Credit Card Fraud

Marysk

My credit card has been used to set up a Netflix account.
It's fraud.

The card company has stopepd any further payments but says it has a blanket policy thatsubscriptions are NEVER fruad!

Is this legal?


It seems to me ridiculous to say there's no such thing...a quick google search reveals otherwise.


Has anyone had any joy in challenging this?

eskbanker

It may just be a misunderstanding or a semantic issue - people often get hung up on the F word when the actual issue they need to sort out is that one or more unauthorised transactions have been made.

If one or more transactions have been made on your card that you didn't authorise, then you notify your card provider and they have to refund you unless they can demonstrate that you were negligent or complicit in some way. The motivation or legality of the actions of the person who made the transactions aren't really a part of that so it really isn't worth getting worked up about whether or not any actual fraud has been committed, and even if there has, it's the card company that's the victim so it's their call as to if or how they choose to pursue it....

Marysk

thanks. Without getting too hung up on words...surely an unauthorsied transaction is fraud? Fraud is a form of theft, so is an 'unathorised transaction'.



Anyway, the credit card company say their policy is that they don't treat subscriptions are fraud. If I used the word'unathorised' I can't see it would have made any difference.


Is there anything I can do other than wait 8 weeks for their 'investigation' (and in the meantime, I've been told if I dont make a min payment I will incur fees and penalties, even tho the transaction is disputed.
Can they legally do this?

joncombe

Marysk,


I've just had the same thing happen to me. My credit card was not stolen and I've only used it on properly secured websites etc, but somehow the card number was obtained by someone who used it to place bets via SkyBet and a Netflix subscription.

Fortunately my bank (Halifax) has been very good and infact alerted me to this suspected fraud (now confirmed). I believe Halifax are going to refund anyway, but I contacted both SkyBet and NetFlix.


Both companies asked for my card details and found the relevant transactions. Both confirmed that the accounts were clearly fradulant.



NetFlix told me the account had been set up with a made up address "it's just a load of gibberish" and no address. So they refunded the money to my account immediately.


In the case of SkyBet they could see multiple cards had been used on that users account, and many transactions failed. By the time I called they had already suspended that users account. The account had a credit balance, so they refunded me the money from that account.


I also informed Halifax of this to ensure if they did a charge back I did not end up getting two refunds - or I could then be accuesed of fraud.


It might be Halifax would just charge back but I wanted to call the companies to ensure the fraudster doesn't benefit if the card company doesn't bother to persue it and just refunds me.


I wouldn't bother with the police, it's a waste of time. My local police didn't want to know until I could prove the crime had been comitted in my county. They directed me to Action Fraud who didn't want to know. They told me they don't deal with card fraud!


It is frustrating. SkyBet confirmed they have the contact details of the fraudster but they cannot supply it to me because of data protection, only to the police. And the police don't want to know. So they will presumably get away with it.

eskbanker

Marysk wrote: »

Is there anything I can do other than wait 8 weeks for their 'investigation'

Yes, you can remind them of their obligation to

refund the payment without undue delay and by the end of the business day following the day on which it became aware of the problem, unless it has reasonable grounds for suspecting that you have acted fraudulently

as per their obligations under the FCA guidance on unauthorised payments.

eskbanker

joncombe wrote: »

It is frustrating. SkyBet confirmed they have the contact details of the fraudster but they cannot supply it to me because of data protection, only to the police. And the police don't want to know. So they will presumably get away with it.

But while you'll have been inconvenienced, ultimately it's not you that's been defrauded (as you've been refunded), so it's up to the actual victim (whether bank or retailer) to decide on what action is necessary and whether or not to involve police.

I suspect we all know how likely they are to pursue it, but that doesn't mean that it's your place to push for it to be followed up, however strongly you feel that someone somewhere has got away with something.

And yes, this is a sad indictment on society, etc, etc, but both bank and retailer will factor such costs into their financial planning and it'll almost inevitably be more cost-effective for them to absorb small losses rather than actively pursuing them....

Flobberchops

Your card provider will have different processes for Continuous Authority Transfer (CATs) payments and straight-up fraud.



In many cases people who call up saying that, say, Google Prime or iTunes have been "fraudulently" taking their money, will actually be disputing whether they gave ongoing authorisation to collect money. They signed up to Google Prime, they entered their card details, but they neglected to read the small print that says they are signing up for a subscription.



In your case, if you're certain you didn't sign up for SkyBet, then your card details have been used fraudulently and the card provider should treat it as such. As eskbanker points out they have an obligation to do this. Call them again, stress you have never used the site/service and somebody has used your details completely unauthorised and you want it logged as fraud. Raise a complaint if they don't.

Marysk

a huge THANK YOU


I phoned Netflix again and they are refunding me 6 months of charges. Turns out my account was never used and the email address they had was gibberish.


The person i spoke to who said they didn't do refunds was plain wrong.
THANK YOU for posting otherwise!