AQUA card fraud and account locked - solved

ywlgy

Only had it for 2 months and now i have bad news.

Logged into online account manager today and found three transactions i don't know!!! In total, about £50. I called Aqua immediately. Was transferred to fraud team. The lady asked a lot of questions about my details and then said to me my account will be locked because the information i provided today does not pass background check. Really?? And she resisted to tell me which part of information is not correct. Now i cannot use my card and have to wait 28 days for someone to contact me.

Is this standard procedure to lock account first when fraud happened? She didn't even mention the suspicious transactions and was unhelpful.

Help!!

Final update:

Problem solved. Aqua has refunded all 4 fraudulent transactions after 1 week. Later than it should have been as required by Payment Services Regulations, but finally...What a first time experience!

[Deleted User]

If there is fraud on an account, and a caller cannot pass security, then yes, locking the account would be a very sensible response.

ywlgy

Deleted_User wrote: »

If there is fraud on an account, and a caller cannot pass security, then yes, locking the account would be a very sensible response.

I totally understand this. But i believe I answered them correctly.
She also asked me who i live with. I said my girlfriend but refused to give the name because i think it is irrelevant and it is not officially filed.

I also asked her in 28 days my next statement will be available then should i pay or not pay. She has no answer. Now this thing is really worrying me.

Looking from the names the transactions happened in two bars. I have my card all the time. Was it cloned?

[Deleted User]

If you answered them correctly, even more reason you should be glad they have locked the account, because someone had changed the answers.

When you get the statement, see what transactions are on it, pay the ones you agree with, dispute those you don't.

Your card details could have been used in a number of ways, os no point worrying about that part, other than making sure you;re taking the usual precautions.

ywlgy

Deleted_User wrote: »

If you answered them correctly, even more reason you should be glad they have locked the account, because someone had changed the answers.

When you get the statement, see what transactions are on it, pay the ones you agree with, dispute those you don't.

Your card details could have been used in a number of ways, os no point worrying about that part, other than making sure you;re taking the usual precautions.

Funny thing is now i don't have access to online account so i have no way to get my next statement.

ywlgy

I found here https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5551501 that they might check my information against my credit file. And I might mistaken some questions. The thread said i can try another time after 24 hours. So i will call them again tomorrow. But in the meantime, any advice/experience are mostly welcomed.

ywlgy

update

I have my account unblocked now after making a number of calls. The guy kindly agreed to do another check and i passed it.

After that the fraud was reported. I was asked to report to police to get a crime reference number and if possible police officer's name and badge number. I then went to a public enquiry centre in manchester city centre and was told they don't care about this stuff and told me to report to Action Fraud. After filling an online form I was given a reference number. After I gave this number to fraud department.They said the money will be refunded and an investigation will go through. Results will be available within 28 days.

The old card is cancelled and they will send new card/pin shortly.

I've made in total 90 minutes call to them so far.

It's got me so confused that they said these transactions are made by chip and PIN. How can it be possible? These are made in pubs, so not online. Can chip card be cloned?

jonesMUFCforever

.........Contactless??

Kim_13

Machines can be tampered with so that they capture the data from your card.

It may have been a card skimmer: https://www.thesun.co.uk/living/1420551/heres-how-to-spot-a-card-skimmer-and-what-to-do-if-you-notice-one/

ywlgy

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

.........Contactless??

No, the card has no contactless function. but strangely amount of each trans is below 30 and there are 4 of them.
I have the card all the time. The only possibility i can think of is the magstripe is cloned and no PIN is required when swiping a Mastercard. Well, Aqua said this is impossible. But...
I haven't tried this on this card, but my Revolut (mastercard) can be used in train ticket machine without PIN. So i always disable magstripe function (Revolut does a good job)

ywlgy

Kim_13 wrote: »

Machines can be tampered with so that they capture the data from your card.

It may have been a card skimmer: https://www.thesun.co.uk/living/1420551/heres-how-to-spot-a-card-skimmer-and-what-to-do-if-you-notice-one/

I have used the card recently in Tesco, sainsbury, KFC, McD. Probably the McD self service machine, they are away from counter and lack monitoring. I will never use it again.