Massive chip and pin theft

AngelaSinclair

I agree with you, James. Great idea.

Paulgonnabedebtfree

I found this thread an interesting read. Although I've never been the victim of such scams, I've been experiencing security at the other extreme of the spectrum. For a few years, I've had $2.99 (obviously the £ total varies with exchange rates) go out of my Goldfish account each month to pay for internet file storage. It is the most convenient way of me storing spreadsheets and databases for my business as an extra safeguard in addition to an external drive. Barclaycard took over the Goldfish card a while back. The past two months, they sent a voicemail to my phone to confirm the validity of the transactions. I'm assuming it's because (a) they don't originate in the UK and (b) they are for small amounts that scammers sometimes use as a test. At least one company seems to have fairly tight security anyway.

rb10

Paulgonnabedebtfree wrote: »

I found this thread an interesting read. Although I've never been the victim of such scams, I've been experiencing security at the other extreme of the spectrum. For a few years, I've had $2.99 (obviously the £ total varies with exchange rates) go out of my Goldfish account each month to pay for internet file storage. It is the most convenient way of me storing spreadsheets and databases for my business as an extra safeguard in addition to an external drive. Barclaycard took over the Goldfish card a while back. The past two months, they sent a voicemail to my phone to confirm the validity of the transactions. I'm assuming it's because (a) they don't originate in the UK and (b) they are for small amounts that scammers sometimes use as a test. At least one company seems to have fairly tight security anyway.

Sounds like a pain in the backside. Instead of just leaving a voicemail, it would surely be much better for you and for them if they could speak to you and ask whether the transaction is genuine. If you could then say that yes, it's fine, they should then be able to stop pestering you, and focus their efforts elsewhere.

Bigwigg

Well I think that would be great James, I personally only found out what my rights were through this website and it saved me £300 so it is certainly money saving advice!

AngelaSinclair

Hi there! I guess if you're having a look at this thread this far down the line then you're probably one of the lovely faithfuls that helped me immensely during my bank debacle. Just want to alert you to the fact that there might be some interesting news coming our way so I'll keep you posted across the rest of this week. Hope life is being good to all of you,

Anj x

tightandproud

Hi Anj,

Sorry I haven't actually read the entire thread so forgive me if I repeat anything already said. But I thought I'd let you know the exact same thing happened to a friend of mine a few weeks ago, after some persistent phone calls she had £2200 that was fraudulently used refunded back to her account, so it is possible. Don't lose faith.

Here's the bit that might have been said before. Has there been any CCTV footage at any of the retailers where the card was used?

AngelaSinclair

Hey there, thanks for your message, great your friend got her money back! I luckily got mine back too a few weeks ago now, and yep CCTV was crucial to my case. I chased the retailers for that evidence and had them hold it for the police. Thank goodness it existed and proved that two men were using my card unauthorised!

Anj

scooby359

Just on a related theme.. I work in a Halifax branch. This week, we've had six customers in who've had money withdrawn at ATMs from savings cards - just a magnetic strip, no chip.

Coming in individually, we didn't think much of it. Sent of the forms as we do, and I spoke to our Fraud dept at one point who said as it was a "genuine pin and card transaction" the customer would be liable.

After speaking to other colleagues and realising we'd dealt with so many in such a short time, we tracked it down in branch to all the cards having been used at a local cash machine. We contacted the shop the machine was at, and the owners confirmed a skimming device had been removed earlier in the week.

I spoke to our Fraud dept again who didn't seem in the slightest bit interested. They weren't bothered about contacting the police, the ATM owner, anything.

It's pretty worrying that any transactions made with a pin are dismissed so easily by the banks when it's been shown that there are so many ways for a fraudster to obtain a pin number.

From a branch point of view to anyone going through this, there's not much we can do in branch - it's above us and we've no role in the fraud investigation. But don't back down to the banks, make a fuss and try and get the branch staff on your side.

herbertthehelper

masonic wrote: »

It is possible to get these. They are intended for people not able to remember/use a PIN. You may not be able to use your Chip & Signature card for cash withdrawals, though. However, to get around that you could open one of the few savings accounts that come with a card for cash withdrawals (keeping the balance of the savings account as low as possible). With an approach like that you can get the best of both worlds.

Yes some shops will now have the chip and signature - I know sainsburies does it - I do prefer pin though

socrates

scooby359 wrote: »

Just on a related theme.. I work in a Halifax branch. This week, we've had six customers in who've had money withdrawn at ATMs from savings cards - just a magnetic strip, no chip.

Coming in individually, we didn't think much of it. Sent of the forms as we do, and I spoke to our Fraud dept at one point who said as it was a "genuine pin and card transaction" the customer would be liable.

After speaking to other colleagues and realising we'd dealt with so many in such a short time, we tracked it down in branch to all the cards having been used at a local cash machine. We contacted the shop the machine was at, and the owners confirmed a skimming device had been removed earlier in the week.

I spoke to our Fraud dept again who didn't seem in the slightest bit interested. They weren't bothered about contacting the police, the ATM owner, anything.

It's pretty worrying that any transactions made with a pin are dismissed so easily by the banks when it's been shown that there are so many ways for a fraudster to obtain a pin number.

From a branch point of view to anyone going through this, there's not much we can do in branch - it's above us and we've no role in the fraud investigation. But don't back down to the banks, make a fuss and try and get the branch staff on your side.

The savings cards are the 'bread and butter' of the fraudsters - once they have skimmed these cards they can withdraw the money from UK - they do not need to go abroad like they do for the Debit Cards.

Advice to people - always keep small balances in these savings accounts and transfer money across when you need to withdraw money from other higher interest savings accounts that do not have an ATM card attached to them.

Like I said in an earlier part of the thread - if people knew the real numbers when it comes to fraud at Halifax - they would have to shut up shop tomorrow.:D