My Halifax Clarity has been hacked!

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Chockswahay

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This is just friendly advice, not meant to scare or judge. It might be worth checking your account balance, especially if you rarely use the card.

We have had a Clarity card for years but have not used it for the last 3 years. Consequently I never bother to check balance etc because that should be zero ……… however I received a txt message from Halifax reminding me that I have £1.41 to pay before the 12th August. Well this was a complete surprise!

To cut a long story short it turned out that someone had hacked the card and spent around £50 in July on Microsoft Store……which was (weirdly) refunded by Microsoft but £1.41 short of the full amount. After speaking to Halifax fraud department (2 hours of my life waiting on the phone I’ll never get back!) they agreed the best thing to do is block the card and as it happens because I don’t use it they agreed to close the account down.

Now I really can not work out how someone could have done this as I have never used the card other than when abroad and never online so it’s a bit of a mystery.

😱
 
I had a similar thing on a credit card but linked to Amazon.
Someone bought a download for some software.
It took some severe talking to the Amazon accounts as whoever had done this had created an account using my card.
It got sorted but it took a little patience. 🤭
 
We have just had a text from Capital One, asking My wife to verify a transaction for £1.69, please say yes if correct no if not correct. So she typed No, a few moments later we get a call from Capital One Fraud Team in India!, A guy asks us for info, like DOB, Address & Phone number, plus the last 4 digits on the card:unsure: We said No we dont discuss details like that on the phone...He said that not a problem can you give us a call back on The Capital One Fraud Prevention Team line of 0800 etc.
We went online to Capital One and saw the 0800 number, called that to verify that the call we had just recieved was from them, as we were still suspicious. Another Indian this time a girl asked for same detail, but this time verified a couple of transactions that my wife had made to Sainsburys. The transaction amount of £1.69. was cancelled, and the account blocked.
We now have to wait 7-10 days for another card to be issued & have cut up the existing one.(y)
Is it just me, but I am always suspicious of anyone calling from a call centre in India, I know India is the call centre capital of the world, but I will never trust them if they contact us directly by text, phone or e-mail. I always ignore and call them directly, but even then I am hesitant if its India that answers.:eek:
Be on your guard folks, they are getting cleverer by the day.
LES
 
Last edited:
Probably someone has got hold of your info from wherever you did your last transaction.if it was 3 years ago and they,the company, have got rid of the info they havent deleted it sufficiently and someone has got hold of your account plus others by hacking or buying bank details,it happens.
 
TinaL said:
We have just had a text from Capital One, asking My wife to verify a transaction for £1.69, please say yes if correct no if not correct. So she typed No, a few moments later we get a call from Capital One Fraud Team in India!, A guy asks us for info, like DOB, Address & Phone number, plus the last 4 digits on the card:unsure: We said No we dont discuss details like that on the phone...He said that not a problem can you give us a call back on The Capital One Fraud Prevention Team line of 0800 etc.
We went online to Capital One and saw the 0800 number, called that to verify that the call we had just recieved was from them, as we were still suspicious. Another Indian this time a girl asked for same detail, but this time verified a couple of transactions that my wife had made to Sainsburys. The transaction amount of £1.69. was cancelled, and the account blocked.
We now have to wait 7-10 days for another card to be issued & have cut up the existing one.(y)
Is it just me, but I am always suspicious of anyone calling from a call centre in India, I know India is the call centre capital of the world, but I will never trust them if they contact us directly by text, phone or e-mail. I always ignore and call them directly, but even then I am hesitant if its India that answers.:eek:
Be on your guard folks, they are getting cleverer by the day.
LES
Click to expand...
You did the right thing in calling back on the number from your card or website. Always do that if “cold called”.

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I believe the scammers now use software that trawls through millions of combinations of card numbers to find current cards, somehow they know which numbers are allocated to which card companies.
 
