Amazon.co.uk & Credit Card Fraud

Captain Fagor

Perhaps one for the conspiracy theorists, but maybe not.

A couple of years ago, my credit card number got knobbled and the perpetrator was using it to obtain low cost items such as cinema tickets, phone top ups, etc. Presumably they were either "testing the water" prior to the big purchase, or just trying to "fly under the radar" with a series of small purchases. At the time I narrowed the list of potentially compromised websites down to two: wiggle and amazon. The basis for this was that I hadn't used the credit card in months, with the exception of these two online retailers.

Today I find out that a similar fraudulent pattern has been taking place over the last couple of days. And guess which retailer I used for the first time in a couple of years? Amazon. In addition, Amazon is the only place I have used my card in about six weeks. I think it's time for a stroppy email to their accounts department.

Has anyone else had similar experiences? :twisted:

Tom Butcher

Yes - but then doesn't just about everyone use Amazon ?

redddraggon

Tom Butcher wrote:

Yes - but then doesn't just about everyone use Amazon ?

I haven't used Amazon for years. I always found somewhere else cheaper...

idaviesmoore

[quote="redddraggon

I haven't used Amazon for years. I always found somewhere else cheaper...[/quote]

And quicker.


I've seen Tectonic plates move faster than their delivery service :shock:

Lagavulin

Captain Fagor wrote:

Has anyone else had similar experiences? :twisted:

Had my credit card details compromised recently. Some git rang up the card company and changed my address and contact details to a London address and bought a mobile top-up with it.
Thankfully I use the card in question quite a bit and so when two retailers contacted me to say payment had been refused (for stuff I'd genuinely ordered) and the card company hadn't rang me I knew something was up.
Appear to have nipped it in the bud early but it's a right hassle changing all your card details over with retailers and what's to stop said git applying for cards in my name etc.

Perhaps it's just a coincidence I have used Amazon a couple of times lately. :roll: I may mention it when the card company's fraud team get back to me.

nwallace

Lagavulin wrote:

Captain Fagor wrote:

Has anyone else had similar experiences? :twisted:

Had my credit card details compromised recently. Some git rang up the card company and changed my address and contact details to a London address and bought a mobile top-up with it.
Thankfully I use the card in question quite a bit and so when two retailers contacted me to say payment had been refused (for stuff I'd genuinely ordered) and the card company hadn't rang me I knew something was up.
Appear to have nipped it in the bud early but it's a right hassle changing all your card details over with retailers and what's to stop said git applying for cards in my name etc.

Perhaps it's just a coincidence I have used Amazon a couple of times lately. :roll: I may mention it when the card company's fraud team get back to me.

You may want to consider registering with CIFAS before the "git" can apply for loads of cards as you.

sward29

Funnily enough I had a call from my credit card company today to query some recent purchases which they felt were suspicious. I had a £30 O2 phone top up (my phone is not pay as you go) and a small amount from some US website, neither ofwhich were made by me.

And which website did I use recently for the first time on over a year?

Amazon - to buy the Bradley Wiggins biog (which is a great book by the way)

Lagavulin

sward29 wrote:

I had a £30 O2 phone top up (my phone is not pay as you go)

That's exactly what mine was. :!:

pneumatic

My octagenarian mother had her card details impersonated recently (very distressing for her) and the only purchase she had made was a new tax disc from DVLA. I'm guessing it must be pretty easy to infiltrate the kinds of bulk processing organisations that deal with on-line transactions.

Maybe Paypal is more secure?

nwallace

pneumatic wrote:

My octagenarian mother had her card details impersonated recently (very distressing for her) and the only purchase she had made was a new tax disc from DVLA. I'm guessing it must be pretty easy to infiltrate the kinds of bulk processing organisations that deal with on-line transactions.

Maybe Paypal is more secure?

Keyloggers and similar malware especially for computer based transactions are probably the easiest way of infilitration. Google Chrome has one built in, on discovering this I changed my rating from bargepoe to balistic missile.

