WARNING - Check your credit cards (and bank accounts) even if you don't use them much!

Minxy

Minxy

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Today I've been doing some finance stuff and decided to cancel a couple of credit cards as we don't need them as we have more than sufficient accessible credit on others so no point in keeping them, however that was when the 'fun' started!

I logged into one in my name to check the balance and also see how to cancel it ... imagine my shock to see there was a balance owning of nearly £1,500!!!!! It should have been ZERO! Upon further investigation 3 items were been bought 'on-line' in December, a couple of 'fitbits' (not that I'd ever want one), and some stuff from Huawei direct (I never buy anything from the direct). The last time the card was used by my hubby was in a local Iceland store back in September for less than £10, it's not even been taken out for a 'bit of fresh air' since then!

I was straight onto the CC company and eventually got through to the fraud section which took ages (3rd member of staff I was passed along to) and explained it to him what the issue was. After going through extra security checks he could see from the account that I hadn't use it much and even when I did it was only for small 'in store' amounts and have never paid interest ... ever ... having always paid it off in full, and never used it to buy anything online.

I told him that that since we have some 0% interest CCs which we've been using for purchases since last year I haven't used it at all since September 2020 hence why I was going to cancel it anyway. He said he would arrange for the account to be credited for the fraudulent purchases but it would likely not be processed by Monday when the £33 direct debit is due to go out and will still need to be paid, thus next week once his credit has been applied I'll have to ring again to get it refunded and close the account.

We're at a loss to know how they've got hold of the CC details and importantly the secure code off the back however we've got suspicions which hubby will 'check' when he next visits Iceland.

I'm rather miffed because 'somebody' was 'responsible' for checking the balances on our credit cards and he didn't do it .... :cautious: ... yes he is still alive ... just! >:)

To be safe I've just gone through the all the CCs today and they are okay except this one fortunately.
 
Don't you just love a mystery... good call Mel (y) (y)

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I am surprised that you weren’t contacted by the credit card company due to ‘odd activity’ as often these transactions get picked up and checked with you , we got a text the other week about one of these which was fraud.

I don’t think you will ever get to the bottom of how this happened , if you ask the fraud line when you contact them they are very vague about it and it often feels as if it might be in house or data loss which they don’t want to admit to.
 
Sorry to hear that, its bloody horrible when you don't know how or where the fraud has taken place.
Get yourself an Experian/ Credit Karma (transunion) and Equifax accounts. Experian and Equifax cost you, but you get the 1st month free and can cancel at anytime.
You can get a credit report from them all and see any suspicious activity, report it and have it removed.
The reason you need all 3, is that different companies use their chosen company and information isnt always passed to the others.
Vodafone use Equifax for example. I received a statement for a new iphone and contract in my name. I hadn't purchased anything from Vodafone for at least 18 months. It was a scam perpetrated, either by a data breach at carphone warehouse or an employee. On research I found out that Carphone had a massive breach, but didn't inform anyone and were fined for it.
I don't know if my experience was because of this, but on investigation they had purchased 3 phones/contracts and had tried to get a loan via applepay! Using my details held at Carphone.
When I looked on my Experian and Credit Karma accounts, there was nothing related to Vodafone, but found it on Equifax.
A lot of unseen fraud is going on out there, so be careful.
 
I had 2 or 3 fraudulent purchases one evening using my Starling banks card details, strange thing was I had not used the card at all and it was locked. Starling refunded account but when questioned as to how this could have happened they could not answer, My suggestion that it must have been an inside job, they were vociferous in their denial that it could be their own staff.
I told them that if it happened again I would close my accounts.
if you can it’s worth locking your cards when you are not likely to use them if you have control on your phone or tablet, this may at least stop the cloners.

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As if this wasn't bad enough, I also had 'fun' with B&M savings yesterday :rolleyes: ... not related at all to the CC scam but still a nuisance to sort out.

B&M savings account work in a different way to normal ones in that they can only be funded via a direct debit rather than a standing order or a payment/transfer, in the same way that you'd pay a bill where the money is 'requested' by the company rather than you sending it from your bank account. In order for this to work I had to log into my B&M savings account, 'link' my bank account to it and then set up a regular 'deposit' request by B&M from the bank account as/when required. This isn't a problem normally and it has worked well in the past especially if DDs were needed for bank accounts in order to get perks/interest as it was an easy way of meeting the DD terms.