TinaL said:
We have just had a text from Capital One, asking My wife to verify a transaction for £1.69, please say yes if correct no if not correct. So she typed No, a few moments later we get a call from Capital One Fraud Team in India!, A guy asks us for info, like DOB, Address & Phone number, plus the last 4 digits on the card:unsure: We said No we dont discuss details like that on the phone...He said that not a problem can you give us a call back on The Capital One Fraud Prevention Team line of 0800 etc.
We went online to Capital One and saw the 0800 number, called that to verify that the call we had just recieved was from them, as we were still suspicious. Another Indian this time a girl asked for same detail, but this time verified a couple of transactions that my wife had made to Sainsburys. The transaction amount of £1.69. was cancelled, and the account blocked.
We now have to wait 7-10 days for another card to be issued & have cut up the existing one.(y)
Is it just me, but I am always suspicious of anyone calling from a call centre in India, I know India is the call centre capital of the world, but I will never trust them if they contact us directly by text, phone or e-mail. I always ignore and call them directly, but even then I am hesitant if its India that answers.:eek:
Be on your guard folks, they are getting cleverer by the day.
LES
Click to expand...
I have had 2 calls from the banks regarding fraud, like yourself on both occasions I refused to confirm details and then contacted the bank directly, then it was all sorted out.
 
Watching The Internets Most Hated Man on Netflix and I noticed a really simple way to hack from that. The guy had paid someone to hack facebook accounts. He then used those facebook accounts to start a messenger chat with some friends of that account. He would tell them his account has been blocked and he has lost his phone, he then asks if he can use his 'friends' mobile number to get the code sent to.

They say yes no bother and when they receive the one time code they let the guy know what it is.

What they don't know is he is resetting their google drive or icloud account and the code they have been sent is legitimately for their own account. He can then use that code to reset their password and access their account.

Simple but clever.
 
Chockswahay said:
This is just friendly advice, not meant to scare or judge. It might be worth checking your account balance, especially if you rarely use the card.

We have had a Clarity card for years but have not used it for the last 3 years. Consequently I never bother to check balance etc because that should be zero ……… however I received a txt message from Halifax reminding me that I have £1.41 to pay before the 12th August. Well this was a complete surprise!

To cut a long story short it turned out that someone had hacked the card and spent around £50 in July on Microsoft Store……which was (weirdly) refunded by Microsoft but £1.41 short of the full amount. After speaking to Halifax fraud department (2 hours of my life waiting on the phone I’ll never get back!) they agreed the best thing to do is block the card and as it happens because I don’t use it they agreed to close the account down.

Now I really can not work out how someone could have done this as I have never used the card other than when abroad and never online so it’s a bit of a mystery.

😱
Click to expand...
We had the same issue last year. I only use my Halifax Clarity card when we go abroad, so had not used it since our last trip to France in 2019.

Like you I don't check the balance each month as I know I haven't used the card, I don't even carry it when we are in the UK.

May last year I see that £20.03 has been taken out of the bank to pay the Halifax card!

I immediately went onto my Halifax account and found that there had indeed been 2 transactions in April, both for Deliveroo, one for £20.03 and one for £21.19, I rang Halifax to explain these were not my transactions and they were able to cancel the second one and credited me for the first one, that had already left my bank account.

I have no idea how anyone got hold of my card number when it is only used abroad.

Halifax were really helpful and cancelled my old card immediately, issued me with a new card (which we used May this year in France with no problems) and they also told me how I can block my card temporarily when we are not using it, which would help to prevent this from happening in future. So now when the card is not in use I put a temporary block on it in the App on my phone and just unblock it when we want to use it.
 
The call center staff are paid peanuts it won't be hard for them to become corrupt
And thay have ashes to thousands of accounts I am with Santander and it always someone from the UK that answers.
The wife moved from Halifax when she ended up speaking to India and the usual difficultys
Bill

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Riverbankannie said:
You did the right thing in calling back on the number from your card or website. Always do that if “cold called”.
Click to expand...
If possible, use the number on the card but if possible use a different phone. Apparently they can keep number open and when you phone again its back to the scammers.
 
Otter Spotter said:
somehow they know which numbers are allocated to which card companies
Click to expand...
No “somehow”. The leading digits ARE assigned to specific card issuers. 👍🏻
More details on the subject at Wikipedia

Sometimes you can see this work when online shopping with a credit card form. Well, the basic Visa v Mastercard detail is sometimes populated as you enter the first set of digits.
 
My Barclays Debit Card was hacked / cloned or whatever last year.

4 transactions in a short period of time which I knew nothing about until I tried to use my card, when I found it had been blocked.

I contacted Barclays,having to confirm to them I was still in possession of my Debit Card.

£1200 refunded to my account within 24hours…….I did ask how this was allowed to happen, but got no reply.

Apparently, some companies allowed online purchases without the three digit security number. So all the scammer needs is the correct Account Number and sort code. Best guess is my details were obtained from a hacked data base from a company I’d made a purchase from.

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Like others I only use my Clarity card abroad, although I do quick test purchase before I go just to make sure it's still working.
 
