Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Money stolen from my credit card again

32 replies

YeahRightOk · 08/12/2017 15:57

£3000 was stolen from my credit card account in the summer. the bank reissued me with a new card quickly, and then eventually reimbursed me.

last week, two sums of money were taken from my credit card on the same day. the bank initially notified me by text to let me know about this issue. they said they are dealing with it.

i'm very careful with my credit card, how i use it, and have it with me now. no one could have used it except me, no-one.

so this is the second time in 6 months that money has been fraudulently taken from my CC account! is this common? i'm worried sick again for second time in 2017. Sad

OP posts:
Pickleypickles · 08/12/2017 15:59

Could it be someone you know? Where is the card being used? I guess you could just be unlucky but it would be pretty unlucky.

MyBrilliantDisguise · 08/12/2017 15:59

Didn't they issue you with a new card at the time?

MrTrebus · 08/12/2017 16:00

Close down the card and move to another one elsewhere,do a balance transfer if you have a balance,if not just clear it and close the account down (don't just pay it off and cut the card up you need to phone them and close the account down completely) with credit cards when they're replaced the long number on the front stays the same so it's only the expiry and security number that changes. This can then potentially be calculated by the criminals and reused. I work in banking, if you want this to fully go away just shut down that whole credit card account and go elsewhere.

wasonthelist · 08/12/2017 16:00

It is much more common than banks want to admit. It could be addressed if they or the authorities cared - but they regard it as trivial.

Pickleypickles · 08/12/2017 16:00

Just to clarify by where is it being used i mean like in this country or at shops or online etc.

BarbaraOcumbungles · 08/12/2017 16:03

Dha credit card was done a couple of years ago - once it was copied at a petrol station franchise and the other time was from when he paid his car tax!

It hasn’t happened since.

LightastheBreeze · 08/12/2017 16:05

I think it is quite common, DH had his card fraudulently used last week, mine has been done twice, 2 different cards. A colleague at work had her bank compromised, someone else had their Amazon account robbed.

Original poster
YeahRightOk · 08/12/2017 16:12

They did issue me with a new card. the 16 digit long number on the front of the new card is different to the last one.
I sometimes use the card online. it has not been used outside of the country.

what is wrong this time is the following:
i spend £25 at duty free on arrival home last week. duty free says i spend £100. i have receipt for the £25. i was only a small gift.
then i paid my internet when i got in home, which was £50. instead the internet provider took £250.
this is so strange. how can two different companies on the same day both take extra?
i'd love some help from banking folk. worried sick again.

OP posts:
FittonTower · 08/12/2017 16:15

A friend of mine had large (for them at least) sums taken from their bank account 3 times. They closed the account entirely and moved banks eventually, I don't think it's unusual to be targeted more than once

MrTrebus · 08/12/2017 16:15

Ah maybe the fraud was bad enough last time they issued you a new long number,doesn't often happen. Not much you can do except change credit card company. Mis charging can happen but twice in a short period of time seems odd but technically that wasn't fraud just mistakes.

DubaiismyBlackpool · 08/12/2017 16:16

Happened to me too this summer. They spent over £3500 in 10 days. I’m pretty sure it was cloned at an airport restaurant just before flying out to the Middle East. I hardly ever use it in real life, mostly it’s online buying, but the bacon sandwich was £10 not the expected £5 and I had to use the card to pay.
They were idiots though, they paid London congestion charges, car parking and splashed out at the Premier Inn in London. Even after I called the bank and had the card stopped, my bank still allowed some of the parking fees for a couple of weeks. What really made me mad was they always call me if transactions out of the normal are charged, I don’t live in the South never mind London so the congestion charges etc had never been charged to my card ever. Oh and the 24 hour emergency number, isn’t 24 hours even though it says it is on the actual card.
Cad fraud is far too commonplace nowadays.

ChelleDawg2020 · 08/12/2017 16:19

Lightning does strike twice, you know. But my advice is just close your account and go elsewhere. If it happens again, perhaps it is something you are doing "wrong" - a particular place you shop, for example.

Try not to think of them as stealing "your money". It's not YOUR money, it's the bank's money. They are stealing from the bank, not you. Yes it's causing you alarm and hassle, but you personally have no liability for fraudulent transactions.

