Credit Card Rip-offs At Xmas

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  • John_Pierpoint
    John_Pierpoint Posts: 8,391 Forumite
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    I have just bought a bus ticket from "Megabus" for this holiday weekend.

    Half way through the painful on-line process I offered to pay the 5.50 using the Egg card.
    Back came the message "Your card issuer has declined this transaction".
    So I tried again, using my back-up card. Up popped a new special security screen from VISA (*) asking me to create a special on-line password for this card, containing letters and numbers. So I did (and now I cannot remember if I used upper or lower case for some of the letters in the new password:mad: )

    Now I'm not sure if Egg is congratulating itself on heading off another crook and can I use the card for any future on-line transactions ?

    John
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 0 Newbie
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    Sorry to hear you got done :( I got done a while back, spotted a discrepancy between my available balance and balance, the transaction didnt actually appear until about a week later as it was abroad, told them to cancel it straight away after i spotted the discrepency.

    This crime is not taken seriously on any level and should be taken a lot more seriously, it appears to be a crime that is ignored on all levels other then the victim. It would be nice to see all Mugu scammers being deported to rot in a nigerian prison for 10 years whether they are nigerian or not LOL :D rather then the 4 star british ones. It would be nice if the banks could cancel all politicians access to money to know what it feels like.

    Its annoying that all the top ranks concern themselfs with is niffnaff and trivia, weighing bins, HIPS, ID cards (which wouldnt solve anything and make it easier to be defrauded), GPS car tracking systems for road pricing, speed cameras. They give not one toss about real crime, ID fraud, the environment, irresponcible lending, uncontrolled immigration.
  • John_Pierpoint
    John_Pierpoint Posts: 8,391 Forumite
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    John_Pierpoint wrote: »
    I have just bought a bus ticket from "Megabus" for this holiday weekend.

    Half way through the painful on-line process I offered to pay the 5.50 using the Egg card.
    Back came the message "Your card issuer has declined this transaction".
    So I tried again, using my back-up card. Up popped a new special security screen from VISA asking me to create a special on-line password for this card, containing letters and numbers. So I did (and now I cannot remember if I used upper or lower case for some of the letters in the new password:mad: )

    Now I'm not sure if Egg is congratulating itself on heading off another crook and can I use the card for any future on-line transactions ?

    John

    Over the weekend, I tried to buy a modest (6.85) rail ticket at the railway station. It was 17:25 and all the staff had locked up and gone home. There was a bit of a Q but after 5 minutes it was my turn. 15minutes later the Q was out of the door.
    Tried Egg : Transaction declined.
    Tried Visa : ditto.
    Tried Visa again, thinking I had muddled the pin, with a slightly different pin:
    Pin invalid.
    Tried Visa correctly: Transaction declined.
    Missed the train.
    Tried a 20 GBP note: Spat out. Insufficient change.
    Tried a 10 GBP note: Spat out: Exact fare required.
    Managed to find a tatty fiver and 1.85 in shrapnel: ticket produced after a period of time that would impress a fruit machine.
    Wished the Q; those inside the building, the very best of luck.
    After long wait, sat in the "first class" part of a tatty carriage, ready to throttle the first banker or railway worker to set foot on the train.

    Must phone Visa to see what they are playing at, trying to strand me over the weekend.

    So this is modern progress?

    John.

    :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
  • Paul_Herring
    Paul_Herring Posts: 7,481 Forumite
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    Did you not try Egg again? (I'm assuming Egg Money/MasterCard here...)
    Conjugating the verb 'to be":
    -o I am humble -o You are attention seeking -o She is Nadine Dorries
  • John_Pierpoint
    John_Pierpoint Posts: 8,391 Forumite
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    Just to bring the story up to date:

    I have since needed to use another ticket machine:

    Egg declined.
    Visa declined.
    Different Visa accepted.

    I've had a chat with Visa "security" department, their records showed that their system had asked the railway company's ticket machine to 'phone them for authorisation, as a suspicious transaction had been logged !

    The "flag" on the Visa card has been removed, now that they have identified me as the suspicious user. Or so I am told, I've not needed to use it since.

    Mrs P is the account holder for the Egg card so I cannot chat to them.
    It is still working OK for ordinary attended transactions and so far we are still getting the cash back credited.

    BUT this does not solve the basic problem of having to carry a wedge of cash, just in case the cards won't work.
  • John_Pierpoint
    John_Pierpoint Posts: 8,391 Forumite
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    It is time to pay for the summer holiday.

    Well the credit limit on Egg is small by my standards and they or their new owner Citi Bank seem to be "twitchy" about the account.

