I've been a victim of online debit card fraud and would like some advice please

Rascalov

Hello. Two days ago, I received this email from Amazon.com which stated that someone had opened an account on Amazon and tried to make a fraudulent purchase using my debit card. In a worrying coincidence, this occurred one day after I myself had legitimately bought something from Amazon.co.uk using the same card (which I had used many times previously). This leads to me suspect that someone working for Amazon may have been responsible.

On 14 February 2011 06:46, charge-inquiries @ amazon .com
wrote:
> Greetings from Amazon.com.
>
> We perform routine reviews of orders to protect our customers. During
> one of these reviews we discovered that an account was opened with a
> card used by you on another account. For your reference the card in
> question is a (removed by me) which ends xxxx. (the 4 digits were correct)
>
> As it appears the card was used without your authorization, we have
> closed this new account and cancelled any outstanding orders. If the
> account is indeed yours, we apologize for any inconvenience caused and
> ask that you notify us as soon as possible by replying to this message.
>
> If the card was used without your authorization, we recommend you
> cancel the card immediately by contacting the financial institution
> that issued the card.
>
> You should review all recent charges made to this card, reporting any
> unauthorized charges to your financial institution. The financial
> institution, in turn, will send you forms to formally dispute the
> unauthorized charges, the applicable merchants will be notified and
> charged back, and your account subsequently credited.
>
> Although we are not permitted to provide you with any details about
> the unauthorized use, we will provide this information to the
> financial institution. Please don't hesitate to contact us if you
> have any further questions or concerns.
>
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Narender Singh
> Investigation Specialist
> Amazon.com
> www. amazon. com
> =======================
>

(when I try to post the correct email with the email address and link at the bottom, it says I am not allowed to post links as I am a new user. That's a bit odd, as I have been registered on MSE for quite a while.)

I wasn't sure if it was genuine, so I checked my online bank statement and there was a pending charge for £116.85 which I didn't recognise. I quickly contacted Santander (my bank was Alliance and Leicester before Santander took them over) and explained the situation, and the person I talked to told me the transaction had not been authorised so I would not actually lose any money. They also said they would cancel the card and a new one would be sent to me. I have just checked my online statement again and the fraudulent purchase is now showing in my list of transactions. It says "Card payment to Amazon.com, 116.85 GBP on 14-02-2011". If the transaction had actually been stopped, then it wouldn't have appeared in my list of transactions. So it seems Amazon were lying when they said they cancelled the fraudulent order and so were Santander when they said I would not actually lose anything. Santander also do not seem to have a 24 hour fraud line, as all I could find on my paper statement and their website is a number which is open from 7am-11pm. So I can not do anything about it until the morning at the earliest. Has anyone here had a similar experience with Santander? Also, will I still be able to get my money back even though the fraud has occurred on a debit card and not a credit card?

zppp

Re posting links, there is a threshold of posts you must reach before you are able to post links, what that is I don't know.

Re debit card fraud, it will be investigated and so long as you have not been negligent with the card (very unlikely), you should recieve a refund, providing you sign a form to that effect.

Bloomberg

Rascalov wrote: »

Hello. Two days ago, I received this email from Amazon.com which stated that someone had opened an account on Amazon and tried to make a fraudulent purchase using my debit card. In a worrying coincidence, this occurred one day after I myself had legitimately bought something from Amazon.co.uk using the same card (which I had used many times previously). This leads to me suspect that someone working for Amazon may have been responsible.



(when I try to post the correct email with the email address and link at the bottom, it says I am not allowed to post links as I am a new user. That's a bit odd, as I have been registered on MSE for quite a while.)

I wasn't sure if it was genuine, so I checked my online bank statement and there was a pending charge for £116.85 which I didn't recognise. I quickly contacted Santander (my bank was Alliance and Leicester before Santander took them over) and explained the situation, and the person I talked to told me the transaction had not been authorised so I would not actually lose any money. They also said they would cancel the card and a new one would be sent to me. I have just checked my online statement again and the fraudulent purchase is now showing in my list of transactions. It says "Card payment to Amazon.com, 116.85 GBP on 14-02-2011". If the transaction had actually been stopped, then it wouldn't have appeared in my list of transactions. So it seems Amazon were lying when they said they cancelled the fraudulent order and so were Santander when they said I would not actually lose anything. Santander also do not seem to have a 24 hour fraud line, as all I could find on my paper statement and their website is a number which is open from 7am-11pm. So I can not do anything about it until the morning at the earliest. Has anyone here had a similar experience with Santander? Also, will I still be able to get my money back even though the fraud has occurred on a debit card and not a credit card?

