Legitimate request from TM Lewin

rliu

I received this email today for a suit order

Thank you very much for your order.

We have recently experienced an increased level of fraudulent activity in orders placed from certain areas of the UK.

Therefore we have been advised by our Fraud Screening Specialist that we must check all orders going to those particular areas before dispatch. We are very sorry that your address happens to be in one of the affected areas where we have been targeted. For this reason we do have to ask you to provide some ID that confirms you live at the same address at which your card is registered.

Acceptable form of I.D is:

• A recent Bank Statement for the card used on the order

We do though only need the header information; no actual financial information is required. You can either post, e-mail or fax the information; the required numbers are at the bottom of the page. We also understand that some customers no longer receive paper statements; therefore we will be more than happy to accept a print screen shot of your online banking. Any confidential information, such as balances/transactions/account numbers, can be blanked out.

We do sincerely apologise for any inconvenience this procedure may cause. I do hope though that you understand that the amount of fraudulent activity though has left us with no other option but to introduce these ‘last resort’ measures that protect both our genuine customers and our business. If you do have any further questions regarding this procedure, please do not hesitate in contacting us at [EMAIL="customerorders@tmlewin.co.uk"]customerorders@tmlewin.co.uk[/EMAIL].

I would also assure you that once we have received your ID we will release your order without delay and ensure that you are not requested to provide it again.

We regret that if we do not hear from you within 14 days, your order will be cancelled.

Thank you again for your order and understanding.

Sujaan Panesar



Customer Service Advisor
0845 389 1898
www.tmlewin.co.uk

I am quite suspicious of this and wonder if anyone has received a similar request

Antispam

http://www.fraudwatchers.org/forums/showthread.php?t=9488

http://www.romancescam.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=172

Its just another scam attempt I suspect

cagsd

It does sound really suspicious at first read, my initial instinct would have been to delete the email - but the fact that you DO have an outstanding order with them made me think it's not just a "phishing" email, particularly the bit that says:

rliu wrote: »

We do though only need the header information; no actual financial information is required. You can either post, e-mail or fax the information; the required numbers are at the bottom of the page. We also understand that some customers no longer receive paper statements; therefore we will be more than happy to accept a print screen shot of your online banking. Any confidential information, such as balances/transactions/account numbers, can be blanked out.

What I would do if it were me is, not go directly to the link in the email but find their phone number from the website or from your order confirmation email, and ring up & check if this is a genuine request. Then if it is, I'd do as above and blank out any personal confidential info on the statement.

cagsd

Just had a quick look on their website, there is a phone number to contact CS and also a "contact us" link where you can ask them a question. One of those options would be my first port of call.

daffydukky

cagsd wrote: »

Just had a quick look on their website, there is a phone number to contact CS and also a "contact us" link where you can ask them a question. One of those options would be my first port of call.

I would forward the email to the TM Lewin CS email address and make them aware of a possible scam , they tend to deal with such matters themselves and with all haste when their good name is on the line

ashleypride

[EMAIL="customerorders@tmlewin.co.uk"]customerorders@tmlewin.co.uk[/EMAIL].
0845 389 1898
www.tmlewin.co.uk

Not a scam, all the links point to the correct details for the company. Give them a call, if you want to check.

rliu

Yeah update on this is that I emailed them at the contact us section on their website and got a reply from the same person who had sent me the original email, save for some nightmarish total infiltration of their organisation this isn't a scam, but it still strikes me as odd that a national retailer would need to adopt these methods to check for fraudulent orders. However when I made the order my debit card did get declined before I tried another one of my account cards (this was due to card restrictions put in place by my bank due to their suspicions of recent activity, nothing was up there in the end), perhaps this is what aroused T M Lewin's suspicions

lg_

Did you send them the information?

I had the same request today. Phoned my bank and they advised against sending the information they ask for. They (the bank) also weren't sure what they were hoping to achieve.

They accept a screen shot with everything else blanked out?? So, by blanking it off they appear accept I'm capable of digital image manipulation. Of course, if I was up to no good, doctoring the part of the image containing my address would be far to difficult.

And of course I would expect they would verify this information against what i provided... oh wait! :T

Beggars belief, I imagine some one in head office thought Aha, I have a cunning plan.... :j