Bank fraud.

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Brandane

Legendary Member
Location
Costa Clyde
Got a text from my bank this morning, some nice person had tried to use my card details to pay for an Asda online grocery shop to the value of £105.. The bank identified it as unusual activity and declined payment.

Half an hour on phone to sort it out and all is good, apart from the fact my card has been stopped, so cash only until new one arrives.

No-one else ever has access to my card, so I can only assume it has been the work of someone working for a company I have made an online purchase from.
 

PeteXXX

Cake or ice cream? The choice is endless ...
Location
Hamtun
A Petrol stations cloned my daughter's card a while ago. It's not necessarily an online issue.

I never quite trust those cheap looking card readers that even the ice cream vans seem to have!
 

Cycleops

Legendary Member
Location
Accra, Ghana
I never use my card to pay for things online, especially Chinese sites! It’s all too easy for shops to save your details which they should destroy.
Always use PayPal for all purchases now. Some Chinese sites are accepting it now.
 
Location
London
I never use my card to pay for things online, especially Chinese sites! It’s all too easy for shops to save your details which they should destroy.
Always use PayPal for all purchases now. Some Chinese sites are accepting it now.
and paypal can of course draw on your credit card - ie - you need no paypal balance.
I think if you do this with paypal you may sacrifice some protection that UK credit card laws give you (not relevant to you of course) - but lots of the things I use paypal for are of tiddly value - very often pints in UK spoons.
I like the fact that you have to enter no card details into paypal - and you can set up a double-step one-time code thingy where a text is sent to your phone for final authorisation - so I feel pretty safe using it over public wifi.
 

Drago

Legendary Member
Another good reason to use smartphone payment. Your card details are never disclosed to the retailer.
Although the nearfield data exchange is vulnerable with the right kit.

The good news is that so long as you are not negligent in any way the bank have to refund - the act of fraud is against the bank as a victim, not you - although it's surprising how often they won't tell you that.
 

SpokeyDokey

67, & my GP says I will officially be old at 70!
Moderator
Another good reason to use smartphone payment. Your card details are never disclosed to the retailer.

No idea why even more people don't switch to this.

We have not been Google Payers for long but we are sold on it.

It's very hard to convince some of our family/friends to ditch the card! I guess it's much like people who used to cling onto their cheque books - old habits die hard!

Unbeatable security - no wonder the banks are so keen on it (and Apple Pay etc) and are willing to be an integral part of the set-up process.
 

SpokeyDokey

67, & my GP says I will officially be old at 70!
Moderator
Although the nearfield data exchange is vulnerable with the right kit.

The good news is that so long as you are not negligent in any way the bank have to refund - the act of fraud is against the bank as a victim, not you - although it's surprising how often they won't tell you that.

Any chance you can expand on that a bit as I'm not aware of that.

No personal card data is transmitted from the phone to the reader just encrypted tokens.
 

newfhouse

Resolutely on topic
Although the nearfield data exchange is vulnerable with the right kit.
Yes and no. Yes, the data exchange could be intercepted at close range, perhaps by installing some man-in-the-middle hardware. No, because it would be of limited value since reusable account details are never transmitted anywhere between the air interface and the payment provider’s servers.

There is a reliance upon, principally, Apple and Google to maintain adequate security but this is no different to trusting your bank to do the same.

Use a fingerprint, face recognition or equivalent method to lock your phone rather than a simple PIN or pattern. This should reduce the chance of your phone and unlock code being forced from you at knifepoint. Most fingerprint scanners fail with all but the most recently severed fingers.
 
Location
London
I have a separate card for online payments linked to an empty current account. I put in cash only when I'm making a purchase. The card never leaves the house.

It saves the hassle of my "outdoor" card being stopped if online activity causes a problem with the "indoor" card.
i thought banks got a bit concerned/got in touch if you left accounts empty/near empty.
 

RoubaixCube

~Tribanese~
Location
London, UK
Youre lucky - I had my bank call me at 1am one night to ask me if i had just tried to use my card to pay for something at a 7-11 in the USA somewhere. Obviously what triggered the system was that i had used my card at an ATM here earlier that day and 6hrs wasnt enough for me to catch a flight to the US and drive to this place and try to pay for something.

