Help with fraud from my debit card

minigav

Hi everyone
I would love some help! I noticed a suspicious amount on my online banking app. £1.27 spent on my debit card on a day I didn’t spend on anything. The retailers name was WKZOMTAPYQIEF FONX. The payment shows as pending. I called the NatWest fraud line that was on my car & I was on hold for three hours. I got transferred between 4 people, one girl told me she couldn’t identify it & to keep waiting. At 8 a chap called Scott came on & told me to call back this morning as their systems shut down at 8pm. I explained I was at work & he said he couldn’t do anything. I locked my card but am now unsure what to do? I think I should just cancel the card & get a new one. Any help appreciated, I’m off to work lol
thanks for any help👍

DCFC79

Send a complaint in writing.

Ive googled the reference and nothing recognizable shows.

Is it possible you spent something but it took a few days to show on your statement ?

minigav

Thanks for your reply. Yeah I could complain, I know times are hard for everyone at the moment but it seemed very excessive. I’ve racked my brains thinking what it is. I went to a cafe & thought it might be a service charge, but the main bill has the name of the cafe & this is a separate transaction. It’s not the money, just the feeling someone is testing the water before they clean me out. 

DCFC79

minigav said:

Thanks for your reply. Yeah I could complain, I know times are hard for everyone at the moment but it seemed very excessive. I’ve racked my brains thinking what it is. I went to a cafe & thought it might be a service charge, but the main bill has the name of the cafe & this is a separate transaction. It’s not the money, just the feeling someone is testing the water before they clean me out. 

Yes its a small amount.

In that case then either request a new card from the bank OR now this is drastic for a small sum but you move to a new bank.

phillw

minigav said:

It’s not the money, just the feeling someone is testing the water before they clean me out. 

Possibly, I'd certainly raise an official complaint with your bank about their handling of this. They should be able to handle identifying a transaction and calling you back, if they can't do it while on the phone.
Is it definitely a debit card transaction? The dates on transactions aren't always that close to the date you used the card.
It could also be a recurring transaction.

Sandtree

Does the amount or date mean anything to you either? The bank can confirm more details like how it was paid (online, contactless etc), what the merchant does, where their registered as being

I once had a transaction suspended by AmEx as suspicious and when they contact me I'd never heard of the company and the SIC code said it was a music company in germany... in my case some digging at my end identified it was for some software I'd bought and the brand I'd bought it from was a trading style of this company who's main work was indeed music software whereas what I bought was unrelated software they happen to have also created.

happy_hazelnuts

it may also of course be a small test payment by a fraudster....

zagfles

Have you used a pay at pump? Even if separately billed? Or made a hotel reservation, or anything else where they want your card details in advance before charging? A pending transaction won't necessary become an actual one, stuff like pay at pump and hotels will often test reserve a £1 or so though just to validate the card without actually charging.

minigav

Thanks for the help everyone. No I don’t notice or recognise the retailer or amount. In the brief moment I spoke to someone at NatWest, the lady said she couldn’t see who it was but said it was a card payment. As I said before I use Apple pay most the time, but I did use my actual card the day before at a small Sainsburys near where I live (at the till) & to pay for petrol at the local petrol station😬 I have cancelled my card & a new one is on the way. I think I will change banks as soon as I can👍

eddddy

Did you, by any chance, buy anything from a retailer using one of the new small card readers (as below) - perhaps attached to an iPad or iPhone?

They often allow the merchant to type any business name they want into the App, and that's what appears on your statement. (Although the intention is that they type something sensible - perhaps including a phone number for queries.)

But maybe this merchant inadvertently typed in garbage, or perhaps purposely typed in garbage. 
(Paypal Here would put  'paypal*' in front of the name, and iZettle would put 'iz*' in front, but I'm not sure if other companies add a prefix.)