Has there been a security breach at Capital One?

Unity

My purpose in posting here is just to alert anyone else with a Capital One credit card to a possible security breach in their system.

Two weeks ago I received a telephone call from Capital One, claiming my account had been flagged up due to 'unusual transactions'. To be honest I was almost expecting the call as I had just received an e-mail from Amazon to say my Capital One card had been refused and I was on the computer when the phone rang.

I'll just add here that I use my card a lot, because of the cash back feature and repay in full by direct debit each month.

After much discussion, caused primarily by the customer adviser having very poor English - and me wanting to make sure it was not a call from "Phonejacker" , she went through the recent transactions - I was able to confirm all were legitimate.

She then said that the account was blocked, to destroy the cards (mine and DH's) and new ones would arrive within seven to ten days. I asked why this needed to be done since I had already confirmed that the transactions were fine, in fact there was nothing out of the ordinary since the three transactions were to companies I deal with regularly and none were for over £50. She replied that it was the policy and my new cards would arrive within seven to ten days.

I contacted Capital One via their secure messaging facility and got a pro forma reply that didn't answer any of the questions I had asked. I replied to this and was told I would receive a reply by post. Here is an excerpt:

" We spoke to you recently about a possibly security risk with your account details. Although no fraud had taken place, we felt that as there was potential your card information could be used fraudulently, it was therefore necessary to block your account."

Since there was no possibility of fraud from my side, I can only conclude that there has been a security breach at Capital One - especially after seeing a news report on TV last year about print-outs of credit card details being sold by employees of foreign call centres :eek:.

I have written to their fraud department asking for a full explanation, but as you might expect I've received nothing at all.

What makes me even more suspicious is that last March, it took Capital One, two days to contact me to ask if I could confirm almost £1,000 of transactions to an on-line poker site :eek:. The money was reinstated, but it still caused me a lot of hassle as they still charged additionally for each transaction as a cash withdrawal - another problem lost in translation that took two further months to rectify.

I would just say to be on your guard with Capital One as if this is a security breach it will certainly not just affect me.

Thanks for reading.

Chris2000

There may have been a security breach but not necessarily at capital one. It is possible that you previously used your card somewhere that is known to have leaked card details to fraudsters.

A work colleague and I both had our cards cloned in the USA within a few days of each other, 6 months after using them at the same hotel for a business trip. I would expect the banks to identify other customers who used their cards at the same hotel around the same time as a precaution.

Unity

Chris2000 wrote: »

There may have been a security breach but not necessarily at capital one. It is possible that you previously used your card somewhere that is known to have leaked card details to fraudsters.

A work colleague and I both had our cards cloned in the USA within a few days of each other, 6 months after using them at the same hotel for a business trip. I would expect the banks to identify other customers who used their cards at the same hotel around the same time as a precaution.

Thanks for this - however the three transactions that had flagged up as 'suspicious' were: www.amazon.co.uk; www.lakeland.co.uk and 'www.royalmail.com' all were on-line transactions and in each case I have long-standing accounts with the companies concerned.

I haven't travelled abroad recently and in fact have not handed my card over to any third party, so physical cloning opportunities are in this case negligible. This being said a friend was alerted by his CC company recently that someone had been using his card details all over Montana - yet he hasn't been anywhere near the States :eek:.

As I mentioned I was particularly suspicious, when Capital One acted so quickly:shocked: - whereas last year when a number of cash withdrawals were unlawfully made using my card, via an on-line poker site - it took them much longer to spot :eek:. I have never obtained cash using my Cap One card and never gambled using it, so it seems blooming funny that these transactions didn't trigger an alert but three to Amazon, Lakeland and the Royal Mail did :rotfl:.

I'm obviously now looking for a credit card with cash back and call centres in this country, just to be on the safe side .