Credit card or bank statement probs -Sterling House/Ibuyit (merged threads)

jim1109_uk

I apologise if this has been posted before but I thought I would advise as soon as I found out the facts.

This morning I checked my On-line statement from EGG and found a transaction that I did not recognise. It was from an on-line company called WWW.IBUYIT.BIZ. When I investigated it seems like any other on-line IT company. They have an address with phone numbers etc. But I did not recognise it at all. The amount taken was for €152 (£107). I think I would have remembered spending this much in recent weeks. I can tell you I didn't!!! I contacted Egg immediately via 08451 233 233 who explained that this was a fraudulent transaction from what they think could be a bogus company. They have had quite a few complaints with identical details and the exact same amount being taken.

Please check your credit card statements carefully. Also the date was APRIL 1st!!!!

shrek101

I am sure I have heard this before from someone else posting a link to a web site where people have been fraudulently had more taken. I cant find it yet though

Edit I may be wrong its this thread that had similar problems with a link to a forum of disgruntled users

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=39394

If I was you I would contact your credit card company and challenge this, perhaps cancel your card and get a new one, as you feel your card has been compromised.

Bendy_2

Anyone who has bought bikes from https://www.sterlinghouse.co.uk in the last year should check their credit card statements as it seems their security procedures have been comprimised and many past customers have been stung.

I bought a couple of bikes just after Christmas and on 19th April 2005 was charged 152 Euros by a website called https://www.ibuyit.biz. The company is American but they have offices in London, (which seem to be unmanned as no-one has yet answered my emails or responded to my answerphone messages).

When trying to work out how I was charged I did a google search on ibuyit.biz and the top result that came back was one for a chat site dedicated to bank fraud! This chat site has full details of the Sterling House / ibuyit.biz link and can be found here:

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/showthread.php?t=23883&page=23&pp=15

Apparently https://www.sterlinghouse.co.uk are aware of the problem but haven't yet done anything to halt it.

divadee

I'll move this over to the warnings and rip off board. Its more suited to there.

pringy

thanks for the warning i recommended sterling house to my mother in law and she bought a bike from them on sunday now i feel awful what if she gets ripped off?? as it is credit card are you covered by them??

wackojackouk

Sh*t my missus ordered a bike a few weeks ago from them. I'm gonna get her to check her bill ASAP.

Should be covered by cc anyway though

Bendy_2

As far as I know any fraudulent transactions will be covered by your Credit Card so those who have been scammed should not suffer financially - although it may take a fair few weeks to get fully refunded, depending on who you bank with.

I was charged around 3 months after buying the bikes so it's worth checking your credit card bills for some time in the future, (not that any of you don't already!). Some people on the forum I mentioned in the first post have been caught by this fraud even though they got their bikes more than 6 months ago.

HSBC are looking into my case and say that I can either pay off the bogus transation and then they'll refund me once their investigation is complete, or I can leave it on my card and then they'll cancel it + any interest charges it incurred once they're happy it wasn't me.

Needless to say I'm leaving it there for them to cancel.

shrek101

Someone posted about the buyit.biz site a few weeks back about a scam and then linking to cableforums.

Mrs_Thrift

We had a scare this morning when we received our monthly statement from Lloyds TSB and found a charge for £127 that meant absolutely nothing to us! It was an internet company (ibuyit.biz) and they had used Mr Thrift's debit card on our joint account.

As it was early and we're very forgetful I checked our spending records first to see if anything jumped out at us (not that we really thought we'd forgotten about that amount of money!) then looked at the website. It sells high tech, expensive gadgets that we never buy so we knew for sure we hadn't bought it and started to panic a wee bit.

Mr Thrift phoned the fraud people at Lloyds TSB, though, and was told they already know about this company and they've had over 400 complaints about it this week!!! :eek: So the good news is we will get the money back in our account in 3 - 5 days and Mr Thrift will be getting a brand new card, but the moral of the story is definitely to check your statments and query anything that you don't recognise.

Eliza252

ooooooo.. I HATE debit card scams
It happened to me twice within six months and I got SO jittery about my bank statement
(card got swiped twice by bar staff (and in different pubs!) - second swipe they take the money out of the till to make it balance and then sign the reciept themselves, I NEVER use my card in pubs any more)
both times though the bank were super speedy at giving me my money back - thats the only good thing about it!

pippy_2

I cannot believe this I have just had exactly this happen to me where a transaction I did not recognise was on my statement from buyit.biz and it just so happens that I bought a bike from Sterling House (which incidently was so damaged it had to be returned and I had a nightmare to get the refund).
I now wish I'd never heard of this company.