Card details stolen

uknowist · 5 Jun 2008 at 00:30

Had a phonecall left on my home answer machine saying it was barclays bank fraud team and to ring them back on 0800 389 1652 so went on the net and couldnt really find that much about the number just a few blog entries about people confused whether it was a scam number or not. So i tried my online bank account and wouldnt log in.
So i decided to ring the number, all seemed quite genuine to me. The women asked where i was on such and such a date, i said at home and she said no i was somewhere else. So i remembered it was when I was on holidays. Well turns out somehow someone in San Francisco had been trying to use my card details, 2 transactions failed, 1 on some random website and another on itunes. Found it all quite bizarre tbh!

one thing i still dont understand is why isnt that number listed on barclays website?

helmet · 5 Jun 2008 at 00:44

Egg did that to me, I was in Prague and they called my house to speak to me.
Anyway I got home, called the number and they basically said:
"New card on it's way, just to let you know."

If you are not comfortable on the phone go to your local branch.
TBH, other than them pushing you a new card, don't play ball.

Tell them snail mail works just fine and confirm with your branch that you can lift money via visiting the branch.
HIH

Berserker · 5 Jun 2008 at 00:55

Providing the account itself hasn't been compromised, there's a reasonably reliable way to verify that the fraud department are who they say they are, providing they're willing, which IMO they should be - ask them a specific detail about the account. This should not be anything that will specifically identify you or the account as they shouldn't be giving that out. For example, select two recent transactions made in different shops/places, give them the name and amount and ask them for the date, or give them the name and date and ask for the amount.

It's amazing just how easily fraudsters can get at accounts though - I've had one card that was sat in a drawer unused for six months. Next I know I'm getting a call asking if I used it at an OcUK competitor (the alarm was sounded and the transaction blocked because it was such a large amount on an otherwise dormant card).

stoofa · 5 Jun 2008 at 01:24

I'm currently in the process of geting money refunded back to me after a Maestro card of mine became compromised.

I had a new card sent to me a while ago - about 8 months before my old card was due to run out.
It told me to start using the new card and to destroy the old one - which I did by cutting up into very small pieces and distributing the pieces in bins at home and work.

I got out of hospital a couple of weeks ago to get a call from NatWest.
Basically my old Maestro card had never been cancelled (for whatever reason) and that around £1200 worth of things had been spent on it - train tickets, £900 at BT.
I've signed all the declaration forms and am now just waiting for my money back.
I have the perfect proof it wasn't me - all purchases were made online and at the time I was in hospital with no Internet.
No idea how the card became compromised.

Gaspode · 5 Jun 2008 at 07:08

stoofa said:
I'm currently in the process of geting money refunded back to me after a Maestro card of mine became compromised.

I had a new card sent to me a while ago - about 8 months before my old card was due to run out.
It told me to start using the new card and to destroy the old one - which I did by cutting up into very small pieces and distributing the pieces in bins at home and work.

I got out of hospital a couple of weeks ago to get a call from NatWest.
Basically my old Maestro card had never been cancelled (for whatever reason) and that around £1200 worth of things had been spent on it - train tickets, £900 at BT.
I've signed all the declaration forms and am now just waiting for my money back.
I have the perfect proof it wasn't me - all purchases were made online and at the time I was in hospital with no Internet.
No idea how the card became compromised.

blimey - a big *snap* from me.

last w/e my card info was used too...and strangely BT was one of the transactions (BT PAY BY PHONE , CARLIOL SQUAR).

not as much as yours - the big one they did was with Tescos (nearly £900).
one transaction was out and then back in after the w/e - I guess they failed the security of that particular online retailer.

all together I am out about £1,200 too.

Gaspode · 12 Jun 2008 at 11:33

didn't buy anything from Cotton Traders did you?

The credit card details of up to 38,000 customers of clothing firm Cotton Traders were stolen following a hack of its website, BBC News has learned.

The firm has not confirmed the size of the breach but it has acknowledged the site was attacked early this year.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7446871.stm

I have used CT a couple of times this year - strange how the report by the BBC was done 10th June and yet CT are saying 'early this year'...

if they were compromised shouldn't they have warned all their customers of a possible risk?

Abraham · 12 Jun 2008 at 11:38

Gaspode said:
strange how the report by the BBC was done 10th June and yet CT are saying 'early this year'...

if they were compromised shouldn't they have warned all their customers of a possible risk?

not that strange really, the bbc just didnt find out about it until june
but yes they should have warned their customers

Gaspode · 13 Jun 2008 at 09:37

Abraham said:
not that strange really, the bbc just didnt find out about it until june
but yes they should have warned their customers

sorry - wasn't a pop at the BBC - just strange how CT managed to keep it a secret for so long.
I applaud the BBC for telling everyone.

if CT knew their system had been hacked they should have at least contacted customers to warn them and suggest a change of card details.

Gaspode · 14 Jun 2008 at 18:43

fired off an email to CT to get some more info about the hack they had.

the reply:

Thank you for your e-mail.

As soon as we were aware of the breach of security in January, we worked together with our provider, Barclaycard, and the police to ensure that all customers credit cards that were at risk were put on watch by their card issuer.

This is standard banking procedure. We followed their advice with the sole intention of protecting our customers.

Because there was an investigation underway we were unable to discuss this issue further. Any losses will be covered by your card issuer under the credit card banking code of practice.

Following on from this breach of security, we took advice from leading experts in online protection to ensure our security and fraud systems meet the very highest industry standards.

I hope this answers your questions and thank you for contacting us and giving us the opportunity to explain our position.

Assuring you of our best attention at all times.

this has no 'you cannot replicate this anywhere else' type clauses on it.
as it happened in Jan 08 it means they were not the source of my stolen card info as my first ever order to them was in Feb.