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I'm a victim of fraud.

MIDI_EVIL

MIDI_EVIL

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jan 23, 2006
1,320
14
UK
Some of you are probably aware of the bad luck that my girlfriend has been having of late, but this is the icing on the cake.

Today, on a whim, at 4:20 I decided to check my account through online banking.

I was shocked to see 4 suspicious POS (Point Of Sale) transactions, two bus tickets, a very expensive train ticket from trainline.com, and a strangely small amount, all bought/spent today.

Naturally, as I certainly hadn't bought them, I was in complete panic, phoned my bank and was put through to different departments, different offices, and had to sift through different automated messages. I finally got through, where I then proceeded to cancel my current card and account.

I was put through to Fraud Centre, where i've been registered as a victim of fraud, and will be receiving plenty of paper work to claim back my money.

I headed off out to see some friends, who were concerned, about me and about their own bank accounts.

A while back, there were a few cash machines in our city used to clone cards, and I assumed this is what they had done. Now i'm not so sure.


After getting home, I checked my email, and I had 3 emails from Amazon.com

Someone had tried to purchase a Philips Home Theatre Kit for 400 GBP and a Nokia Wireless Video Media something or other, again at 330 GBP.

One of the transactions was delayed because of stock availability, the other had bounced as i'd cancelled my account quick enough.

They left a delivery address, which is probably an empty building. Is there anything to follow up on?

I'm guessing they didn't clone my card at a cash point machine, they must have hacked my Amazon account and got my details from there?

How do you think they could have done it?

I do not have my details written down anywhere, and I am painfully careful with my receipts (I shred or chew them up, yes with my mouth).

Is there anything I should do next? I've changed my passwords for every account I have online... I'm devastated!

Rich.
 
Track the SOB down, wait at that "empty building" for as long as it takes for someone to show up. Did you call the cops?
 
Me1000 said:
Track the SOB down, wait at that "empty building" for as long as it takes for someone to show up. Did you call the cops?
Click to expand...

Yeah, that would be so satisfying right now!!!

I wish I had the money to do that, could be quite fun! I'm Google Earthin' the address now!


My bank told me that the Police probably won't be that interested as it's "petty crime"

Pathetic i know!

Rich.
 
your bank or credit card company should be able to refund your money after a painful amount of paper work.

as for the future, think about limiting how many credit cards you have (each credit card you have is another one that could potentially be stolen). also just be more conscientious (i know, we all are) about who you give your info to online and creating tricky passwords and changing them often (if you suspect this person hacked into your online account, i presume they'd need your password to do that but i don't know for sure).

thanks for the warning... it's important that we all keep a close watch on our money and all our belongings. it's a shame that people steal and do other bad things, but it happens.

good luck... let us know what comes of this.
 
fatsoforgotso said:
Yeah, that would be so satisfying right now!!!

I wish I had the money to do that, could be quite fun! I'm Google Earthin' the address now!


My bank told me that the Police probably won't be that interested as it's "petty crime"

Pathetic i know!

Rich.
Click to expand...

Thats rough. Best of luck getting through all the bank paperwork. I'd plan some sort of stake-out of the building and thoroughly womp whomever showed up.
 
Hi all!

Yeah I was very quick to change all of my passwords, and yeah i've made them as tricky as possible with number/letter combinations.

Just remembering them all now.


If I hadn't of cancelled my account in time, which was incredibley coincidental that I checked it, it would be at about 2000 USD conned from my account.

One Amazon purchase bounced, and I cancelled the other in time. I've contaced Amazon, and warned them.

I really only have one Debit/Credit card. I really don't know where they got my details from other than Amazon. Such a shame as I trusted Amazon.

Rich.
 
It may not just stop there. You need to put an alert on your credit report stating that you've been a victim of ID Theft. You also would want to probably close all of your accounts and have the banks reissue cards and such to you. Changing your passwords is silly if you think that'll work. They probably have all of the details they need. The next thing they'll buy is a car or a house on your good credit.
 
jessica. said:
It may not just stop there. You need to put an alert on your credit report stating that you've been a victim of ID Theft. You also would want to probably close all of your accounts and have the banks reissue cards and such to you. Changing your passwords is silly if you think that'll work. They probably have all of the details they need. The next thing they'll buy is a car or a house on your good credit.
Click to expand...


