Play.com Fraud - warning 4 March 2009 at 10:08AM edited 30 November -1 at 12:00AM in Praise, Vent & Warnings 428 replies 122K views

tracey74

I had this happen to me last year but Play had no interest in it whatsoever. As I pointed out, someone accessed my account, added a new delivery address in Peckham without my surname anywhere in it and then promptly ordered 4 x identical PS3 games (I can see a pattern emerging here!). As far as my bank were concerned, they also weren't interested as it was/is Play that has the security issue (and it was a debit card, not credit card) but Play said as far as they were concerned it was a legitimate order! It took several months but NatWest eventually refunded the money as a goodwill gesture.

pesky2

Thanks for warning, checked my account and credit card expired so hopefully its ok

Tulip

Thanks for warning,My Account is fine,Told my Dad and his is fine too.

jaz_2

tonyflow wrote: »

...wireless network has MAC filtering on, so pretty sure no problem there

Really? MAC address spoofing is trivial. Is that your only line of defence?

tonyflow

JAZ wrote: »

Really? MAC address spoofing is trivial. Is that your only line of defence?

+ Hidden SSID + WPA2-PSK + no DHCP, and router is placed where signal only just gets outside (i.e. a user would have to be about 2 ft from the front of the house... admittedly not as "safe" as a wired network, but I don't have a laptop so I can traipse wires all across the living room

Also, we live in a small cul-de sac (in the sticks), and I work from home, and i doubt VERY much thata anyone with enough knowledge of hacking into wireless networks etc has came anywhere near the house.

I must admit, play were not very helpful to me, but Smile.co.uk were absoulte stars - and refunded me straight away, and sent a fraud letter out which I needed to sign, which, I assume gives them/the police access to my account etc.

jaytin

We have been buying from Play for 3-4 years, we probably buy an item every few weeks as the prices are pretty good and free postage.
There has never been any problem with our account, with people ordering goods and charging it to us.
Is there any pattern with the orders that have been placed on other peoples accounts? Surely if goods are being sent to another address and the addresses are in the same area then there has been some kind of investigation into it?

Fern_Merkin

Hi

Interesting thread. It prompted me to check my account with Play. There's nothing wrong fraud wise. Play never ask for cvv and I order quite often.


FX

Coupon-mad

Fern_Merkin wrote: »

Hi

Interesting thread. It prompted me to check my account with Play. There's nothing wrong fraud wise. Play never ask for cvv and I order quite often.


FX

So it seems from reading this thread that Play don't always ask for a cvv (as confirmed above by you, by other buyers and by xojoyxo who works for them). Any dodgy insider would know the floor limit under which no cvv will be prompted, so all they would have to do is change the delivery addys on a few accounts and then spread some orders around them. Please tell me that isn't possible, xojoyxo?

Seems to me it could be a very simple insider scam that any individual could do alone - and there's no evidence reported here by buyers that Play are taking the serial frauds seriously. The story seems worth reporting to Watchdog for those of you affected, you can just click here and report it:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/watchdog/gotastory/

Previous talk by the Play employee of 'difficulty of getting hold of encrypted info' seems irrelevant as the scammer doesn't have to, surely? Wouldn't they just need your Play.com password - that's all - or a way of bypassing it on their system?

Also I didn't understand the employee's reference above to blaming people for not keeping their email secure? I think that's a smokescreen some companies like to trot out as an excuse when the lack of security is quite possibly THEIRS.

tonyflow

jaytin wrote: »

Is there any pattern with the orders that have been placed on other peoples accounts? Surely if goods are being sent to another address and the addresses are in the same area then there has been some kind of investigation into it?

Cant remember the address my dodgy order was being posted to now - i noticed som earlier victims mentioned their account had not been used for some time - i dont think i had ordered anything on my account for 3-4months before the fraudulent activity (cant check now, as my account has been removed).

LittleBill

Coupon-mad wrote: »

So it seems from reading this thread that Play don't always ask for a cvv (as confirmed above by you, by other buyers and by xojoyxo who works for them). Any dodgy insider would know the floor limit under which no cvv will be prompted, so all they would have to do is change the delivery addys on a few accounts and then spread some orders around them. Please tell me that isn't possible, xojoyxo?

Seems to me it could be a very simple insider scam that any individual could do alone - and there's no evidence reported here by buyers that Play are taking the serial frauds seriously. The story seems worth reporting to Watchdog for those of you affected, you can just click here and report it:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/watchdog/gotastory/

Previous talk by the Play employee of 'difficulty of getting hold of encrypted info' seems irrelevant as the scammer doesn't have to, surely? Wouldn't they just need your Play.com password - that's all - or a way of bypassing it on their system?

Also I didn't understand the employee's reference above to blaming people for not keeping their email secure? I think that's a smokescreen some companies like to trot out as an excuse when the lack of security is quite possibly THEIRS.

I would recommended for anybody with a 'sleeping' or active account to remove their CC details ... I tried to remove mine but could not ... so I put in an expired/cancelled CC details instead ...