However hubby and me (we each have B&M accounts) wanted to change the linked bank account to a different one and we were able to do this via B&M as we had in the past, once done we both got confirmation letters that the changes had been made and when checking on the newly linked bank account the DDs were set up, all well and good. Yesterday however I logged on to B&M savings to check the balance (only a pittance in it) and once I had there were NO accounts at all showing, no 'active' nor 'expired' ones ... nowt. :oops: Where the heck was my flipping 'active' account!!!! o_O

I rang and after giving the techy all the info and checking it wasn't a cookie on my laptop (which I knew it wasn't as there was no issue when logging into hubby's account just before mine) she was just about to look at other possibilities when I got cut off! :cautious: I rang back and after a very long wait on the phone and then going over it all again it turns out that that B&M in their wisdom do 'spot checks' on stuff and I'd fallen foul of one, the trouble is there was NO message on my account about this, nor to contact them, so it made me quite concerned as to what had gone on. Okay, we've got to the bottom of it, despite the letter informing me that the linked bank account change had been changed it had been 'blocked' and my actual accounts suspended! :mad: We then had a debate about the need to send in a cheque for the new linked account to prove it was genuine, this is despite never having to do this since the first time we opened an account with them and have changed it many times in the past without having to do this, she was adamant though that this was required every time ... total b*llocks!

Right then, change it back to the original account (ie cancel the change), okay she'll do that ... er nope, system won't let her!:doh: The upshot is that I can only 'activate' my account again by writing in ... yes WRITING in ... and that I 'may' have to send a cheque too in order to get it 'unlocked' to prove it is my account ... totally stupid seeing as this is the account it was linked to originally! Talk about idotic!!!!

I've just done a letter to them asking for it to be changed back to the original account and complaining about the stupidity of it ... I also pointed out that I was going to put some of the funds in from a bond that has just matured until we need it to pay off the credit card in a couple of months (CC is interest free until then) but there's not a chance I'll do that now in case I can't get at it when I want it! I just hope no-one who really needs to get their money in a hurry falls foul of this!
 
Happened to me last year, a CC I rarely use and hadn’t been used for 8 months suddenly had over £3500 of gambling transactions and toy shop purchases, I got it sorted but I check the balances on all our cards every week now just in case.
 
One thing you should do is check the spending each week as we (financial advisers) were told that most people don’t question any withdrawals under £35 and there are many fraudulent transaction go unnoticed.
 
One nice recent feature of Tesco's CC is a push notification is sent to my phone the second any transaction goes on the card. Santander send text messages of transactions over a certain amount or money deposited but it's pretty useless as they turn up ages after the event, as in the next day!
 
Otter Spotter said:
One thing you should do is check the spending each week as we (financial advisers) were told that most people don’t question any withdrawals under £35 and there are many fraudulent transaction go unnoticed.
Click to expand...
Nothing gets passed hubby normally but as we hadn't been using this, nor some other cards, he hadn't bothered checking them as they should have been zero, if I hadn't checked the first thing we would've known about it was when the DD got taken and then all hell would've broken loose ... he might then NOT have survived! :rofl:

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I know that the subject regards credit cards, but it can also happen to debit cards.
Last year my current account was cleaned out overnight by some nice people in Brazil.
It was all sorted out by the bank the next day, but not without a degree of anxiety in the meantime.
No matter how careful you are, it seems this sort of thing could happen to anyone.
 
Interesting. I’ve recently had £1200 of Internet purchases done via my Barclays Debit Card.

Card still in my possession. I’m ultra careful where I buy. Full refunds by Barclays within 24 hours but they won’t / can’t tell me how this as occurred.

All I know is that the purchases were made without giving my last three numbers on the reverse of the card. 🤷‍♂️
 
It's a horrible feeling to find someone has stolen from you. My Lloyds current account was emptied by someone withdrawing £199 at a time. Apparently if each transfer is less than £200, no alarm flag raised.

They withdrew almost exactly what was in the account without going over drawn. Very suspicious, l reckon it was some one on the inside.

The positive side was Lloyds behaved faultlessly putting the account back to before the theft.

Using the App makes checking easy, good luck.

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Stanbrook said:
It's a horrible feeling to find someone has stolen from you. My Lloyds current account was emptied by someone withdrawing £199 at a time. Apparently if each transfer is less than £200, no alarm flag raised.

They withdrew almost exactly what was in the account without going over drawn. Very suspicious, l reckon it was some one on the inside.

The positive side was Lloyds behaved faultlessly putting the account back to before the theft.

Using the App makes checking easy, good luck.
Click to expand...
I too am with Lloyds and use the app. It sends push notifications to my phone every time anything is withdrawn from our account. Same with my Amex CC
 
Yep, had it too, mega careful now, all cards I use now need telephone confirmation, didn't like the Fraud department questioning style, like "Could a member of your family have used it without you knowing?".......worst ever event was having Debit card used to clear my account whilst on holiday without other funds....early days of travelling.....lucky for us we had a CC from same bank, the bank allowed us to use the credit card at an ATM whilst talking to them on the phone receiving instructions to withdraw cash, then stopped the card and froze the account.....
When the statement was read some time later, certain items we bought from the US, items that linked the fraud to a certain person, known to us......could we prove it, not in a cat in hells chance could we....
 
