Gift Card Hub scam.

jusul

Aylesbury_Duck said:

No one's defending them, but people are too quick to chuck the word "scam" around, often when what they're criticising doesn't meet the description.  Them not sending a code when it was meant to arrive immediately is nothing more than an administrative error or incompetence.  If you have evidence that it is a systematic ploy to deprive people, you should report it.  

As people often advise on here, gift cards are not a good concept.  Whatever miniscule saving you might get by using a gift card is almost certainly not worth diminishing your consumer rights for.

I was scammed by these. I put in Tesco top up into google and the top one appeared to be Tesco. The Tesco logo on the site was big bold letters.  I bought £10. The transaction came up on my bank account as tesco. Now I know they take money and buy gift cards off Tesco so it looks ok in your bank account. They tried to take £49 out of my account not under the name of Tesco. My bank froze my account. I believe I entered a password when buying the top up. I’ve had passwords and emails changed in the four weeks after this scam. Too much of a coincidence I think. I had a threatening email saying I’d been watching  !!!!!! on my computer and to pay £500 or they’ll send footage to my friends and family. They were hustling me. I knew I’d not watched !!!!!!. I had two messages on my phone about my missing cat whereby they said they had him and were going to kill him. Yes I’ve reported it to the police fraud squad and said I’ll testify if they’re caught. 

Aylesbury_Duck

jusul said:

Aylesbury_Duck said:

No one's defending them, but people are too quick to chuck the word "scam" around, often when what they're criticising doesn't meet the description.  Them not sending a code when it was meant to arrive immediately is nothing more than an administrative error or incompetence.  If you have evidence that it is a systematic ploy to deprive people, you should report it.  

As people often advise on here, gift cards are not a good concept.  Whatever miniscule saving you might get by using a gift card is almost certainly not worth diminishing your consumer rights for.

I was scammed by these. I put in Tesco top up into google and the top one appeared to be Tesco. The Tesco logo on the site was big bold letters.  I bought £10. The transaction came up on my bank account as tesco. Now I know they take money and buy gift cards off Tesco so it looks ok in your bank account. They tried to take £49 out of my account not under the name of Tesco. My bank froze my account. I believe I entered a password when buying the top up. I’ve had passwords and emails changed in the four weeks after this scam. Too much of a coincidence I think. I had a threatening email saying I’d been watching  !!!!!! on my computer and to pay £500 or they’ll send footage to my friends and family. They were hustling me. I knew I’d not watched !!!!!!. I had two messages on my phone about my missing cat whereby they said they had him and were going to kill him. Yes I’ve reported it to the police fraud squad and said I’ll testify if they’re caught. 

To be clear:  are you alleging that Gift Card Hub are blackmailing you and threatening your cat?  Or has your online security been compromised at the same time as you clicked on the top result of a Google search and entered your banking password on some unknown site?

jusul

The fraud squad will decide that. I didn’t give any banking password.  The bank stopped the transaction and froze my account for £49 . I wonder why that was. I emailed the offenders to stop this happening. Well, you should have read what was sent back to me. Along the lines of, we’ve refunded your money on the understanding you’ll not move forward with litigation. Go figure

jusul

I was on my way to hospital with a broken ankle and maybe I missed the scam. But why were they coming above tescos. Because they can pay for it? Is that not masquerading as tescos. 

Aylesbury_Duck

jusul said:

The fraud squad will decide that. I didn’t give any banking password.  The bank stopped the transaction and froze my account for £49 . I wonder why that was. I emailed the offenders to stop this happening. Well, you should have read what was sent back to me. Along the lines of, we’ve refunded your money on the understanding you’ll not move forward with litigation. Go figure

But that's very different from blackmailing you for surfing dubious sites and holding your cat hostage.  I suspect you're dealing with Gift Card Hub on one matter and someone much more shady has got hold of your data at the same time, or is intercepting your emails to GCH.

Aylesbury_Duck

jusul said:

I was on my way to hospital with a broken ankle and maybe I missed the scam. But why were they coming above tescos. Because they can pay for it? Is that not masquerading as tescos. 

Not necessarily   Web search result displays being influenced by payments is commonplace.  It sounds very much like you did a quick search on your phone while in a rush (given the circumstances) and didn’t check that the site you were taken to was authentic.

jusul

I know you don’t go to the top of the page of Tesco or any other trusted company without some effort. They were clearly trying to scam. I’m sorry but that’s by design not accidental

Aylesbury_Duck

jusul said:

I know you don’t go to the top of the page of Tesco or any other trusted company without some effort. They were clearly trying to scam. I’m sorry but that’s by design not accidental

Of course it's by design.  They don't pay Google to appear lower down search results.  Paying to be top of a search result isn't a scam, it's commonplace.  I happen to have purchased travel insurance today and the top few search results were sponsored.  They were all reputable insurance providers, are you suggesting they're scammers?

Whether GCH's practices once you've elected to purchase with them constitute a scam is a different matter.  I remain unconvinced from what people have posted here.  Dislikeable business model?  Absolutely.  Scam?  Not so sure, given the information is all there for people to read before purchase.

What you're describing (the blackmailing and cat-napping) doesn't sound like something a business such as this would get involved with.  They've too much to lose.  You're either dealing with a rogue individual at the company, or someone entirely unconnected who has got hold of your information.

jusul

I’ll trust my bank and the fraud team over you. You’re victim blaming. Fortunately that’s not how the bank and police work. 

Aylesbury_Duck

jusul said:

I’ll trust my bank and the fraud team over you. You’re victim blaming. Fortunately that’s not how the bank and police work. 

Suit yourself.  Good luck with it.