21 October 2007
Credit Card Fraud - it COULD happen to you
It almost happened to me.
Thankfully, the bank concerned are very much on the ball; and even more thankfully it wasn't any form of identity theft. The chances are it was an auto-generated card number.
What happened was a small purchase had been attempted against my card - a £1 transaction to basically check if it was a valid card. This has become such a common prelude to large-scale credit card fraud that the bank concerned block any such transactions, puts your card into "referral" (so any merchant who tries to take payment from the card will be asked to call the bank) and sends you a letter.
On phoning the bank I was reassured that no transactions had been allowed on my card, told to cut my card up and destroy any documents that might have the card details or the pin number on, advised that the existing card had now been deleted and that all access to the account had been suspended until I received the new one.
Thankfully, the bank concerned are very much on the ball; and even more thankfully it wasn't any form of identity theft. The chances are it was an auto-generated card number.
What happened was a small purchase had been attempted against my card - a £1 transaction to basically check if it was a valid card. This has become such a common prelude to large-scale credit card fraud that the bank concerned block any such transactions, puts your card into "referral" (so any merchant who tries to take payment from the card will be asked to call the bank) and sends you a letter.
On phoning the bank I was reassured that no transactions had been allowed on my card, told to cut my card up and destroy any documents that might have the card details or the pin number on, advised that the existing card had now been deleted and that all access to the account had been suspended until I received the new one.
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