Play.com Fraud - warning

Hermia

blackmidnight wrote: »

how strange, they suspended my listings but I still have access to the money - I can't spend it unless I change my card details back to 'real' ones until the order has been dispatched but I definitely haven't lost the money. Luckily there's not too much in there and I know what I'm going to buy with it so soon there won't be any - I just don't want to pay the 5% fee to transfer it out.

I know it's odd. When I log in it I just get a message saying the playtrade account is closed. It seems a bit irrational for them to just close an account without trying to find out what is going on. After all I may just have accidently put the wrong number in when updating my credit card details. I have contacted them so I shall see what they say.

I did mention the problem my friend had with dodgy transactions on her account and I also mentioned that a lot of people seem to be having the same problem. The Play chap said he had never heard of anything like that happening! Hmmmmm. I realise they may employ a lot of people, but I am sure staff would discuss something like this.

Craig_Faulkner

cragglescott wrote: »

This has recently happened to me too. I was quite unlucky that because the goods had been dispatched they would not stop the transaction so because of play.com I'm now out a significant amount of money.

because I've used play.com before my bank have informed me that it's not fraud. I'm absolutely incensed! I'm a lawyer, and I've sent a claim letter to play.com - I'd be interested to know whether anyone would be willing to be joined to the proceedings or whether they'd be willing to give evidence as to the situation?

My own situation (details of which are posted above around page 9) was very similar to this.

I'd had £190.92 of items bought on my Play.com account. They were from two different departments within Play.com (one was a PS3 game, the others were memory cards). The billing therefore went through as two separate transactions: one for £39.99 and the other for £150.93.

I notified Play.com before the transactions had been taken from my account and before the items were shipped. They still shipped the £39.99 game several days later and charged me for both amounts. Thankfully they stopped the memory cards going out.

When I called Play.com last week they were very apologetic and immediately offered to refund the £150.93 (within five working days) for the items that didn't ship, but said that because the game went out, I'd have to claim the £39.99 back from my bank using something called a "charge back". When I called my bank (HSBC), they kept me on hold for 20 minutes before refusing to do so as Play.com already had my card details. I followed up with another call to Play.com on the matter who advised me that my bank was legally obliged to follow this up as a fraud claim. I've since sent a very strongly worded (but polite) email to my bank detailing the whole situation. While writing this post, I've also just checked my bank account and they have made a payment labelled "MAE FRAUD REFUND" for the amount of £190.92 - the full amount of all items.

My advice is to keep in touch with the bank. Use email if calling them won't work. Chances are if you speak to somebody they'll be as helpful as they can, but might still be out of their depth if you relay the whole saga to them. When I emailed HSBC (via their online banking contact point), they emailed me back to notify me that they'd forwarded it on to the right department.

If anybody has any knowledge about whether it is a legal obligation for the bank to take these claims on, it might be useful to post it here so people can at least endeavour to get their money back. I'd hate to think how many people just resign themselves to losing their money because chasing to get it back is too much work.

redpin_2

it's going to be someone who works at play doing all this, since they'll be the only people who can get access to this stuff

Voltaire53

Craig_Faulkner wrote: »

I'd have to claim the £39.99 back from my bank using something called a "charge back". When I called my bank (HSBC), they kept me on hold for 20 minutes before refusing to do so as Play.com already had my card details. I followed up with another call to Play.com on the matter who advised me that my bank was legally obliged to follow this up as a fraud claim.

I'm not 100% certain but AIUI if you paid with a credit card then, yes, they are legally obliged to "charge back" even though a lot of them try to deny it as they don't like people knowing this.
If it was paid directly from your bank account I don't think you have such protection.

FWIW I think it sounds more like customers who don't realise their PCs have been hacked and who have their passwords stored to 'remember' and, because Play doesn't ask for the C2V each time, they're an easy target.
If credit card details had been compromised the pattern is generally not 'lets sneak an occasional purchase and hope nobody will notice' it's 'once i've checked these detailas work I'm going to spend it like the clappers'...

JAG

Voltaire53 wrote: »

FWIW I think it sounds more like customers who don't realise their PCs have been hacked and who have their passwords stored to 'remember' and, because Play doesn't ask for the C2V each time, they're an easy target.
If credit card details had been compromised the pattern is generally not 'lets sneak an occasional purchase and hope nobody will notice' it's 'once i've checked these detailas work I'm going to spend it like the clappers'...

If you read some of the other posts you will see that people have had good security on their PCs (firewalls, virus protection, spyware and adware protection) and still got defrauded via Play.com.

This points to the security breach with Play rather than the customer. But Play as a business don't won't this to be known, and banks are more likely to point the finger at the customer being compromised rather than Play.com.

If the customers PC had been attacked why only have a go at Play.com. Surely you milk all the information you have gained from the attack before the user becomes aware of it. It is Play.com lack of secure payment facilities that is causing this type of fraud to continue. They should at least make you put in the C2V each time you make a new purchase.

tigerwoods_3

Just contacted Watchdog, including a link to this forum. Please do so also if you have been affected by this & lets hope they help to get it sorted.

sarahdh

This also happened for me but thankfully my card had expired. Someone tried to order several video games. When I called Play, they refused to unblock my account and talked to me as if it was me trying to commit fraud! Several months later I called back and they finally reinstated my account.

sublime45

Voltaire53 wrote: »

I'm not 100% certain but AIUI if you paid with a credit card then, yes, they are legally obliged to "charge back" even though a lot of them try to deny it as they don't like people knowing this.
If it was paid directly from your bank account I don't think you have such protection.

FWIW I think it sounds more like customers who don't realise their PCs have been hacked and who have their passwords stored to 'remember' and, because Play doesn't ask for the C2V each time, they're an easy target.
If credit card details had been compromised the pattern is generally not 'lets sneak an occasional purchase and hope nobody will notice' it's 'once i've checked these detailas work I'm going to spend it like the clappers'...

This could be of interest to some on here.

You will need to put the relevent bit in front of that. As a new user I am not al;lowed to post links apparantly.

opsi.gov.uk/si/si2000/20002334.htm


In particular the following section.

(1) Subject to paragraph (4), the consumer shall be entitled to cancel a payment where fraudulent use has been made of his payment card in connection with a contract to which this regulation applies by another person not acting, or to be treated as acting, as his agent.
(2) Subject to paragraph (4), the consumer shall be entitled to be recredited, or to have all sums returned by the card issuer, in the event of fraudulent use of his payment card in connection with a contract to which this regulation applies by another person not acting, or to be treated as acting, as the consumer's agent.
(3) Where paragraphs (1) and (2) apply, in any proceedings if the consumer alleges that any use made of the payment card was not authorised by him it is for the card issuer to prove that the use was so authorised.
Note:-
(6) For the purposes of this regulation -
'card issuer' means the owner of the card; and
'payment card' includes credit cards, charge cards, debit cards and store cards.

Basically if your bank/card issuer will not refund you in cases like these they are effectively breaking the law.

aliasojo

My Tesco cc was scammed but the entry on the account was Play Trade rather than just Play. I dont have a Play Trade account and have never bought anything from Play Trade.

I dont store passwords on my computer and my security is plentiful and up to date.

JAG

aliasojo wrote: »

My Tesco cc was scammed but the entry on the account was Play Trade rather than just Play. I dont have a Play Trade account and have never bought anything from Play Trade.

I dont store passwords on my computer and my security is plentiful and up to date.

The fraudster just ordered an item from one of the Play Trade sellers instead of actual Play.

But since ordering from these third party sellers is the same as ordering from Play then the lack of security for payments means they can get away with it.