The embarrassingly-named VISA BUXX card is a debit card for teenagers: parents get reports, control, etc. My daughter has one.
My lectures about financial responsibility appear to have failed: yesterday she charged $23,148,855,308,184,500.00 at the drug store. That's 2,000 times more than the national debt, which is a paltry 11 trillion.
The ever-vigilant folks at VISA added a $20 "negative balance fee," and have suspended the card.
When I called, they said that there was a "system problem," and that the "help desk was working on it."
Wow, I didn't think of that before I submitted this story to Consumerist. Wouldn't that be ironic cosmic retribution? Jerky consumer puts VISA's honest programming mistake on display for the world to make snarky sarcastic comments about... but then it turns out that he's just posted the debit card number!
Happily, this is not the case. Please carry on with the caustic commentary.
In that same thread, another commenter named mlcastle points out the series of digits fails the Luhn check, a simple checksum formula invented in the 1950s, and so cannot be a valid credit card number.
Update 2: Hawkins posted a follow up on page 3 of the comments:
]]>I have an update, if anybody's interested.
The issue was with VISA, not with CVS. Apparently lots of VISA debit card users were affected by it, at several different merchants. Each victim was charged exactly $23,148,855,308,184,500.00.
The folks at VISA have removed the 23-Grillion dollar charge, but not the $20 negative-balance fee. They promise to do so "as soon as this is all sorted out."
Anything to attack an educated successful female that can both do well in political office and simultaneously have a nuclear family and be a contestant in a beauty contest. Funny how it's okay to attack a female when they don't match your ideological point of view, but hellfire and brimstone if you call a racist like Sotomayor what she is. Your discrimination is transparent.
]]>My son's charge was with a Wachovia Visa Buxx card and came through as a charge at Subway! That's way too may $5 foot long subs!!
]]>Drop the leading 2. Assume it was an extra digit from a 2012 expiration date (or a CCV, or whatever).
Break it into sets of 4. (3148 8553 0818 4500)
Reverse the sets of 4. (4500 0818 8553 3148)
Is it really a CC#? Probably not if everyone is getting the exact same amount charged. You'd expect others to get crazy credit card charges that matched their own CC# in the same sort of way. If it IS a credit card number I'm sure someone at Visa is smart enough to figure that one out well before now.
]]>Since the numbers are the same, appearing in different locations, it's coming from inside the system.
Convert it to hexadecimal, 523DC2E199EBB4, it looks like Intel assembly code with a handy jump at the end to something else:
push dx
cmp ax,E1C2
cwd
jmp 00BB
Bet Visa people are going to be working late for a while to figure this one out...
@Hawkins:
This seems like a programming issue. I bet some code (merchant) plus the amount had a "test value" put in that someone forgot and when it happened this time the amount was replaced with this ridiculous figure.
I do the same thing when testing reports. I take the longest name in the system and use it for checking the spacing on the report. If I ever forget my hardcode and move it into production then the name would show on all reports (did happen once 10 years ago).
I bet they found the code error.
]]>Start at the left, take 16 digits and put that into a checker and it seems to work (well it worked at http://planzero.org/code/bits/examples/luhn_check.php anyway)
So it could indeed be the credit card number, but its been fudged with extra zeros for some reason.
]]>It's a debit card. Not a credit card. Big difference there.
If you actually read the article, you would have seen:
"The embarrassingly-named VISA BUXX card is a debit card for teenagers: parents get reports, control, etc. My daughter has one."
@Donathius: If I was CVS I'd withdraw the cash or transfer the funds to a swiss bank account then close the current account. Then move. All employees, or else the higher up ones. Sure America would colapse, but they could just buy it for pennies on the dollar then Rename us The CVS states of CVS
]]>Visa mistake or not I would never trust a teen with a card in the first place. I barely tolerate teen cell phones! (Have seen many $500+ bills from a teen downloading or texting on their parents dollar when I worked for a cell phone call center.)
]]>1. It's actually a credit card number.
a. A $2.31 charge followed by a credit card number (4885... would be VISA). Except that number fails the Luhn test, *so I'll rule this option out*.
b. A truncated leading "4" followed by a credit card number, padded by four trailing 0's. That passes the Luhn test, and falls within the VISA range of number per ISO/IEC 7812. Still, *unlikely* since another commenter confirmed that her child had the same charge (unless she only glanced at the first few digits before 'confirming'). UPDATE: actually another user had the same charge and provided a screenshot, except the hundreds digit was a 6 (ending in 600 vice 500).
2. Some sort of encoding error--more likely. It was pointed out that, written in hex, the charge is 0x2020202020201250. That's 8 bytes (well, 62 bits...pad the front with two 0s). Most likely a data typing error in an older or loosely typed language.