The other classic one is just randomly creating numbers, however card numbers are generated to a pattern. How many here have a card number starting 4462?

Amazon in thory shoud lbe safer as you only ever need to enter a card nubmer once, obviously you have to trust them wih the storage of that card number which is one of the weakensses.

When it comes to pay pal, and any e-bay company for that matter. No, quite simply NO. I've heard enough about them to never want to use them again.

avoidingmyphd

It's a bit unnecessary to bring up the google chrome "keylogger" in a discussion about credit card fraud. It only logs keystrokes in the address/search box (they're the same for you non users). And I'm guessing not many people google their own credit card number or think it's also a web address.

it's hard enough getting people - and not just octagenarians - to understand the real risks of computer stuff without you making up non-existent ones nwallace!

sicrow

I had my identiry cloned last year - details got from companies house as a director of a company - in the public domain is your full name address and date of birth so got nabbed with 8 or 9 credit accounts before one of the credit card companies noticed - now logged and with CIFAS and all appears to be OK but it does show you need to keep looking at equifax/experien etc on your credit history as it happens so quickly

re credit cards as long as you check your statement and register anything dodgy asap they will cover you so no real issues there

Bong

I recall that there was a lot of discussion and posting regarding fraudulent card use after making purchases at Wiggle a while ago on the C+ forums. Just had my bank ring up this morning to check if I was trying to use of my credit card at Carphone Warehouse - if I understood correctly a bit more than mentioned above at £550. I wasn't, so credit card has been cancelled and I have just had to cut it up and wait for a new one in the post. l last used it to buy new wheels online from Wiggle (last tuesday). Coincidence maybe. Convenient as it was, I was never sure about leaving the card details in my account.

From what the bank was asking, that is, did I use the card at Wiggle (and at Harry Hall Cycles the day before) but with nothing since then, this was the only attempt to use it. Well done the bank.

flying_scotsman

I have had exactly the same problem, got a call last week from my credit card company who said there had been attempted fraud with my card, It was a O2 top up for £20, I'm not with that mobile network. Have had to have my card replaced, I have used my card online in loads of shops so god knows where they got my card number. The credit card company could only say it was attempted online and when I asked how they knew it was dodgy they said it didnt match my spending habits, spooky. I check every other day now just to be sure someone isnt spending on my card.

claudb

I also have had a Credit Card comprimised but It's not just Credit Cards you have to worry about. My wife had her Online Bank Account hacked out of a VERY large sum of money recently. This was from a big well-known Bank. It was eventually refunded but has completely destroyed her confidence in online transactions at all. And, no, we did not get caught by a 'Phising' e-mail. We use a major AntiVirus product and it is updated daily, and we update Microsoft updates regularly too. We are now led to believe we were victims of a 'Key Logging' product but despite assistance from the AntiVirus supplier we were not able to identify it. We also disable the Wireless Adaptor if using the PC but not accessing the Internet and I now Delete Cookies and Temporary Internet files after EVERY Internet session. I read at the weekend that even Nicolas Sarkozy has had his Online Bank account hacked. As regards the likes of Amazon and Wiggle then I always remove any Credit Card details from 'My Account' after making purchases. I spoke to a local Policeman during the problems of the Bank account and his info on the scale of such problems is really quite horrendous. Even reported incidents are nowhere the real value as many companies do not report incidents for obvious commercial reasons.

APIII

I discovered two charges of £30 on my cc whilst checking by balance at the weekend. Both were for Tesco mobile top ups (I have a pay monthly). Funnily enough I'd used Amazon the week before, for the first time in several months. New card has already arrived, and hopefully I'll get the charges refunded.

MIsterGoof

Captain Fagor wrote:

Perhaps one for the conspiracy theorists, but maybe not.

