Received this email this morning, it may well be legit…what do you think?

‘we thank you for your order at Bike24.

Due to requirements of our credit card aquirer we need to ask you for an image of your credit card.
Your name has to be visible. You may black out parts of the number, but please ensure that at least 4 digits remain visible.
For your and our safety we have to verify that the card is actually yours in order to prevent credit card fraud.

As an alternative you can also pay by cash in advance.’

I have never had this before, anyone else? What did you do? Just block out account number/ most of card number?

Thanks.
S

send it through with just the first 4 digits visible – all that does is identify the issuer.

Seeems a bit odd to me. Maybe send a picture with parts of it blocked out.

send it through with just the first 4 digits visible

That’s what I was thinking….blank out the rest apart from name.

Cheers guys

Seems odd. Can’t see what security requirement this fulfils

Do they not have AVS and 3d secure on that site?

Ask them to send a photo of the parts you ordered before you send the card photo 😆

Send them a photo of you credit card holding a copy of todays newspaper so they know it’s still alive.

Probably fine if it’s your card!!

I totally agree TBC does seem odd, I’m not sure what security systems they have in place to prevent fraud.

I think you have the perfect answer there hugh…I might tag that on the end of my email to them!

I have blanked everything out except name and 4 numbers using photoshop but it feels quite an uncomfortable thing to do.

bike24 are a reputable shop, in fact I got some bits off them last week.

You could email the contact details on the website (rather than replying to the email) just to make sure the email originated from them.

What i don’t understand is that it would be perfectly simple to photoshop fake a card so having a photo of it greyed out or not is pretty much pointless.

Strange, maybe they can’t handle CV2 as proof of having the card in your possession?

If they want a copy of the back, or those 3 digits, tell them to get lost, and then tell your bank fraud dept.

I only ever pay CoD with them (they seem to take offence at my credit cards being issued by UK/NL banks, but registered address in Germany, which apparently is not a permitted combination). Never pay cash up front.

😆 jon1973

but what if they called the cops??

German internet ordering isn’t always as liberal as ours, I reckon it will be fine as long as you blank out some numbers.

Well, email sent now…..I will let you know if my account gets emptied/identity stolen locks on front door get changed while I’m at work, end up being perused by government agents etc.

Thanks for the replies.

it’s probably to confirm you are the card holder rather than who the issuer is.

it does seem a little bit OTT though.

This is standard practice for many companies (mostly, im my experience, dealing from outside the UK) who wish to confirm identity and cut down on card fraud.

I’ve got a number of accounts with forex brokers in Australia, UK and a couple of other EU countries. Every single account I’ve ever opened has asked for a colour copy of the front and back of my card (with all but the last 4 digits on the front blacked out, the security number is of course blacked out).

I see no problem with it provided you black out anything which isn’t already available to a would-be thief (the last 4 digits of your card are available on statements and transaction receipts anyway I think?)

bike24 are pretty good. slightly tardy processing order sometimes. very likely this week as there’s probably a backlog of orders since today is the first day back after a 4-day weekend.

bikeXperts are good too – no credit card issues there, and also in English 🙂

Thanks peter, it’s reassuring to hear it is standard practice with companies outside the UK.

Its just that I have never come across this before even when using other German bike shops like Actionsports.de

I have sent the image with most of it blanked out….live and learn I guess!

bikeXperts are good too

They are new to me….look like good prices too. Cheers for that.

I had this as well, can’t remember if it was Rose or bikediscount.de, they needed the details by e-mail which seemend wierd, I presumed it was because mydelivery address doesn’t match the billing address.

Had something similar recently buying a surfboard, although they just phoned up and asked for some details about delivery address in relation to billing address, they didn’t change anything on the order so i presume it was more a case of ‘he doesn’t sound like a scammer so process the order’.

Maybe CC companies are getting tough on shops and refusing to compensate them for fraud?