MBNA Credit Card Fraud Department

Fruitcake

I had a call last evening, allegedly from my credit card provider saying they had spotted potential fraud. I refused to give any details to the lady that 'phoned as I couldn't confirm that she was genuine. "No problem," she said, "'phone the (free) Customer Service number on the back of your card."
I duly did and discovered to my horror that it was true, someone had made two purchases on my card that were "out of character" with my normal spending habits. One was online for itunes and another was in a record shop in Harrogate, 200 miles from where I live and an hour after making 3 purchases locally.
They deducted the charges and put an immediate stop on my account. The amounts concerned were only a few pounds each, but apparently this is a favourite method of checking that the fraudulent transaction works before making a big hit. I'm guessing my card has somehow been cloned, but I can't for the life of me work out how. Neither my wife or I ever let the cards out of our sight.
I am truly indebted and grateful to the MBNA Fraud Department first for spotting this, and secondly for spotting it so quickly. I thanked everyone I spoke to but I will try and find an address where I can send a written letter of appreciation when I get home.
New cards are on their way with expedited delivery as we are off on our hols next week.

Fruitcake

You Only Listen To Me When I'm Wrong

tahaadamji

Pretty much the exact thing happened to us; we were called by MBNA telling us they had noticed "strange" purchases unlike our normal spending habits. Two minor purchases were made on an online car check and then they spent around £60 on some clothes online, at 6 in the morning! We are very thankful that MBNA spotted this for us on the very same day. No idea how the fraudsters managed to do this though, as we are very careful. (we think)

DCFC79

To teh both of you do use the card online at all,used it on dodgy sites, do you check your pc hasnt got a nastie on it

Morglin

A couple of months ago, our Mint card was cloned - this card was just an 'occasional use' card, and we had only used it once in the previous 6 months, and that was at a Little Chef, when we were delayed on a journey and went in to one of them for a meal.

About a week after this, we got a text from Mint asking us to phone the number on our card urgently, which we did.

The card had been cloned, and someone was trying to rent a luxury Limo with it in central London. (classy at least lol)

Mint had stopped the transaction, as they thought it seemed dodgy (not sure why, but they didn't have the PIN), and that was fine.

But, a couple of nights later, we got a phone call about 10pm from a guy who said he was from Mint, and that they had decided to increase our credit limit by about five grand.....:rolleyes:

All he needed from us was some details about our card and account to confirm who we were lol

We obviously told him to do one, and phoned Mint the next day, who confirmed they hadn't phoned - so God knows how the scammers got our phone number as well!

We did write to Little Chef advising them that this card had only been used with them, and had been cloned so perhaps they would like to look into it, but they advised us that cloning couldn't possibly happen at one of their restaurants lol:rolleyes:

So, it's not just 'dodgy' places and sites that are risky - it seems anywhere can have a scammer working for them.

Lin

maninthestreet

MBNA did well in the OP's case, but what bothers me about MBNA is they continually send me unsolicited credit card cheques. What happens if they go astray in the post?

DCFC79

maninthestreet wrote: »

MBNA did well in the OP's case, but what bothers me about MBNA is they continually send me unsolicited credit card cheques. What happens if they go astray in the post?

i did ask mbna to stop sending me mail eg the cheques and i was told no they couldnt do that, reason i asked was that i dont use the cheques so it seemed a bit pointless plus it might save them a bit of money

Deep_In_Debt

Have to say MBNA was good with me too. My card had been refused at a petrol station; couldn't understand why but rang them when I got home. They informed me that they had "flagged" my card due to unusual spending patterns. I never used my credit card for cash transactions but £200 per day for 2 weeks had been taken from cash points around London every day. MBNA refunded me with no probs but as banks charge a transaction fee, I was responsible for that.

So much for the safety of Chip & Pin...

bromleymum

I have a little story about MBNA.

Last year they started ringing my husband at all hours and I always happened to take the call...

"Hello, Can we speak to Mr XXXX please."
"I'm sorry, he's at work. Can I take a message?"
"Yes. Could he ring MBNA regarding a credit card."

This went on for months, with hubby always saying they were just cold calling and tell them he wasn't interested. I even got a little irritated with them and recall telling them if they were that keen to get in touch, put it in writing etc etc. The calls got so persistent I started to recognise the number and either ignore it or get them off the phone ASAP. If I'd rushed to the phone in the middle of feeding babies they usually get a very abrupt NOT NOW!

Eventually, after nearly a year they happened to ring at a time when my husband was actually in and it turned out someone had been using a MBNA credit card in his name since 1999, paid the bills in cash at various banks for nearly 7 years, and then moved to Spain, gone mad, spent £10k and stopped paying.

They were fantastic with us and I could not believe I'd been as good as telling them to 'Push Off' for months. They were never rude and who knows what they thought I did or did not know.

They did admit that they did not come across many ID thefts where the culprit had paid the bill diligently for years and years so can't blame them for not picking that one up.

el_gringo_3

What was the record shop in Harrogate?

I ask because afaik there aren't any!

Lancashirelass42

Just last week I received a phone call from the fraud department of MBNA. My credit card details had been used to make purchases to the value of £474. The transaction that alerted them was to a company called Touchtone. On Googling it I found it to be a regular name associated with fraudulent transactions. Apparently it also goes by the name of Touchtone of Harrogate as well.

The credit card companies must be aware of this as two transactions for £221 from Asda didn't alert them neither did a £1 transaction but a £30 transaction to Touchtone did.

I obtained my card to carry out a balance transfer. It had never left the house, been used for purchases in-store or on-line. I have Firewall and security on my computer. I have only ever checked Virgin website to view my on-line account. How the heck was my credit card number got hold of and how were these transactions carried out without the three digit security number?

Lancashirelass42

el_gringo wrote: »

What was the record shop in Harrogate?

I ask because afaik there aren't any!

There's something dodgy about Harrogate. My fraudulent tale involves Touchtone of Harrogate.