Ummm, I did say I only had one card, which has been cancelled. A new card with entirely new details, is on it's way out to me.

What else can I do but change my passwords? My email accounts are far to valuable to close and start new.

Credit ratings don't exist, it's entirely to the bank/card companys' discretion. They are a myth. So i'm not worried about "ratings" or reports.



Thanks for everyones' input, i've really not had the best two years to be honest.

I need a break!

(I've done a lottery ticket!!!)

Rich.
 
Er... Yeah they do...

fatsoforgotso said:
Ummm, I did say I only had one card, which has been cancelled. A new card with entirely new details, is on it's way out to me.

What else can I do but change my passwords? My email accounts are far to valuable to close and start new.

Credit ratings don't exist, it's entirely to the bank/card companys' discretion. They are a myth. So i'm not worried about "ratings" or reports.



Thanks for everyones' input, i've really not had the best two years to be honest.

I need a break!

(I've done a lottery ticket!!!)

Rich.
Click to expand...

First off, sorry to hear what happened to you mate.

Secondly, I just thought I'd point out that credit ratings DO exist. I used to work with processing applications and scoring people everyday. Everyone who has a national insurance number with a bank account has a credit rating.
It may differ between companies as each creditor has its own method of scoring, but they do exist.

What is a myth however, is 'blacklisting'. People don't ever get blacklisted from getting credit. They just have a poor score either from having too much credit/too many searches or just failing to make payments.

I would still report this to the police.

David
 
davidjearly said:
First off, sorry to hear what happened to you mate.

Secondly, I just thought I'd point out that credit ratings DO exist. I used to work with processing applications and scoring people everyday. Everyone who has a national insurance number with a bank account has a credit rating.
It may differ between companies as each creditor has its own method of scoring, but they do exist.

What is a myth however, is 'blacklisting'. People don't ever get blacklisted from getting credit. They just have a poor score either from having too much credit/too many searches or just failing to make payments.

I would still report this to the police.

David
Click to expand...

Ahh that's the confusion. Thanks for the clarity on that.

Yeah i'm in two minds wether to involve the Police.

I have an address anyway, although it may be an empty decoy.

Rich.
 
Same happened to me a while back. I called MasterCard straight away and told them which transactions were not mine they immediately credited the funds back over the phone. But I had to confirm the illegal payments later with a letter in the post. There isnt really that much paper work. Its just one sheet to fill in, well it was for me anyway.

The illegal payments were obviously not made by myself as they were POS sales in Turkey and Nigeria on the same day :D so I think thats why they immediately credited my account. Your predicament may be a little harder to prove as the payments are UK based. :eek:
 
I had something similar happen to me. Someone changed the address on my credit card then tried charging £2.5k of camera equipment to it. Barclaycard called me about it and asked it it was me.

Its why I use credit cards not debit cards, you can dispute the charges and not have to pay them rather than fighting to get money put back into your account.

Cahoot do a 'web' credit card - single use credit cards. Each time you want to do a transaction online it generates a new card number for you, that way if anyone gets the details they are no use. Am about to apply for one myself.
 
This is the delivery location the scammer used,

attachment.php


It's such a generic block of flats.
 

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fatsoforgotso said:
I really only have one Debit/Credit card. I really don't know where they got my details from other than Amazon. Such a shame as I trusted Amazon.

Rich.
Click to expand...

Maybe there was an ATM that you withdrew cash from that had a hidden camera overhead. Sorry, but those do exist.
 
The police dont care if it is fraud to you but inland reevenue, oh yes they do.
Sorry to hear about that.
Last year, my dad's card was cloned and that happened at a restaurant when they took the card, they double swiped it and got his details and spend £450ish down in Kent.
 
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