Riverbankannie said:
You did the right thing in calling back on the number from your card or website. Always do that if “cold called”.
Click to expand...

You also need to make sure you're getting the number from the correct website. So many have very convincing copies!! :mad:
 
pappajohn said:
They can hack my card account if they want ......with any luck they will take pity and make a deposit ,cos there's bugger all in the account to take.
Click to expand...
Ah but, the op is talking about a credit card, they don't need to have anything in them.
 
Chockswahay said:
This is just friendly advice, not meant to scare or judge. It might be worth checking your account balance, especially if you rarely use the card.

We have had a Clarity card for years but have not used it for the last 3 years. Consequently I never bother to check balance etc because that should be zero ……… however I received a txt message from Halifax reminding me that I have £1.41 to pay before the 12th August. Well this was a complete surprise!

To cut a long story short it turned out that someone had hacked the card and spent around £50 in July on Microsoft Store……which was (weirdly) refunded by Microsoft but £1.41 short of the full amount. After speaking to Halifax fraud department (2 hours of my life waiting on the phone I’ll never get back!) they agreed the best thing to do is block the card and as it happens because I don’t use it they agreed to close the account down.

Now I really can not work out how someone could have done this as I have never used the card other than when abroad and never online so it’s a bit of a mystery.

😱
Click to expand...
We had the same experience when in Spain. We do use the card and check the balance regularly as we only tend to use it for fuel and food when abroad, so typically more than £100 per transaction. On this particular day I noticed about 6 transactions had taken place wthin a few days, all for varying amounts
(£10-£30) per transaction, each at various U.K. food and sports clothing retailers. We contacted the bank who investigated and got back to say that a total of over £300 had been spent with an attempt to spend another £1000 that had been blocked! All purchases were made in the south west of the UK. They immediately cancelled the card and refunded the money taken , but I’m still puzzled to this day as to why they hadn’t alerted me even though all other transactions for the same period and a few days after, had been made in Spain.
We’re not sure what happened but the bank said that card details are often picked up abroad and ‘sold’ on. 🤔. We’re even more vigilant now when using the card abroad, although have to say that this has been the only occasion anything like that has ever happened to us, after many years of travelling and spending time abroad.

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TinaL said:
We have just had a text from Capital One, asking My wife to verify a transaction for £1.69, please say yes if correct no if not correct. So she typed No, a few moments later we get a call from Capital One Fraud Team in India!, A guy asks us for info, like DOB, Address & Phone number, plus the last 4 digits on the card:unsure: We said No we dont discuss details like that on the phone...He said that not a problem can you give us a call back on The Capital One Fraud Prevention Team line of 0800 etc.
We went online to Capital One and saw the 0800 number, called that to verify that the call we had just recieved was from them, as we were still suspicious. Another Indian this time a girl asked for same detail, but this time verified a couple of transactions that my wife had made to Sainsburys. The transaction amount of £1.69. was cancelled, and the account blocked.
We now have to wait 7-10 days for another card to be issued & have cut up the existing one.(y)
Is it just me, but I am always suspicious of anyone calling from a call centre in India, I know India is the call centre capital of the world, but I will never trust them if they contact us directly by text, phone or e-mail. I always ignore and call them directly, but even then I am hesitant if its India that answers.:eek:
Be on your guard folks, they are getting cleverer by the day.
LES
Click to expand...

As Riverbankannie stated you did this exactly right.

Never give details to any one who calls you.
Never call them back on a number they give you.
Find the phone number from a reliable source.

EDIT: I have remove this entry.
Call back using a different phone if possible, to prevent the no hangup con.

It appears BT have fixed the network to prevent this scam now.
www.yorkpress.co.uk

Phone scam protection move by BT tackles 'no hang up' fraudsters

BT has rolled out changes which will prevent fraudsters from holding a phone line open after their victim has hung up.
www.yorkpress.co.uk www.yorkpress.co.uk
 
