Fraudulent Charges on My Account - Halifax won't help!

19lottie82

In May this year I noticed 4 transactions for Amazon totalling about £110. I definitely didn’t make these.

I checked my own Amazon account and there was no sign of these transactions. I then called Halifax (my CC provider) and they said they would take the charges off while they investigated.

A month or so later they got in touch to say Amazon were disputing the chargebacks as the transactions were valid, so they were sending me some documents to sign confirming that I did not make the transactions and they were fraudulent.

Halifax sent my Amazon’s “evidence” which was paperwork showing delivery to an address in London (I live in Glasgow). I signed the required document and sent it back to Halifax.

I checked my credit card online this morning and noticed that these charges have been re applied to my account. I called Halifax and they said that Amazon were still disputing my chargeback, there was nothing I could do and I am liable for the charges. I stood my ground that I definitely did not make them and how could I take this further. They told me to contact Amazon, but amazon won’t discuss this with me as the charges weren’t made through my Amazon account?

They then told me to “call Citizens Advice”, and they wouldn’t be able to do anything else at their end.

Can anyone advise what I should do next? I’m presuming the Ombudsman? I asked for a deadlock letter but they said they didn’t know what that was.

Help!

MEM62

You need to go through Halifax's formal complaint procedure first. If you still have an issue after that you can escalate to the ombudsman.

19lottie82

I've submitted my complaint online. I'll let you know the outcome.

ben999

Agree with MEM62. Halifax should be sorting this. A similar thing happened to a friend of mine. Someone got hold of her card details and started to make purchases (not Amazon). TSB took full responsibility and reimbursed her with no quibble. Gave her new credit card with changed details.

We suspect her credit card details were leaked as a consequence of making purchases through a well known online auction site but had no way of knowing for sure.

I have stopped using my CC for sites like Amazon. It has a limit of £1500 and I am not risking someone hacking the details and causing me a lot of grief. I now use my Santander top-up card which I only keep a couple of hundred in at any one time.

When someone got hold of my friends CC details they successfully ordered a slap up meal from fillyourbelly.com. (we had to laugh at that). But then they tried to purchase a laptop computer from Curry's. Fortunately the shop manager rang my friend to verify the sale and she was able to stop the sale and close down the card.

19lottie82

Thanks Ben - The purchases weren't made through my actual Amazon account. My card was obviously used on someone elses.

WillyWonga

Amazon I believe was in the news the other week as discovered a loophole in their payment process. Fraudsters were buying card info online for a few pence, which was card number and expiry date. Certain sites were allowing purchases without the 3 digit number.

Your bank has authority to override Amazon by saying card address does not match up to delivery address/name. Take it further.

I've just had £400 worth of whiskey took off my card to be delivered to a flat in Birmingham. Trouble is I don't drink and live in Derbyshire. It was purchased using PayPal, using my account but to a different address and they intercepted my emails to delete it before I read PayPal receipt. Luckily I checked my bank and thought why I was so much down and stopped it and the delivery was cancelled. Sorry scammers I've cancelled your party!!! Goes to show you have to be careful, very careful on everything.

ben999

19lottie82 wrote: »

Thanks Ben - The purchases weren't made through my actual Amazon account. My card was obviously used on someone elses.

Which poses the question whether the transactions are fraudulent or an internal error created by Amazon's own accounting systems. Amazon wont speak to you because it is not your account. But you are the bank account holder so one would expect Halifax to have a strong word with Amazon and request that you be reimbursed and these payments stopped right now.

Amazon are a hugely successful company from what I can see. I myself have just bought two Amazon Fire sticks and I am currently considering subscribing to Amazon Prime TV.

No matter how big they are they should always have time to deal with customer complaints. It does not look like they are doing anything to help resolve your own problem and I am wondering if they are getting too big to cope with the huge demand they have recently generated.

It might have been better if you had put Amazon firmly in your thread title. (Fraudulent charges on my Amazon account and etc).

There might be an Amazon company rep who looks at social media who would get in touch with you and do something.

I don't envy you the position you are in. Your experience does not put either Halifax or Amazon in a good light. I am going to be a lot more wary of Amazon in the future.

meer53

Amazon will have given Halifax a reason for the rejected chargebacks, they should tell you what the reason was. You need to make a complaint to Halifax and take it from there.

19lottie82

Halifax said they won't tell me Amazon's reasons for rejecting the chargebacks.

I tried calling Halifax again at lunch, they said I had to speak to someone in the disputes team. I sat on hold for half an hour before they told me I could be waiting a "lot longer", and it would be better if I just emailed them. There was no one else I could discuss this with, apparently.

As I said, I sent a formal complaint off this morning, and they said they should get back to me within 2 working days.

19lottie82

I just got a call from someone from the complaints team. They sounded quite helpful and confident they could get the matter sorted out, so fingers crossed.