Jump to content
 

Credit Card being used for Pre-Orders


Recommended Posts

I recently had one of my credit cards cloned, so had to advise several suppliers with whom I have pre-orders for railway models set up of the new card details.

 

I have only used the card for this purpose.

 

Lo and behold, yesterday, I was called up by the credit card company about some questionable transactions. It seems that someone has used my details to make a number of dodgy purchases, so the card has again been frozen, and I have to have a new one.

 

I know that it has to be one of the Model suppliers I have used.

 

I would be interested to know if anyone else has had a similar problem?

 

Please do not name names on the forum.

 

Thanks

 

Mark

Link to post
Share on other sites

If you know the traders that you have given the number, you should at least notify the card company of this, maybe even the police.

It may e much more complicated that just the trader being involved as they may unwittingly be being used. Giving the information in full may enable a better trace to be made of the culprit.

Link to post
Share on other sites

It is possible for a card to be 'cloned' even if no one has ever seen or been given the card details.

 

This involves using computers to try lotsof small transactions (typically less than a £1) with randon numbers, when they get a hit, they then use the card for bigger transactions.

 

Some banks / systems are more prone to this than others.

 

Only real way to overcome this is to regularly check your statements, this is one of the benefits of internet banking, real time access to transactions.

 

Also keeping you credit limit at a sensible level helps, reduces the available funds for fraudsters. I my experience most card companies will let you reduce your credit limit when you don't need it and increase it again just prior to 'big' spends, such as Christmas / Holidays etc

 

 

 

 

 

 

Link to post
Share on other sites

Police will NOT even take details or investigate unless you are holding the culprit by the neck, or the bank instructs them.. I tried it and they told me to contact the bank - full stop....

Well I guess I can understand that - as it is the bank being defrauded not the cardholder.

 

The bank fraud department are as uncontactable as MI6.

Not so sure in these days of public image make-overs, front-men, and secrecy-spin. Now it takes a whole department to cover-up white-wash lose FIRS Freedom of information requests.

:D

Link to post
Share on other sites

As pointed out above this has cropped up before very recently. If the Credit Card Company are investigating then they are the people to discuss this with. They are unlikely to tell the account holder where they suspect the problem is but will of course be investigating as it is in their interests to prevent this sort of crime.

 

Credit Card Fraud is big business and we are quite right to be guarded against it. In the link here Andy gives his view of the problem and some very good thoughts on prevention.

 

I would not like to see this thread turn into a general moan about what the Banks are or are not doing about it as that does not help. If the Credit Card Company has frozen the account and a new card is being issued then the Banks are doing their job.

 

If anyone has anything of value to add then please feel free to do so but not sensational statements linking the Banks to MI6.

Link to post
Share on other sites

It is possible for a card to be 'cloned' even if no one has ever seen or been given the card details.

 

This involves using computers to try lotsof small transactions (typically less than a £1) with randon numbers, when they get a hit, they then use the card for bigger transactions.

 

Some banks / systems are more prone to this than others.

 

Only real way to overcome this is to regularly check your statements, this is one of the benefits of internet banking, real time access to transactions.

 

Also keeping you credit limit at a sensible level helps, reduces the available funds for fraudsters. I my experience most card companies will let you reduce your credit limit when you don't need it and increase it again just prior to 'big' spends, such as Christmas / Holidays etc

 

Andrew is absolutely correct. Check regularly and know what you have spent. I declare my interest as a former bank employee, but I am pleased to confirm that when five small transactions - iPod downloads - were advised by telephone to them, they responded by quickly cancelling the card and issuing a new one. They were happy when I said I had not made the transactions. And most credit cards have too big a limit anyway for normal use; credit cards are a lousy way of budgeting.

 

Bob

Link to post
Share on other sites

Dear All,

This did follow the standard approach in that a smaller purchase was made a few weeks back, and then they made a big online purchase yesterday.

 

This was the one that alerted the CC company, and they phoned me straight away.

 

I have narrowed it down to one of three possible sources, but the CC company were not interested in the details. They did tell me that they already have the IP address of the order originator, so if they were not using a proxy address, they may well get their collar felt.

 

What is doubly annoying is that I gave the 5 these details as a result of another card being cloned from a card reader!

 

It is just annoying, as I now have to go back to all 5, and change the details yet again.

 

Regards

 

Mark

Link to post
Share on other sites

I´m feeling quite happy that my card can´t be used without a card reader for internet-shopping.

