green dot disambiguation . green dot corporation type public traded as nyse gdot industry financial services founded 1999 1999 headquarters pasadena california key people steve streit ceo products prepaid mastercard and visa cards website www.greendot.com green dot corporation is an issuer of prepaid mastercard and visa cards in the united states . these products are available at more than 60 000 retail stores 1 including cvs rite aid walgreens radioshack and dollar tree ; as well as with discounted offerings at meijer and walmart . green dot also transfers individuals direct deposit funds such as social security payments from the us government to personal bank accounts . the cards may be used like normal debit or credit cards but they are not backed by a checking account or line of credit . purchases are deducted from the balance stored on the card . the user can add more money to the card by paying cash at a retail store s point of sale or in certain cases from their paycheck . green dot is headquartered in pasadena california and it was formerly known as next estate communications . the company provides co branded card programs to walmart boost mobile at & t and citibank . in 2007 green dot raised 20m in funding 2 including sequoia capital as an investor . in 2008 green dot ceased to offer prepaid discover cards . 3 contents 1 history 2 cards 2.1 reloading process 3 reputation 4 security concerns 5 references 6 external links history edit the green dot corporation was founded in 1999 by steve streit . green dot was formerly known as next estate communications . the first debit card to be sold was i gen in the year 2000 . it was geared toward teenagers and internet users . in 2001 the first i gen mastercard was sold at a rite aid in virginia . in 2002 the first green dot debit cards were sold at more rite aid stores as well as cvs pharmacy and pantry convenience stores . in 2003 the i gen card was sold in over 18 000 stores nationwide and geared toward adults . in the year 2004 i gen officially changed its name to green dot and started the first cash accepting network for reloading the debit cards . in 2005 green dot created additional debit cards for everyone s needs . finally by may 2006 green dot sold more than two million cards nationwide and opened more retailers to issue more cards internationally . the company tendered an initial public offering in 2010 and reached a peak stock price in early 2011 . 1 as of march 2013 the company s stock is trading at 60 % below its initial offering price . 1 on september 24 2014 walmart announced it would be partnering with green dot bank to begin offering walmart customers checking accounts . the accounts will be provided through gobank green dot s mobile checking service 4 cards edit green dot debit cards are available in many stores including cvs pharmacy kmart 7 eleven and walgreens . 5 this is only a temporary card which does not have the customer s actual name on it ; instead it says valued customer . temporary cards are supposedly not re loadable . however the company does allow the card to be reloaded then the company holds and keeps the funds . if the user wishes to retrieve their own funds it has been reported to the bbb that the company makes it extremely difficult . in hopes the valued customer will give up . however if the customer opts in to receive a personalized card which is free of cost in 7 to 10 business days it will arrive in mail with his or her name on it . personalized cards are re loadable in a variety of ways . there is a monthly charge of 7.95 unless the customer makes more than 30 purchases in a month or loads the card with more than 1000 in that month . reloading process edit the personalized card can be reloaded using moneypak which is available in the same stores greendot prepaid is . most stores charge 4.95 for reloading . 6 card users can also opt to have their payroll transferred directly to the card through direct deposit 7 and the card acting as their checking account . additionally the cards may be re loaded using ach transfers online directly from a bank account and even from paypal . 8 reputation edit as of november 2013 green dot has the following ratings web site rating out of 5 notes yelp 1 all reviews received 1 star 9 amazon 2 75 % of reviews received 1 star 10 credit karma 2 73 % of reviews received 1 star 11 consumer affairs 1 91 % of reviews received 1 star 12 majority of unfavorable returns listed in the sites above and other review sites complain of green dot limiting access to a positive balance in the card even though the funds have been added to the card with a cash purchase . the reviews also underscore the unwillingness or incapacity of green dot customer service to resolve these issues . security concerns edit while convenient green dot s moneypak cards lack the security measures such as identity verification found in credit cards limited cardholder liability and the ability to dispute fraudulent charges so that money lost due to fraud can not be recovered . 13 14 15 in march 2010 the better business bureau reported a rise in scams involving moneypak where unsuspecting victims would pay for items by loading a moneypak card emailing the number to the seller only to have the seller drain the account and never deliver the promised product . 