Credit card fraud

I was left a message on my voicemail this morning from the fraud dept of the Post Office Mastercard asking me to call asap which I duly did. Was I currently in Mexico the nice lady wanted to know? No I replied, why? It seems as if some nice soul has been using my card details all over the country and has run up a significant bill (since the 19th Nov[:(!])and I'm nearly up to my limit (hence the call). Lots and lots and lots of transactions with several large ones still pending.
I'm very careful with my cards and only use this card when away (most recently on the Florida/ Tennessee trip)- I never use this card in ATMs and have absolutely no idea how this has happened.
They've asked me to cut up the card and return it and have promised a replacement within a few days but I'm pretty cheesed off to say the least. What happens now? Will I be chased for the balance currently showing?
DL

[Nottingham Nick]

This has happened to us a couple of times, albeit for small amounts.

I have to say this is one area where I have nothing but praise for MBNA. On both occasions we got a call from Virgin Amex security who asked if we had made certain transactions. When we said no, they said the same to us as they did to you - told us to cut the cards up and they sent us replacements.

Both times, aside for the slight inconvenience of being without the cards for a few days, it was no bother at all, and we weren't out of pocket at all.

Nick

This has happened to me three times but the last one was very serious as 4 of my cards were attacked. All of the card companies were just AMAZING, i never had to offer nay proof that a transaction was not mine and new card arrived in very quick time.

if the £12,000 that had been spent on my cards i never lost a penny and just never worry about card fraud now as i know how good the card companies are.

Hope things work out a swell for you, don't worry, card fraud is just so huge you can't avoid it you just have to accept it as part of life now.

Stuart

DL, sorry to hear that. The card company should freeze the charges so you won't have to pay them or any interest on them whilst they investigate. It may take a month or so, but after they investigate it should be cleared. I would always pay the minimum payment though, just in case, as any late payment marks on your credit report are harder to clear.

Follow up every now and then to see what they are doing to remove the transactions, but as Stuart101 says, it happens to everyone nowadays, however careful you are.

I do think that how a company reacts to this will influence my decision to stick with them once it is sorted though. As much as I don't like Capital One, having weekly alerts linked to my credit report is quite nice to see, though I'm only using them for a cheap balance transfer.

[honey lamb]

I've had two experiences with card fraud. the first one was revealed when I got my statement the day before I was due to leave for America. It was only for a small amount but obviously someone was testing the waters to see if the account was active. We don't have the plethora of credit cards you have in the UK and my account has both Visa and Mastercard. It was agreed with the CC company that I would use the card that had not been fraudulently used since obviously it could not be replaced in time and that they would monitor any spend outside the areas I was visiting. This had a limited value as some companies are headquartered elsewhere but on my return they called and went through all the transactions with me to establish which were legit and which not.

The second time the card had not been used but the bank had discovered that a number of cards used in the US had been cloned and customers were being contacted. I heard it on the radio on my way home from work and when I got home there was a letter asking me to contact them asap which I did. They informed me that my card was one of the cloned ones but it had never been used. They asked permission to replace it which was instantly given and I received my new one two days later. Obviously replacements had been pre-prepared [y]

Both times I had been the victim of a credit card fraud, the card was stolen in transit, presumably by someone in the Postal Service.

Never had to pay anything or prove anything, was handled by the card company and the Police. They caught the guy who was around 60, and I was about 27 at the time. They did enjoy telling me that during questionning they did ask why he was aging so badly for a 27 year old !

[Darren Wheeler]

Same happened to me. I initally had my card barred (found out at hotel check-in) and a message was on my mobile when switched on. Turned out to be a $1 purchase on iTunes that that tipped MBNA off.

Kudos to them though. New card ordered that day and no losses to me.

Hi

I've only had this happen once - with Citicard. I was alerted because they wrote to me, to confirm my change of address (which of course I hadn't changed). !7 phone calls, about four hours, five letters and seven emails later, and all of the fraudulent charges are still on my (suspended) account.
Their customer services say

'yes of course we believe you that it's fraud, but meanwhile please pay £1200 minimum payment, including £178 interest, and of course well refund you when it's all sorted out' !!!!

They tell me that the 'person' who rang in to change my address gave my mother's maiden name correctly - so it's either a friend or someone who (I gather) has bought the card number and mother's maiden name from a 'harvester'

Meanwile my credit file has been marked 'no hoper' as I haven't paid the fraudulent charges (which I believe in itself is an offence)

quote:Originally posted by locutus
DL, sorry to hear that. The card company should freeze the charges so you won't have to pay them or any interest on them whilst they investigate. It may take a month or so, but after they investigate it should be cleared. I would always pay the minimum payment though, just in case, as any late payment marks on your credit report are harder to clear.