That makes it a bit hard to make a buy for the criminals.....

And if the internet-shops don´t have a real SSL, I don´t / can´t make business with them.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I have narrowed it down to one of three possible sources, but the CC company were not interested in the details.

 

One of the reasons they are not interested is because you cannot prove it is any of them. The first 'hit' could easily have arisen from random number generation.

 

At the end of the day, the CC company will refund you the money, so you have nmt lost out and it is their problem, although having to amend details in a number of place is of course annoying!!

Link to post
Share on other sites

They aren't too interested in details is they already have the data - they know what was purchased before a fraud, exactly who processed the card and when, and they know that for zillions of accounts so they can do statistical analysis to look for trends. The second reason they are not interested is that in the internet case an enormous amount of card fraud is because the users own computer was compromised and they didn't realise - eg because the malware modified their virus checkers.

Link to post
Share on other sites

...but if some crook is only taking details from pre-orders then surely no transaction has yet taken place via the retailer where they are operating, the details are just held on file awaiting arrival of the goods. So the identity of that retailer won't necessarily show up in the bank's data matching.

Link to post
Share on other sites

It is possible depending on how you communicated with the retaillers the details that if you were using a mobile phone or a cordless landline that these are being listened into. Or it could be that the retaillers phone has been tapped.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold
I use a prepay mastercard for internet transactions and put the amount of my purchase on the card at a local 'paypoint' just before I place my order.

...... from Mod 5's reference to the link to Andy's advice on the matter.

 

 

 

How does this work, as I have a 'Paypoint' in my local shop? It sounds a very useful idea. At the moment I use an alternative debit card account in which I only keep £20/£30.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

...... from Mod 5's reference to the link to Andy's advice on the matter.

 

 

 

How does this work, as I have a 'Paypoint' in my local shop? It sounds a very useful idea. At the moment I use an alternative debit card account in which I only keep £20/£30.

 

 

Stick with what you are using - Paypoint is for paying gas bills and council tax bills.

 

I got a Paypal warning the other night following a large transaction with a well known model seller. I don't use Paypal that often as its security is in doubt. Like the above, I tend to preload my Paypal with credit from a card used for not a lot else. That way I can buy with Paypal "cash" rather than with linked card transactions. Someone was trying to using my details in another country and had set up a "look a like" Paypal fraud query page which required me to log into my Paypal to register a complaint. The would have gotten my login details had I not noticed the URL at the top ( looked a bit like a pucka Paypal URL at a cursory glance).

 

I went into Paypal using the proprietory route and found that such attempts must be forwarded to "spoof@paypal.co.uk. They are investigating.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold

Stick with what you are using - Paypoint is for paying gas bills and council tax bills.

 

I got a Paypal warning the other night following a large transaction with a well known model seller. I don't use Paypal that often as its security is in doubt. Like the above, I tend to preload my Paypal with credit from a card used for not a lot else. That way I can buy with Paypal "cash" rather than with linked card transactions. Someone was trying to using my details in another country and had set up a "look a like" Paypal fraud query page which required me to log into my Paypal to register a complaint. The would have gotten my login details had I not noticed the URL at the top ( looked a bit like a pucka Paypal URL at a cursory glance).

 

I went into Paypal using the proprietory route and found that such attempts must be forwarded to "spoof@paypal.co.uk. They are investigating.

 

Actually, the use of pre-payment debit cards is a very good way of buying things online. As far as your local shop is concerned, they are loading a card with your money - whether it is stuck in a meter, or used to buy a model. And the fraudsters cant abuse your card, as long as you make your purchase shortly after loading it - again whether you are buying electricity or not.

 

Paypal is completely different from PayPoint.

Link to post
Share on other sites

...but if some crook is only taking details from pre-orders then surely no transaction has yet taken place via the retailer where they are operating, the details are just held on file awaiting arrival of the goods. So the identity of that retailer won't necessarily show up in the bank's data matching.

 

It depends how you did it. If you do it by phone then quite possibly in a slack operation its on a post-it on someones desk, but it ought to be kept securely. Some vendors feel pushed to handle things like that on paper because if they put it on computer they have to do a ton more paperwork and have a whole security management system demonstrably in place.

 

When its done by computer the usual set up is that the data and reservation on the funds are held by the clearing agent (Sage, RBS etc) unless its a big enough operation to do its own card processing and meet the card security requirements (which are much hassle for a small company).

 

So even for pre-orders in most cases a smaller business won't have access to the card details in electronic form.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...