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Fraud alert - barclaycard systems compromised
Babycreature
Posts: 11 Forumite
in Credit cards
Folks
Please check your Barclaycard Visa transactions NOW!!!!
Today I received a very peculiar automated telephone call while I was at the hospital visiting my very sick mum in hospital. The call was from Barclaycard Visa fraud department. As the call was automated and was asking me to confirm various security details by pressing numbers on the mobile keypad I became alarmed and terminated the call. I called Barclaycard Visa and asked if anyone had been trying to contact me. After a number of enquiries, they confirmed that they had. The reason was that they had noticed a lot of purchasing activity on my card this morning. As I don't use the card, it has never seen the light of day and in a very safe place at home. I immediately became agitated. This was distressing to say the least as it took a lot of questions to get to the bottom of what was going on. (I am still none the wiser apart from it has been used today). The details of the card were used to make online or telephone purchases which were still pending payment. I was not able to establish where the purchase were made or what the items were or who made the purchases. The total amount spent was approx. £70.00. I asked for the card to be cancelled immediately. Barclaycard could not offer any explanation as to how my details had been compromised when I have never used the card.
The only conclusion I can draw is that Barclaycard systems have been compromised. Our details which are held by Barclaycard have been accessed by fraudsters.
The shame of all this is that Barclaycard have not publicised anything about this. Instead they are contacting customers individually. A gross failure to put customers on immediate alert.
They must have the details of the customers affected otherwise why would approx. 6 transactions to the value of roughly £70 raise alarm bells that warranted their fraud department to make the call?? especially as it is so near Christmas. It is even more ironic that as I have never used the card, nobody apart from Barclaycard could have cloned it or even know details such as expiry, name, gender or security code.
The only reasonable conclusion is that there has been a major breach with Barclaycard Visa systems which they are keeping very quiet about.
The fraud number for Barclaycard VISA is 0800 001 4298
PLEASE CHECK YOUR ACCOUNT AND REPORT UNUSUAL ACTIVITY.
IF YOUR CARD HAS BEEN COMPROMISED - CANCEL
PUT A STOP TO ANY PENDING PURCHASES
Please check your Barclaycard Visa transactions NOW!!!!
Today I received a very peculiar automated telephone call while I was at the hospital visiting my very sick mum in hospital. The call was from Barclaycard Visa fraud department. As the call was automated and was asking me to confirm various security details by pressing numbers on the mobile keypad I became alarmed and terminated the call. I called Barclaycard Visa and asked if anyone had been trying to contact me. After a number of enquiries, they confirmed that they had. The reason was that they had noticed a lot of purchasing activity on my card this morning. As I don't use the card, it has never seen the light of day and in a very safe place at home. I immediately became agitated. This was distressing to say the least as it took a lot of questions to get to the bottom of what was going on. (I am still none the wiser apart from it has been used today). The details of the card were used to make online or telephone purchases which were still pending payment. I was not able to establish where the purchase were made or what the items were or who made the purchases. The total amount spent was approx. £70.00. I asked for the card to be cancelled immediately. Barclaycard could not offer any explanation as to how my details had been compromised when I have never used the card.
The only conclusion I can draw is that Barclaycard systems have been compromised. Our details which are held by Barclaycard have been accessed by fraudsters.
The shame of all this is that Barclaycard have not publicised anything about this. Instead they are contacting customers individually. A gross failure to put customers on immediate alert.
They must have the details of the customers affected otherwise why would approx. 6 transactions to the value of roughly £70 raise alarm bells that warranted their fraud department to make the call?? especially as it is so near Christmas. It is even more ironic that as I have never used the card, nobody apart from Barclaycard could have cloned it or even know details such as expiry, name, gender or security code.
The only reasonable conclusion is that there has been a major breach with Barclaycard Visa systems which they are keeping very quiet about.
The fraud number for Barclaycard VISA is 0800 001 4298
PLEASE CHECK YOUR ACCOUNT AND REPORT UNUSUAL ACTIVITY.
