ID theft after Tesco?

Narc0lepsy

We've just had a strange thing. 2 months ago for my partner, then today for me, we have been contacted by our bank to query 'unusual transactions' on a card. With his, it was his personal debit card; with mine it was a joint credit card from the same bank. With both, the transactions were made on a US site (unclear whether the user was in the US, although bank asked if we had been abroad lately so presume so) and the purchases were items for a playstation. We don't own a playstation or have children.

What is really strange, is that in both cases, the valid transaction immediately before the fraudulent ones was in a Tesco's shop; different branches for each of us. Is this just an odd coincidence, has anyone else had fraudulent use immediately (within 12 hours) after being in Tesco? I plan to bring it to the attention to Tesco, and the bank said they will look into it although she felt it unlikely that it was more than a coincidence.

We have different names but the same address; nobody has access to or knows the details of our cards (well, clearly someone does) and the cards have never been physically lost.

I just wondered if anyone else had a similar thing?

Superscrooge

I agree with the bank - almost certainly co-incidence.

The only time I had a similar experience was about 15 years ago when bogus transactions started appearing on my credit card. The police were able to prove that it was a cashier at a local petrol station that was cloning credit cards. But that was back in the days before Chip and PIN when you used to sign the credit card receipt rather than enter a PIN. So I'm not sure whether this method of fraud is still possible?

Nilrem

It's most likely co-incidence, as if crooks managed to get into the Tesco payment system they wouldn't be using the numbers at random times, they'd do what happened in the States* and there would the thousands of instances in rapid succession.
Using the card numbers gained by such intrusions risks the intrusion being found out, which given the potentential gains that can be made by waiting means it generally won't be done that fast.

What is more likely is that some online retailer has been compromised in the past, or even just random chance.
The reason they'll have been used in the States is simple, in the U.S. chip and pin is still not common (and is sometimes a premium option to have it on your card), and the retailers have often not been that careful about checking signatures etc.


*Where card security really is/was a joke at a lot of the really big stores - IIRC one of the big companies (Target?) had pretty much their entire chain's payment processing systems compromised for a year or more and it was only found when the first huge batches of card numbers started cropping up for sale on dodgy sites.

reclusive46

Superscrooge wrote: »

I agree with the bank - almost certainly co-incidence.

The only time I had a similar experience was about 15 years ago when bogus transactions started appearing on my credit card. The police were able to prove that it was a cashier at a local petrol station that was cloning credit cards. But that was back in the days before Chip and PIN when you used to sign the credit card receipt rather than enter a PIN. So I'm not sure whether this method of fraud is still possible?

This method of fraud is still possible. It's just the cloned card can only really be used in the US where chip readers arnt common. If you swipe a chip card (including a magstripe clone of a chip card) on a chip enabled reader it won't let you as there is a code on the magstripe that tells it that it should have a chip.

DevilsAdvocate1

About 18 months ago I took my eldest to Blackpool for a couple of days. I had a Tesco credit card on me that I hadn't used in months (I just have it as a back up, so don't usually use it).

My son needed some new jeans, so we stopped at Tesco in Blackpool to get some basic food supplies and some new jeans. I used the Tesco credit card to pay. After checking into the hotel, we went to Pizza Hut and used this card again.

The next day my husband rang me to say the credit card company had been on the phone. Around midnight, some transactions were made over the internet using this card. Someone had used it to pay for over £1000 of jewellery at Goldsmiths. It had also been used to sign up for Amazon Prime and it had also been used on the Lufthansa site. All these transactions were stopped.

It was the Amazon Prime which flagged it up as the card was already registered for this.

I always thought it was something dodgy in Pizza Hut, but you've got me wondering now if it could have been Tesco.

Narc0lepsy

Well I've mentioned it to a few people, and have found another person whose details were stolen shortly after she had used her card for Tesco on line. It's still most likely coincidental as so many people use Tesco - but I shall be keeping an even closer eye on everything.

chanz4

or it could be spyware on your computer

lyndseyb2009

I've had my card cloned/frauded (not sure on correct term) 3 times in the last 18 months, all after online shops with Tesco.

I stopped using my debit or credit card now after the last time and instead use a prepaid card for my online shopping only topping up with minimum amounts before I use it, so if they steal the details there is usually only an extra £10-£20 in the account.

I had transactions in Indonesia and the USA - luckily my card provider called straight away and flagged it, but such a pain in the backside!

Mulder00

I have used Tesco to shop online for the last 5 years (approximately 2 to 3 times a month on and off). I have paid with at least 6 different cards and have not had fraud attempts on any of them.

I have had a fraud attempt on one of my cards, but I never used that card online with Tesco or even offline in Tesco for that matter (I know this for sure as it is my card I use solely for travel that was cloned and I've never used that card in the UK).

I think it's all a bit of a co-incidence. The likelihood of this pattern occurring is pretty big, given the number of card transactions Tesco is responsible for.