My Credit Card got done (fraudulent transaction)

[Nigelinoz]

A good indication of the size of the problem is revealed in this article from the Tele last week.
Credit card fraud gang smashed | The Daily Telegraph

Figures from the Australian Payments Clearing Association showed that in the last financial year, $60.5 million of credit and debit card fraud took place in Australia

 

[drron]

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

Well one scam invoved getting tickets in this way-onselling them at a discount thus getting real money then when the unsuspecting buyer turns up for the flight they find the tickets cancelled.
There was a thread on FT about it a while ago.

 

[Kendall Roy]

It's times like these, you need an AMEX!

One phone call and all sorted!

 

[GladstoneTim]

I've had two experiences in recent years. The first was when my credit card was stolen when I was having a massage. Quite a few thousand dollars rung up mainly on electronics around Queen St mall on a Friday afternoon. By 11am. the next day Westpac (Virgin Mastercard) were on the phone querying the transactions. Prompt action by them sending paperwork, quarantining the charges and issuing new cards. Had to make a police report because of the size of the theft and my certainty of who had pinched the card.

More recently I got emails in the middle of the night from Westpac querying some minor charges originating overseas. I actually thought the emails were a fraud but turns out they were legitimate Really impressed with Westpac's vigilance and action both times.

 

[Postcode]

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

Have had the same experience after visiting Thailand. Checked my statement as soon as I arrived home only to see a number of AirAsia X flights booked on my card. I used my card only at the hotel to guarantee against stealing whatever they saw as value in the room.

Surely they can't be onsold by the person who made the booking as the booking name and passport traveller's name would not be the same.

CBA were great. Investigated and dealt with it promptly. It happened again after my next trip to Thailand and I received a call from CBA saying my card had been clearly compromised, to cut it up and a new one is on the way.

I now have a CC I use only overseas with a smaller limit, and leave my local mobile number with the bank wherever I am. A quick email to my bank liaison bloke to let him know i've made an international transaction as a courtesy. I would not trust seeing an email saying it was from my bank.

Annoying it is, but much better than losing cash.

 

[medhead]

Well one scam invoved getting tickets in this way-onselling them at a discount thus getting real money then when the unsuspecting buyer turns up for the flight they find the tickets cancelled.
There was a thread on FT about it a while ago.

I would have thought another method would be to buy flights a day or 2 before travelling.

CBA were great. Investigated and dealt with it promptly. It happened again after my next trip to Thailand and I received a call from CBA saying my card had been clearly compromised, to cut it up and a new one is on the way.

They didn't cancel the card after the first time! When I spoke to the westpac guy for my incident he said that people were resistant to canceling a compromised card. I had trouble believing him, as that seems to be the obvious first action.

It's times like these, you need an AMEX!

One phone call and all sorted!

Sorry to say I'm struggling to grasp your point. In my case it was an Amex, issued by westpac, and it only took one phone call to protect me from having to pay for the charges. Given the size of the fraud it also seems perfectly reasonable to have to make a declaration that I didn't incur the charges.

 

[JohnK]

Have had the same experience after visiting Thailand. Checked my statement as soon as I arrived home only to see a number of AirAsia X flights booked on my card. I used my card only at the hotel to guarantee against stealing whatever they saw as value in the room.

Surely they can't be onsold by the person who made the booking as the booking name and passport traveller's name would not be the same.

Perhaps they already have clients who need flights and book the flights in the clients name with stolen credit cards.

 

[Aussie_flyer]

Air Asia allow name change for a fee

 

[mark62]

Presumably wouldn't be very hard to catch the culprits though in that scenario?

 

[opusman]

in the end it is the credit card users that pay for it all.

Actually, in the end it is the credit card merchants that pay for it all :evil:

 

[JohnK]

Actually, in the end it is the credit card merchants that pay for it all :evil:

Possibly but I still maintain the credit card users pay the majoirty of costs relating to fraud through annual fees and higher interest rates.

When was the last time merchant fees increased? Need to remember that not everyone pays off their credit card every month. Some of the credit cards are now up to 21.74%/pa which is a joke.

 

[Sprucegoose]

Actually, in the end it is the credit card merchants that pay for it all :evil:

JohnK is correct. We all pay for it.

 

[Oneworldplus2]

Do the banks have insurance against fraud? Or, is it their responsibility, even with co branded cards?

Update on my situation.
Well, nothing to update on really. I filled out a form that Westpac provided and am waiting for the new cards to arrive. So far, it's only been one call to cancel the credit card and another follow up call to make sure that they received to filled out form from me.

 

[opusman]

When was the last time merchant fees increased? Need to remember that not everyone pays off their credit card every month. Some of the credit cards are now up to 21.74%/pa which is a joke.

I'm not talking about merchants paying via some hidden in-built component of the merchant fee. Merchants pay for fraud directly by the bank simply taking the money back from them.

