Fraudsters at it again

[Mike Hughes]

Ah you have to love 'em.

Got an order today for the most expensive thing we sell. Express delivery, different delivery address, very dodgy yahoo email address, mobile phone number (it's also an old item that I haven't marked down in price yet so surprising on that count as well). All good signs of fraud.

I sent them an email saying it wasn't available and would they like an alternative. Got a phone call with what sounded to me like an east Asian guy doing a dodgy impression of a lady's voice. "Hello, this is Elizabeth (I don't think he knew how to pronounce the surname), it's a gift so yes, do sent the replacement".

When I asked 'him' (definitely not her) to confirm the home address we were mysteriously cut off but they did phone back and still tried to bluff it through.

Anyway, I have since contacted the correct cardholder and explained that she should contact her card company and check for unexplained purchases. She was a bit cagey, but I expect you would be if someone phoned you up out of the blue and started talking about fraud and bits of information about your card details.

Hopefully she'll get her card stopped before too much damage is done. I guess she's safe enough but it'll hit other retailers who don't manage to catch it before they ship the stuff.

Mike

[Kirk]

I'm always amazed at how nonchalant the credit card companies are regarding fraud. On several occasions we have received orders we knew were fraudulent and called the issuing bank. Their attitude is always "Well, if it is fraud the card holder will call us and let us know". In the meantime the crooks are racking up purchases on the stolen card.

I always wonder why they won't call the card holder and review their account to see if it had been compromised. If so, they could cancel the account right then.

Actually, I already know the answer...the merchant is the one at risk, not the card company. But still, anything that helps the merchant should help the card company, right?

[guccij]

I think some card companies are more scrupulous in letting customers know their card has or might have been compromised.

I bought my son a new mobile for Christmas online at CW.

Within five minutes of completing the purchase, I had a call from John Lewis Partnership Card (Mastercard) asking me to confirm it was me who had bought the thing.

Obviously, mobile phones are high risk, probably even more so at this time of year, even so, I was pretty impressed.

[Darren B]

i had a guy buy some stuff over the counter today, we got a call auth center on the terminal, while we were doing that his bank rang him asking if he was making a purchase. It would seem his spending patten had changed so something is happening i guess

[parklifeclothes]

On several occasions we have received orders we knew were fraudulent and called the issuing bank.

Last time I called Marks & Spencers card services to let them know we had been targeted with a stolen card they accused me of being the user, no matter how many times I said it had been used on our website in an attempt to buy (steal) hundreds of pounds of goods they kept saying 'so you are using a stolen card'. I gave up after calling him a tw**, although I suspect he would not have understood that either!!

[chris ashdown]

I had my card cloned last year at the local garage, they latter caught the guy but the card company Lloyds managed to pay the money from the garage in Norfolk and in the same day take some money from Canada and also India all within about 5 hours,

Makes you wonder about their computer checking software for unusual transactions as even concorde could not have been in these three places in 5 hours

[malbro]

I had my card cloned last year at the local garage, they latter caught the guy but the card company Lloyds managed to pay the money from the garage in Norfolk and in the same day take some money from Canada and also India all within about 5 hours,

Makes you wonder about their computer checking software for unusual transactions as even concorde could not have been in these three places in 5 hours

I tend to use BarclayCard for web purchases as they seem to be on the ball. I have had several calls from them over the years checking on purchases. Latest was a couple of weeks ago when I had to pay for a car repair up in lancashire. They were querying the transaction within a few hours of leaving the garage.