RSA Security Inc - Halifax Bank Earmark!

mancini601 · 18 July 2008 at 12:56PM

Hi Everyone,

A week ago, when I was reconciling my debit card payments against what had been paid and what was pending(Earmarked), there was a sum of exactly £2.50 that I could not account for.

Today, when going through the same process, the same £2.50 is still earmarked as pending, yet I have no debit card receipts for this amount, nor any DD's.

I called the Halifax and explained. They checked the 'earmark' and said that it's for an American Company called "RSA Security Incorporated". They also say the rerquest was for $1 (although how the Halifax convert one dollar to £2.50 I don't know!).

I have never dealt with RSA Security Inc, but research on the internet suggest that they are a Bill Payment/Card Security type Company (Card Handling?) Should I be worried? Have any of you heard of RSA or had the same thing happen to you? The only thing I can think of is that when paying a bill last week over the internet using A&L's Bill Payment Service, they insisted that I sign up to the 'Verified by Visa' scheme. Any ideas?

Mikeyorks · 19 July 2008 at 12:19AM

Exactly the same thing happened to me - on the 9th July - for exactly the same value of £2.50. That was 'missing' from my available figure until yesterday when it 'dropped off'.

Because of the unusual value I 'phoned Halifax and got a naive young lady who was telling me this sort of thing often happens and not to worry about it! When I pointed out that values of a £1 or £2.50 are often used by fraudsters to 'examine' an account before a bigger debit ... I got ( but not much) just a little bit more interest. And identified the debit had been authorised via RSA Security Inc.

My research indicated they act as merchant acquirers for card companies. The OH had used her card to buy flowers at precisely £25 the day before. And as she did then say the florist had a little problem with the Chip and PIN device ..... I reluctantly assumed a partial transaction for £2.50 had gone through .... but the florist had omitted to give my wife the void slip or mention the problem.

I then checked the account daily until the £2.50 dropped off yesterday. So we either use both the same Bank and the same florist ..... or your 'Verified by Visa' comes into the equation. I signed up for my CC some time ago ... but suspect I was prompted in respect of my Debit Card about 10 days ago. I'll need to go back over transactions in the morning in an attempt to stir the memory banks.

Any authorised sum (the £2.50) which never materialises - takes about 10 full days (7 working days) before the Bank software gives up on it and returns it to the available balance.

Mikeyorks · 19 July 2008 at 4:03PM

I've just done a little more digging .... and your 'Verified by Visa' theory is spot on.

Halifax have an internal version known as 'Halifax Secure' which is part of the 'Verified' package. On the 8th July I was (unusually - because I always use a CC for online) using my Debit Card on Trainline.com (because they charge for CC use) and was prompted to register for Halifax Secure.

Having just looked at all the details (bear in mind Halifax call centre people deny all knowledge of RSA)

I find RSA Securities support the Halifax Secure infrastructure! If you scroll to the very bottom of the Login page for the Personal Account Manager ...... you will see the RSA logo bottom left :

https://www.securesuite.co.uk/hbos/personal_account/personal_account_login.jsp?partner=halifax

I've just Emailed Halifax asking why the Secure documentation is devoid of any mention of an authorisation being posted on activation ..... and why their staff are totally oblivious of both this and the fact that the RSA 'charge' is being created internally.

JoseChungsDoomsday · 19 July 2008 at 7:06PM

the authorisation is there to make sure the card is valid... granted the £2.50 is a bit high, but makes total sense other wise.

Mikeyorks · 19 July 2008 at 9:29PM

JoseChungsDoomsday wrote: »

but makes total sense other wise.

Not really .... unless they're trying to generate customer confusion. Fully comprehend the verification of the card. But as they're working in tandem with the Card supplier - they can achieve verification without having to authorise a positive value.

And doing so without it being clear to the customer, and it being wholly oblivious to the supplier support staff ..... doesn't make any sense at all.

JoseChungsDoomsday · 20 July 2008 at 11:30AM

Mikeyorks wrote: »

Not really .... unless they're trying to generate customer confusion. Fully comprehend the verification of the card. But as they're working in tandem with the Card supplier - they can achieve verification without having to authorise a positive value.

And doing so without it being clear to the customer, and it being wholly oblivious to the supplier support staff ..... doesn't make any sense at all.

I disagree - if it was a 1p authorisation you wouldn't be writing here. But I see what you mean, staff should know about this.

I'm curious as to how the other big banks verify their credit/debit cards through VbV and mastercard secure...

LongTermLurker · 22 July 2008 at 8:51PM

Mikeyorks wrote: »

Having just looked at all the details (bear in mind Halifax call centre people deny all knowledge of RSA)
I find RSA Securities support the Halifax Secure infrastructure!

Only just found this thread - RSA make authentication software; the call centre staff have probably never heard of them. Their flagship product, which you may or may not have come across, is SecurID, which is a hardware authentication token (a keyfob thing with an ever changing passcode on it) but they are possibly the world's leading authentication mechanism.

That aside, I'm having trouble understanding the outcome of the thread, if there is one yet - are you suggesting that the per-item charge that RSA make of Halifax for authentication is appearing temporarily on your accounts? I've never seen that, but never use my Debit card.

using my Debit Card on Trainline.com (because they charge for CC use)

http://www.nationalexpresseastcoast.com/ don't make a charge for CC use and you can buy tickets for all (I think) lines and services.

Mikeyorks · 22 July 2008 at 10:56PM

LongTermLurker wrote: »

That aside, I'm having trouble understanding the outcome of the thread, if there is one yet - are you suggesting that the per-item charge that RSA make of Halifax for authentication is appearing temporarily on your accounts?

Not quite. Halifax have a version of Verified by Visa .. called Halifax Secure. RSA appear to support the authentication code (to the degree their logo appears on some of the Halifax internal Web pages). Hopefully the transient charge (it's authorised .. but never materialises) is a one-off of £2.50 when the card is first authenticated under Halifax Secure.

It's not an issue now I realise what it is. But the value is adjacent to that used by fraudsters when examining an account prior to a larger debit - hence the initial concern.

But the documentation makes no mention of an exploratory charge - and Halifax have just replied to me accepting there is an issue. Whether they resolve that by documenting it - or by suppressing the charge, I'll leave them to work out

RSA Security Inc - Halifax Bank Earmark!

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