Was this a fraud attempt?

lle

We were recently in a hotel bar for a drink before our dinner and we wanted to pay for the drinks with a credit card. The assistant entered the cost of the drinks (£6.42) and passed the machine to my OH and told him to enter his PIN. He entered it, pressed ENTER and the transaction was immediately refused. He looked at the machine display and saw it displayed £64,2XX.XX (where XXXX was his PIN number). He realised it had added his PIN on to the total making it over 64K and well over his credit limit. The assistant tore off the cardholder copy and gave it to him to show the transaction hadn't gone through. But the merchant copy also had his PIN number printed. How could this happen and was this an attempt by the bar to get his PIN number and potentially commit a fraud?

BJV

It sounds like ( well to me ) it was just a simple mistake in that the assistant had not pressed the button to take them to the next screen. I have used these terminals before and they can be a pain. I would however change the pin number asap but I guess you will of already done that.

Nasqueron

Pretty poor attempt at fraud if the assistant flags it up and is relying on someone having a credit limit in the 6 figure range and not noticing in order to then take advantage (by stealing card presumably), moreover as the cash goes to the hotel they couldn't benefit personally.

molerat

Nasqueron wrote: »

Pretty poor attempt at fraud if the assistant flags it up and is relying on someone having a credit limit in the 6 figure range and not noticing in order to then take advantage (by stealing card presumably), moreover as the cash goes to the hotel they couldn't benefit personally.

Of course they could, quite a common theft method. £20 on the card and £20 cash out of the till. It hides the immediate theft, total takings tally but cash and card don't balance, until the card holder raises a complaint.

lle

the assistant didn't flag it up. my OH saw that the machine said transaction refused, but the machine printed the failed transaction complete with pin number on the end of the transaction amount on the merchant copy as well. I know some merchant copies do print whole card number as well, because I have seen it.

He has changed PIN number now.

Tempestina

I have done this to a customer by accident in the past but in my case I gave him both copies of the canceled transaction straight away so he could destroy them himself. I would think it's a geniune mistake as really the machine should be at the stage of saying check the amount and enter your pin with the word pin: waiting for you. If your husband had been properly checking the machine he would have either handed it back to the clerk to finish his bit or hit enter before he entered his pin. If you're worried change the pin and move on.

eddddy

Nasqueron wrote: »

Pretty poor attempt at fraud if the assistant flags it up and is relying on someone having a credit limit in the 6 figure range and not noticing in order to then take advantage (by stealing card presumably), moreover as the cash goes to the hotel they couldn't benefit personally.

Well...

Fraudsters often work by getting a PIN (by shoulder surfing, hidden camera, dummy keypad etc) then stealing the card.

The barman has successfully got the PIN, so the next step would be for an accomplice to steal the card.


Obviously, the flaw in this case would be that the cardholder would probably remember the 'incident' with the barman... and could point the authorities in the barman's direction, if the card is stolen.

takman

This is very obviously a mistake where they forgot to press enter after typing in the amount. If your husband had looked at the screen he would have seen his pin being typed as the amount being charged.

You really should tell your husband to look at the screen in future because it tells you the amount being charged and you should always check it's correct.

I've known this to happen twice before. Once at a bar where they complete forgot to type in the amount being charged. So the person typed it in and then it "asked for their pin again" so they did it again. Ended up being charged £79.XX (the value of their pin) and the barman pointed out the mistake to them.

I've even had a terminal handed to me asking me to enter the amount instead of my pin. I just entered the amount myself and entered the pin, the person then did the exact same thing to the next customer so they obviously didn't know how to use it properly.

adindas

If it was attempted fraud then s/he might be one of the dummiest fraudsters on earth relying on someone £64k credit limit ....

Someone with £64k credit limit will be going to a posh restaurant where fraud is less likely .....

JimmyTheWig

lle wrote: »

We were recently in a hotel bar for a drink before our dinner and we wanted to pay for the drinks with a credit card. The assistant entered the cost of the drinks (£6.42) and passed the machine to my OH and told him to enter his PIN. He entered it, pressed ENTER and the transaction was immediately refused. He looked at the machine display and saw it displayed £64,2XX.XX (where XXXX was his PIN number). He realised it had added his PIN on to the total making it over 64K and well over his credit limit. The assistant tore off the cardholder copy and gave it to him to show the transaction hadn't gone through. But the merchant copy also had his PIN number printed. How could this happen and was this an attempt by the bar to get his PIN number and potentially commit a fraud?

The transaction was refused, and gave a print-out, before he;d actually entered his pin?

bubieyehyeh

I know someone who accidentally entered their pin as a tip! A reason to put your glasses on so you can read the display.

When the bank statement arrived they rang up the resturant who said the waitress should have spotted that the tip was more the meal. The restaurant were very nice and refunded the whole bill.