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Play Store scam?

A

AndyHaf

Newbie
Over the past five years or so I’ve downloaded a few programs from the Google Play Store to an Android table. None of those programs cost anything. This evening I wanted to purchase an audiobook player for $1.99.

I entered the information for a Visa prepaid debit card, the type frequently used as a general purpose gift card. Unlike a bank debit card, it has no name on the front, anyone can use it at most stores. In the past I’ve made a few online purchases with such cards using a Windows computer.

Seconds after as I finished entering the card information I got a notice, supposedly from Google, saying my Google account is suspended until I provide a government issued ID and either a bank statement or a utility bill. Nothing like such information has ever previously been required. The only requirements I remember from signing up for a Google account was an e-mail address and password, maybe my name plus birth date. I think the gmail account already existed when I first needed something from the Google Play Store.

It seems rather like a phishing scam but does anyone know about such nonsense with Google?
 
Perhaps I should have done this before posting but I just turned off the tablet, then turned it back on, then opened Play Store again.

It seems normal but I'm unsure whether I should try to do a purchase. I never got any indication that the card was accepted. The suspend notice came up pretty quickly after I finished entering the card info. If there is malware on the tablet, maybe I need to something about it before trying to buy anything but I don't know where to start with that.
 
AndyHaf said:
Perhaps I should have done this before posting but I just turned off the tablet, then turned it back on, then opened Play Store again.

It seems normal but I'm unsure whether I should try to do a purchase. I never got any indication that the card was accepted. The suspend notice came up pretty quickly after I finished entering the card info. If there is malware on the tablet, maybe I need to something about it before trying to buy anything but I don't know where to start with that.
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I went to the gmail account. There is a message there saying the same thing. This feels a great deal as though the 3rd Reich SD has taken over: submit or die. I have no love of Google but some programs are necessary or very useful and the Play Store may be the only source. I know of
apkmirror.com and Apkpure.com but not much about them, especially if it is possible to get programs that come with a price tag.
 
You can't get paid apps from apkmirror/pure. It's one of the signs that they are legit (sites that allow you to download apks of paid apps have pirated them, and they are a malware risk).

I'm pretty sure I've never provided such ID to Google, but I've also never used a pre-paid card with them (I can't see how ID would help with such a card, but Google do their own thing for their own reasons). I'm also not American/Canadian/Australian (since your purchase was in $ I'm guessing you are one of those) so don't know what rules might apply there.

TBH if you have malware then you've already given the criminal the card details. For the email one thing you can do is look at the full headers rather than just the "from" address to get a better idea of whether it really originated from Google. That's about all I can suggest.

Assuming it's genuine I guess that your account being "suspended" means that you can't use the card - or is anything else not working?
 
To test, I download a free app. Once it was installed and working I used the same Play Store page to uninstall it, so thus far the Play Store account is still working and the same is true for the email account. At the very least they didn't expect me to comply instantly.

Regardless of its content, the e-mail, with the same demand, is from Google. “Your Papers, please!"

There is little that I want from them. I've only used the Play Store a few times over probably more years than software programs downloaded. For computer interests I've purchased quite a few, and always more expensive, programs, to support my interests of the time (such as recording old phonograph records and sorting them into near CD quality) but none of that ever involved Google. Software for an Android tablet, regardless of how much one is willing to pay for it, is mostly only available there, however.

While it isn’t relevant to the my inquiry here, this makes me think of the government involvement revealed in the released Twitter documents. Surely there is no legitimate national security interest in using a gift card to purchase a special purpose audio player program, but if the transaction broker is assuring that NSA, CIA, FBI, etc. extra-legal dossiers are up to date it a different matter entirely.
 
Windroid said:
My advice: Presume it's fake. But did you receive this "notice"? Was it in an e-mail, a push notification, or what?
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An e-mail with address
payments-noreply@google.com
so it is most likely from google.
The notice in playstore was presented when I entered the card info, refusing to do anything further until I provided all the information.
However, I have since downloaded something that did not have a cost and had no problem.
Currently my yahoo mail account, which I pretty sure is owned by google, has become very obnoxious.
Every time I want to sign in it announces that there has been suspicious activity recently, which is entirely bogus, and requires a code from a gmail account in order to open. I changed the password to no avail.
I tried the yahoo mail forum, which seems to be the only way to get or receive information. It let me see enough to know that other people are complaining about the same nonsense. However, to register in order to add anything has requirements for personal information far beyond any forum or blog I have used over the past 20 years and I refused.
 
The only thing that I've had happen with prepaid cards (especially those infamous 'vanilla' cards you get at dollar stores) is a straight up decline--many don't work online just in stores. I think many online stores require a name tied to the card or a billing address, even on a prepaid or bank debit card, so it limits such options. But I've never had an account suspension over it. It just never completes the transaction either claiming it's declined, unsuccessful, or not supported.
 
nickdalzell said:
The only thing that I've had happen with prepaid cards (especially those infamous 'vanilla' cards you get at dollar stores) is a straight up decline--many don't work online just in stores. I think many online stores require a name tied to the card or a billing address, even on a prepaid or bank debit card, so it limits such options. But I've never had an account suspension over it. It just never completes the transaction either claiming it's declined, unsuccessful, or not supported.
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That was my previous experience. This time the card may not have been "registered" for on-line use in the latest format. It used to require only a zip code to be accepted for on-line purchases, and before that nothing at all, but now registration requires a name and some address beyond a zip code. Refusing the transaction I can understand but demanding bank statements, as the play store and the e-mail in the gmail account attached to the play store ID did, seems more than a little over the top.
 
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