Have you been a victim of fraud?

[Agent Orange]

After getting home from work and opening the post I was horrified when I discovered a letter from my bank asking to contact them immediately regarding a security issue with the credit card I have with them. Anyway, I was a little suspicious as I rang the number on the letter as I began to think that it was a con into getting my info, but after a while I concluded this was not the case and it was in fact genuine.

 

I spoke with the security advisor and he informed me that there were a few purchases made on my card that were suspicious and after a brief chat about what I had previously spent on my card I was horrified to discover that someone had used my card details to purchase music from itunes and spent a further £410 on an adult site. Luckily, the bank were quick to act and blocked the card before any other damage could be done. Hell knows where they got my info from and I'm now so paranoid.

 

Anyone else been a victim of a similar crime?

[mel_fly]

Do you use your bank details on the internet?

[susiepoosie]

Yup, on saturday I logged on to my internet banking site and found that some cheeky git in Canada had spent £1300 on my debit card and then a further £80 on petrol and other stuff. Bank didn't call me and I duly recieved my letters saying I'd gone over my overdraft and was getting charged for it. Must say, once I'd contacted fraud dept they've been pretty good but it is scary as I'm careful with my cards and can't work out how it's been cloned...... there are some clever thieves about!!

[Andy]

The bank I work for, like most banks, use an automated system that monitors spending, and flags up anything unusual. When we see somthing unusual, the card is immediatly blocked and we try to contact the customer by phone (if we have an up-to-date number), and we also send a letter asking them to call us.

 

Occasionally, the system will flag up genuine spending as suspicious. One recent example was someone who bought three new mobile phones from different shops in the same day. There was a reasonable explanation - they were christmas presents. However it's easy to see why the system thought this was odd behaviour. Unfortunatly the only number we held for this customer was a mobile number which connected to someone else, who said they didn't know Mr x.

 

Later that day Mr x went to buy somthing else, and his card was refused. Mr x thought we'd acted unreasonably, phoned up and was rude to two members of staff and then closed his account.

 

Would he really rather we didn't take action to prevent possible fraud?

 

What are we supposed to do?

[esme]

yep card company contacted me about some purchases I had supposedly made

 

couple of very small charity donations, about a tenners worth of virgin mobile stuff then a couple of hundred at argos all in one day, the same day I'd gone to cleethorpes for a day out as it happened

 

then the card company stopped further transactions until they could get hold of me, probably because I'm an uncharitable bugger at the best of times and the donations of a few pence aroused their suspicions also I'm on O2 contract so Virgin top ups are a bit atypical too

 

I got all the money refunded, was issued with a new card and PIN, not sure if they got the buggers tho

 

I think it got picked up from a purchase of a battery for my phone over the interweb, pulled from the vendors site and not from my PC I hasten to add, that was the last transaction I'd made

 

I was lucky, mine stayed in the country at least

 

thing is I can't work out how they got the security code off the signature strip

[baileys_mum]

Luckily I haven't been caught like that, but I did have acard stolen from the post. The bank phoned me and told me someone had tired to use my card before the pin number was even generated! Cheeky gits

[susiepoosie]

Mardy git, I think that was pretty good, wish my bank had done that then I might not be having all this hassle now

[Solomon1]

Anyone else been a victim of a similar crime?

 

yes dd! 2 years ago i got a call at work from the fraud squad of my bank asking if i had bought £900 of euro vouchers! I hadn't, so they cancelled my card and then...

 

one month later got a call asking if i had spent money on internet rail tickets on my new card(which i hadn't).

 

so 2 episodes of fraud on 2 separate cards in the space of a month!

 

went through all card purchases and figured out that it was from leaving my details at a call centre for cheap health products!

 

but no evidence, so did not take it further. so these days, i pay by cheque or ask for the name of the person that i am giving my details to over the phone!

 

been no problems ever since....and i buy over the internet all the time, from secure sites.

[Andy]

£1 transactions cause concern, because crooks often make a £1 payment online to work out if the card is still active. So if you do notice £1, don't think it's just a pound and doesn't matter, call your bank straight away and get your card cancelled.

 

I have a credit card, with a low limit, that I use for internet/phone purchases. That way, if someone does get my details, they're stealing the credit card company's money and not emptying my bank account.

 

Although you do get the money back, it's a right pain and while it's being investigated you might be stuck for money.

 

Read a report today that says since Chip and Pin, fraud in shops has dropped dramatically. However the fraudsters are now using the internet to commit their crimes instead. The next challange for banks is finding a way to make these transactions more secure. I'm really not sure how they can do that though, without making things really difficult for customers.

[artisan]

The bank I work for, like most banks, use an automated system that monitors spending, and flags up anything unusual. When we see somthing unusual, the card is immediatly blocked and we try to contact the customer by phone (if we have an up-to-date number), and we also send a letter asking them to call us.

 

Occasionally, the system will flag up genuine spending as suspicious. One recent example was someone who bought three new mobile phones from different shops in the same day. There was a reasonable explanation - they were christmas presents. However it's easy to see why the system thought this was odd behaviour. Unfortunatly the only number we held for this customer was a mobile number which connected to someone else, who said they didn't know Mr x.

 

Later that day Mr x went to buy somthing else, and his card was refused. Mr x thought we'd acted unreasonably, phoned up and was rude to two members of staff and then closed his account.

 

Would he really rather we didn't take action to prevent possible fraud?

 

What are we supposed to do?

 

This is an excellent system.

it happened to us recently on hols, we had not warned the bank before we went abroad.

We did three card withdrawals, and then it was refused.

A phone call, and we had normal service resumed.

We should be grateful for this, not stroppy.

Someone could have nicked your card and be living it up in Canaries on your money.

When you go on friday to get your brass, zilch.

This is one of the things the banks do right IMO.