Possible credit card compromise

feijoa · 18 August 2008 at 7:29PM

This one is both puzzling and frustrating! This morning, I received a phonecall from Barclaycard about my B/card Visa possibly having been compromised. As I was then asked to give details to verify my ID, I said I would call back on the number on the back of my card, just in case the phonecall itself was a con.
When I called back, I was informed that it appeared my card might have been compromised. I had details of my previous statements with me, plus details of all transactions since my last statement - as, fortunately, I'd logged on to my B/card account only two days earlier to check my recent transactions. The reason for doing so was because a few weeks ago, I'd arranged with Mastercare Coverplan - by letter, not online - to take out insurance for washing machine repairs. The payments were to be debited to my B/card in 3 monthly debits and I wanted to check that the first debit had been taken. (It had been - on 9 August.) Other recent transactions were to AOL Broadband and the 18185 phone company - both regular debits.
Apart from these transactions, the other most recent transactions had been online to the Travelodge website on 18 June to book a £19 room - and an instore transaction at Tesco in May. I was therefore able to verify that all these transactions were genuine. I asked if there were any other transactions which appeared suspicious and was told that there were no others. When I then asked why they thought my card might have been compomised, I was told that the police had contacted them this morning with the message.
They were unable to give me any other information. The girl I spoke to said that was all the info she had. The card had been stopped even before I spoke to them, as a precaution. They are sending me a new card which should arrive within 7 working days. Now, while I'm pleased that B/card acted swiftly when the possibility of my card being compromised was suggested by the police, it has caused some inconvenience, not the least of which is that I will need to rearrange my direct debits. As all my transactions have been genuine, I am at a loss to discover which transaction it might have been that caused the alert. B/card can't tell me. If it is because one of the online websites I use has had its customer details accessed by hackers, how do I know which one it could be? And if I transfer my direct debits to another credit card, could the same thing happen again?
I was told by a friend today that it would be a waste of time asking the police for info re this possible credit card compromise, as they wouldn't be allowed to divulge this info! And anyway, no crime has been committed, so I'm lucky there. Anyone had experience of this sort of thing happening? Would be interested in any advice. On the one hand - there have been no fraudulent transactions on my card. On the other - something must have alarmed the police and I'd like to know what it was!

gomer · 18 August 2008 at 7:47PM

It could be something as simple as the Police just catching someone with a load of stolen card details, not necessarily because there had been any transactions - yet.