I've been credit card scammed...

GreyPilgrim

Christ, this has never happened to me before and I'm gobsmacked / angry / scared. I need to know what the likely outcome will be..Does anyone have any advice?

I keep track of all credit card spends obsessively (almost daily) via online banking and a spreadsheet.

Around 16th of december I noticed a 'pending' payment of £51.43 on my barclaycard. The detail of this didn't actually show up until 21st december and was for a third party website that handles payments for other clients. I phoned barclaycard and queried it, and they said it was for $100, registered against an internet gambling site based in Gibraltar. Told them I hadn't made it and they cancelled the card and are sending another.

At this point the balance of the card was £1,200 (ish)

I checked the card balance again over christmas and the on-line account was blocked (which I thought had happened because the actual card had been cancelled...assumed I would have to re-register when the new card came through)

I just happened to call them a few minutes ago and they tell me the reason the on-line account is blocked is because I have gone exceeded my limit of £2,400!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I double checked that the card had been cancelled on the 21st and she said it had, but that the transactions had happened in the meantime.

I'm shaking now...partly through wanting to find the &"£"&£" who has done this and partly at the thought of almost £1,200 worth of transactions in my name. Feel a bit sick.

She's sending me a statement of the transactions and a dispute form.

What happens in these situations guys? Can Barclaycard give me the finger and say 'tough, you're stuck with them'? My record with them is pretty much problem free, been a customer for about 8 years, never disputed a payment before now.

hypno06

I would guess that because you brought the initial $100 transaction to their attention, that they will be pretty much ok with sorting the rest out.

Barclays are fairly well on the ball with these as we found when our debit card was cloned earlier in the year. It may take a while to get it all back to normal, but I would be fairly sure it will get sorted in your favour. In the meantime you will just be without your credit card, so may be worth anticipating any problems that may cause you over the next few weeks, just in case.

Good luck, and i know that it is the anger as much as anything that will be winding you up right now.

January20

A similar thing happened to me, but with Egg. In fact, I wasn't using my credit card much at the time and it's Egg that called me because the transactions were "out of character". I'd certainly never used a gambling site using my credit card. I spoke to them a couple of times on the phone, filled in a dispute form and a few weeks later they refunded the money. However, it was only for a couple of hundred pounds!

Good luck with this!

immoral_angeluk

Oh god what a nightmare!! I hope things get sorted out quickly for you but I wouldn't worry too much as like hypno said... as soon as you noticed you told them so you can dispute all the other transactions as well.
:grouphug:

GreyPilgrim

Thanks for that. I have an emergency card I keep for work expenses which will as a temporary replacement. It's just the uncertainty thats gnawing at my stomach now. Really felt like puking when she said it was over £2,400...

It's weird, I actually felt like I was being dishonest when I reported that first dodgy transaction, as if Barclaycard where thinking "yeah, of COURSE you didn't spend $100 on that on-line casino matey..."

I'll be honest, I'm bricking it right now...

doodledo_2

We had similar happen to us with someone cloning our card and Barclays sorted it for us quite quickly.

We just told them all the activities which weren't ours and their fraud team took over and reported it to the police etc.

The monies were frozen whilst they dealt with it but they resolved it so none of the debts came back to us.

Hope they get things sorted for you quickly.

In_Search_Of_Me

aww huge hugs for you GP...can you look on their site for the process for fraud that they go to? You need to check whether you need to report this to the police or do they. Do you have any idea how someone could have got your card details? I would ring them for a chat to see what they do to put your mind at rest. At the end of the day you told them about a fraudulent transaction so they shouldnt have let any more funds be paid...check the banking code possibly for more info?
Keep us posted but can understand why this is making you feel sick..

splishsplash

Hi Grey Pilgrim,
What a nightmare for you. I got a call from my visa centre on 22nd Dec, to say my card number had been flagged by visa international as being on their list of compromised numbers - they didn't know exactly how, either someone hacked into a database with my details on it, or an ATM I had used had a skimmer thingy on it. They were way ahead of the game, and I was able to move my money out of the card and allow all legitimate transactions nto yet showing before the card was blocked. The account is now open again with a new number, I just won't have a physical card and pin until work resumes next week. Needless to say, I'll be watching the account like a hawk for any unusual activity...

My point is, they're usually on the ball when it comes to scams, so I would get on to your authorisation centre and keep calling to dispute all dodgy transactions so that they can be frozen/refused quickly.
Best of luck, I hope it can be sorted soon for you.

jo1972

Oh god, sorry to hear about this GP, I had my debit card cloned a couple of weeks ago and was being used in Slovenia, my bank rang and asked me if I was on holiday (I did want to say, well you know how much money I've got, you really think I can afford to go to Slovenia!? :rolleyes:), luckily for me, I'm skint, my credit is shot and I can't get credit/overdraft for a toffee so the Slovenian @&"!!! got nothing :beer:

Hope you get it all sorted out very soon xx

bellsbells

This happened to me a few years ago with Barclays. They were very good and it was sorted really quickly. IF you end up having problems - and it is only an if as it will probably be sorted very soon report it to the police so you can get a crime number for the fraud. This is something I was recommended to do - I never had to because it was sorted so quickly! In fact I seem to remember saying to Barclays that I needed information to report it to the police and them saying don't worry. I was also told by someone I know in the police that the banks don't want things reporting oficially to the police if at all possible as it shows up how much fraud there is out there - they often want to just sort it out quietly and cover their losses. Just keep at them - I was phoning up every day until I got my money back. It is a horrible feeling, isn't it? Big hugs to you. I hope you get it sorted quickly.

GreyPilgrim

This is hard to believe, but Barclaycard have screwed up a little bit here!

Just to recap, the fraudulent transaction I spotted was for £51.43, and it put the overall balance at around £1,200. I cancelled the card, and a few days later found out the balance had soared to £2,414 (over the limit of £2,400)

I've just got my replacement card through and have gone on line to have look at what the 'new' fraudulent transactions (all £1,214 of them) are.

There aren't any...just lots of duplicate transactions for everything over the past month.

And thats whats happened. Barclaycard tell me that ALL CARD ACCOUNTS cancelled between the 21st and 25th of December have been screwed up, basically, and they're trying to work back through them.

So at the end of the day, I HAVE only had a single fraudulent transaction of £51.43. The extra £1,200 of transactions that have pushed me over my limit where them counting my transactions twice.

It's a HUGE relief that they've acknowledged this.

Anyhoo, sorry for the essay. Just thought I would share my relief and say thanks for everyone that's posted and tried to reassure me a bit. I really was worried to hell about this.

GP