TinaL said:
We have just had a text from Capital One, asking My wife to verify a transaction for £1.69, please say yes if correct no if not correct. So she typed No, a few moments later we get a call from Capital One Fraud Team in India!, A guy asks us for info, like DOB, Address & Phone number, plus the last 4 digits on the card:unsure: We said No we dont discuss details like that on the phone...He said that not a problem can you give us a call back on The Capital One Fraud Prevention Team line of 0800 etc.
We went online to Capital One and saw the 0800 number, called that to verify that the call we had just recieved was from them, as we were still suspicious. Another Indian this time a girl asked for same detail, but this time verified a couple of transactions that my wife had made to Sainsburys. The transaction amount of £1.69. was cancelled, and the account blocked.
We now have to wait 7-10 days for another card to be issued & have cut up the existing one.(y)
Is it just me, but I am always suspicious of anyone calling from a call centre in India, I know India is the call centre capital of the world, but I will never trust them if they contact us directly by text, phone or e-mail. I always ignore and call them directly, but even then I am hesitant if its India that answers.:eek:
Be on your guard folks, they are getting cleverer by the day.
LES
Click to expand...
I can understand that. You only have to take a look at Jim Browning's YouTube channel to see why.
 
TinaL said:
We have just had a text from Capital One, asking My wife to verify a transaction for £1.69, please say yes if correct no if not correct. So she typed No, a few moments later we get a call from Capital One Fraud Team in India!, A guy asks us for info, like DOB, Address & Phone number, plus the last 4 digits on the card:unsure: We said No we dont discuss details like that on the phone...He said that not a problem can you give us a call back on The Capital One Fraud Prevention Team line of 0800 etc.
We went online to Capital One and saw the 0800 number, called that to verify that the call we had just recieved was from them, as we were still suspicious. Another Indian this time a girl asked for same detail, but this time verified a couple of transactions that my wife had made to Sainsburys. The transaction amount of £1.69. was cancelled, and the account blocked.
We now have to wait 7-10 days for another card to be issued & have cut up the existing one.(y)
Is it just me, but I am always suspicious of anyone calling from a call centre in India, I know India is the call centre capital of the world, but I will never trust them if they contact us directly by text, phone or e-mail. I always ignore and call them directly, but even then I am hesitant if its India that answers.:eek:
Be on your guard folks, they are getting cleverer by the day.
LES
Click to expand...
Had a similar experience about 18 years ago. I reported a Modem fault to BT, call centre in India, & within 10 minutes I had someone ringing me back, from India. The guy wanted me to log on to my computer & download some software, then give him my password.
After about 15 minutes of me fobbing him off, telling him it kept 'freezing" (which was the original problem), he then flew off the handle & told me "I'm no effing monkey, I'm a microsoft engineer" :whatthe:

Needless to say, I hung up & called BT to report the scam. BT told me they take matters of data security "very seriously" & someone from their fraud team would be in touch....... as Diana Ross sang, "I'm still waiting...."
 
I check all of our seldom used bank and credit card accounts at least twice a month, it doesn't take long but would show up any irregularities. Our frequently used ones are checked every few days at a minimum.

I also have alerts which come to my phone (or hubby's) so can tell immediately if there's a problem.

Fraudsters rely on complacency.
 
I had my card scammed twice ,last somebody booked a Home Uni course , a woman the other week said she hadnot used her card for years but recently someone bought something with it,
On another note I got a Whats app message today saying "Hi Dad I've changed my phone Number can you save it" then put on 2 hearts, very convincing so I phoned my 2 sons and they had not changed their phones , another scam !!

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We had a number of transactions on our newish Starling account. The only place we had used it online was with The Food Hub. Starling said that it was possible that was where the fraud came from. But couldn't say definitively.

Starling cancelled the card, refunded the money and were great with their help. We still get 'declined' card actions after three months, so it is still being sold on. If it wasn't for the app notifying of every transaction we both make, we could have been almost £1000 down in the first week.
 
Tony50 said:
I had my card scammed twice ,last somebody booked a Home Uni course , a woman the other week said she hadnot used her card for years but recently someone bought something with it,
On another note I got a Whats app message today saying "Hi Dad I've changed my phone Number can you save it" then put on 2 hearts, very convincing so I phoned my 2 sons and they had not changed their phones , another scam !!
Click to expand...
How can scammers use a card to book a home university course doesn't that give away who they are straight away?
 
Otter Spotter said:
I believe the scammers now use software that trawls through millions of combinations of card numbers to find current cards, somehow they know which numbers are allocated to which card companies.
Click to expand...
Not even that,,

ccardgenerator.com

Valid MasterCard Credit Card Generator for Data Testing

Use our credit card number generate a get a fake credit card numbers with complete security details.
ccardgenerator.com ccardgenerator.com

There were two packages in the old Days, Credit Master and Credit Wizard, both use the Modulus 10 check... Neither can work out the CVV number..
 
I check the contents of my piggy bank at least once a week... currently €3.22...

JJ :cool:

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