Unauthorised transactions on credit cards

momac · 24-11-2009, 13:31

I am getting unauthorised transactions being taken from my credit card.
ULTIFRESHWELL and BEUTYCLUB have both taken £54 from my acount in 2 days. I have never heard of these companies and despite informing my bank and cancelling my card and getting a new one....the bank have informed me that they cannot actually stop this happening.
This is currently in the hands of my bank's disputes dept.
I have asked them to close this credit card account completely....but they say it needs to be active for them to persue this dispute.
In the mean time I will not be using this card at all....so anything that goes on it will be fraudulant.
This could take up to 6 weeks for my bank to sort out....and with Christmas presents to buy...this is not good enough.
Has anyone got any advise?
Cheers
Mo

haydnwalker · 24-11-2009, 13:51

Usually if you inform them straight away that the transactions on it are unauthorised (they are classed as authorised if an additional cardholder has purchased something without telling you). Then they should action it straight away, however, it can take some time as they will like to work out who is being paid. I would presume as you've cancelled the card itself, no more transactions can be taken out.

It sounds to me like you've had your card cloned.

The bank should be able to tell you WHERE the transactions took place (geographically) and if they are nowhere near your location you have a pretty good case (for example if you lived in london and your card was used in glasgow while you were at work).

Flyboy · 24-11-2009, 14:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by momac

I am getting unauthorised transactions being taken from my credit card.
ULTIFRESHWELL and BEUTYCLUB have both taken £54 from my acount in 2 days. I have never heard of these companies and despite informing my bank and cancelling my card and getting a new one....the bank have informed me that they cannot actually stop this happening.
This is currently in the hands of my bank's disputes dept.
I have asked them to close this credit card account completely....but they say it needs to be active for them to persue this dispute.
In the mean time I will not be using this card at all....so anything that goes on it will be fraudulant.
This could take up to 6 weeks for my bank to sort out....and with Christmas presents to buy...this is not good enough.
Has anyone got any advise?
Cheers
Mo

What an odd re-action from the credit card compnay. They have a duty to investigate, whether the card is active or not. I am not aware of any rules that say otherwise.

They should re-debit your card of the disputed amount, until it has been settled. From what remember, this is part of the code of conduct. Not sure whether it is part of the CCA though, I will need to check.

Doughnut · 24-11-2009, 14:04

Down with this sort of thing!

Flyboy · 24-11-2009, 14:19

Don't forget that, as of the first of this month, the banks now have to prove negligence, rather than the consumer having to prove that they weren't.

momac · 24-11-2009, 14:57

I ordered a 'free trial' of a teeth whitening product which of course turned out not be 'free' at all. I think these other companies belong to the same group. I believe this is how they were able to access my credit card account. I can only wait it out now and hope it gets sorted out sooner rather than later.

heero_yuy · 24-11-2009, 15:39

You might find in the small print that by taking the "free" trial, unless you cancel the card authorisation within a set period, usually 30days that you are automatically co-opted into further arrangements.

I would never do a trial like this where you have to put up front either card details or DD mandates. Too risky and you might forget to cancell and end up in a 12 month contract.

momac · 24-11-2009, 15:50

Thanks for the message.....I gave my card number for postage and package only.
They subscribed me to a 'lifetime membership' within 24 hours of me applying for the free trial.
This was subject to me being fully satisfied with the product.
I hadn't even received it...let alone be satisfied with it.
I tried to cancel this the same day but was told it had already been shipped and would incure several cancellation charges.
They have assured me that I will not receive anything else from them in the future.
I have cancellation emails from them which i have forwarded to the disputes dept. of my bank.

Pog66 · 25-11-2009, 12:37

I Always steer of any "free" offers that require lodging of payment details - always some catch buried in the T&C's

Strange apporach from the credit card company - when my "card" was used fraudently, it was immediately cancelled and a new one issued with a differant number/PIN/security code

momac · 25-11-2009, 13:43

My bank HAVE issued me with a new credit card and security number and cancelled the card the unauthorised transactions were taken from.
Believe you me....I have been in close contact with the disputes dept. of my bank and they have assured me that it will sorted out in due course. I am as baffled as you as to why this is able to go on. Apparently if it is a monthly transaction...these people can still take the payment.

Escapee · 25-11-2009, 18:30

I had a scam attempted on my debit card a few weeks ago, the transactions were for small amounts and they failed. I guess larger ones were to follow!

I believe the scam originated from inside the bank, the chain of events were as follows.

I needed £800 out of my savings for a purchase on the weekend, I didn't have time to go to the bank so I transferred the cash from my savings to my current account.

Over the next 4 days I took the maximum £200 a day from the cashpoint, after the 3rd day I had a message on my home phone claiming to be from the bank. It sounded suspicious but they said it was about abnormal activity on my account.

I ignored it, the following day I got an email again mentioning the abnormal activity on my account. It looked dodgy so I followed the link.

The link took me to a page that quickly went to a HTML mock up of my banks home page. I went back to the original page which was a server in the US and the website was 'africanhumanservices' I found a number of files here and web pages for other banks, mainly American ones. One of the files appeared to be login names and passwords that unsuspecting people had entered.

I ended up speaking to the fraud team at my bank who immediately stopped my card and claimed they had not tried to contact me by phone. They sent me a new card, but also a few days later called to ask about another transaction for £8.43 that failed for some reason.

It seems that they had my Name, Address, Home Phone Number, Account Number, Long Card Number, but were probably after the last 3 digits of the security number. Hence my reason for suspecting a bank employee.

I guess the bank took action because the site had vanished the following day, or perhaps the scammers were covering their tracks. I have since been keeping a close check on my account, and so far all has been OK.

I am also aware of some card skimming going on local, I know more of one instance where a local supermarket is suspected. The one guy has had his card for two years but only ever used it in this store.

momac · 26-11-2009, 09:56

Well I know exactly how they got my details as I applied for a 'free trial' and had to give my card details for suposedly postage and packing.
The next thing I knew I was entered into a 'life time' supply whenever I wanted it for postage and packing fee only. I tried to cancel as it was only 24 hours since I ordered the 'free trial' and hadn't even received the product.
The unauthorised transactions were from 2 completely seperate companies.....each for £54 and within 24 hours of each other.
I traced this back to the 'free trial' company and cancelled my credit card strait away.
I now have a new credit card...but have refused to use it until all this is sorted out....so ANY transactions taken until I contact them will be fraudulant.
Thankyou for taking the time and effort to tell me of your experience...and check your bank EVERY day.
Maureen Macleod

Welshchris · 26-11-2009, 10:09

A few years ago i was in Paris and came home to find that my card had been used for ordering Adult Material online and a company called CCBILL had billed me. When i enquired with CCBILL all they would tell me was the transaction took place in the UK while i was in Paris. They wouldnt give me any other details as i didnt have the subscription ID for the site that was ordered and they wouldnt listen to the fact i was the card holder yet didnt place the order. In the end my bank claimed the money back but to this day if i need to order anything that uses CCBILL as their billing merchant online my cards are declined as my name must be blacklisted with them.

momac · 26-11-2009, 10:17

I think in future, I will only order through a secure site. This has been a real wakeup call.
Thank god I check my bank every day online...or this could have gone unoticed for weeks.
At least I was able to contact my bank and get this card cancelled strait away.
ANY transactions on my card will be unauthorised as I am not going to use this new card for 6 months....just to be sure.

heero_yuy · 26-11-2009, 11:31

Glad to hear you got it sorted out. Lesson is to keep an eye on those statements preferably on-line so as to spot anything untoward and stop it before it becomes an issue.