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I've got an 'unauthorised transaction' on my credit card - £300-odd to a well known insurance company.
It happens to be the insurance company my house insurance is with - but I don't pay them direct, i go through a broker and as such only the broker has my payment details and in any case i pay by direct debit monthly, not by credit card. So they say they can see no way how the Ins Co would have requested it directly against my house policy, or how they have my CC number.
I've been in touch with the Insurance company who confirm they have taken a payment but can't as yet tell why - they can just see that the CC payment has been processed. It'll take '48 hours' before they can tell me where the payment has been credited against (policy type, number, name, etc.)
And the bank / CC company can't tell me any payment reference as it was an electronic / online transaction request, they provided the right details. And rather than raise a dispute, as that would take up to 60 days to resolve, they want me to find out direct from the insurance company as if it's then an error, they can reverse it instantly.
Being naturally suspicious, does it sound like my details have been nicked / harvested - and if so isn't using it to pay for insurance a bit odd? Should I insist on the bank refunding / cancelling the card, or just sit tight for 48 hours while the Ins Co look into it?
....... was the wrong answer
Another 2 transactions show up this morning, card now cancelled and refund on its way.
I hope they enjoyed their trip to Showcase Batley.
It'll be interesting to work out where they got the card data from, Batley not local to the insurance Co's offices is it?
Always struggle to find a space to park in the Batley Showcase. Lets hope they were mildly inconvenienced OP, that'll teach them!! Mind you, the seats are all electric and very comfy.
My card was cloned and they used it twice to make charitable donations.....go figure.
well seeing as it's fraud now as opposed to the insurance company screw up, I don't mind disclosing that Norwich and Batley aren't very close by.
As well as the PITA factor (although CC company now very helpful now I've confirmed that it is fraud as opposed to me going senile, and have cancelled card and refunded transactions plus any others that may arise) - I'm intrigued where they've got details from....... all have been online so i think you need card details and expiry plus the signature strip number. So have either been stolen online, or when I used the card, but I never let them take it away so can they get those details from the card slip? My cardholder copy has only the last 4 digits showing, rest are * * etc., but I suppose expiry and signature could be memorized quite fast as they take card out of the machine and so on.
all have been online so i think you need card details and expiry plus the signature strip number
Whilst websites may ask you for the CCV signature strip number on the back of the card as you process an online order, it is possible in some cases that the backend I.T. systems don't always verify whats been entered as correct. (i.e. it doesn't do the check ).
If that is the case, then its possible to get lucky with card numbers and expiry dates alone (as the CCV number is irrelevant ).
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 36.0pt;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 14.0pt;">The small charity payment is a common one to test out if a card is working.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 36.0pt;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 14.0pt;">We once had CC company do a great one:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 36.0pt;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 14.0pt;">They accepted a request for change of address (without writing or contacting us to confirm).</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 36.0pt;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 14.0pt;">Then shortly after accepted an online request for a damaged card replacement (normally this is done by telephone – should have raised an alarm) and posted to new address (should have raised another alarm as within xx days of an address change).</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 36.0pt;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 14.0pt;">So they sent them a new card and a pile of credit card cheques which they proceeded to spend spend spend!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 36.0pt;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 14.0pt;">They also sent them the previous card bill, thus allowing answering of security questions when they got challenged spending the cheques (last balance, how paid etc).</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 36.0pt;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 14.0pt;">CC company was very embarrassed and apologetic……</span></p>
Sorry. WTF is wrong with this place?
I'm getting quite quick at picking the actual content out from the garbage tags now.
Sorry. WTF is wrong with this place?
Pick from any of these answers:
1. They let the YTS boy do the coding on the site.
2. The software engineer said he had tested the code and it was all fine - but nobody checked.
3. Someone in "marketing" has access to the codebase and installed a plugin to make things better but doesn't have a clue what the consequences were.
4. They don't give a s**t about the user experience and readability so long as the visitor rates are unaffected and thus ad revenue keeps flowing.
I'm going for all of the above!
As a more contructive point if you Select your post before you sumbit and then click the "rubber" icon (2nd from right) it will strip all the crap codes from it.