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Victim of Fraud but Credit card company are saying its my fault and I am liable for the charges.

Hi
I really am in need of advice on this. Back in September i made a purchase over the phone for an excercise bike using by credit card. 
When making the payment I had to authorize the payment though my bank app which i did and delivery was arranged with the merchant. 
later that day my card had been used to make £1000s of purchases and buy gift vouchers for shopping places around the UK.
My building society contacted me and I immediately cancelled my card. All these transactions have been handled with my bank as fraud. However, The payment I authorised over the phone for the excercise bike (that duly never turned up) had to be raised as a dispute.
I have followed the building society process but the dispute team have declined the dispute as a third party merchant is saying that they provided the service which was issuance of the gift cards, this was not what i made payment for and these were not made to me. 
It then got passed to fraud team who said its not fraud as I authorised the payment.
I have lodged this with action fraud, the merchant who provided the third party service and issued the gift voucher also lodged this with action fraud and in their reply have stated that I have been the victim of fraud.
I have followed the complaints process and the building society have treated me like I am the criminal, and they are now forcing me to settle the payment on my credit card.

I dont know what to do this cannot be right i am the victim of fraud and dont know what to do next.

thanks
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Comments

  • if this was me I would send the complaint to the financial ombudsman

    I'm tempted to say balance transfer it while the ombudsman investigate but that is something to maybe take some advice on

    who is the credit card provider? I would certainly be leaving reviews on their social media site, the same with the merchant.  I am struggling to understand how you can be liable for a transaction you have not authorised for the vouchers.

    as for the bike there should be some way to trace the bike - which site was that off?
  • Tucosalamanca
    Tucosalamanca Posts: 850 Forumite
    500 Posts Third Anniversary Photogenic Name Dropper


    as for the bike there should be some way to trace the bike - which site was that off?
    It was a scam - the bike never existed
  • joycey_2018
    joycey_2018 Posts: 14 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10 Posts Combo Breaker
    thanks for the replies, 
    It was a nationwide credit card and after being a customer of there's for over 40years I am very very disappointed in the way this is being handled and the way I am being likened as the criminal in all this.
    The bike was advertised as secondhand on FB marketplace (the first and last time that I have ever used it), at the time there were no redflags, pictures of the actual bike, a profile, it was not advertised as a too good to be true price.

    After getting the final letter/email from Nationwide I will escalate to the financial ombudsman
  • zagfles
    zagfles Posts: 21,245 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Chutzpah Haggler
    thanks for the replies, 
    It was a nationwide credit card and after being a customer of there's for over 40years I am very very disappointed in the way this is being handled and the way I am being likened as the criminal in all this.
    The bike was advertised as secondhand on FB marketplace (the first and last time that I have ever used it), at the time there were no redflags, pictures of the actual bike, a profile, it was not advertised as a too good to be true price.

    After getting the final letter/email from Nationwide I will escalate to the financial ombudsman
    Was it advertised as a private sale or a bike shop/retailer? When you authorised the transaction who did it say you were paying?
  • NoodleDoodleMan
    NoodleDoodleMan Posts: 3,937 Forumite
    Eighth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    "The bike was advertised as secondhand on FB marketplace (the first and last time that I have ever used it), at the time there were no redflags, pictures of the actual bike, a profile, it was not advertised as a too good to be true price."
    A well known location for scams.
  • Olinda99
    Olinda99 Posts: 1,777 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Second Anniversary Name Dropper
    edited 4 February at 11:09AM
    zagfles said:
    thanks for the replies, 
    It was a nationwide credit card and after being a customer of there's for over 40years I am very very disappointed in the way this is being handled and the way I am being likened as the criminal in all this.
    The bike was advertised as secondhand on FB marketplace (the first and last time that I have ever used it), at the time there were no redflags, pictures of the actual bike, a profile, it was not advertised as a too good to be true price.

    After getting the final letter/email from Nationwide I will escalate to the financial ombudsman
    Was it advertised as a private sale or a bike shop/retailer? When you authorised the transaction who did it say you were paying?
    probably not a private sale if they took credit cards although maybe it was an individual who just wanted to cc details

    as above - ask NW for a deadlock letter and go to the ombudsman

    keep it simple - you paid for an exercise bike that didnt arrive
  • zagfles
    zagfles Posts: 21,245 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Chutzpah Haggler
    Olinda99 said:
    zagfles said:
    thanks for the replies, 
    It was a nationwide credit card and after being a customer of there's for over 40years I am very very disappointed in the way this is being handled and the way I am being likened as the criminal in all this.
    The bike was advertised as secondhand on FB marketplace (the first and last time that I have ever used it), at the time there were no redflags, pictures of the actual bike, a profile, it was not advertised as a too good to be true price.

