Play.com Fraud - warning 4 March 2009 at 11:08AM edited 30 November -1 at 1:00AM in Praise, Vent & Warnings 428 replies 121.9K views

pinkpinkfizz

I had a shock with Play yesterday when I went to place an order.
I had previously ordered 2posters @ 2.99, I placed the order adn a while later later I recieved an email stating that the card I store my details on had expired, by the time I got round to checking my email the goods were out of stock so I never bothered changing my card details.
Yesterday I was considering buying something else, but as part of allowing me to log into my account, I HAD to update my card details, otherwise I wasn't able to log in to my account. As soon as I had put in the new expiry details, the last order for the posters went through to processing. I wasn't even aware this had happened until I received a dispatch email!
I'm actually happy to receive the posters however this is a heads up incase it happens to anyone who may not have funds in a bank account or may genuinely no longer wish to purchase an item held in their basket.

HTH

bribrian

Well, after finding something at a price i couldn't resist on Play, i went into my account & changed the details back to the proper ones ordered it yesterday & it was dispatched today so i assume payment was taken as well...
This evening i changed my details again to avoid fraud & then get the following ....

Dear Customer

Thank you for your recent order with https://www.play.com

At this time we are unable to process your order further as the card details you have entered appear to be incorrect and cannot be verified.

Please can you check you account and ensure that the following details have been entered correctly:

Credit card number
Valid and Expiry dates
Three digit security code (this can be found on the signature strip of your credit card)

We will then attempt to re-process your original order. You do not need to resubmit your order.

Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused to you in this matter and thank you for your patience and valued custom.

Kind regards

Play

So..... either the payment hasn't been taken for my order or someone else has tried to order in my name...... (email reply sent!):mad:
(i should have known better!)

blackmidnight

bribrian wrote: »

Well, after finding something at a price i couldn't resist on Play, i went into my account & changed the details back to the proper ones ordered it yesterday & it was dispatched today so i assume payment was taken as well...
This evening i changed my details again to avoid fraud & then get the following ....

Dear Customer

Thank you for your recent order with www.play.com

At this time we are unable to process your order further as the card details you have entered appear to be incorrect and cannot be verified.

Please can you check you account and ensure that the following details have been entered correctly:

Credit card number
Valid and Expiry dates
Three digit security code (this can be found on the signature strip of your credit card)

We will then attempt to re-process your original order. You do not need to resubmit your order.

Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused to you in this matter and thank you for your patience and valued custom.

Kind regards

Play

So..... either the payment hasn't been taken for my order or someone else has tried to order in my name...... (email reply sent!):mad:
(i should have known better!)

You will get that email every time you change your card details regardless of whether or not you have placed an order.

bribrian

blackmidnight wrote: »

You will get that email every time you change your card details regardless of whether or not you have placed an order.

I didn't get it the last time i changed my details plus now i've got another email telling me my account has been suspended.......... :mad:

Former_MSE_Andrea

Hi everyone

Play has asked us to give you this statement on its behalf:

"Due to the seriousness of some of the allegations on this forum , we would like to reassure our customers that Play.com offers a completely secure shopping environment and that there have been no instances of our internal security being breached. We use sophisticated credit card encryption and no member of the Play.com team can access or view your credit card details.

If a customer has experienced unauthorised access on their account this will have been due to that persons login details being exposed either by the account holder or a security breach on their computer.

We strongly advise that you do not divulge or write down your passwords and change them on a regular basis. It is also important to make sure that your virus and security software is updated regularly as viruses that log your typing are the most common way of obtaining personal details and passwords.

Customer security is taken very seriously at Play.com, and we work closely with banks, credit card providers and ISPs to improve personal security across the entire internet."

mummysaver

Glad I've seen this thread!

I had a play.com account and last Christmas received 3 emails telling me about x-box war games being sent out, needless to say I hadn't ordered them! Unfort they were dispatched within mins of being ordered apparently so the order couldn't be stopped! I cancelled my account with play.com and luckily my bank refunded me even though it was done as 3 orders under £50 each.

Having had a look on the internet, the same delivery address had been being used for some time and there were several discussion groups about it, yet still play were sending stuff to this address. Surely it wouldn't be impossible to flag up that nothing further should be sent there after the first complaint of fraud?

Anyway, due to the good deals I was wondering if they'd tightened up their security or changed the fact that they want your account details held on their system, but after reading this it seems not, so sadly I won't be taking advantage however good the prices.

bribrian

MSE_Andrea wrote: »

Hi everyone

Play has asked us to give you this statement on its behalf:

"Due to the seriousness of some of the allegations on this forum , we would like to reassure our customers that Play.com offers a completely secure shopping environment and that there have been no instances of our internal security being breached. We use sophisticated credit card encryption and no member of the Play.com team can access or view your credit card details.

If a customer has experienced unauthorised access on their account this will have been due to that persons login details being exposed either by the account holder or a security breach on their computer.

We strongly advise that you do not divulge or write down your passwords and change them on a regular basis. It is also important to make sure that your virus and security software is updated regularly as viruses that log your typing are the most common way of obtaining personal details and passwords.

Customer security is taken very seriously at Play.com, and we work closely with banks, credit card providers and ISPs to improve personal security across the entire internet."

Well, they would say that wouldn't they, it would be commercial suicide for them to admit having a security breach in their setup. :rolleyes:
It's easy to pass the buck and put the blame of all these security lapses onto the customer & their computers.:mad: As stated by the previous poster Play are still sending out fraudulently bought items to the same addresses, surely their system should pick this up if it worked properly........