16 in june 2011 the better business bureau and the minnesota department of public safety issued warnings regarding the illegal use of green dot s moneypak cards to defraud consumers . 14 in january 2012 the office of new york state senator martin golden issued an alert from con edison regarding various scams including green dot scams . 17 in march 2012 time magazine reported on how the 419 scam was now being adapted to the relative anonymity of moneypak cards . 18 the aarp issued a warning on the rise of moneypak fraud in 2012 19 that followed the decline in moneygram fraud after moneygram was fined 18 million dollars to settle ftc charges that it allowed its money transfer system to be used for fraud . 20 in august 2012 the fbi also issued a warning that scammers were taking advantage of moneypak s untraceability to coerce unwitting victims into paying a ransom to unlock their computers infected with malware . 21 avg technologies notes that in some cases like the fbi scam criminals are using malware to deceive victims into thinking their computer has been flagged for serious crimes after which the relatively easy anonymity of moneypak cards is taken advantage of to allow for untraceable extortions . 22 beginning in mid 2013 green dot moneypak cards were being used to commit fraud with persons asking callers under the guise of a customer service agent for a utility company such as a power or gas provider asking for immediate payment under threat of disconnection using a personal card or asking the caller to head to a store selling green dot cards and giving them the card number the funds were placed on . 23 in september 2013 several walgreens and other large chain drug stores through the united states were evacuated because of bomb threats called into the stores with the caller asking for a ransom from the stores of multiple green dot cards with large amounts activated using store registers which would then be placed in an unmonitored location for the culprits to pick up or the numbers read through the phone . 24 25 in 2015 scammers were taking advantage of green dot cards when filing false income tax returns using compromised social security numbers . the criminal opens a green dot account in the victim s name making that account the payee for a refund claimed on the fraudulent tax return . the stolen ssn is used both to file the false tax return and to open the green dot account which is emptied if the refund is paid . the victim receives an unexpected letter containing a permanent embossed with the victim s name green dot card for the account a probable indicator of ssn compromise and attempted fraud . 26 references edit a b c jannarone john march 1 2013 . rebound may be in the cards for green dot . the wall street journal paper . p. c8 . access date requires url help green dot gets 20m . discover shutdown page . walmart to begin offering checking accounts . green dot products are available at over 50 000 retailers nationwide . . reload with moneypak . green dot add funds direct deposit . green dot online reload from a bank account . yelp . retrieved 13 november 2013 . credit karma . retrieved 13 november 2013 . amazon . retrieved 13 november 2013 . consumer affairs . retrieved 13 november 2013 . green dot moneypak a b bbb dps warn of moneypak scams bbb news center city of mill valley city news seniors targeted with debit card scam bbb of the golden gate & northern california con edison warns public to beware of scammers new york state senate nigerian 419 scam uses green dot moneypak prepaid cards time.com green dot moneypak card scams wire transfer prepaid debit aarp moneygram to pay 18 million to settle ftc charges that it allowed its money transfer system to be used for fraud federal trade commission fbi new internet scam new blackhole ransomware graphic mimics the fbi con edison warns public to beware of green dot scams press release . new york state public service commission . 25 june 2012 . retrieved 20 september 2013 . matesic emily 16 september 2013 . fbi investigating walgreens bomb threats . wbay tv . retrieved 20 september 2013 . connolly caroline 18 september 2013 . bomb threats in utah could be part of national scam . kstu tv . retrieved 20 september 2013 . oak creek police warns residents to be aware of fraudulent tax returns press release . city of oak creek wisconsin . 20 march 2015 . retrieved 23 may 2015 . external links edit green dot corporation website sequoia capital funds green dot retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title green dot corporation & oldid 743094861 categories financial services companies based in californiacompanies based in pasadena californiaamerican companies established in 1999financial services companies established in 19991999 establishments in californiacompanies listed on the new york stock exchangehidden categories pages using citations with accessdate and no url navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 7 october 2016 at 19 52 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site 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