Fraud on Velocity Frequent Flyer accounts

[PollyMMoore]

My husbands velocity points got hack now points gone and no access to account , Virgin Velocity keep saying they are looking into it , no response. It’s been 4 months , our family points are being polled yet we can’t use them as the account is blocked . No one is listening.

 

[Dmac59]

Welcome to AFF @PollyMMoore
This is a known issue within the AFF family. [Merged into existing thread]

 

[knagelli]

Welcome to AFF family @PollyMMoore. Hope your issue is sorted soon and you are able to get your points back.

 

[knagelli]

Didn't even know you could link FlyBuys to 7-11?

I believe we are talking about linking flybuys to Velocity and 7Eleven to velocity separately as both of the respective accounts can contribute to velocity points addition.

 

[Legoman]

My new strategy is to contact American Express and tell them in no uncertain terms that I've had to shelve use of my AMEX Velocity Escape card entirely due to the unwillingness of Velocity to tell me anything about whether I can still accrue points via the direct earn card whilst they've frozen my account, locked me out of using it and are refusing to tell me anything. I suspect AMEX won't care too much, but I do have extensive history with them and they keep telling me how important I am a customer to them, so who knows? Maybe AMEX will be concerned enough to ask Velocity what the hell's going on and why is their incompetence now impacting AMEX's business model.

 

[kpc]

I noticed online family points transfers have been disabled and now have to ring the call centre. Wonder when rhey will reinstate online family points transfers as it is a bit of a PITA to have to call..

 

[RAM]

I had the same issue had to un-link my krisflyer account and Flybuys
The accounts need to be activated by velocity first to unlink
Krisflyer unlinked easily and so did Flybuys from my Flybuys account but did not unlink at velocity end
Velocity had to set up a request to unlink told will take 5 business days but took 2.5 weeks with me calling every second day after the 5 business days timeframe

I do have my account back finally with new velocity number after hack took place on 03 July 24 reported 04/07/24
Worst people to deal with to get anything resolved with

The fraud dept does not communicate no correspondence in the whole process except email when points were reinstated after contacting email below

I only got the points reinstated is by emailing [email protected] after lapse of 40 business days

Account points were reinstated in 1 day of emailing customer care above with a long email but Flybuys unlinking took another 2.5 weeks

Total time to get my 1.3 million points reinstated 10 weeks

Feel it’s time to back Qantas FF now

Where is call centre based?

 

[Legoman]

Well holy cow, my strategy to inform on Velocity to American Express, 7-Eleven and Coles/FlyBuys that I would no longer be availing myself of their businesses, products and services until Velocity start communicating, has had the desired effect! Just got a very lengthy and detailed response from Velocity telling me all about what I can and cannot do with my suspended Velocity account, apologising profusely, reassuring me how frustrating they are finding the situation as well as me and basically going all-out to placate an increasingly angry member.

Just goes to show, if you want action, you have to dream up ways of crippling their business model, then they take notice. In this case, go after all their affiliated business partners and tell them their affiliation with Velocity is now worthless because of how badly Velocity treat their members.

 

[burmans]

Well holy cow, my strategy to inform on Velocity to American Express, 7-Eleven and Coles/FlyBuys that I would no longer be availing myself of their businesses, products and services until Velocity start communicating, has had the desired effect! Just got a very lengthy and detailed response from Velocity telling me all about what I can and cannot do with my suspended Velocity account, apologising profusely, reassuring me how frustrating they are finding the situation as well as me and basically going all-out to placate an increasingly angry member.

Just goes to show, if you want action, you have to dream up ways of crippling their business model, then they take notice. In this case, go after all their affiliated business partners and tell them their affiliation with Velocity is now worthless because of how badly Velocity treat their members.

Did they tell you the two were linked or are you just assuming this wasn’t a coincidence?

 

[Legoman]

Did they tell you the two were linked or are you just assuming this wasn’t a coincidence?

