Is this a new type of Fraud?

Jonesy53

On the 30th of March I purchased a Samsung Galaxy Tab A Tablet from this website: https://ismartmobileshop.com/ - it turned out to be a bogus website. It no longer exists. I have a screen copy of the purchase. I have never received the Galaxy Tab A Tablet.

As part of the purchase, the bogus website took my credit card details, as is normal for purchasing a product online. They then used it with a Money Transfer Service to extract over £100 from my card.

As soon as I realised it was a bogus website, I asked for a new Credit Card and tried to log this as Fraudulent Activity with my Credit Card company.

Because of Covid contacting my Credit Card company has been a long an laborious process.

Firstly they decided it was a supplier dispute, they are still of that opinion!

Now they are saying that because the Money Transfer Service is a reputable company, that merely took money from me and gave it to someone else, I need to contact the original merchant. This is despite me repeatedly telling them the company was a Fraud and no longer existed. In effect they are saying that I can have no redress for being scammed of my money. 

The Credit Card company are effectively saying that the use of a reputable Money Transfer Service provides the ideal opportunity to continually scam people out of money with no redress. Money Transfer Service providers have no duty to determine that the credit card is being used lawfully, and Credit Card companies quietly wash their hands of the matter saying it is somebody else's problem.

[Deleted User]

No, it's a standard type of fraud.

Escalate a complaint with your card provider.

Jonesy53

I have escalated a complaint with my Credit Card provider. Because of Covid it has taken me 5 months and counting.
I have issued a complaint with the Credit Card company over their handling of this, not for the time taken, but for their steadfast refusal to see this as Fraud.
I have complained to the Money Transfer Service provider about their willingness to assist in the Fraud.
Nobody seems to care whether I get my money back or not. The Credit Card company keep treating it as a supplier dispute, telling me to get in the Merchant - but they don't exist.
Other than complaining to the Financial Ombudsman, are there any other options that might produce a result?

[Deleted User]

You go to FOS once you reach deadlock.

You have the legal route open to you, but that is more neutral, whereas FOS is slightly more customer oriented, so probably not worth wasting your money.

Complaint to the transfer provider is a waste if time, as they've done nothing wrong.

born_again

It is not fraud as a card provider or bank works. That is where a unknown 3 rd party uses your details. Not when you make the transaction yourself.
I get what you are saying and why you perceive it as fraud. This something we are seeing more of these days.
So it has been actioned in the correct way as a dispute.
It should have been a simple non receipt case. 
What does the debit on your statement say?

Jonesy53

I'm not user that the Transfer Service is entirely blameless.

I want them to explain the steps they go through to ensure that when a Credit Card is used to transfer money to a third party, the authority to use the Credit Card is not in doubt? Presumably, multiple payments from the Merchant using their service were recorded. They need to provide details that the Merchant lodged with them, so that they can be pursued to recover the money. I find it hard to believe that the money was transferred to multiple third parties, these details need to be made available so that they can be pursued if the Merchant no longer exists.

I am the victim of Fraudulent use of my Credit Card by the bogus Merchant who setup a website to extract money. The Transfer Service enabled the money to be transferred from my Credit Card to a third party without due diligence. As such I hold them directly responsible for assisting in this Fraud and expect their co-operation in refunding me the money extracted unlawfully and to ensuring this can never happen again.

But mostly, I am annoyed with the Credit Card company for trying to fob me off. They are supposed to guarantee purchases over £100, but want to wash their hands of the problem.

[Deleted User]

Jonesy53 said:

The Transfer Service enabled the money to be transferred from my Credit Card to a third party without due diligence. As such I hold them directly responsible for assisting in this Fraud and expect their co-operation in refunding me the money extracted unlawfully and to ensuring this can never happen again.

That's your preogative, but they're no more responsible than anyone else who gets defrauded by a stolen card.

Like every company, they carry out due diligence the extent that the costs do not price the service out of the market.

 

Jonesy53

born_again said:

It is not fraud as a card provider or bank works. That is where a unknown 3 rd party uses your details. Not when you make the transaction yourself.
So it has been actioned in the correct way as a dispute.
It should have been a simple non receipt case. 
What does the debit on your statement say?

Thanks, that's news to me.
The statement says that the purchase price (plus 42p) was paid to the Transfer Service. But I never went on the Transfer Service website, so I didn't make the transaction myself. I tried to purchase something on what turned out to be a Bogus website. I don't know the exact details of how my Credit Card was charged/used - I just know I've been defrauded of over £100.

bris

The authority isn't in doubt though, you gave them it. You gave them the long number, expiry date and last 3 digits. The CC co just processed this at your request via a third party.

At the time even if you did get a call you would confirm the transaction as you wouldn't have know it was a scam at that point, you would have thought you were just getting this super duper too good to be true deal.

born_again

So the debit on your card says "TRANSFER SERVICE"?
Not a company name?
If you use Paypal to make a payment, then they are a transfer service. As such they are not responsible for delivery of the item. 

While you may not have known a company uses such a company, the fact they have means S75 is out as no debtor creditor link.

You card co need to use the non receipt dispute, to see if they will either accept of reject the claim but I have to warn that the transfer co can reject as they have done as asked and moved the money from you to the retailer.
PayPal are good with these now, they refund and then chase the company for the funds. But I guess we are looking at a Chinese co that has taken the funds.
Which is why I asked what your statement said.

Takmon

Jonesy53 said:

I'm not user that the Transfer Service is entirely blameless.

I want them to explain the steps they go through to ensure that when a Credit Card is used to transfer money to a third party, the authority to use the Credit Card is not in doubt? Presumably, multiple payments from the Merchant using their service were recorded. They need to provide details that the Merchant lodged with them, so that they can be pursued to recover the money. I find it hard to believe that the money was transferred to multiple third parties, these details need to be made available so that they can be pursued if the Merchant no longer exists.

I am the victim of Fraudulent use of my Credit Card by the bogus Merchant who setup a website to extract money. The Transfer Service enabled the money to be transferred from my Credit Card to a third party without due diligence. As such I hold them directly responsible for assisting in this Fraud and expect their co-operation in refunding me the money extracted unlawfully and to ensuring this can never happen again.

But mostly, I am annoyed with the Credit Card company for trying to fob me off. They are supposed to guarantee purchases over £100, but want to wash their hands of the problem.

That's simply not true, they will have checked your card details against you name and the address submitted (which you helpfully gave to the fraudsters) and that would have been correct with what the bank so they had no reason to question it. Imagine if they had to get people to scan their photo ID and send it to them or similar every time they did a transfer.

Don't forget that you are the one who entered your credit card details and address onto a site without conducting any due diligence to make sure it was real, you obviously didn't even check if there were any reviews for it or how long the site had been active. These are basic checks that i carry out before purchasing from any unknown website that take a few minutes at most. You should take this as a lesson learned for yourself to be more careful instead of trying to blame everyone else.

So escalate the complaint with the credit card provider to the FOS because they seem to be very unhelpful, stop pursuing the money transfer service that did nothing wrong and when you eventually get your money back be happy that your mistake only cost you time and not a very large amount of money.