Minxy Girl said:
We're at a loss to know how they've got hold of the CC details and importantly the secure code off the back however we've got suspicions which hubby will 'check' when he next visits Iceland.
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They don't need the secure code off the back, that is the problem. There is a back door in the system which the credit card issuers are well aware of and support. It is there to facilitate transaction throughput for large users (Amazon for instance) who can often pass on the losses from fraud to others.
The scammers simply generate the long number to take advantage of the security hole.
 
GJH said:
They don't need the secure code off the back, that is the problem. There is a back door in the system which the credit card issuers are well aware of and support. It is there to facilitate transaction throughput for large users (Amazon for instance) who can often pass on the losses from fraud to others.
The scammers simply generate the long number to take advantage of the security hole.
Click to expand...

Yep. Best guess is my card number was generated using some sort of computer program, and internet purchases attempted. Two were declined but Argos, and two others went through. £599 with on Argos!

Barclays were on it immediately. I had text messages to call the Fraud Department.

Money back in account within 24 hours, and 3 letters asking if we’re okay, and sorry about the incident.

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Sapper520 said:
Yep. Best guess is my card number was generated using some sort of computer program, and internet purchases attempted. Two were declined but Argos, and two others went through. £599 with on Argos!

Barclays were on it immediately. I had text messages to call the Fraud Department.

Money back in account within 24 hours, and 3 letters asking if we’re okay, and sorry about the incident.
Click to expand...
It was because of a similar experience some years ago that I chased it up with the Payments Council (since replaced by the Payment Systems Regulator) which admitted that the back door was there.
Neither it, nor the card issuers, would admit any responsibility for the consequences beyond refunding money - counting the cost and inconvenience to the customer of dealing with an incident as of no value at all.
 
The plot thickens, I went back into my CC account and whilst I was pleased to see that the credit had been made there was still a £33 direct debit charge indicated, so I went into my bank account and cancelled it so I wouldn't then have to claim it back. I went to the 'messages' section to see if I was able to send them a message to close the account rather than have to ring again, in the subject drop down menu where I had to choose what I wanted to message about was one about the CC giving the last 4 digits of the card ... except it WASN'T my card number!

Hmmm .... interesting .... it was the only card option in the list so putting 2 and 2 together someone within the CC company has requested a new card and snaffled it, as I certainly hadn't asked for one so this is the only way they could get one ... it therefore begs the question as to which card has actually been suspended on the account? The latter I assume but having not realised it was a different number (why would I even suspect it?) so my original card, which I still have, had already be cancelled when the new one was produced. Obviously I'll be informing them of this and putting in a formal complaint when I ring as they obviously have someone internally doing this and I suspect I won't be the only one it's happened to, hopefully they can check back who input the new card request and track the thief from there.

So, not only should you check your accounts regularly but also the actual card numbers are the correct ones when you do!
 
Minxy Girl said:
The plot thickens, I went back into my CC account and whilst I was pleased to see that the credit had been made there was still a £33 direct debit charge indicated, so I went into my bank account and cancelled it so I wouldn't then have to claim it back. I went to the 'messages' section to see if I was able to send them a message to close the account rather than have to ring again, in the subject drop down menu where I had to choose what I wanted to message about was one about the CC giving the last 4 digits of the card ... except it WASN'T my card number!

Hmmm .... interesting .... it was the only card option in the list so putting 2 and 2 together someone within the CC company has requested a new card and snaffled it, as I certainly hadn't asked for one so this is the only way they could get one ... it therefore begs the question as to which card has actually been suspended on the account? The latter I assume but having not realised it was a different number (why would I even suspect it?) so my original card, which I still have, had already be cancelled when the new one was produced. Obviously I'll be informing them of this and putting in a formal complaint when I ring as they obviously have someone internally doing this and I suspect I won't be the only one it's happened to, hopefully they can check back who input the new card request and track the thief from there.

So, not only should you check your accounts regularly but also the actual card numbers are the correct ones when you do!
Click to expand...
That is shocking Mel and also begs the question about the amount of overseas voices you speak to when you need to talk to these people, I'm not suggesting that there are no bad eggs in the UK, BUT an awful lot of fraud and scam crime starts abroad.
 
Yikes!
I am notified when I use my CC on some accounts. I need to do the same for all of them.
 

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