Based on personal experience. Two weeks of virtual begging them to tell me literally anything at all, was met with complete radio silence only interrupted once with an unsigned, no-name standard form auto AI-generated script response designed to placate without providing any actual useful information.

24hrs after telling them all their affiliated business units had been informed of their inaction, I miraculously get a full page response specifically telling me I can still earn points and credits and benefits with all the exact affiliate businesses I had told them were now being avoided and it's personally signed by a real employee of Velocity.

Coincidence? Yeah sure.

 

[Johno1]

It's been 7 weeks since my account has been blocked. Doesn't sound like they are ready to refund my points yet. I will wait a bit longer.

An FYI. I was hacked approx 90 days ago and every time I called Velocity I got no answers, I also lodged a complaint via their website and was told to be patient and they will be in touch. This week I received an email from Velocity advising me I had been scammed and to report it to the Government reporting. I was also advised to set up a new account with Velocity and advise them it’s done and all my velocity and status credits will be re-instated so am happy with the outcome.

 

[Legoman]

This week I received an email from Velocity advising me I had been scammed and to report it to the Government reporting.

What "Government reporting" was this?

 

[Johno1]

Anybody else had trouble unlinking FlyBuys and 7-Eleven from your suspended account? I am told this needs to happen before the new Velocity account can be set up.

I was advised my new account is set up and they will unlink my flybuys and seven-11 but will take 5 working days

 

[Johno1]

What "Government reporting" was this?

Australian Cyber Security Centre Report | Cyber.gov.au.

 

[Legoman]

I was advised my new account is set up and they will unlink my flybuys and seven-11 but will take 5 working days

They are extremely efficient this mob. Every single little thing takes them multiple days or weeks or months to do. It woud be quicker and easier if they quoted ETAs in fractions of eons.

 

[eecchhoo]

A week after insisting to pass on my cyber police report to their investigation team, today received an email standard template advising the points is being returned to my account, report to cyber (which was done), create a new account with new password and security questions but not mentioning 2fa at all (well the don’t have it)
At the same time I just checked my account has been delinked from flybuys and 7eleven app.
Now it’s the process to get the points transferred to a new account

 

[Happy Dude]

It's great that folks are getting stolen points back. What a huge PITA to go through.

Sadly I don't think creating a new account is particularly reassuring. The new account won't be any more secure than the one that got hacked and basically is Velocity admitting "We're not putting your points back in your account - it's not safe."

I didn't have any points stolen but I'm still waiting for a response to my asking for a new account. Not that it would matter much.

 

[RAM]

I wonder what the common factor(s) is/are here?

Some action has led to a relatively small number of accounts to be hacked. Why these ones?

Quite a while ago a relatively small clearer (tiny in even the US scheme of things) got hacked. They cleared CC transactions, as it happened, across 19 (IIRC) different countries. They got hacked not Citi and was only lightly reported by a handful of IT trade publications mostly.

They were the only common factor.

Back to VFF:
1. Any redemption within weeks of issue? On VA or partner?
2. Any > 50,000 points family transfers?
3. Any > 50,000 transfer from a CC or other source such as Flybuys?
4. Any operator assisted redemptions?
5. Any other activity that springs to mind?

 

[muppet]

I wonder what the common factor(s) is/are here?

…

They were the only common factor.

…

What were these common factors?

 

[Happy Dude]

I wonder what the common factor(s) is/are here?

Some action has led to a relatively small number of accounts to be hacked. Why these ones?

Quite a while ago a relatively small clearer (tiny in even the US scheme of things) got hacked. They cleared CC transactions, as it happened, across 19 (IIRC) different countries. They got hacked not Citi and was only lightly reported by a handful of IT trade publications mostly.

They were the only common factor.

Back to VFF:
1. Any redemption within weeks of issue? On VA or partner?
2. Any > 50,000 points family transfers?
3. Any > 50,000 transfer from a CC or other source such as Flybuys?
4. Any operator assisted redemptions?
5. Any other activity that springs to mind?

At least two of the posters here had their email compromised prior to the VFF hack.