Chip and Pin Fraud

Starman53

This has been discussed previously albeit approx 12 years ago.

Last year in October I was on holiday in the Republic of Ireland.

I have a Starling bank card with a sterling and euro account.

I used the bank card to pay for a meal in Euros at the hotel we were staying at for 96.30 Euros on Sunday 3rd October.  I never used the card again and before the trip to Ireland, the card was used at local post offices where you just present the card to the card reader.

On the 31st of December whilst completing a VAT return, I was going through my online account and noticed a spend of £105.20 dated 4th October, which was a Monday.

I queried this with the bank. Of course, they said why did you not report this sooner etc and that they had sent me a message saying about the expenditure.

I do not recall seeing the message otherwise I would have contacted straight away.

The procedure was to report the card as stolen and cancel. Then a fraud investigation could be started .

The transaction was done through Sum Up and was for food and drink with a chip and pin transaction.

The bank has not been helpful and has now closed the case, basically saying it is my fault and I should report this to Action Fraud and contact the merchant.

Sum Up and Starling are partners and I did ask for the name of the business and location but received neither.

I have reported the incident to Action Fraud and also tried contacting Sum Up

Any suggestions are welcome.

sausage_time

My suggestion would be to check your accounts and statements more frequently.  Probably not the most useful suggestion for you in this case.  
I assume you can see the hotel meal transaction too?  If not, perhaps the hotel restaurant bunged the Euro transaction through in UKP at some horrendous rate?  

penners324

The transaction feed will show you who the merchant is.

Sounds like you picked up on the card transaction for your dinner plus a decent tip....

penners324

Starling sends you a notification everytime a transaction happens on your account, you didn't see 1 you didn't recognise?

grandadgolfer

Looks like its your 96.30 Euro restaurant bill

Starman53

I will find out from Sum UP later as they will tell me who this may be and the location

eskbanker

You didn't answer the question about whether or not the expected charge for the meal was also on your statement?

In other words, is this questionable charge a completely unexpected transaction or simply one put through at the wrong price/currency?

Ebe_Scrooge

eskbanker said:

You didn't answer the question about whether or not the expected charge for the meal was also on your statement?

In other words, is this questionable charge a completely unexpected transaction or simply one put through at the wrong price/currency?

Actually, if this was indeed the cost of the meal, then I'm wondering whether the hotel added a service charge on (as some places do).  EUR 96 meal, add a 10% service charge, that gives £105 near as dammit.  Give or take a bit for exchange rate losses/gains ......  Or, as a previous poster said, maybe the hotel used an exchange rate that was rather more in their favour than the customer's.

But you're right - if the OP can clarify if this charge was actually for the meal, rather than in addition to it, then actually there's a couple of perfectly logical scenarios.

Starman53

My card has a function to use Euro or £. As I was in the Republic of Ireland I used the euro function.

This appeared on my account and I was notified by Starling of the expenditure.

I spoke to the hotel today and they do not use Sum Up as a processing agent

For the second charge, I received no notification from Starling despite they saying one was sent.

I am waiting for a response back now from Sum UP

eskbanker

Starman53 said:

The procedure was to report the card as stolen and cancel. Then a fraud investigation could be started .

The transaction was done through Sum Up and was for food and drink with a chip and pin transaction.

The bank has not been helpful and has now closed the case, basically saying it is my fault and I should report this to Action Fraud and contact the merchant.

Where a cardholder reports an unauthorised transaction, the institution is required to reimburse you promptly unless it has reason to believe you're complicit, as per https://www.fca.org.uk/consumers/unauthorised-payments-account

In most cases, the bank must refund the payment without unnecessary delay. This should be by the end of the next business day, unless the bank has reasonable grounds to suspect that you acted fraudulently.

The onus is on the institution to prove that you did authorise it rather than you having to show you didn't, but if the card is still in your possession (as implied by 'I never used the card again' rather than 'I no longer have it') and the transaction is recorded as having been Chip&PIN-verified then it's understandable why they'll reach the conclusion they have, which is likely to be supported by FCA, FOS and courts on the balance of probabilities.

Difficult to know what else to do though - Action Fraud won't be interested and even if Sum Up tell you the name and location of the merchant, what would you envisage doing with that information?

born_again

When you spoke to Starling what date & time did they say the actual transaction was made & what type of retailer?

While @eskbanker is correct on a prompt refund. A Chip & Pin in the area at the time you are there, as well as only 1 unknown transaction would be enough to withhold a refund.
If someone went to the expense of creating a counterfeit card (& never seen any cases in the UK in over 15 years) they would not stop at one transaction.

Think about it. You have a counterfeit card, what do you do. make one purchase or take a trip to a ATM and get the daily limit, day after day till it stops?

Not the actual hotel you were staying at is it?