Contactless Card Fraud - Police or Action Fraud

Caz3121

agrinnall wrote: »

Caz, did you report the theft to the police in the first place? If you did then presumably you will have a crime number that you can advise to TfL so that they have evidence that you didn't make the journeys. If you don't have that then they have nothing other than your word that you didn't travel, and they probably do have the right to seek payment from you. I'm pretty sure that you can head this off by going to them with the right information.

I didn't go to the police - could not be sure if it was lost or stolen so cancelled with the bank thinking there was no harm done.
I used the card to swipe in the tube to the airport, when getting off I didn't have it so used my Applepay version to badge out (another story as they treat these as different cards although have refunded the "badge in" which was really my "badge out") I had landed in Edinburgh 30 mins when the card was used in Chiswick Park so physically impossible for it to have been me and I did not return to London until the Monday morning. The notifications of the unpaid journeys came through on the Sunday.

In the scheme of things it is £10ish so not the end of the world but annoying that I am being asked to pay for their transport.

hasdogs

Corona wrote: »

As for me, I'm trying to find a way to disable the aerial in my bank cards (which are used for the contactless transactions), without making them completely unusable.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=68645256&postcount=16

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=68962445&postcount=88

Ben8282

There is something confusing me here. If the TFL journeys were not paid by the bank because they were not authorised it then follows that they must have been declined at the time so whey was the thief allowed to make the journey?

Vortigern

Ben8282 wrote: »

There is something confusing me here. If the TFL journeys were not paid by the bank because they were not authorised it then follows that they must have been declined at the time so whey was the thief allowed to make the journey?

TfL don't claim the cash until the end of the day, after they've calculated the day's total.

Wellard_Mann

Vortigern wrote: »

TfL don't claim the cash until the end of the day, after they've calculated the day's total.

Indeed. I believe the touch in on the tube records a small sum and the journey cost recorded at the touch out, the full fare on a bus is recorded on entry and then the total cost of the day's trips is claimed overnight. But I understood that the TfL system is updated in real time when a card is reported missing. So if the thief can complete a journey before the TfL database is updated then the trip would be recorded. Yet the OP reported the card loss before the thief's trips. It seems to me that if the system was working the card should have been rejected on touch in.

Caz3121

strangely enough 1 of the journeys was bus at 4am Saturday morning and 2 of the journeys were made on the Saturday evening after 6pm - the card had been cancelled Friday afternoon

pvt

Wellard_Mann wrote: »

But I understood that the TfL system is updated in real time when a card is reported missing. So if the thief can complete a journey before the TfL database is updated then the trip would be recorded. Yet the OP reported the card loss before the thief's trips. It seems to me that if the system was working the card should have been rejected on touch in.

But the card was not reported missing to TfL, it was reported missing to the issuing bank.

The banks cannot be expected to onwardly notify TfL about every card that is reported missing to ensure TfL don't accept lost/stolen cards.

This is an interesting case - because most contactless transactions are not validated at the PoS. And the bank carries the risk that any transactions carried out after a card is reported lost are its loss, and still pay the retailer.

In the case of TfL, the ticket barrier is not in itself a PoS terminal. TfL take the card data and hold it to subsequently process (when it passes an exit barrier and when other journeys are added and any topping out is applied because the off-peak total is reached etc etc.). I am guessing therefore that the transaction that TfL apply at the end of the day is not classed by the bank as a contactless PoS transaction, but as some other kind of transaction. And that subtlety allows them to refuse TfL's payment if the card's reported lost/stolen before the charge is applied to the card.

As others have suggested, all that should be necessary here is for the OP to inform TfL that the card was reported lost to their bank prior to these journeys taking place.

One final observation. I personally use an Oyster card for all my journeys, but have on rare occasions used a contactless card to pay for a bus or tube journey. I have never 'registered' my credit/debit cards with TfL, and wonder why the OP did, and what value there is to doing that?