A couple of years ago, my credit card number got knobbled and the perpetrator was using it to obtain low cost items such as cinema tickets, phone top ups, etc. Presumably they were either "testing the water" prior to the big purchase, or just trying to "fly under the radar" with a series of small purchases. At the time I narrowed the list of potentially compromised websites down to two: wiggle and amazon. The basis for this was that I hadn't used the credit card in months, with the exception of these two online retailers.

Today I find out that a similar fraudulent pattern has been taking place over the last couple of days. And guess which retailer I used for the first time in a couple of years? Amazon. In addition, Amazon is the only place I have used my card in about six weeks. I think it's time for a stroppy email to their accounts department.

Has anyone else had similar experiences? :twisted:

is it the retailer or is it the computer you are using, key loggers etc !

FullFrameRob

I had my CC done a couple of weeks ago, CC company contacted me as they had put a temporary block on my account due to suspicious activity on my account.

Turns out someone had tried to do some online Tesco's shopping, top up a mobile and buy a few songs from itunes. All very small amounts, total attempted fraud was just over £50.

The CC in question is one i only really use for internet shopping and most of the purchases are well under £100 but the funny thing is about a week before the attempted CC fraud i made 2 purchases on my card totaling £1500 but its the £10 at itunes a week later that comes up as suspicious activity.

I would have thought that lots of sub £100 spends would look ok if you where to track my spending with this card and that 2 purchases in the space of 15 mins totaling £1500 would have the alarm bells ringing on my account.

I guess i have to give my CC company 10/10 for spotting the real and fraudulent activity on my account.

giant_man

yes this does happen cos it happened to me, it's the only online retailer where I have had problems. The card was copied and used. Yes it was insured and yes I got the money back but that isn't the point is it?

method

The whole, "I last used my card at, therefor it must be them" is a bit pointless, there a countless people who have been defrauded on unused cards.

chuckcork

If its any consolation to people, I've had someone do ID fraud in my name at an address I moved out of in 2003,was committed in mid 2005 but only found out this year when I did a check with Equifax, some barsteward created not only a Barclaycard in my name, but also managed to take out a loan with AA Finance, the total ripped off is over £20,000.

I'm getting it sorted out with the companies involved but won't I think even find out what was used to create my identity, and the reason why?

"Data Protection"!

Haven't as yet used Biggle Cycle sales, but wondering about that, now that the CTC seem to have dropped Evans as their "powered by" supplier, will cases of fraud simply go up, or will the CTC just lose customers from its online shop?

As to other fraud, my missus had it done a few years back on her Natwest card with Amazon, but I don't think its connected to the comments re data protection there, just the scrote responsible saw a way of laundering the card details through them (I think it works this way: buy a product, get it delivered to an address under a false name, turn around and sell it for 50% off on eBay, collect the cash, nice and clean and untraceable)

chuckcork

Not used my card online for a few months as haven't had any money in my account to buy anything.

Made a purchase though on Thursday with Amazon....checked my statement today and there has been fraud, done online. Minor purchases but to a value of £200+ I guess. Not so bad but I didn't have that much money in my account in the first place and will have to claim it back from Barclays, wait for a new card to come through and ask my missus for cash in the meantime to pay for lunch, petrol etc.

Irony is for those who have been defrauded via cycling related websites, is that I was found it as I was checking my balance prior to making a purchase through Ribble. Looks like I'm going to have to wait until there is money in my account again.

bobpzero

its just annoying. having to get a new debit card as someone or something used my previous one for an o2 uk prepay. this is the 2nd time its happened. worryingly all they need is the expiry date and last 3 numbers on the back of the card.

redddraggon

bobpzero wrote:

its just annoying. having to get a new debit card as someone or something used my previous one for an o2 uk prepay. this is the 2nd time its happened. worryingly all they need is the expiry date and last 3 numbers on the back of the card.

O2 uk Prepay?

Today I've been on the phone to HSBC about exactly that - £30 O2 Prepay thing.

Not good - I can't afford this crap as I have no income at the moment.