Sorry to hear of your woes, I think that the bank will give you a refund at some point but they may take their time. Ideally you should always use a credit card for ALL transactions as this way you have more protection. Good luck with our clam.

Rascalov

I called Santander again today. The guy said I should have the money refunded within the next two days. I have a feeling he was just trying to get rid of me though, and the problem isn't anywhere near being resolved. Also, as I don't have an active debit card right now (the one on which the fraud occurred has been cancelled and I am awaiting the arrival of a new one), how are they going to refund me? Do they normally just do a bank transfer? The person who I talked to also did not mention anything about sending me any forms to be signed.

[Deleted User]

Rascalov wrote: »

I called Santander again today. The guy said I should have the money refunded within the next two days. I have a feeling he was just trying to get rid of me though, and the problem isn't anywhere near being resolved. Also, as I don't have an active debit card right now (the one on which the fraud occurred has been cancelled and I am awaiting the arrival of a new one), how are they going to refund me? Do they normally just do a bank transfer? The person who I talked to also did not mention anything about sending me any forms to be signed.

they should automatically send you a form declaring your knowledge that you didn't commit this transaction
they would refund it directly to your account which takes 2-3 working days to clear

Rascalov

I contacted Santander again. The person I talked to on this occasion said it can take up to 30 days for money that was fraudulently spent to be returned to my account. They said I would receive a disclaimer form in the post. I asked what that was, and they said it was a form which I must sign to confirm that I did not authorise the transaction. Is it normal for the process to take up to 30 days?

Lawpf2001

Rascalov wrote: »

I contacted Santander again. The person I talked to on this occasion said it can take up to 30 days for money that was fraudulently spent to be returned to my account. They said I would receive a disclaimer form in the post. I asked what that was, and they said it was a form which I must sign to confirm that I did not authorise the transaction. Is it normal for the process to take up to 30 days?

I think they just say that to cover themselves. Wouldnt be surprised if it was a lot quicker.

zppp

Rascalov wrote: »

I contacted Santander again. The person I talked to on this occasion said it can take up to 30 days for money that was fraudulently spent to be returned to my account. They said I would receive a disclaimer form in the post. I asked what that was, and they said it was a form which I must sign to confirm that I did not authorise the transaction. Is it normal for the process to take up to 30 days?

As I said in my post I thought they would send a disclaimer form. When I was with Sanatander they said it was up to 30 days, but in reality it was faster. I believe it is because they have to get the funds back from the merchant who processed the transaction.

teffers

Bloomberg wrote: »

Ideally you should always use a credit card for ALL transactions as this way you have more protection. Good luck with our clam.

You're credit card only provides automatic cover above the £100 threshold, below this ideally you should use a VISA DEBIT as the Visa Debit Chargeback facility provides fraud cover.

Your credit card most probably will protect you below the £100 limit but it's not guaranteed.

The only other benefit of using a CC online rather than a DC is that if some money does go missing it's the CC company's not funds from your current account.

meer53

Visa regulations apply to both Visa debit and Visa credit cards, there is no difference in the chargeback procedures. The chargeback procedure doesnt provide fraud cover, its a tool for dispute resolution, fraud of any amount on any card should be refunded and investigated by the bank by using this facility. The difference with a Visa Credit Card is by virtue of the Consumer Credit Act Section 75 which covers you for any transaction over £100 and below £30,000 if the chargeback fails (or the bank has no chargback rights they can use) and you can prove breach of contract by the retailer. Under the Payment Services Directive, the bank has an obligation to refund a customer with ANY amount whether fraud or dispute as soon as the error is reported by the customer. At the moment, this only applies to Visa Debit transactions, not Visa Credit.

Where i work, we refund customers with fraudulent or disputed transactions whilst we're speaking to them, then we send out the declaration for them to sign. When we action the chargeback, the credit then goes to our account instead of the customers. I can't see why that shouldn't happen in all cases really but i know it doesn't ! We also send out declarations electronically rather than in the post which speeds things up, but as the customer has already been refunded, thats for our benefit more than anything else.
We can refund the customer, send out the paperwork and action the chargeback the same day if the customer returns the paperwork as soon as they get it.

Good luck with Santander, my advice would be to change banks !!

juliet_f

I too bank with Santander and was the victim of an online debit card
fraud towards the end of last year. Admittedly it was a small amount, £7.50, but Santander returned it to my account within 48 hrs. I seem to remember them saying to allow up to 30 days when I initially spoke to them. The customer service I received was fine, they were very pleasant on the phone and I have no complaints about how they handled my case. I hope you get your money back swiftly!:)