Velocity account suspended

[jakeseven7]

Have you got conflicting addresses in your family pool perhaps?

 

[sempronius]

I had this same issue today.

I got an email 5hrs ago that my account profile has been updated.
I haven't transferred any points. Updated any details. Not even traveled in the last few weeks.

- I went to login as I didn't make any changes.
- It lets me login but when I try to click My Velocity or My Benefits, it briefly shows me account information (point balance 170k, gold status) but then loads the Inactive/Suspended/Closed Account warning and only gives me the option to logout.
- My phone app is still logged in though

I called 13 18 75 and explained the above.

They put me on hold and reviewed my account and told me yes, my account has been suspended due to suspicious activity. And that someone from Velocity will contact me in 30 business days. Tbh that SLA shocks me.

I explained I am concerned about the security of my account and could they escalate my call so I can understand what is going on as I don't want my points or personal information stolen.
I spoke to a manager (Jason) who explained that unfortunately they do not have access to any further information reg. the suspension due to suspicious activity. That the 'velocity team' will reach out in the next 30 days.

When I politely pressed for more information, they explained that I can still earn points on my velocity account but no points can be redeemed/taken from my account. That is how the suspension functions.

Will wait to find out more. Maybe in April *melting emoji*
Good luck to everyone else.

 

[lycheii]

Just confirming that I got the same email at 14:48 today, upon login my account was suspended. I've reached out to Virgin who are claiming their was suspicious activity on the account so it has been suspended for my safety, it will take up to 30 days for an investigation to be conducted (??) and unlocked but I can spend the points over the phone in the meantime.

I'm very skeptical of the situation if several of us have had the same issue happen within a short amount of time. It also seems ridiculous that they need to investigate the account before unlocking and they can not just let me unlock it and change the password considering they will let me verify over the phone to spend the points.

I had no point transfer and the account is tied to my virgin amex.

 

[louie-m]

I'm in the same boat as everyone else. Received an email at 9ish this morning, rang and was told what everyone else has been told. Received a second email an hour ago and rang again, only to be told this just showed someone internally had been doing something on my account.

Account (120k miles) hasn't been used since last May and the only transactions in the last three years have been Flybuys transfers and one flight. No family transfers or pooling ever as far as I can recall; definitely not in the last three years.

Seems to me to be too much of a coincidence that this is happening to so many people, so my money is on the accounts being hacked.

 

[Ade]

so my money is on the accounts being hacked.

I think so too ... may be a cyber incident that VA doesn't want to get publicised as such ... so locking people out of their accounts etc as a precautionary measure? Not sure what it resolves though ....

 

[turnipapple]

Received a second email an hour ago and rang again, only to be told this just showed someone internally had been doing something on my account.

I just got the second email as well.

 

[lycheii]

I also got the second email.

I agree with the sentiment that there has been an incident, but it is a possibility that it is shared passwords and credentials from another database that have been leaked, not necessarily Virgin that has exposed the data, given that if it was impacting all members there would be more noise. I assume the accounts have been locked while they investigate the scope of the issue.

 

[mhen]

Just got the same email again. This time I can log in and see the account. Nothing in account has changed. Will change password.

 

[louie-m]

Like mhen I have now been able to get into my account (didn't try earlier so don't know if that is a change) and nothing in the account has changed as far as I can see. I have changed the password.

 

[im.daniel]

Likewise, 2nd e-mail received, unsuspended. I hope we get an explanation/apology from VA - it'd be pretty poor not to keep the customer in the loop.

 

[Must...Fly!]

Virgin have proactively suspended and forced new membership numbers on some accounts before after high publicity cyber events. Those affected either Optus or Medibank customers, by chance?

 

[Jack_OC]

It would be interesting to find out what happened here. While the suggestion that there could have been some kind of cyber attack could be true, nobody on this thread has reported anything consistent with that (e.g. having their password changed without their knowledge, having points stolen, etc), and if Velocity had info about accounts being compromised, wouldn't they be forcing password changes in response? Again, that doesn't seem to have happened here.

Additionally, this all seems very reminiscent of previous examples of Velocity conducting a mass crackdown on alleged breaches of T&Cs. There have been suggestions in the past that they have been very heavy handed in doing this - e.g. suspending accounts before they even investigate, rather than in response to evidence suggesting wrongdoing.

 

[lycheii]

It's possible they had a bad software deployment that caused accounts to get flagged with suspicious login activity. They use models and rules to rate logins as being suspicious. On the phone they specifically told me it was for security and not anything else so the suspended flag must have an associated reason for the suspension.

 

[simmomelb]

It's possible they had a bad software deployment that caused accounts to get flagged with suspicious login activity. They use models and rules to rate logins as being suspicious. On the phone they specifically told me it was for security and not anything else so the suspended flag must have an associated reason for the suspension.

Yep, such a multiple logins from multiple IP addresses and/or devices within X period of time can trigger any good software security to automatically (temporarily) suspend an account.
It's there to protect customers ultimately.
It's a fine line between having your security systems too "aggressive" or too light.
Although publicity-wise, it's obvious what works best (Optus learnt the hard way).

 

[Jack_OC]

I found one of the previous threads on a similar issue: Velocity Accounts being suspended for investigation

On that occasion it was definitely related to suspicious points transfers. Perhaps this time it's different, but it seems to have followed a fairly similar pattern (i.e. lots of accounts being suddenly suspended at the same time, including some for no obvious reason).

 

[VegemiteSandwich]

Are you a Medibank member? They suspended many accounts that were compromised by the Medibank cyber crime. Nothing gets lost, but if something goes missing just ring them up. Give them a call, that will fix all your questions.

 

[sempronius]

Update:
Tried to login to my velocity just to see - and now my account is not suspended and I can access My Velocity and other details.

No email from velocity explaining this change.

Assume they had a technical issue last week and just haven't let anyone know.

 

[AFF Editor]

We reached out to Velocity Frequent Flyer to see if there was an explanation for all of this. They didn't confirm or deny that there was a specific issue last week, but this article summarises what we know so far:

Velocity Accounts Suspended & Reinstated: What Happened?

Last week, an unusually large number of Velocity Frequent Flyer member accounts were suspended due to suspicious activity.

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

 

[SydneySwan]

This is a pretty weak response from Virgin. I just assume that they stuffed up and would prefer not to admit it.

 

[jakeseven7]

We reached out to Velocity Frequent Flyer to see if there was an explanation for all of this. They didn't confirm or deny that there was a specific issue last week, but this article summarises what we know so far:

Velocity Accounts Suspended & Reinstated: What Happened?

Last week, an unusually large number of Velocity Frequent Flyer member accounts were suspended due to suspicious activity.

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

The non response says everything