Changing mobo = Cards getting blocked...

Essentially he made a large purchase (assuming the motherboard was a middle of the road £120 model), on a site he hasn't used before and it flagged the bank's card fraud team to restrict him.

Not being able to use the card / getting a temporary block on it, and even a call from the bank are all standard procedure.

Fact is, any online account (steam etc) linked to that card would also get refused, so I can see why he's made the connection. Albeit poorly.

Also, it is true you cannot log on to the online banking feature at Barclays if your card is blocked. Happened to me once and really annoyed me :p

As for Windows moaning that it was no longer activated, it's pretty obvious if you start changing the motherboard :facepalm:

Sounds like the journo just wanted to use the abbreviations MAC and IP, to make themselves seem credible?
 
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I loved the thing about being locked out of gaming online accounts, they're the same scam emails everyone gets and clearly he's fallen for them. Couldn't believe that article when I read it this morning, total and utter crap.
 
I read it also and am surprised as to the level of response here considering the vast majority of the stories are equally full of ****.

That said there are several games that give you real hell of a hassle if you install them multiple times on different computers.
 
Didnt say much tbh, Wasn't too keen on pasting it here incase the sod trolls me lol!

Hello and thanks for the email about the story I wrote (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21058994) about the problems swapping a motherboard caused. Sorry that the story did not reach the standards you expect from the BBC. I don’t think I was talking “utter nonsense”. I can think of no other cause for all the problems I’ve had recently with credit cards, online accounts and the like. Having said that all the experts I talked were guarded in their conclusions. It’s the most likely cause but if it’s not then I’ve no idea what might have brought about all that trouble.

Having said that I did make a mistake in the story which was to scramble Mr Gorbold’s comments about MAC addresses. While there are circumstances in which that MAC address might be communicated, this was not one of them. Instead, he was making a broader point about the changes swapping a motherboard might bring about and how this might trigger those anti-fraud measures. We’ll be changing the story to reflect this.

Regards

Mark Ward

Technology correspondent

BBC News
Click to expand...
 
spookywillow said:
Didnt say much tbh, Wasn't too keen on pasting it here incase the sod trolls me lol!
Click to expand...

Seems Mr Ward is using his time to reply to each complaint individually:

Hello and thanks for the email about the story I wrote (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21058994) about the problems swapping a motherboard caused. Sorry that the story did not reach the standards you expect from the BBC.

While I did make one mistake in the story (see below), I’m confident that the rest of it is accurate. There’s simply nothing else that I’ve done with that computer that could have possibly kicked off all the fraud alerts.

The mistake I made in the story scrambled Mr Gorbold’s comments about MAC addresses. While there are circumstances in which that MAC address might be communicated, this was not one of them. Instead, he was making a broader point about the changes swapping a motherboard might bring about and how this might trigger those anti-fraud measures. We’ll be changing the story to reflect this.

Regards

Mark Ward

Technology correspondent

BBC News
Click to expand...
 
A reply like that sack him, if you don't know, phone the bank.
Complete BS, especially that reply, is even worse than the initial article.

It's not even DMstandards let alone what BBC should be achieving.
 
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