From your latest post, it sounds like it is the shop / ISP that is in the wrong. If someone was being fraudulent, there would surely be transactions you don't recognise at all... it's weird that two companies would overcharge you simultaneously though.

Original poster
YeahRightOk · 08/12/2017 16:24

yeah its weird that two totally different companies would do this on the same day. Sad

OP posts:
vestedintern · 08/12/2017 16:24

i spend £25 at duty free on arrival home last week. duty free says i spend £100. i have receipt for the £25. i was only a small gift.
then i paid my internet when i got in home, which was £50. instead the internet provider took £250.

Are the merchants really taking that extra money or is that just what appeared on your statement? If it was merely the merchant taking more than you expected then it's hard to see why the bank would have texted you, so I suspect it's something weird going on inside the system.

You shouldn't stress about it too much - it's the bank's money and the bank's problem, not yours.

purplecorkheart · 08/12/2017 16:26

It happened to me twice. Both online. The bank were able to tell me that it was because the sites I had used had been hacked rather than something I did wrong. One was for a major department store and one was a major travel company.

Apparently, both times there were a few hundred people affected. I would advise though doing a complete scan of your computer just in case.

LightastheBreeze · 08/12/2017 16:30

Yes it can be worrying and inconvenient as the bank will freeze the account so probably best to have 2 or 3 different accounts, I have. DH was very lost this week without his card and I told him to sort out another account as well. I keep one card solely for Amazon, EBay and Paypal so I can keep track.

Chewbecca · 08/12/2017 16:32

Sadly it is pretty common.
Try not to be worried sick about it, because it is so common, it is usually sorted without too much aggro.

BrokenBattleDroid · 08/12/2017 16:34

No idea if this is even possible, but given the same pattern affecting different transactions from different shops, could the fraud be coming from in-house at the credit card company?

Original poster
YeahRightOk · 08/12/2017 16:36

yeah, it would be a massive coincidence to have two frauds from two different companies on the same day, i think.

OP posts:
LightastheBreeze · 08/12/2017 16:38

Could it be a bank error or have they said it was fraud.

ptumbi · 08/12/2017 16:41

I was texted at 1am by my bank asking if I'd used my card in the last 5 minutes! When I texted back 'no' they said they were suspending my card due to 'unusual purchases'.

Turned out someone was trying their luck with the long number, trying to get Netflix, buying online, concert tickets etc. They just got lucky.

What tipped off the bank (other than the small-hours purchases) was the Netflix purchase - was £1, IIRC, but to a different address (obvs).

My card was cancelled and a new one issued,but if it's a case of just trying numbers, there is still a chance it'll happen again. Eventually

Original poster
YeahRightOk · 08/12/2017 16:43

the bank have referred to this as an 'issue'. that's all.

OP posts:
LightastheBreeze · 08/12/2017 16:48

Sounds like it could be an inside issue especially as you did make the purchases and then extra money was taken. Sometimes in the papers are cases where bank employees salt money away from people and get away with stealing thousands before it’s noticed. At least the bank are onto whatever is going on

ElvisIsAliveAndLivingInHull · 08/12/2017 16:55

Sometimes in the papers are cases where bank employees salt money away from people and get away with stealing thousands before it’s noticed. At least the bank are onto whatever is going on.

I have heard of this happening a few times.

ElvisIsAliveAndLivingInHull · 08/12/2017 16:55

A lot of the time it is someone you know doing it.

The £3000 spent on a credit card (belonging to the OP,) makes me very glad I don't have one. I also don't have internet banking, or a smart phone. I know shit can still happen, but the chances of anything happening to me are much less than many.

I know one case where someone went on holiday to the far east, and they were in Thailand, and had a meal for 6 that cost in English money about £150. They were a bit drunk and clueless when they paid by credit card, and long story short, they ended up paying £1,500. They had basically put the PIN in voluntarily, and could not prove their purchase was not £1,500, so they had no case, and had to pay all the money.

I also know a case of several loans taken out under someone's name, and they couldn't prove they hadn't taken them out, and received all the money, and so they literally had to pay the £7,000 of debt. Awful. This was 7-8 years ago; I think measures are put in place now to stop a lot of stuff like this happening, but things do still happen.