# Monoprice situation



## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

Monoprice has halted all sales pending an investigation that some customers had fraudulent charges on their credit cards. They have a message on their home page.

I'm wondering what exactly happened.


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## chevyguy559 (Sep 19, 2008)

Hmm....I ordered from them last month, better go check the CC statement


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## Scott Kocourek (Jun 13, 2009)

I tried to buy a cable about a week ago and the site was down, I actually forgot to try again and it looks like I may have to find a new place.


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## chevyguy559 (Sep 19, 2008)

scottandregan said:


> I tried to buy a cable about a week ago and the site was down, I actually forgot to try again and it looks like I may have to find a new place.


I've also used www.partsexpress.com They're pretty similar in price and what they have  Might try them...


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## Herdfan (Mar 18, 2006)

Well this sucks.


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## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

scottandregan said:


> I tried to buy a cable about a week ago and the site was down, I actually forgot to try again and it looks like I may have to find a new place.


So far I don't notice anything on my account. Part of it to me is how they handle it. If they handle it well, I might still use them. Handle it poorly, and I'll go somewhere else. Also depends on how they were hacked (if they were.) After I found out that TJ Maxx was breached because they used unsecure wifi, I won't shop there.


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## Grentz (Jan 10, 2007)

**** happens, anything is hackable.

Them shutting down orders and investigating proves that they are being proactive in this case.


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## Cholly (Mar 22, 2004)

+1. They appear to be doing everything possible to find out just how customers' info got compromised.

Posted on their web site 3/9/20:
"A few of our customers recently reported to us that information from credit cards they used on the Monoprice website had been misused. We promptly began an investigation with the help of expert computer forensic investigators to determine if any card data had been stolen from our computers.

To date, the investigators have found no evidence that card information has been stolen from Monoprice's computer network. As a precaution to ensure that our customers' information is not at risk, we have taken our website offline temporarily while we and our investigators complete the audit of our computer network."

more ... http://monoprice.com/home/index.asp


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## Steve (Aug 22, 2006)

I've purchased several items from Monoprice in the past and I routinely check my statements for fraudulent charges. So far, so good. I'm glad they're being pro-active about the complaints they received.

These guys were pioneers, IMHO. One of the first companies to deliver quality products at a fraction of the cost of "boutique" suppliers like Monster Cable. They deserve a better fate than this. Just my .02.


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## RobertE (Jun 10, 2006)

Has monster cable gotten that desperate? :lol:

Hope they get it straigtened out soon, I need to order a few things.


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## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

RobertE said:


> Has monster cable gotten that desperate? :lol:
> 
> Hope they get it straigtened out soon, I need to order a few things.


Their lawyers must be busy. They probably found someone with HDMI cables that infringed on their design because they used the same width in the plug like when they tried to go after Blue Jeans and their RCA cable.


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## Davenlr (Sep 16, 2006)

I called them, and they wont even take a COD order over the phone. I checked Amazon and others (I need a digital coax to optical adapter), and the best price I can find is twice monoprices. Ill just wait for them to get their audit done. Ive been ordering from them for years, and they are an excellent company.


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## sigma1914 (Sep 5, 2006)

Davenlr said:


> I called them, and they wont even take a COD order over the phone. I checked Amazon and others (I need a digital coax to optical adapter), and the best price I can find is twice monoprices. Ill just wait for them to get their audit done. Ive been ordering from them for years, and they are an excellent company.


$14.99 too high? http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Coaxial-Optical-Converter/dp/B000I94FQI


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## webby_s (Jan 11, 2008)

Yep went to the website last night to order some network cables and saw it was down... I can wait! They still have my business.


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## Davenlr (Sep 16, 2006)

sigma1914 said:


> $14.99 too high? http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Coaxial-Optical-Converter/dp/B000I94FQI


It is when you add the cables I was going to order at the same time  With Amazon, Id have to order from several different sellers and pay separate shipping.

EDIT: I see that I could actually order all the cables on Amazon from the same company, and have everything shipped together, so I did do that. Thanks for the link. All the ones I checked yesterday were over $21. Guess I missed the one you linked me to.


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## wingrider01 (Sep 9, 2005)

webby_s said:


> Yep went to the website last night to order some network cables and saw it was down... I can wait! They still have my business.


will continue to do business with them, just that I am in the middle of a prototype design for a system and need mounts as soon as possible at the least cost to the company.

Need some desk mount brackets for a all in one pc, monoprice has 3 I wanted to try but can't order at the moment, checked a couple of other places but thier prices are higher then I can go for the prototype. Checked the one listed in this thread but would cost me triple what monoprice would charge me, any suggestions would be appreciated.


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## SayWhat? (Jun 7, 2009)

Look at buy.com

I don't really like the company, but they always had good prices on the mounts I needed.


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## Lee L (Aug 15, 2002)

I recently tried www.firefold.com when Monoprice had some out of stock items. THey are close in cost on most things.


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## bakerm5 (Sep 10, 2007)

I bought something in late February from monoprice. Hadn't personally used that credit card since, but someone else has purchased 4 items from Norton, 2 songs from iTunes, and 1 item from a game store. My bank said there was another item that was rejected (I don't recall what that was).

Wouldn't have known until my next statement if it hadn't been for this forum (would have been an extra 2 weeks of anti-virus software purchases by some *******).

Thanks guys.


