Help! Fraudulent transaction on Egg card

BrownGirl

Just noticed a fraudulent transaction on our Egg card. Someone has spent over £1000 at Alton Towers early in June. We only noticed when there was a direct debit to Egg from our A&L current account to cover the minimum payment. We haven't used the card in over a year and its been kept safe, not used on interenet, no-one else knows details and we've not been to Alton Towers at all.

We've reported it to Egg but I am now very worried that we're going to end up having to pay it all. We've never had any fraud with cards/banks before. Has anyone else had fraudulent transaction dealt with by Egg in the past - what's the likelihood of all this being sorted and us not being liable to pay all this back, how long should it take to get sorted, can I cancel the direct debits to Egg or will that make it all worse?

Sorry for all the questions but am really upset & worried about this. Any advice would be much appreciated.
Thanks
Charlie

General_Hogwart

Hi Charlie,

I'm sorry to hear of your prediciment, I don't know the answers to all of your questions but I'm pretty sure that you will not have to pay for the fraudulent transactions because you didn't make them, I'm pretty sure Egg can't make you pay for something you didn't buy. Afterall, you never know, it could be a security breach their end that caused the fraud.

How can someone spend £1000 at Alton Towers, easy I suppose when it's not your own money but still, that's one hell of a day out!

Hmm, have you used the card in a petrol station, hotel or restaurant? I believe these are places where card details are easily stolen. Has the card definitely never been used online? Some websites store the card details and if that website has been hacked then they could have got your details there. How safe is the card where you have it, could anyone have gained access to it that may have taken the details, a disgruntled teenager perhaps?

Hope you get it sorted and \i think you will be ok!

mary

Egg blocked my card when I went to buy something in the High Street for £7. Had to ring them at home and got quizzed, had I ever bought anything in the States for 57p. Yes, that's right 57p. No, obviously. It transpired that a particular "aol" had come up on my account, it wasn't visible on my credit card transactions which I view on line everyday. But apparently they could see it at their end. They told me that probably it had come from an online purchase I had made at some point and the card details had been copied. The card had always been with me. Anyway, whilst they were trying to process, another attempt was made to take £50 out of the account but they blocked it, cancelled the card and issued me with another one.

"Aol" is like a red warning to them, that it is suspect, they then monitor what happens on your account, so it was a good thing ultimately that they were watching and sorted it well.

crankup

I had fraudulent transactions on mine end of May. As they were "Cardholder Not Present" transactions the CC company dealt with it and I didnt have to pay.

If thats the case with yours then you should be refunded too.
If Egg think the card was used in person (ie: cloned perhaps) then they may question it. They may see a scenario of someone in the family "borrowing" the credit card in which case they will insist they are not liable, unless you prove innocence.

It'll be interesting to know how they handle it.

BrownGirl

Thanks for your replies. Am feeling a bit calmer this morning and guess I just need to wait and see what Egg say now.

Still amazed that this could have gone through without them questioning it when there hasn't been any transactions at all on the card for over a year (since introductory offer ran out) - then to spend so much in one go at Alton Towers - I know its expensive to get in there but £1000+ ????

Annoying thing is that we were going to cancel this card at the start of the year as didn't need it but never got round to doing it. Oh well, live & learn...

John_in_the_city

Well something doesnt sound right here. If the charge was for £1000 at Alton towers, it was presumably a pre-payment for something in which case the card and 3 digit SCV number would be required. Or, if it was a transaction at Alton Towers presenting a (presumably) cloned card then the pin number would have been required to authorise the transaction. In either case, the question would be how were the scv or pin number obtained?

So a couple of things. Check with Egg and ask them to tell you everything about the transaction; was it cardholder not present?; was the pin number used; what details were given to allow Egg system to authorise the transaction. Based on what you hear you may feel that your card is "compromised" in some way. At a minimum I would be looking to get the card / pin re-issued.

ThankYouAndEnjoy!

hello

you mentioned you hadnt used your card for over a year; and subsequently 'never got round to closing it down?' - Was the card due to expire? if that is the case, then a renewal card would have been sent and possibly intercepted - that would answer the question on how the cvc was known -

BrownGirl

When we rang about the transaction we asked Egg to cancel the card & to put a hold on the account. They said they would cancel the card but that we would receive a new one in the post automatically (even though I didn't want it as want to close account as soon as all this is sorted).

Was going to check expiry date when found out DH had cut card into small pieces and put them in the (very full) kitchen bin. Have spent last 5 mins retrieving the bits & cleaning them - turns out expiry date is 11/07 - but at least I now have the card back incase we need to prove we've not lost it.

Transaction details just say "ALTON TOWERS PARK ALTON GB" so I don't know whether that is online or at the park. As its such a long time since the card was last used we wondered if it was just someone who had booked online and typed their card number in wrong - it seemed more likely than a cloned card but then they'd need the same name and security number as well so probably not.

As yet not had a response from Egg but when I do I'll try and get all the info from them. Hopefully they'll just find out what happend and sort it for us.

Thanks for your suggestions.