 

[stuartfaz]

I've had cards in my name hacked twice. A few years back my Westpac debit card was compromised when somebody hacked in to my Paypal account, leading my account to be overdrawn by about $1500.

Paypal were ordinary at handling it, saying they'd return the money after an investigation that would last about 2 weeks. Westpac, on the other hand, noticed my account went into overdraw (I have zero overdraw set on my accounts by choice), reversed the transaction, got the money back from Paypal, and reversed the overdraw fees that had been charged automatically. 2 days.

The second time was earlier this year when my Amex Gold card was charged for 6 Russian domestic flights. Amex caught on to this before I did, got a random call in the middle of the day from their fraud department listing off transactions they suspected were wrong. They froze the account, reissued the card, quarantined the amount disputed and closed the investigation within a week. I was super impressed.

They even called a false alarm a few months ago when I was booking flights for a trip to the US. They noticed there had been simultaneous transactions in Australia and the US, and called me as soon as I finished booking to verify each transaction.

They are good.

 

[awilcockson]

I was living in Edinburgh, UK 10 years ago. I went to use my ANZ Visa, and was declined. Jumped online and saw a whole string of charges at service stations on the M1 Ring Road around London.

Called ANZ straight away, the card was cancelled, and a new one delivered ($50 international delivery fee, ouch!). The process for getting the ~$A4K in charges refunded was quite painful, took almost 6 months even though I was able to prove that I was at work in Endinburgh whilst my card was being used in London 500 klms away.

In this case it appears as though my card has been skimmed by a dodgy restaurant. I never let my card out of my sight since this happened.

 

[JohnK]

I'm not talking about merchants paying via some hidden in-built component of the merchant fee. Merchants pay for fraud directly by the bank simply taking the money back from them.

Can't be any more direct than that. So everyone pays for fraud except the fraudsters....

 

[Jeffrey O'Neill]

In 2005 when I had a NAB gold card I was in Manilla doing a bit of shopping and they decided to lock my card. Had a few transactions that didn't go thru but with the way things work over there it wasn't till the next day when I had to call back to NAB and get them to unlock my card - all over < $100 in transactions.

I had another holiday later in the year and called them up this time so I wouldn't get a repeat event.

Late 2005 I check my account online and see $8000 on my card. Turned out someone had gone crazy in China on my card.

NAB were pretty good about it, but I left not long after since they didn't seem to have much decent fraud system.

 

[albatross710]

The credit card system is broken. Various forms of card skimming have been around since at least 1992 when I saw my first example of it in action.

The pain of change is greater than the pain of staying the same.

At the moment the cost of fraud is less than the cost of fixing the system. By fixing it, they will need to implement a complete new international payment system, new standards, terminals, interfaces etc etc. he longer they delay the harder it is getting as everyday we are integrating more systems into the same limited card system.

I don't know the answer, maybe they already have something in the pipeline.

Alby

 

[Oneworldplus2]

All fixed. Got a reply from Westpac the other day.

Your claim for unauthorized transactions has been resolved in your favor
Recently you told us of unauthorized transactions on your MasterCard® Card
xx_xx_xx_xx_xx_x and/or American Express® Companion for Card xx_xx_xx_xx_xx_.

In response we have investigated these transactions for you.

We have now completed our investigation and are able to confirm that the temporary adjustment placed on your account is now a permanent refund of the amount of the unauthorised transactions on your account.

Thank you for your help during the investigation process. We take matters concerning unauthorized transactions seriously and aim to maintain our high state of vigilance to protect you from fraud.

The fraudulent transactions we refer to are:
Date Merchant Name Location Amount
14/12/2010 THOMSON COVENTRY $3,245.20
~ The merchant has provided credit to your account for this transaction which resulted in a change to the amount you were refunded

Fee / Charge Type Amount
Missed Payment Fees -
Cash Advance Fees -
Over Limit Fees $18.00
Overall Interest Charges -

Please be aware that our investigation is based on the information provided to or received by the Bank to date. The Bank may continue to investigate or re-open your claim even though the matter has been resolved in your favor. If it is found that you have participated in or benefited from the transactions, you will be contacted and this may result in the refund being reversed.

Should you have any questions, please phone us on 1300 364 294 (this is a toll free number if dialled from within Australia). If you are calling us from overseas, please phone +61 2 9374 7551 (reverse charge). Both of these numbers are available for you to call 24 hours, 7 days a week.
For more information regarding managing credit card fraud, please visit our website at How We Manage Card Fraud - Westpac.

Yours sincerely
Manager, Fraud & AML Operations

Looks like they charged me an $18 over limit fee (when it got maxed out, at guess). l'll check up on this and see what they say. I personally don't think that l should be paying an over limit fee when it wasn't my fault. Still, one phone call and it was all sorted, l'm very happy with that.