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## wingrider01 (Sep 9, 2005)

bakerm5 said:


> I bought something in late February from monoprice. Hadn't personally used that credit card since, but someone else has purchased 4 items from Norton, 2 songs from iTunes, and 1 item from a game store. My bank said there was another item that was rejected (I don't recall what that was).
> 
> Wouldn't have known until my next statement if it hadn't been for this forum (would have been an extra 2 weeks of anti-virus software purchases by some *******).
> 
> Thanks guys.


got burned like that recently, setup notification of any transaction over 5 dollars at teh credit card's website, sends to my normal email account and to my account that is specificly for the iphone. Works pretty well


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## sigma1914 (Sep 5, 2006)

Davenlr said:


> It is when you add the cables I was going to order at the same time  With Amazon, Id have to order from several different sellers and pay separate shipping.
> 
> EDIT: I see that I could actually order all the cables on Amazon from the same company, and have everything shipped together, so I did do that. Thanks for the link. All the ones I checked yesterday were over $21. Guess I missed the one you linked me to.


Glad to help.


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## RobertE (Jun 10, 2006)

I placed an order a couple of weeks ago. Nothing unauthorized has shown up on my card, but as a precaution, I called my CC company and requested a new number just in case.


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## pfp (Apr 28, 2009)

WOW!!!

Just a few days ago I purchased $15 worth of stuff at Monoprice for my boss. We used his Discover card. He just checked with Discover and found $1500+ travel and $3000+ suppliments fraudulent charges on his card.

I purchased stuff from them on my card about 2 weeks ago and nothing funny showing up, but cancelled it and ordered a new one just in case.


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## Earl Bonovich (Nov 15, 2005)

If a site doesn't take PayPal, then I use my PayPal Debit Card....

But for the last several years, I do a scan of all credit and debit cards activities..
Just a habit I am into now.

I hope MonoPrice does return and soon. I need to order about 25 network cables... and you simply can't beat their prices. At $1.50 for a 15ft...

Edit:
Yuckk.... just did a quick look, oh boy... I really hope they get back on line soon. Or may go back to making my own cables.


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## Davenlr (Sep 16, 2006)

pfp said:


> WOW!!!
> 
> Just a few days ago I purchased $15 worth of stuff at Monoprice for my boss. We used his Discover card. He just checked with Discover and found $1500+ travel and $3000+ suppliments fraudulent charges on his card.
> 
> I purchased stuff from them on my card about 2 weeks ago and nothing funny showing up, but cancelled it and ordered a new one just in case.


Did your boss contact Monoprice? They are doing an audit, and would probably REALLY like to get that information to be able to help them track down the date/time of the theft of numbers.


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## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

pfp said:


> WOW!!!
> 
> Just a few days ago I purchased $15 worth of stuff at Monoprice for my boss. We used his Discover card. He just checked with Discover and found $1500+ travel and $3000+ suppliments fraudulent charges on his card.
> 
> I purchased stuff from them on my card about 2 weeks ago and nothing funny showing up, but cancelled it and ordered a new one just in case.


I find it very interesting if it's only customers that ordered from them in the few days before they shut everything down.

It's certainly at least a hassle, but hopefully most of the issues are with credit cards, and not debit. Certainly a lot less painful for the victim.


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## SayWhat? (Jun 7, 2009)

dpeters11 said:


> I find it very interesting if it's only customers that ordered from them in the few days before they shut everything down.


That was going to be my question; is it _only_ recent customers? I haven't ordered anything from them in two years or more.


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## wilbur_the_goose (Aug 16, 2006)

I wonder if they have a current PCI certification...

I really like monoprice.com, and hope they're back soon.


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## Lee L (Aug 15, 2002)

Earl Bonovich said:


> .
> 
> I hope MonoPrice does return and soon. I need to order about 25 network cables... and you simply can't beat their prices. At $1.50 for a 15ft...


http://www.firefold.com/15-Foot-Cat5E-Patch-Cables-No-Boot-C229.aspx

How bout $1.89?


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## Earl Bonovich (Nov 15, 2005)

Lee L said:


> http://www.firefold.com/15-Foot-Cat5E-Patch-Cables-No-Boot-C229.aspx
> 
> How bout $1.89?


Not too bad....

But I may just hang on for one more week:


> Our outside investigators have continued to review log files from our Internet-facing servers. They have not found evidence of any successful attempts to penetrate our computer system. Our internal IT staff found some suspicious files on one of our quarantined Web servers while they were reviewing files to build replacement servers.
> 
> We have identified the suspicious files to our outside investigators so that they can extract the files from the image of our servers that they made earlier. We asked them to let us know if the suspicious files are significant. We will post more information here about the investigation when we have it.
> 
> We are taking steps to re-launch our site early next week. We will not take credit card payments on the site initially but will take payments through PayPal Express and Google Checkout. We will let you know when the site is available. Thank you for your continued support.


Monoprice Update from 3/12/2010


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## wingrider01 (Sep 9, 2005)

thier site is hard dwon today and will be back up after 12PM their time. I emailed their support concerning online orders and this was the response

================================
Thank you for your email.

We expect the site to be available again in 5 hours around 12PM PST, Monday, March 15th, 2010. We will be accepting order when our system is available.
Truly sorry for any inconvenience it may cause you. Thanks again for your understanding and doing business with us. 

Should you have any inquiries, please feel free to email us.
We appreciate your business.
================================

So it looks like they will be back up this afternoon


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## FHSPSU67 (Jan 12, 2007)

Website is back!


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## Steve (Aug 22, 2006)

FHSPSU67 said:


> Website is back!


Good for them! They turned me into a lifetime customer by being the first vendor I've ever dealt with that didn't rip me off on quality cables.


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## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

FHSPSU67 said:


> Website is back!


Down again. They say it'll be back at 8PM (assuming Pacific.)

I do think they should say what happened, how widespread, and what they're doing to make sure it doesn't happen again. Free credit monitoring for those affected would be nice too.


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## wingrider01 (Sep 9, 2005)

back up now, still not accepting credit cards and no eta on when or if they will do so again


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