No idea how my card details got stolen. Having worked in security. Im aware how some malicious people have tampered with cash machines by either installing their own card reader over the original one which will 'skim' all your details as you put your card in and a little pinhole camera on the top of the ATM to read your pin number if not both.

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'Fake card readers'

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'Pinhole cameras'

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Just to add to this -- The people who use 'jammers' to make it look like the machine has swallowed your card are usually very very close by. They will be the overly friendly person who is standing behind you who you think is queueing to use the cash machine, but he's actually looking over your shoulder as you type in your pin number. He knows he already has your card because its stuck in the machine and only he has the a tool long enough to reach in and scoop it out.

The ATMs that are normally hit the most are the ones directly outside of banks or supermarkets. Because when cards get swallowed. The average joe thinks that if they go inside the business that the ATM is linked to -- For example Tesco or Sainsburys who all run their own banks. That, that business will open the cash machine up and give them their card back and these 'jammers' are betting on the fact that you will leave the ATM unattended with your card still inside to go inside and do that. They'll tell you they'll stop people using the machine while you walk in and speak to a supervisor or customer service.

Even though ATMs might be linked to Sainsburys or Tesco etc etc Its not actually 'theirs' per se~ They are run by an outside company (Possibly NCR??) and the only people who have access to the machines are NCR contractors/engineers and Cash In Transit contractors like G4S, Loomis etc etc - None of the staff inside supermarkets have the keys to open up the ATM and retrieve your swallowed card and even then these contractors are under strict orders not to give you your card back even if you have proof of I.D - Its for data protection purposes and stuff like that. If your card gets swallowed then immediately call your bank and cancel your card.

The ATMs that are attached to banks though are a little different. The people inside DO have keys to the ATM and will often stock the ATM with cash and resolve any errors with the machine themselves if they have the training before they call an engineer - it just saves them money and is more convenient.


------

Buying stuff online also poses a risk, your computers security could be compromised. so just be cautious what sort of websites you visit and random links you get sent in your email if you do use your PC to buy stuff off ebay, amazon or any other online retail store. Always enable two factor authentication if possible.

-----

Basically if you can avoid using ATMs and go contactless then that would easily be the safest way to go about it. Most smart phones and some smart watches have google or apple ipay for contactless payment.




Anyway, i think this post is long enough. I hope these nuggets of information were informative and helps keep your money safe if using an ATM is unavoidable, Just be cautious. Ive had people come up to me saying they had £3000 cleared out of their account within the hour in a few separate and small transactions after their card or details had been stolen at our cashpoint outside.


If there is anything else you would like to know about the subject. I'd be glad to answer any questions you might have if its within my knowledge
 
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captain nemo1701

Space cadet. Deck 42 Main Engineering.
Location
Bristol
Got a text from my bank this morning, some nice person had tried to use my card details to pay for an Asda online grocery shop to the value of £105.. The bank identified it as unusual activity and declined payment.

Half an hour on phone to sort it out and all is good, apart from the fact my card has been stopped, so cash only until new one arrives.

No-one else ever has access to my card, so I can only assume it has been the work of someone working for a company I have made an online purchase from.

In 1997 I went for the, currently, first & only time to California. Used my card twice to pay for a hotel in LA & then San Francisco. Much to American astonishment, cash everywhere else. One year later, my card statement had several payments for shops in LA I never visited and I'd been home a year!!. Card had a hologram on it which I thought were so hard to copy. One of the fraudulent payments was in a restaurant, so you'd need the card.

Anyway, they stopped all the transactions but I think in one of the hotels, it got 'Scanned' as they had the old swipe machine not contactless as today.

Recently, like you, bank texted me about unusual activity and turned out to be some twonk trying to pay for a holiday in eastern Europe - bank guy said it was for XXX thousand, which freaked me out a bit but it changing it into £££ it was around £250. Card stopped & replaced.

The other week, down to my stupidity, I accidentally tried to contactless pay for my groceries with my debit card...oops!. Got a text literally 10 mins later asking me to verify stuff, which I did. My bank then said I could use my card again as they had temporarily put it on stop. I was impressed, pretty quick in the time it took me to walk home from Tescos:okay:.
 
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