Follow up every now and then to see what they are doing to remove the transactions, but as Stuart101 says, it happens to everyone nowadays, however careful you are.

I do think that how a company reacts to this will influence my decision to stick with them once it is sorted though. As much as I don't like Capital One, having weekly alerts linked to my credit report is quite nice to see, though I'm only using them for a cheap balance transfer.


Thanks for the advice about paying the minimum payment regardless - my last statement was dated the 15th Nov and I payed it in full immediately so will be getting another in a few days.
I'll contact Post Office fraud team again tomorrow -I was a bit stunned on the phone today -nearly £8,000 of transactions (and rising) was a bit of a shock[:0].
Thank you all for your reassurances. Hopefully I'll get some sleep tonight.
DL

Sorry to hear about your problems, it has just happened to us again. The card company said that they started taking a small amount of £10 to a charity not to arouse suspicion, particularly easy at Christmas and then became more confident. It has always been sorted out very quickly in the past and I'm sure it will be for you. All the transactions have only been made over the internet as they don't have the pin number.

[Decker]

Hmmm VISA allowed 140+ iTunes transactions at around $40 each to be taken from my US account. We're still fighting to sort it but this may be a US thing. We've had about 85% refunds so far but they're insisting that we complain about all of the transactions individually rather than being sensible and saying 'they all occur within minutes of each other and or anti-fraud system is obviously crap'.

One restless night later I've tried ringing the fraud dept again this morning. They're not open until 9am.
Seems like people's experiences with this sort of thing vary hugely.

Hi DL

This happened to me in Oct after returniong from Florida with my Amex card.

We had only used the card twice apart from check in at Disney and I had 'thought' that I had been pretty careful when using the card - ie not letting it out my sight etc

When checking my statement there was 4 amounts at petrol stations in Georgia (actually had to look up a map to find where Palmetto and Valdosta where [:)]) all just under $100 each spread over 36 hours

Amex right away acknowledged they were fraudulent transactions, issued a new card and credited the transactions. [y] to amex

It was a superb reaction, and I hope you receive the same treatment.

It still confuses me how these bad people got my details [?]

David

[Neil]

You should be ok DL, when this happened to us we just had to sign a form to confirm the transactions weren't made by us and we never heard any more about it, the amount were removed from our account straight away.

I agree with Nick that MBNA are very good at CC fraud detection, it seems they now have a new system where I have received a text asking me to confirm a transaction was valid, all I have to do it call this number, confirm security and press a button if all ok.

The one to watch are the service staff (table waiters/ counter staff) who have become very nifty at running your card through a cloned scanner. Even if you're watching you'll probably never notice.

Ever seen them swipe once, then say machine's not working- I'll find another....

Tip: avoid any maiden names/ family birthdays/place of birth on security- easily found..

The fraud team contacted me later this morning (I'd spoken to a general advisor whilst establishing the fraud dept didn't open until 9)to say that they are dealing with my problem and not to worry (I wish!). They have said they will re-issue my statement that has just gone out with all the fraudulent transactions removed (the only item on there that isn't fraudulent is my monthly expertflyer payment).They've asked to ring them tomorrow just so they can confirm what they've stated will happen has happened.If they're as good as their word I'll be impressed (and very relieved).
DL

[Darren Wheeler]

I know MBNA get a lot of stick, but when these things happen they are really on the ball. Just a real pain when it happens.

quote:Originally posted by Darren Wheeler
I know MBNA get a lot of stick, but when these things happen they are really on the ball. Just a real pain when it happens.


I'm sure MBNA are on the ball -this one is issued by the Post Office though [;)]. A pain none the less though Darren [n].

quote:Originally posted by DragonLady
The fraud team contacted me later this morning (I'd spoken to a general advisor whilst establishing the fraud dept didn't open until 9)to say that they are dealing with my problem and not to worry (I wish!). They have said they will re-issue my statement that has just gone out with all the fraudulent transactions removed (the only item on there that isn't fraudulent is my monthly expertflyer payment).They've asked to ring them tomorrow just so they can confirm what they've stated will happen has happened.If they're as good as their word I'll be impressed (and very relieved).
DL


Well they say they've done what they said they would and all the fraudulent transactions to date have been removed. No documentation to sign either.Thank you Post Office MC fraud team[:)].

And the new card arrived today. Kudos PO.