Well it’s finally happened. There was an attempt to defraud me!

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I’m actually stunned. Within the space of an hour I’ve seen tens of transactions for uber and uber eats come up on my phone for approval. My notifications were going off like crazy. Of course no approval from me because it wasn’t me! Froze the card immediately but they kept trying (pops up as declined because card was frozen).

I’m quite tech savvy - I never click on links, I don’t give out my details, I don’t even use my card details only Apple Pay for this exact reason. I had to AI how the hell this happened and it could have potentially been a bot that goes through thousands of combinations of numbers until they get a match and then use uber to test it as it has very low authentication mechanism for transactions. Then they move on to bigger stuff.

Well thank god for my bank! I stood on the tube frantically clicking ‘DO NOT APPROVE ITS NOT ME’

I'd rather do that for a couple of hundred than a few thousand.

“ should” though. It’s not necessarily guaranteed or straightforward. Far better to prevent than rely on getting it back.

Also be aware that phone number spoofing software means the criminal’s call appears as the bank number that you may have stored on your phone - even if the call screen says ‘[bank card services] or whatever, don’t trust it. End the call and ring the number yourself.

No, I only ever use applepay for physical transactions - I don’t even carry my card half of the time. Applepay randomises all the card numbers so it’s never the same

I put "should" only because a bank will always reimburse the customer for fraud unless they have been grossly negligent but they have to be able to prove that.

My postman spent £10k on my credit card in Las Vegas. First I knew was the bank calling me asking me was I in Vegas spending big. After the shock (and it was very easily sorted out) I was quite impressed at the planning that had gone into what was quite old school fraud with him intercepting post. He took out a credit card in my neighbours name and the first she knew was when she got a statement for a card she didn’t have that he’d failed to swipe out of the post. Turns out he was doing it all over the place and he went to prison. There’s very little you can do if people are hell bent on fraud - just keep an eye on your accounts.

It has happened to me a few times recently and I have to say that the Bank were all over it very quickly - there's some clever people out there, on both sides of the law.

Happened to me 3 or 4 times, thankfully I’ve always spotted it quickly and got the money back right away

Glad you spotted it. I wonder though if it could have been an error rather than a scam on this occasion? The multiple attempts in a row sound like someone not understanding why it isn’t working on their account - maybe they typed their card number in wrong so you were getting the notifications and they kept retrying not understanding why it wasn’t coming through to them? Either way you need to block the card and get a new one, I just like feeling better about maybe it was someone just having a bad day rather than deliberately trying to scam you.

I think the chance of someone putting the wrong details in and it perfectly matching the OP's card details, assuming the CVC number matched too are very slim. Trying Uber and Uber eats repeatedly is a well known tactic.

Would you be kind enough to share some obvious tips to be aware of that we might not know?

It happened to my DH who is also very tech savy. He is always getting on at me, who is more lax about it, to do 2 factor authentication and never allow sites to save my card details. I think there had been some data breech on his email as his email accounts and PayPal got hacked too and they somehow manages to get through his 2 factor authentication.

It’s generally not the fraudster’s address. They loiter nearby and then just pop out when the Amazon van arrives and pretend to be coming home from the shops or something.

Does it help that I have the tap and pay set to £50 only?
So most of the time use a pin to authorise.
or are there other protections I could utilise?

I would struggle as another poster suggested to contact our bank immediately given I’d have to search for a number.

I studied cyber security at post graduate level. Even one or two of my lecturers got caught out.

We get notified of every payment we make on the credit and debit cards. We also have 2 factor so if we are buying something out of the ordinary for our everyday spending it sends a text message with a pin. I also have my phone locked down so message content is not visible on the screen, you have to unlock it to see them.

This was because 20 years ago someone did try to use our joint credit card details to buy stuff. They had our card number and home address and bought stuff but the shipping address was somewhere dodgy in London which flagged it. Whilst this was happening I tried to buy at £50 headboard and my card got rejected which was weird. Then I had a phone call from the bank but I rang them back not trusting it was them. All sorted within a few days

We check our bank statement every month and look at the credit card purchases too. The fraud one above tested the card with a £1 purchase then tried £400 on clothes.

Lots of credit card information is stolen and sold on the dark web.

I actually think banks are very very good at reimbursing. But sometimes it takes a while and that can be distressing especially if you dont have other funds to cover the gap.

It's the usual advice
Don't use the same password across multiple sites.
Don't use easy to guess passwords, the hardest to crack are a long string of random numbers, letters and special characters
Use a password repository like Last pass to store and also generate passwords
Use multi factor authentication where you can
Don't buy via adverts on Social media
Always research when buying online from companies you haven't heard of
Your bank will never call and ask for your passwords, or tell you to move money due to fraud
Be aware of current scams, the WhatsApp scam and Tiktok scams catch loads out.

This website is brilliant for advice, it also details the current scams
www.takefive-stopfraud.org.uk/

No, very few fraud cases are from apple or Google pay, it's usually people falling for scams, using dodgy websites etc. There are a lot where people will buy something from a website and receive the goods, they will usually be shoddy quality but what they really wanted were your personal details they can then sell them on the dark web.
I never buy via adverts on Social media, if it's a company I've not heard of I will research them and if I have any doubt I don't bother. If something seems too good, it usually is.
If you need to speak to your banks fraud department call 159 they will direct you to your banks fraud department. Or their number should be on the back of your card.

@askmenow I should have said digital wallet fraud usually starts with the scammer getting the details inadvertently from the victim usually over a few weeks of gathering your information over calls, it's elaborate and while you have a £50 they will just do lots of smaller transactions quickly. The key is to not give any details away ever over the phone

A good method is to have your main bank account where your salary goes to, bills come out of and never have a card for it.

Have a separate account with a completely different bank that you transfer small amounts to for day to day spending.

2FA should be via an authenticator app, never a text message. Sim swap is too easy. Also, separate Gmail addresses for banking / important stuff vs shopping and signing up to random stuff.

Interestingly I had this at a petrol garage. I used apple pay. I reported it and was told it happens a lot with Apple Pay.
Stopped using it immediately and hasn’t happened since.

Thanks for this thread - I just went into my banking to check how to cancel or freeze my card if I needed to - to make sure i know how to do it if I have to.

I've had one scam and it was most odd. It was on my credit card - which is the only card I take when I go on holiday and I assume the details got copied down somewhere. Every two months someone was spending around £25 in what seemed to be a lingerie shop in Birmingham (I only had the statements to go on so I'm not sure whether it really WAS a lingerie shop or something more nefarious). Just that though. Regular payments of the same amount and only to that place. I discovered it after six months when I did my twice-yearly trawl through my CC statements - it was such a small amount that it hadn't pinged up as anything fraudulent before. Cancelled the card and it all stopped.

Very odd.

So I’ve seen how ApplePay scams happen. People have these bot apps they generate cards through. They tap away on their phones and then attempt to pay. It’s like a database of hundreds of card details.

I hope you now check your statements regularly. I check my bank account daily 🤣