0x20 is ASCII for space. Perhaps the charge amount (in hex form) was accidentally parsed as a string and space padded to 16 bytes? Lot's of older languages space-pad their strings. Only problem is the other user ([boardsix.com]) who was charged 0x2020202020203960 when he bought a hamburger. A 0x3960 hamburger is $146.88...hmm.
]]>The issue was with VISA, not with CVS. Apparently lots of VISA debit card users were affected by it, at several different merchants. Each victim was charged exactly $23,148,855,308,184,500.00.
The folks at VISA have removed the 23-Grillion dollar charge, but not the $20 negative-balance fee. They promise to do so "as soon as this is all sorted out."
]]>In all seriousness, does that somehow affect CVS' bottomline? Do the register totals download anywhere?
]]>@Gramin: Which would mean its not a Wachovia issued Visa debit.
Is there something that keeps people from thinking there answers to there logical conclusions?
]]>Wait, the interest rate never drops...never mind.
]]>If it was a $2 charge, it would make sense, except that I couldn't find any CC company with an issuer number starting with 3184.
On the other hand, we know the clerk entered the CC number in the right field, because otherwise it couldn't have been charged.
And unless the scanner was busted, the clerk didn't have to enter anything anyway, prices or credit card number.
I'm betting it's a math error with the computer. Either it's programmed wrong or they're still using pentiums ;)
]]>You win. :D
]]>I'm guessing that the cashier tried to scan something that wasn't correctly logged into the inventory and somehow wound up with the barcode number as the price.
]]>I say we sell CVS our entire nuclear arsenal...
First up... Wal Greens... bwahahahahahaha....
]]>@MooseOfReason: Yeah, but we're smart enough to keep our debt in the plausible millions, not the quadrillions!
]]>Man, prescriptions are getting expensive.
]]>The good news is she gets $3 off her next $20 quadrillion purchase
]]>Dyslexic Grammar Nazis Untie!
]]>Good eye!
]]>If you read that it has to do with those total pay cards (which i have one). Maybe someone's been messing with the bank computers?
]]>Haha... it is a bit ironic that neither computer system questioned the number.
]]>Wow, I didn't think of that before I submitted this story to Consumerist. Wouldn't that be ironic cosmic retribution? Jerky consumer puts VISA's honest programming mistake on display for the world to make snarky sarcastic comments about... but then it turns out that he's just posted the debit card number!
Happily, this is not the case. Please carry on with the caustic commentary.
]]>You're wrong on both points. Credit cards can start with a number 2 and can be as long as 19 digits. The number 2 at the beginning of a credit card means that it's an airline issued card.
]]>And besides, the numbers don't add up to the correct amount of digits for a credit card account number.
]]>@Gramin:
Or... we could say 825 bps... but that get's confusing for some people.
]]>@Trai_Dep:
Huh? .0825%? That's damn low. I think you mean 8.25% sales tax (otherwise written as .0825, whereas .0825% is also written as .000825).
]]>Doesn't CVS give 2% of what you spend back in ExtraBucks every Quarter?
]]>I wonder if they offer a card that earns airline miles.
]]>I used my $quadrillion credit card bill as proof of income when I got my mortgage...The mortgage broker made copies to use as backup for her entire portfolio.
]]>The issue seems to be affecting multiple customers: when you call the bank to ask them about it, you get a recording mumbling about "if you're calling about an incorrect balance, please be aware that we're working on the issue..." and then they hang up.
Which is helpful.
]]>I had the same thing happen to me. I went to a local burrito place. My bill was for $7+ dollars but my checking account was debited for $1170! They fixed it but took some time.
]]>In her defense let me just say that make up and hair products are expensive! A girl has to look pretty, you know.
]]>Like, the USA for example. Apparently we're on sale.
...on the other hand, think about how awesome your credit score would have to be with a $23 quadrillion credit line. Presuming of course you aren't carrying a $10 quadrillion balance.
]]>@trunkwontopen:
Man, is she going to get some serious Extra Bucks from CVS!
Trebek: Keanu got the answer wrong. Let's see how much he wagered... Eleventy billion dollars?"
Trebeck: That isn't even a number
Reeves: yet
@NeverLetMeDown: no way!
]]>Well, this is a drugstore, and a teenage girl, so it's only LIKELY that it's a mistake.
]]>@Gramin:
Now you know an additional 6 words :)
]]>@Bob Lu:
Really? You're not familiar with the numbering system above million? It follows latin... bi, tri, quad, quint, sext, sept, oct, non, dec...
]]>Hmm...if I had a 23 quadrillion dollar limit...I would have no problem living on minimum payments.
]]>In three years that will be worth about $43.
]]>Holy cow. And I thought MY kids wanted alot of money!
]]>