IF YOUR CARD HAS BEEN COMPROMISED - CANCEL
PUT A STOP TO ANY PENDING PURCHASES
0
Comments
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Or even better, call the number of the back of your card.
DO NOT CALL NUMBERS POSTED ON PUBLIC FORUMS!
(Unless you can verify who they belong to)0 -
Calm down please. I'm sure there has not been any breach of Barclaycards system.
Your card has been cancelled, you will be refunded any transactions which debit your account.
Your "reasonable" conclusion is absolutely "unreasonable"
Barclaycards fraud detection system has worked exactly how it is supposed to work, it has identified unusual transactions on your account and contacted you to check them. This isn't anything to panic about.0 -
Oh Dear Meer 53
Check this link out it's not like it has not happened before or do you simply work for Barclays?? I am a reasonable person and make reasonable assertions. Yes Barclaycard Visa did contact me when they noticed questionable transactions made on my card and for that I thank them. Please explain how anyone could possible have my card details when it has never been used or ever left the house or anyone has ever had access to it????
Just like you are sure there has been no breach I beg to differ. Look at the below link - it's not like it's never happened before is it? The fact we are not told does not mean it has not happened.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2012/03/30/millions-of-visa-and-mastercard-accounts-reported-compromised-in-processor-breach/0 -
Babycreature wrote: »Oh Dear Meer 53
Check this link out it's not like it has not happened before or do you simply work for Barclays?? I am a reasonable person and make reasonable assertions. Yes Barclaycard Visa did contact me when they noticed questionable transactions made on my card and for that I thank them. Please explain how anyone could possible have my card details when it has never been used or ever left the house or anyone has ever had access to it????
Just like you are sure there has been no breach I beg to differ. Look at the below link - it's not like it's never happened before is it? The fact we are not told does not mean it has not happened.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2012/03/30/millions-of-visa-and-mastercard-accounts-reported-compromised-in-processor-breach/
I think the Meercat has missed the point completely or does indeed work for, in my opinion, the worst bank I have ever seen. Yes the 'fraud detection' system works just as a similar system works at all banks. I transferred 3K to my debit card to go and pay for my car and the card was declined as I'd forgot to tell the bank of this single transaction over £500.
BUT - your point is very valid. Its you or Barclays unless last year Santa took the details while he popped in or the postie expertly opened 2 envelopes and a PIN letter and resealed while walking down the street.0 -
Sounds like some call centre worker fancied a bit of extra cash to me.0
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How hysterical. Calm down, dear. Barclaycard have done exactly what they should have. Oh and I checked my card online, it is fine so perhaps not their systems, eh?0
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Card numbers are randomly generated by fraudsters. Nothing wrong with Barclaycard's system whatsoever.“You can please some of the people some of the time, all of the people some of the time, some of the people all of the time, but you can never please all of the people all of the time.”0
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Why do people automatically assume that if you post common sense that you must work for the bank concerned ?
Fraudsters obtain lists of card numbers from a number of sources, it's more likely to be a member of staff or someone at the card company. The link shows that it was the card processor where the breach took place, not the bank.
You sound like a right drama queen.0 -
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Just to give some context on 'randomly generated'. Think about it this way.
The first 6 digits of any credit card number is the providers id. The last digit is a computer generated check digit.
That leaves 9 digits of 'randomness' for the fraudster to guess - and there are ways to dramatically decrease the search space (which I won't go into). For each 9 digit combination - you then have to work out the expiry date - well - if you assume (as a fraudster) that each card is probably only valid for 3 years - that's only an additional 36 attempts per card - or around 36 billion combinations per card provider. And there's only a few hundred providers ...
You don't even (really) need to work out the CVV code as there are retailers out there that don't require them.
So, actually, if you have the computing power working through those combinations and trying each one in turn isn't that hard.
Now imagine fraudsters working in a team, dividing up search spaces, cutting down the search space ...
It's not hard to see how they'd happily let the computer run looking for those matches.
Sure it's easier to steal the details and know they work - but equally - they can just let this process run in the background.0
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