My Credit Card got done (fraudulent transaction)

[Oneworldplus2]

Hi Peoples,
Well, didn't l get a surprise this morning when l checked my internet banking.


14 Dec 2010 1948.01 GBP INC FX FEE AUD$ 109.73
14 Dec 2010 THOMSON COVENTRY GB AUD$3,245.20


£1948 Thomson Coventry purchases on my Earth Amex on the 10/12/10 and turned up last night (14/12/10). Shock horror when l logged on this morning and the account was maxed out :shock: (As l don't use the card that much, I check my accounts online say 3 times a week)

The cards (Amex and Mastercard linked to the one account) have both been canceled and l am now waiting for an e-mail from Westpac Fraud Devision to fill out and send back so that a "fraudulent investigation" can commence. The money has been "temporarily" refunded in my account until a decision can be made by the fraud team at Westpac.

I don't know how/where they got my CC number, but l guess l'm not the only one to have this bad experience happen to. Has anyone else on this forum has such an experience? Any time lines to report on? If a Westpac customer, am l pretty much on the same time line as you?

So far, it's been a fairly painless procedure.

Call Westpac
Cancel cards
Wait for form to be e-mailed to me (they said it will take about a 1 week for the form to arrive, via e-mail???? Are they serious!)
Fill out form and send back
Wait for response from fraud investigation
Pick up new cards in the mean time (about 1 week)

I'm not stressing about it as it's happening more and more now days. But with such a large transaction (over 50% of my limit 5k limit) and in a foreign country with a huge FX conversion fee, l would have thought that, that in itself would have set alarm bells off at Westpac security somewhere? Obviously it didn't. I think that's one area that they can work on.

 

[tism]

Hi this is my first post i have been a long time lurker, I had the same experience my Westpac Amex card got hacked in Brazil about a year ago, as i never use the card online i have no idea how they got the details.

Westpac are good they check your transactions and pretty much take care of all the hassles.

Following up my Westpac Amex card got hacked again about 2 weeks ago and again in Brazil, again i dont use it online but Westpac caught it before any money was taken. Good luck it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

cheers

 

[straitman]

Hi this is my first post i have been a long time lurker, I had the same experience my Westpac Amex card got hacked in Brazil about a year ago, as i never use the card online i have no idea how they got the details.

Westpac are good they check your transactions and pretty much take care of all the hassles.

Following up my Westpac Amex card got hacked again about 2 weeks ago and again in Brazil, again i dont use it online but Westpac caught it before any money was taken. Good luck it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

cheers

tism,

Welcome to AFF.

It is good to hear that Westpac are being proactive with their dispute resolution.

 

[tism]

Cheers Straitman,

Yeah Westpac have been excellent.

 

[Oneworldplus2]

Hi this is my first post i have been a long time lurker, I had the same experience my Westpac Amex card got hacked in Brazil about a year ago, as i never use the card online i have no idea how they got the details.

Westpac are good they check your transactions and pretty much take care of all the hassles.

Following up my Westpac Amex card got hacked again about 2 weeks ago and again in Brazil, again i dont use it online but Westpac caught it before any money was taken. Good luck it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

cheers

Hi Tism,
Thanks for your reply.

I'll keep everyone on AFF posted on how it progresses along.

 

[markis10]

The transaction should be quarantined from your credit limit while its being disputed as well so that it does not impact your credit available.

 

[medhead]

I had a similar experience earlier this ear that I report about here. I'm on the phone at the moment so can't search for the thread. I got done for about A$2000 in charge the LAN on an earth card. Unfortunately, I didn't check online and only picked it up when the statement arrived. I also ignored the test transaction on the previous statement - a small charge that was refunded the next day.

I only used the card online with qantas, DJ and JQ. Thinking about it now and vaguely remembering someone mentioning a lack of security on the JQ booking site, maybe that was the problem. The other potential insecurity was the parking machine at Adelaide airport. At one stage I stopped pushing the receipt button and stopped checking for the receipt. After about a month or so I noticed, purely by chance, that it printed a receipt anyway and the receipt only X'ed out the middle 4 digits! Only 10000 combinations! This is a credit card payment thing so be careful to check.

Overall, the westpac process was relatively painless. They were very good with the refunds and not charging interest. In making my usual statement payment they advised not to pay the fraudulent amounts. This meant that I was carrying over some balance past the due date. But there was no interest charge.

One slight annoyance is that they couldn't tell which card was compromised, the main or the supplementary.

Also I strongly suggest faxing or emailing the form back. I mailed the first form and it was never received. The form mentions a time limit to return return the form and I missed that limit due to the mail not arriving. But that wasn't a problem, I just had to resubmit the forms and they reset the time limit.

Because of the great experience with their fraud process I haven't bothered to attempt to have the annual fee refunded. A small price to pay IMO for the protection.

BTW I spend well over $18k and was still charged the fee.

 

[Madam Mina]

A little while ago I had some random taxi and limo charges in Melbourne turn up on my ANZ visa. Funny thing was I hadn't been to Melbourne for over a year and I have never used a limo. I rang ANZ and told them the charges weren't mine they reversed them quite quickly and just sent me a letter to sign to confirm the transactions weren't made by me. Do be careful as I suspect it is a scam someone has going just skim a few random taxi charges here and there and no one will notice kind of thing it was only relatively small amounts that you could easily dismiss as a taxi ride you had forgotten if you were regularly in that city. I am now pretty wary of using credit cards in taxis as I have since heard several stories of people getting scammed by taxi drivers.

