to be one of these stolen in whatever manner this is happening, then Green Dot could at a later time try to reverse the transaction.
The first thing Green Dot will do is ask the person who used the code to come up with the receipt, so if trading bitcoins for MoneyPak from an untrusted source, make sure to get the receipt.