Possible CC fraud check - was called couple of minutes later!

GoofyGAT

A little while ago I tried to use my credit card online, but payment was refused at the particular site quoting:

Declined. Sorry this transaction has been declined by your card issuer. No further information was passed to [edited out] as part of your confidentiality agreement with your card issuer. You may wish to try another card.

Much to my surprise, about 1-2 minutes later :eek: (I'm not kidding - may have even been 30 secs!) my CC company called my landline, saying that the transaction was refused as possible fraud may have been taking place. The amount was only £10, the site a respected charity & their payments provider well-known & trusted too!

After assuring them that it was indeed a legit transaction made by me the card holder, they promised the block would be lifted in 12-24 hours.

This has been my first ever experience of this nature, since I began using a CC online 4-5 years ago. Has anything like this ever happened to you?

In the end, I don't know whether to think 'well done to them' or feel unhappy that I couldn't complete the transaction today. It would definitely be the former if it was indeed a dodgy site/transaction. G

ThankYouAndEnjoy!

hello

fraud systems are designed to track irregualr spend on your card. Each transaction is scored on a potential fraud basis; based on your spending history. When transactions are processed, the credit card provider has incomlete transactions information (they do not have merchant name for example); if the transaction has scored highly enough, they call you to confirm validity

Im a bit surprised about the 12-24 hour restriction, as the restriction should be immediately removable.

GoofyGAT

Thanks for that. On doing some checking, found that I'd made a donation to the same charity using the same CC only a year ago. G

ThankYouAndEnjoy!

maybe that the credit company keeps a lower monthly transaction history on each customer.

as i said tho, they are not aware of the transaction name until a few days later (after the transaction has been cleared). You could make the same transaction again in a few weeks time; it may well be that you are still called to confirm it.

personally, i would prefer to be called (should only be a 30 second conversation) rather than the transaction go through (if it were fraud) as the likelyhood owuld be that if a fraudster was able to commit 1 transaction on your card, they would commit another and another ....

ok, so no liability on your behalf, but its worrying none the less ...

Queenie

Yes, had that happen with an online transaction (called within minutes) and also after a day out in another location - that was two days later though (seems having a day out somewhere can also flag up concerns with the CC companies).

Never minded either occasion and actually felt reassured by it.

The joke about the online time is, I was making a first purchase with Tesco Direct, with a Tesco Visa. But, the TD database didn't accept TV payments (all a big teething problem with TD databases).

Sometimes it can simply be a random check and isn't indicative of a dodgy website.

Be reassured

GoofyGAT

A month ago I'd spent a combined total of ~£500 on two retailer websites within days of each other (my biggest online CC spend ever) & there was no problem. It must've been a random check then, & better to be called than not I guess. Thanks again people , G

RCA_2

GoofyGAT wrote: »

A little while ago I tried to use my credit card online, but payment was refused at the particular site quoting:

Much to my surprise, about 1-2 minutes later :eek: (I'm not kidding - may have even been 30 secs!) my CC company called my landline, saying that the transaction was refused as possible fraud may have been taking place. The amount was only £10, the site a respected charity & their payments provider well-known & trusted too!

After assuring them that it was indeed a legit transaction made by me the card holder, they promised the block would be lifted in 12-24 hours.

This has been my first ever experience of this nature, since I began using a CC online 4-5 years ago. Has anything like this ever happened to you?

In the end, I don't know whether to think 'well done to them' or feel unhappy that I couldn't complete the transaction today. It would definitely be the former if it was indeed a dodgy site/transaction. G

was the charity christian aid? there have been problems with them and certain other charities with fraudsters using them to check card details so even transactions for £1 have a high chance of being stopped because they are high risk tranactions and a lot of times where the charity transactions go through there is fraudulent usage on the card afterwards.