EUEPOCH Scam

nick99_2

I too found unauthorised transactions to epoch.com (they use several different names). I contacted their live chat support ( https://epoch.com/en/index.html - button lo left hand side ).

First they asked me for my membership number. I explained that i didn't have one - that I had not authorised these transactions. They asked for my card number which I supplied. I was expecting them dig their heels in and ask lots of questions. Instead they immediately offered to refund the payments. I thought this was strange - no ID verification or related questions at all.... They said they would send an email confirming the refund. None arrived - I contacted them again - and another promise of the email - none arrived.

Then I realised my spam trap had caught their emails - so I now have 3 emails confirming the repayment - but each is different,. My instincts were that this was some sort of scam set up. Having googled them I realise that LOTS of people have seen this happen. I contacted Barclaycard fraud unit - they promised to send a dispute form.

I phoned the support number at epoch - a rather dopey sounding guy said the refund would take 5 days to process. I asked him to confirm that they had indeed authorised a merchant transaction in favour of my card number. he said yes, but seemed unwilling to confirm the merchant ID for the refund transaction. I had two separate conversations with different 'support staff' - the first one gave me the email address that had been supplied with the original transaction. The second would give no details at all and simply said "Get the police to file a complaint and we will supply them with details".

I don't like the feel of this outfit at all.

I asked how the original transaction was set up - they said it was verified using my CVV code. I am very careful about using my card online. but then I remembered something: A few days before the original fraudelent transaction in July, I had my first ever bad experience with an internet software company, also based in the US. I applied for a refund on the basis that they had misdescribed the product. But the feel of the conversation with them was very similar to that when I talked to epoch.

There is little to stop two merchants acting to defraud people - one passes the details to a second who then sets up fraudulent transactions.

The fact that they could supply 'internet logs' to show that the transaction came from a certain i/p address is worthless - at the end of the day these logs are just numbers in a file - and easily fabricated.

It just seems to me too co-incidental that the problems started after I had used my card to authorise a transaction with a merchant who turned out to be a con-artist, and then a week later this stuff starts - the first company was claiming to sell Internet TV software.....

If you have unauthorised transactions in favour of epoch.com - or eupoch.com - or epocheu.com or similar, get straignt on to their live support - get as much out of them on chat as possible - note the time and date of the chat - copy the contents of the chat window to a separate document (so you have a record) and ask them to give you a reference number for the incidnt.

My feeling is that their 'customer support' staff are distributed geographically, and that they will just try to obfuscate in order to delay any repayment, or make you just give up.

Log everything that is said - times, dates etc - this paper trail could be important.

And try to remember if you had any bad experiences with other merchants just before the bad payments started happening - there will be a pattern to all this somewhere...

Nick

Shelagh_F

after warning letter from guardian readers offers

Important message regarding payment card details on Guardian Reader Offers

A small number of Guardian Reader Offers customers have had fraudulent transactions made using their payment card details after the customers ordered goods on the Guardian Reader Offers website

We take issues of security extremely seriously and have notified the police. We, our suppliers and the company who host the Reader Offers goods website for us are currently investigating this situation.

The only site that has been affected is the Reader Offers goods site () - all of the other Offers websites, such as Books and Holidays, and the main Guardian website are run separately by different partners.

We suggest that you contact your card issuer for advice, and regularly review your statements for transactions you do not recognise.

If your card details were successfully used to make a payment you do not recognise we would welcome further information that would help us in our ongoing investigation: when you used the card to make a payment on the Reader Offers goods website, your order number, your postcode, the product you bought, and where and when the card was used fraudulently (if you know).

We have put together some questions and answers which we hope will be helpful - please see below for these.

If you have any queries please call our Reader Offers helpline on 020 3353 3643 (Mon-Sun 9.30-5.30) or email on readersoffersresponse at guardian.co.uk

We are extremely sorry for any inconvenience caused.

Jo Burns
Head of Offers
Guardian Newspapers

If I'm not supposed to cut and paste any of the above please tell a moderator to cut out the offending parts thanks.