buymobilephones.net - "Fraudulent order"?

rainbow_carnage

I placed an order with buymobilephones.net this afternoon. Got an e-mail a few hours later that the order has been suspended and that I needed to call them.

Called them and was told that the order has been flagged up as fraudulent. They want two forms of ID and proof of address. Fine. I can scan and e-mail those. But how did this happen in the first place?

I asked the customer service rep. He said that it may be because I'm not on the electoral roll or I don't have enough credit history. Neither of those things are true. I am on the electoral roll (voted in the last election). I've lived at the same address for almost eight years. I have no problem with my credit history. I have two credit cards and an existing mobile contract. Had no problem with those. So why has the order been flagged?

Any ideas?

Going to check my credit report just in case...

Jon_01

Check they'll take scans, I work in the fraud dept of one of the networks and we don't.

rainbow_carnage

Jon_01 wrote: »

Check they'll take scans, I work in the fraud dept of one of the networks and we don't.

The guy I spoke to said scans were fine. What's the alternative? I'm not going to send them my passport.

Since you work for the fraud dept, any idea why I would've been flagged?

This is such a hassle. I'm almost tempted to cancel the order and get the same phone and contract from someplace else. But now I'm worried that I'll have the same problem with other merchants.

Jon_01

Could be any number of reasons, without seeing the app, it's impossible to tell.

Scans can be 'monkeyed' with (if you follow), we only accepted stuff faxed to us.

rainbow_carnage

Jon_01 wrote: »

Could be any number of reasons, without seeing the app, it's impossible to tell.

Scans can be 'monkeyed' with (if you follow), we only accepted stuff faxed to us.

But surely faxes can be monkeyed in the exact same way?

If I got flagged by one merchant, does that mean I'll get flagged by others? Or does each one have its own criteria?

I don't understand how I can pass a credit check for a credit card with a £5k limit, but not for a cheap mobile contract. Or did it not even get to the credit check stage? Fraud isn't the same as failing a credit check, is it?

Jon_01

rainbow_carnage wrote: »

But surely faxes can be monkeyed in the exact same way?

If I got flagged by one merchant, does that mean I'll get flagged by others? Or does each one have its own criteria?

I don't understand how I can pass a credit check for a credit card with a £5k limit, but not for a cheap mobile contract. Or did it not even get to the credit check stage? Fraud isn't the same as failing a credit check, is it?

Its harder to mess with a faxed original (and we can tell).

Each will have it own criteria but all the searches will show up on your credit file, too many searches (and fails) is not good.

Fraud is when someone uses your info to take an acc (in this context) in your name with no intention of paying for it.
You can fail a credit check for all kind of reasons...

Guys_Dad

For a couple of £, you should get your Experian credit file report. (You can get it for free if you sign up then cancel within the month too).

That may help.

parallax_20

Jon_01 wrote: »

Its harder to mess with a faxed original (and we can tell).

I would be interested to know how you would be able to tell the difference? I have a fax modem, and could just easily scan the document and send that across via my laptop. If you were to use a proper fax machine, the document would still need to be scanned first and then fed through where it would be rescanned and sent. Between scanning and sending, the document can be altered, be it on a computer or manually.

When it comes out the other end its just another black and white copy. If it was a scanned imagine that was sent via email as a jpeg, gif, etc then you could feasibly run software over the image to determine if the original had been altered. But as far as I can see you wouldn't be able to tell from a standard fax printout unless it was a particularly bad alter job.

I'm just curious .

Jon_01

parallax_20 wrote: »

I would be interested to know how you would be able to tell the difference? I have a fax modem, and could just easily scan the document and send that across via my laptop. If you were to use a proper fax machine, the document would still need to be scanned first and then fed through where it would be rescanned and sent. Between scanning and sending, the document can be altered, be it on a computer or manually.

When it comes out the other end its just another black and white copy. If it was a scanned imagine that was sent via email as a jpeg, gif, etc then you could feasibly run software over the image to determine if the original had been altered. But as far as I can see you wouldn't be able to tell from a standard fax printout unless it was a particularly bad alter job.

I'm just curious .

Can't really go into detail for obvious reasons.
But when an acc flags up for possible fraud we ask for a proof of ID and there are only certain doc's we'll take, which should be the same ones that stores take, but some of them will take any old rubbish (we once had a hand written note faxed in saying my name is XXX and I live at YY as a proof of address !).

There are ways to tell if these things are genuine or not.

rainbow_carnage

I'm grateful to companies who take the time to stop fraudulent transactions. Last year, I got an e-mail from Amazon that someone had tried to place an order using my credit card on another account. This was obvious fraud. They stopped the transaction, notified me and the credit card company. In contrast, Currys let the transaction go through, even though the billing address didn't match.

Occasionally, when I place an order online, the credit card company will phone to check that it's genuine. The bank calls once in a while, if I've made an uncharacteristically-large transfer or have set up a suspicious-sounding direct debit. These are all good things.

But this thing with Buymobilephones.net makes no sense. My credit report is fine. There's no good reason for them not to be able to match me with my credit report to run the check. My address hasn't changed in eight years. I've never changed my name. I had to use MasterCard SecureCode when I gave them my card details, which, I think, is a pretty good sign that I am the cardholder. So what could be the problem?

Caution is fine. Caution is good. But this is just one big hassle.

And now I'm wondering if this will cause further problems. A few years ago, I had a problem with a T-Mobile account. They had placed a block on it (incorrectly, as they later admitted) so I couldn't use it in the States. Of course, I only found out about it when I landed at JFK. At that point, it was too late to sort it out. Until they resolved the issue, they wanted me to put £250 in credit on my account, so I could use the phone abroad.

This is another T-Mobile phone. Is this going to happen again?

OneADay

If someone has been trying to use your details with Amazon in past - it might be sensible to beef up your security practices - i.e. online security and how you dispose of your personal paper information (bills etc).

Currys allowing a transaction to go through with incorrect billing address ? How was the address incorrect?

If you have moved recently, that could confuse a company too. But really its guesswork and companies have a right to check further on information you supply them - its in your interests as well as theirs, preventing you and them from being victims of fraud.