Wanted: Card that won't allow remote purchases!

Whumpie

My father has been defrauded several times, and each time it's via somebody putting through fraudulent card transactions as if he's made a telephone purchase.

Having looked at possible causes, the only real answer is: "because it's incredibly easy to do!"

Whether it's a con artist getting the details, or (as has been the case) someone in a call centre just selling the details on, the only way to stop it happening is to not have a card that can enable a payment without the owner being present. Trouble is, nobody seems to do one, which is the real reason fraud is rising so sharply!

I don't want to reduce him to just using cash in shops, but he'd be happy if he couldn't make payments over the phone. Does anyone know of a way to do this? Surely someone does a card which isn't so utterly useless at preventing fraud?

agrinnall

Well presumably he hasn't actually been defrauded because you will have disputed the transactions and the credit card company will have refunded him.

I don't know of a card that does what you want but maybe it could be discussed with the card issuer, perhaps there is some sort of flag they could put on the card so that it doesn't allow any transactions unless he rings up to say he's just about to make one at xxx retailer.

jonesMUFCforever

Which would defeat the object of having the card in the first place and so expensive to run - nobody will do this.
IMO OP should stop using cards altogether and go back to using cash.

Mikhail

Whumpie wrote: »

My father has been defrauded several times, and each time it's via somebody putting through fraudulent card transactions as if he's made a telephone purchase.

Having looked at possible causes, the only real answer is: "because it's incredibly easy to do!"

Whether it's a con artist getting the details, or (as has been the case) someone in a call centre just selling the details on, the only way to stop it happening is to not have a card that can enable a payment without the owner being present. Trouble is, nobody seems to do one, which is the real reason fraud is rising so sharply!

I don't want to reduce him to just using cash in shops, but he'd be happy if he couldn't make payments over the phone. Does anyone know of a way to do this? Surely someone does a card which isn't so utterly useless at preventing fraud?

OK, I guess your father is quite old and trustful; there is nothing wrong with that, the problems are in our society. I can understand that you don’t want to limit him to use cash only, but the only way I can suggest is to open a joint account so you can monitor his transactions or obtain an access to his accounts and monitor them. Finally his welfare is your responsibility not the bankers, although this fact does not work very well in this country. Also, reduce a number of his accounts to one current account and maximum 2 credit cards with senior citizens friendly banks, e.g., SAGA or Co-operative and £1000 limit. Prepare for a battle.

scott_lithgows

I,ve now had 4 cards which have been subject to fraud (two of them twice!)
Each time it has been something for around a £1,then its one for £10 or £20.Then its the big one £1k+ !!
If the credit limit is reduced on any card to £1k it should reject the major transaction.

Atom

Get a Pre-Paid card - top it up when your going to use it only and all will be fine - never use main cards online.

Whumpie

Thanks for the input... although it's clear many people have never dealt with an elderly person!

It sounds so far like all you can do it limit the fraud, which isn't really what we're after. Yes, you can get it back, but that's not the point. Why won't the industry just allow us to choose whether a card can be used without our presence or not?? It seems so obvious, especially as they're all harking on about fraud and this has to be the biggest source of it.

I'll try to convince him to go to cash, but he won't like it as he's bound to get to a till and find he's not taken enough out. In the mean time, if anyone has any ideas on this I'd love to hear them.

Oh, and to those saying he's unlucky to be defrauded: sorry, just not true. Fraudsters directly target older people and most of them get done at some point, yet the banks do nowt to prevent it. It's pathetic. I have a very helpful person at my father's bank but even she is unable to trace a dodgy transaction to find out anything about the recipient or get evidence of how it came about. The whole basis of secure finance seems to have been thrown out in the name of upping the number of transactions. Meanwhile we hear constantly of situations with foreign call centres selling card details and so on, and the obvious question is, "well what's stopping them"?

Sorry - rant over. Any help or input from anyone who's had the same problem would be very welcome!

lisyloo

Sorry I can't offer any advice, but I can certainly sympathise.
My MIL carries all her PIN numbers in her purse because she can't remeber the numbers.
I have told her to either
1) get them all changed to the same number so she can remeber one number
2) get signature cards
or
3) stop using credit cards altogether and just use a debit card (not popular at all).

but I can't acutally make her do anything, only try to persuade her.

danouk

Whumpie wrote: »

fraud is rising so sharply!

Simply not true: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12677015

Whilst I sympathise with the OP situation, scaremongering about card fraud does not help.

The best way to prevent CNP (cardholder not present) fraud is to never do a CNP transaction. There are 2 layers of security for CNP transactions: the CVV code (sometimes called the security code) - the 3 digit code on the signature strip of the card, and the AVS (address verification system) check, which matches the postcode and first line of the billing address of the card.

Neither of these bits of information is encoded on the card and so cannot be skimmed. If you never reveal it then CNP fraud becomes really difficult to pull off.

Phone transactions are the most risky as there's a human on the other end of the phone who can write down the card information and then sell it on.

If you must do CNP transactions, use a credit card instead of a debit card. At least that way it's the credit card company's money at risk, and you don't risk having to deal with a drained bank account for however long it takes to sort.

SnowTiger

Whumpie wrote: »

It sounds so far like all you can do it limit the fraud, which isn't really what we're after. Yes, you can get it back, but that's not the point. Why won't the industry just allow us to choose whether a card can be used without our presence or not?? It seems so obvious, especially as they're all harking on about fraud and this has to be the biggest source of it.

Probably because it's not in their interest to limit use of the card, by the card holder at least.

And unless people ask about such a card, providers won't realise there is a demand for such a thing.

dealer_wins

lisyloo wrote: »

Sorry I can't offer any advice, but I can certainly sympathise.
My MIL carries all her PIN numbers in her purse because she can't remeber the numbers.
I have told her to either
1) get them all changed to the same number so she can remeber one number
2) get signature cards
or
3) stop using credit cards altogether and just use a debit card (not popular at all).

but I can't acutally make her do anything, only try to persuade her.

This is a very bad idea, and could make her liable for any transactions!!