    So at the weekend Mrs P warns them a largish transaction will be arriving on Wednesday and taking the account near to its limit.

    Roll forward to Wednesday and the 'phone rings. Hullo I've not had a one sided telephone call with a computer before, how exciting. Lots of buttons to press.
    The Egg computer is "female", funny that they usually are, but not very cuddly though;) I wonder if the female computer 'phones female account holders.
    I thought of trying to impersonate Mrs P but decided against it. Mrs P had her phone turned off, that is not unusual. So all I could do was make a note of the contact number and hit the key for 'phone back later.

    So I phoned the contact number. Had the usual "muppet" phone call:
    "I cannot talk to you, you are not Mrs P"
    - Your are right BUT you can listen to me; you have just received a charge from xxxxxx a well known travel service for approximately 999.99 ?
    "Silence"
    - Please don't bounce it, it is legitimate.
    "You must get the account holder to phone back; we are open until 8".

    3 hours later; a slightly embarrassed voice:
    "Hullo, can I speak to ........"
    -No but you can speak to her husband; would I be right in thinking you are having a problem with a credit card ending 4321.

    At time of writing the mess is still up in the air

    I'm still not sure that we are going on holiday this year but I have a funny feeling that Egg will not be in my wallet much longer.

    John
  • dearbarbie
    dearbarbie Posts: 566 Forumite
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    Hi there - just read this post, sounds like quite a saga. If you ask Mrs P to authorise you to speak to them and they put it on their 'notes', you can speak to them too surely - at least, this is possible in insurance.
    :A
  • John_Pierpoint
    John_Pierpoint Posts: 8,391 Forumite
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    Hi Barbie,

    I think Citibank's computer would have trouble reading the notes and of course Mr & Mrs P might be in the middle of a bitter divorce settlement, from the bank's point of view. All this new technology protects the banks, not the card holder; it creates more ways for the bank to blame the card holder.

    The problem was created by Orange and Sky and a DVD rental company accepting on-line orders and being prepared to deliver to the address that was not the address of the card holder.

    Though Mrs P phoned Egg on Thursday, it was Saturday morning before we had placated the travel company and got the holiday charged to Egg. It was the usual excuse, the Egg computer told the Travel computer to double check the customer's identity, so the Travel computer wrote to us twice pointing out that the final payment (unlike the deposit) had been declined by the card company.

    I think the global fraudsters are getting ahead of the banks and the banks are running scared. There might be an Americanisation of Egg too, since it was taken over by Citibank. [ I can remember being amazed by the free wheeling, attitude of both banks and their customers in USA, when I went there on a working holiday in my teens in the mid 60's. We could get a job and promptly open a checking account, but step slightly out of line and the bank's computer would close it (bang). In those days you had to be recommended, guaranteed and wait to be checked out before getting your hands on a cheque book in UK].

    I can see people being forced to "cash" for day to day transactions, but in the form of a prepaid "Oyster" type card.

    John.
  • John_Pierpoint
    John_Pierpoint Posts: 8,391 Forumite
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    Tried to use the "Card that protects against on-line fraud",
    at least that is what it said when it was sold to us. SNAFU.

    So had to use the Visa back-up again BUT I was worried I might
    have paid twice!

    Dear Mr xxxxxxxxx

    Thank you for your email.

    I am sorry your download was unsuccessful when using Land Register
    Online. I have checked with WorldPay and although your card was
    authorised, no payment was actually taken for this attempt.

    If you use the service again but continue to have problems, please
    contact us again.

    Please accept my apologies for any inconvenience caused.

    Yours sincerely

    Lisa Meighan
    e-Services Delivery Group
    Land Registry Head Office at Peterborough

    (That is what I call service, from this self accounting
    Government business)
  • John_Pierpoint
    John_Pierpoint Posts: 8,391 Forumite
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    In the previous posting, I was looking at a house that a relative wants to buy, because I am thought to be able to understand the legal bumph you can find on the Land Registry. (Restrictive covenants should be reformed but that is another story)

    Well in spite of my advice, they are pressing on, so I have been investigating the neighbouring properties, which all have mutual rights and obligations over each other's lands.

    The VISA back up card allowed me one set of 6GBP documents and then started bouncing. Yes the Land Registry is the sort of site that teenage games addicts would access with a stolen CC - I don't think.

    See
    http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=454492
    &
    http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=450004


    The funny thing is that when I continued using a VISA debit card from the same bank, repeat transactions were not a problem: Banks look out for their own money not yours !
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