On a separate not apparently you are supposed to tell you cc provider when you are going overseas so they don't suddenly freak out and stop your card mid trip but I have forgotten a few times and never even had "are you really in ..." phone call so I don't think they keep that closer track.

 

[oz_mark]

For fun and games, try the case where AMEX theselves debit your card three times the credit limit. Been there, done that.

However, back to the case at hand. Westpac have been pretty good in my experience at sorting these types of issues out.

 

[bossreggie]

For fun and games, try the case where AMEX theselves debit your card three times the credit limit. Been there, done that.

I had a major hotel put an extra "0" on my hotel bill. I used express check out and did not realise until I got home. Instead of about $2,400 I was debited about $24,000.

This took over a week to sort out, as my bank suggested the hotel reverse the charge so I wouldn't have a conversion fee. It has put me off using express check out in a foreign country.

 

[simongr]

I had a dodgy flight charged to my corporate Amex in my previous job with no issues getting is refunded.

I should note that I extensively use my CCs on line to purchase stuff so I wouldnt be focussed too much on purely that consideration.

 

[pyffii]

earlier this year I got a call from CBA fraud dept re my co branded amex/mastercard regarding a suspicious transaction from the UK for $145.00...Said it wasnt mine as I was home and not staying in a UK hotel...by the time I had finished talking $45K had been spent which was way over my limit...CBA reversed all the fraudulent activity in 48 hours and a new card was on its way...Puzzled about how someone not only accessed my card but how they beat the limit...Was told there is a small time window when the banks computers are off line and thats when the fraudulent tranastions get posted !!!...Strangely all the activity was for airline tickets using over 8 airlines flying out of the UK...It all ended well and painlessly for me at least and very happy the way CBA handled the matter...Still no explanation as to how my details were gained as hardly used that card and there had been no activity with that card for 4 months !!!

 

[Oneworldplus2]

Strangely all the activity was for airline tickets using over 8 airlines flying out of the UK

I wonder why they buy airline tickets all the time? Refund the ticket onto another card, then withdraw as cash?



--Update--

Received a SMS from Westpac @11:00

Remind from Westpac; Has recent activity put your credit card over it's limit? Please check via internet Banking or call 132 032

Got an e-mail from the Westpac Fraud department @11:24. Filled out the form and am in the middle of e-mailing it back to them now.
Wow, that was quick!

See how the rest pans out. Looks good so far (maybe lots of practice makes perfect? LOL)

 

[JohnK]

I had fraudulent taxi fares appear on my Amex card several years ago. It was a painless process although it took several weeks to finalise.

I am struggling to understand how people continuously get away with fraud. You would think in today's day and age that fraud detection would make it almost impossible but I guess we have a long way to go.

 

[oz_mark]

You would think in today's day and age that fraud detection would make it almost impossible but I guess we have a long way to go.

On the one hand you want to be able to detect fraudulent transactions, but on the other you want also to be able to let legitimate transactions through. I doubt that it will ever be perfect.

 

[KLN]

had a phone call from my bank on a thursday night, just as i was finishing a discussion with husband and daughter on a trip next year. we had just gone thru all the flights and logiistics and agreed on everything, then they said they were stopping my cards. it wasn't until the following friday that i received the new cards. do you know how hard it is in the lead up to xmas without CC's. funny part was when i booked the flights 8 days later, the flights were $400.00 cheaper overall. hehehe

 

[k_sheep]

But with such a large transaction (over 50% of my limit 5k limit) and in a foreign country with a huge FX conversion fee, l would have thought that, that in itself would have set alarm bells off at Westpac security somewhere? Obviously it didn't. I think that's one area that they can work on.

Strangely, I've used my altitude cards in all sorts of weird and wonderful places for differing amounts. But the only time my card got suspended was when I bought a couple of promo hotel nights for ~50c each. Luckily I was in australia so a quick phone call sorted it out.

 

[Oneworldplus2]

Strangely, I've used my altitude cards in all sorts of weird and wonderful places for differing amounts. But the only time my card got suspended was when I bought a couple of promo hotel nights for ~50c each. Luckily I was in australia so a quick phone call sorted it out.

Good point.
I'm pretty careful with my CC's. I always try keep an eye on it if l have hand it over, my computer has 2 AV programs running and the OS is always kept up to date. Never had a problem before.

When l go O/S, l usually use a reputable bank ATM and use cash for everything when going out. I cover my hand when entering my PIN too. Again, never had a problem before.
When l was living in London in 2004-2005, there was a massive push for pin numbers on CC's. The "I LOVE PIN" campaign had billboard signs and advertisements in all forms of media before they switched over (from signed), yet here, they are still reluctant to enforce this and/or consider change?
http://www.chipandpin.co.uk/reflib/chipandpin_10oct05.pdf

Oh well, l'll put it down to another life experience.

 

[JohnK]

On the one hand you want to be able to detect fraudulent transactions, but on the other you want also to be able to let legitimate transactions through. I doubt that it will ever be perfect.

Agree that it may never be perfect but it seems so easy for fraudsters to scam money and in the end it is the credit card users that pay for it all.

 

[simongr]

A lot of it is jurisdiction. The fraud is easy to perpetrate on people in Australia without ever coming here. There are plenty of websites selling CC information that constantly change and move.

You only need to get away with a few transactions to live comfortably...