    After getting the final letter/email from Nationwide I will escalate to the financial ombudsman
    Was it advertised as a private sale or a bike shop/retailer? When you authorised the transaction who did it say you were paying?
    probably not a private sale if they took credit cards although maybe it was an individual who just wanted to cc details

    as above - ask NW for a deadlock letter and go to the ombudsman

    keep it simple - you paid for an exercise bike that didnt arrive
    That was why I was asking. OP almost certainly didn't pay for an exercise bike. What seems to have happened is that OP contacts the "seller" or rather fraudster, who tells OP they can pay by credit card. So OP gives the CC number, expiry date, 3 digits on back. Then gets a text to authenticate the transaction in the banking app.

    But really the fraudster is on a gift card website, entering the OPs CC details to buy a gift card, probably to be sent to a burner email.

    Hence the reason for my question. When the bank sent the notification to authorise the payment, did it say "please authorise payment of £500 to Mike's Bike Shop Ltd" or similar, or did it say "please authorise payment of £500 to giftcards.co.uk" or similar. 

    If the latter, I'm sure the bank would argue that the authorised transaction was for buying giftcards, not a bike. 
  • MEM62
    MEM62 Posts: 5,112 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    The bike was advertised as secondhand on FB marketplace (the first and last time that I have ever used it), at the time there were no redflags, pictures of the actual bike, a profile, it was not advertised as a too good to be true price.

    That is your red flag right there.  
  • born_again
    born_again Posts: 18,320 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Fifth Anniversary Name Dropper
    Hi
    I really am in need of advice on this. Back in September i made a purchase over the phone for an excercise bike using by credit card. 
    When making the payment I had to authorize the payment though my bank app which i did and delivery was arranged with the merchant. 
    later that day my card had been used to make £1000s of purchases and buy gift vouchers for shopping places around the UK.
    My building society contacted me and I immediately cancelled my card. All these transactions have been handled with my bank as fraud. However, The payment I authorised over the phone for the excercise bike (that duly never turned up) had to be raised as a dispute.
    I have followed the building society process but the dispute team have declined the dispute as a third party merchant is saying that they provided the service which was issuance of the gift cards, this was not what i made payment for and these were not made to me. 
    It then got passed to fraud team who said its not fraud as I authorised the payment.
    I have lodged this with action fraud, the merchant who provided the third party service and issued the gift voucher also lodged this with action fraud and in their reply have stated that I have been the victim of fraud.
    I have followed the complaints process and the building society have treated me like I am the criminal, and they are now forcing me to settle the payment on my credit card.

    I dont know what to do this cannot be right i am the victim of fraud and dont know what to do next.

    thanks
    Can I ask. Did you pass the OTP details on to this person?

    All you can do is raise a complaint with Nationwide, let that run it's course & if not happy go to FOS.
    But I would try to report this to the police, if you have any contact details for the seller?

    Sadly what AF say has not bearing on how Nationwide deal with this. 
    Life in the slow lane
  • Tucosalamanca
    Tucosalamanca Posts: 850 Forumite
    500 Posts Third Anniversary Photogenic Name Dropper
    zagfles said:
    Olinda99 said:
    zagfles said:
    thanks for the replies, 
    It was a nationwide credit card and after being a customer of there's for over 40years I am very very disappointed in the way this is being handled and the way I am being likened as the criminal in all this.
    The bike was advertised as secondhand on FB marketplace (the first and last time that I have ever used it), at the time there were no redflags, pictures of the actual bike, a profile, it was not advertised as a too good to be true price.

    After getting the final letter/email from Nationwide I will escalate to the financial ombudsman
    Was it advertised as a private sale or a bike shop/retailer? When you authorised the transaction who did it say you were paying?
    probably not a private sale if they took credit cards although maybe it was an individual who just wanted to cc details

    as above - ask NW for a deadlock letter and go to the ombudsman

    keep it simple - you paid for an exercise bike that didnt arrive
    That was why I was asking. OP almost certainly didn't pay for an exercise bike. What seems to have happened is that OP contacts the "seller" or rather fraudster, who tells OP they can pay by credit card. So OP gives the CC number, expiry date, 3 digits on back. Then gets a text to authenticate the transaction in the banking app.

    But really the fraudster is on a gift card website, entering the OPs CC details to buy a gift card, probably to be sent to a burner email.

    Hence the reason for my question. When the bank sent the notification to authorise the payment, did it say "please authorise payment of £500 to Mike's Bike Shop Ltd" or similar, or did it say "please authorise payment of £500 to giftcards.co.uk" or similar. 

    If the latter, I'm sure the bank would argue that the authorised transaction was for buying giftcards, not a bike. 
    Exactly this.

    delivery was arranged with the merchant

    The 'seller'/fraudster was also to obtain the card holder's address, undoubted useful when carrying out more fraud later the same day.
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