Hopefully Play will read this too............... :money:

JAG

bribrian wrote: »

Well, they would say that wouldn't they, it would be commercial suicide for them to admit having a security breach in their setup. :rolleyes:

Would have to agree with that.

So Play are saying that everyone that has posted in this thread having had fraudulent activity on their account is down to security breaches on their own computers :rolleyes:

It isn't just this forum reporting fraud, see the quotes below taken from another forum. One person said they ordered over the phone so how could their computer have been hacked?

Play.com Fraud

I have used Play.com a few times to purchase CDs and DVDs. Last week I received my credit card statement with purchases totalling £400 to Play Trade - these transactions were not mine and I was on holiday when they had taken place. I phoned the credit card company immediately and they said they would stop my card and forward a form to complete. I searched the internet for Play Trade and then found it was part of Play.com. When I returned from holiday Play.com had sent me an email confirming my change of email address - I had not changed my email address and thought it was a mistake. I spoke to someone at their Customer Services yesterday and he said they realised 2 weeks ago that fraud was being carried out on my account and they had stopped the account (I wonder why they made no effort to contact me?). I asked what had made them suspicious, the chap said either the goods were being delivered to an address miles away from my home or to an address known to them for receiving goods fraudulently. I then asked how they would know my password, he replied that hackers must have got into my computer for my password. After doing security scans on my computer everything is running fine, I then searched on the internet to find this had happened to other people and they like me figured that if someone had hacked into their computer they would not have stopped just at my Play.com account. I won't be using Play.com ever again and have advised my daughters not to either. I think the hackers have got into Play.com's system not mine, they hold your details on their system. People who rob others like this are just scum.

Funny old thing. I got back from Holiday on monday and I've been billed fraudulently for 2 transactions at Play Trade in Jersey I have been using them since they were mail order and not on the net, so I think someone has hacked their account as well, as my credit card statements probably get binned once every couple of years and then they are shreaded. My pc is also secured/firewalled/antispywared ect
Play wouldn't give me the details of my new account incase I'm the sort to go round and sort them out.

This happened to my neighbour last month, she had ordered from Play.com and then her credit card was used for unauthorised transacactions, however the fraud team at Natwest managed to find the hacker as he stupidly ordered something using the card details and gave his delivery address, the police were then called in.
My neighbour didnt order online though, she made her order over the phone, did you do this too?

I work in IT and spot SPAM emails a mile off and have never clicked on one of them to change details. However lo behold i get an email today saying my order has been processed and i thought SPAM mail from Play.com until i hovered over the links in email and knew they were genuine. I logged onto play.com which i have not used since Jan 08 and yup £200 of games were ordered and he had changed the delivery address and name to his in Dagenham. Rang Play.com they close accounts down that have been hacked as policy and he said he stopped order but someone from play may contact me. Cancelled credit card just in case and changed passwords on all my other online accounts. However i say this i have never been hacked before and no other account has been hacked and i not used play for ages. I certainly agree someone may have hacked play.com system to get my details and i doubt they hacked me as im always very careful. If anyone reading this i would suggest taking out your debit or credit card details from play.com account. This will force them to pay for items themselves rather than be billed automatically to you. You never know but better be safe than sorry.

JAG

Are Play now using Verfied by VISA and MasterCard SecureCode for transactions?

Both of the logos are on the Play.com website

bs7

MSE_Andrea wrote: »

Hi everyone

Play has asked us to give you this statement on its behalf:

"Due to the seriousness of some of the allegations on this forum , we would like to reassure our customers that Play.com offers a completely secure shopping environment and that there have been no instances of our internal security being breached. We use sophisticated credit card encryption and no member of the Play.com team can access or view your credit card details.

If a customer has experienced unauthorised access on their account this will have been due to that persons login details being exposed either by the account holder or a security breach on their computer.

We strongly advise that you do not divulge or write down your passwords and change them on a regular basis. It is also important to make sure that your virus and security software is updated regularly as viruses that log your typing are the most common way of obtaining personal details and passwords.

Customer security is taken very seriously at Play.com, and we work closely with banks, credit card providers and ISPs to improve personal security across the entire internet."

It's taken them a heck of long time to respond.

The number of people experiencing problems is far too large to be a coincidence - you don't hear many, or indeed any, similar problems regarding Amazon, for example, who must process a massively larger amount of transaction.

However, if you take their view - it wouldn't explain why all these hackers are so attracted to using Play.com unless the security methods they employ with regards to shipping address details etc was an issue as well. Clearly, if their implausible view regarding the hacking is correct then Play.com is simply the prefered shop for the hacker because of their policy on the shipping address.

It should also be noted that Play.com used to have (i'm not sure if it's changed) the strangest 'verification' system - they wouldn't ask for the CV2 (last 3 digits off the payment card) during the order process but would then put orders on hold until you phoned or emailed them with it. I'm not saying that in itself would cause problems per se - but clearly their 'policy' was far from inline with pretty much every other online retailer.

I also don't believe that it would be possible for credit card details to be encrypted to the extent that "no member of the Play.com team" could access the number. I'm not saying that's definitely a lie but i find that ridiculously hard to believe: They may have changed their policies but i'm sure i recall being asked to confirm my credit card number over the phone.

Furthermore, if they do read this - it would be interesting to know why they have taken the view that, despite being aware of people's concerns, they haven't been offering an opt-out with regards to credit cards being stored. And why they've effectively banned customers that have used 'test' credit card details in order to protect their details. That doesn't sound like taking customer service seriously.