Velocity account suspended

[Scr77]

Family transfers aren't generally the issue...bogus family pooling is the thing that is more likely to get you suspended.

Are you in the same situation?

I’ve never had a suspension or family pooling. There are just too many reports and uncertainty around why/how far back issues go.

 

[tmdl]

I’ve never had a suspension or family pooling. There are just too many reports and uncertainty around why/how far back issues go.

This makes me very nervous as I have never done anything deliberately against the rules, I have only ever borrowed points to family members and transfers to them via the 'family transfer' function and received the points in return.

I have something like 596k points in my account and multiple flights booked, Im nervous that the bookings could be effected?

 

[bcworld]

BUT why would my account get flagged, because the address is the same or my mobile is listed on the account? we have only done a family transfer but not pooling

Post automatically merged: Apr 30, 2024

Any idea how long this investigation will go for?

You've probably created a bit of a tangled web by doing all this account admin on the same day...no doubt in quick succession, same IP address etc. I believe they tend to give themselves 30 days for this and won't be hurried up.

 

[Rosege]

This makes me very nervous as I have never done anything deliberately against the rules, I have only ever borrowed points to family members and transfers to them via the 'family transfer' function and received the points in return.

I have something like 596k points in my account and multiple flights booked, Im nervous that the bookings could be effected?

I think you did the right thing transferring out. I've never done anything family related with my account.
I transferred points from Singapore then a couple of months later redeemed for a business class one way flight. Then a few days later my account was suspended.
I'm not sure how they think treating their customers like this is good business.
I flew Rex for the first time recently and they were great. They will now be my first choice for domestic where possible.

 

[tmdl]

You've probably created a bit of a tangled web by doing all this account admin on the same day...no doubt in quick succession, same IP address etc. I believe they tend to give themselves 30 days for this and won't be hurried up.

It still throws me as nothing was transferred between the account for months and it was an address change? so odd

 

[tmdl]

In an account suspension, is anyone able to tell me

1. How long the process was for you?
2. The outcome?

I am really hoping my points do not disappear and my account is permanently locked, could this even happen?

*Currently on hold with the Virgin Australia premium team to try and clarify the situation

 

[bob342]

My account was suspended/locked almost 7 weeks ago. I called them and was told to wait 6 weeks and they could not give me any additional information. I had no pressing need to use the account, so I just decided to wait.

I just called them again and was told someone would contact me in 3-5 business days.

I don't understand how an 8 week turn around is acceptable at all. 6 weeks was already excessive, but 8... come on. Pathetic service here.

 

[RAM]

My account was suspended/locked almost 7 weeks ago. I called them and was told to wait 6 weeks and they could not give me any additional information. I had no pressing need to use the account, so I just decided to wait.

I just called them again and was told someone would contact me in 3-5 business days.

I don't understand how an 8 week turn around is acceptable at all. 6 weeks was already excessive, but 8... come on. Pathetic service here.

Find the contact details for the 'Company Secretary' (aka chief legal officier responsible for all regulatory issues) from Corporate switchboard if unable to find elsewhere, ask to be put through & likely you will get someone else in that office. Tell them you have concerns about what is being done, unreasonable delays, appears to be just pushing can down the road etc. Is that part of your formal procedures for client contact? "Wanted to raise it with you before I approach the regulatory authorities as I don't want to cause any fines for Virgin..."

Have all your details/facts dot pointed as concisely as possible and say as little as possible.

Works every time for me.

A number of times the Company Secretary has rung back to thank me for bringing the issue to their notice.

 

[afreedma]

I don't understand how an 8 week turn around is acceptable at all. 6 weeks was already excessive, but 8... come on. Pathetic service here.

I got the same "couldn't tell me anything until the review was completed" line and it would take up to 30 working days. Wouldn't even tell me if I'd been hacked and would need to be extra vigilant of somebody parlaying one hack into many.
Followed up today — 48 working days since the account was locked (75 total days) — and got told to wait 3-5 business days more.
It's nothing short of negligent.

 

[Sora]

Until this very day. I have never heard back from Velocity. So, they probably will never provide you an answer.

 

[tmdl]

Until this very day. I have never heard back from Velocity. So, they probably will never provide you an answer.

I would follow this up

 

[jakeseven7]

I got the same "couldn't tell me anything until the review was completed" line and it would take up to 30 working days. Wouldn't even tell me if I'd been hacked and would need to be extra vigilant of somebody parlaying one hack into many.
Followed up today — 48 working days since the account was locked (75 total days) — and got told to wait 3-5 business days more.
It's nothing short of negligent.

Did you have linked accounts for pooling? Apparently Velocity use a ‘stupid’ bot that runs through accounts and looks for deviations in addresses on pools and then auto-suspends for no reason. There’s been a few posts about that previously.

 

[ozstamps]

Loyalty programs - airline or hotel, have rules. They write them and those joining agree to abide by those rules.

There is no police appeal, no United Nations appeal, no court challenges possible.

The programs giveth - and if they want, they taketh away.

In near all cases, for excellent reasons.

99.9999% of members accrue points normally, spend them normally, and life is sweet to both sides.

Hope it works out for those with locked account issues.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Loyalty programs - airline or hotel, have rules. They write them and those joining agree to abide by those rules.

There is no police appeal, no United Nations appeal, no court challenges possible.

The programs giveth - and if they want, they taketh away.

In near all cases, for excellent reasons.

99.9999% of members accrue points normally, spend them normally, and life is sweet to both sides.

Hope it works out for those with locked account issues.

Disagree there aren’t necessarily ‘appeals’. There may be avenues in contract law, depending on the actions of the member and airline.

 

[Ansett Nostalgic]

Loyalty programs - airline or hotel, have rules. They write them and those joining agree to abide by those rules.

There is no police appeal, no United Nations appeal, no court challenges possible.

The programs giveth - and if they want, they taketh away.

In near all cases, for excellent reasons.

99.9999% of members accrue points normally, spend them normally, and life is sweet to both sides.

Hope it works out for those with locked account issues.

There is always the possibility of court action.

 

[Mr H]

Loyalty programs - airline or hotel, have rules. They write them and those joining agree to abide by those rules.

...

99.9999% of members accrue points normally, spend them normally, and life is sweet to both sides.

This seems to imply that those who have their accounts locked have somehow brought it on themselves. I might have thought the same myself had I had a brand new QR account locked for several months. There were no dodgy transactions because there were no transactions at all. Sometimes it is just bad luck.

 

[afreedma]

Did you have linked accounts for pooling? Apparently Velocity use a ‘stupid’ bot that runs through accounts and looks for deviations in addresses on pools and then auto-suspends for no reason. There’s been a few posts about that previously.

Yes. And we also moved house so that maybe that was the trigger.

Loyalty programs - airline or hotel, have rules. They write them and those joining agree to abide by those rules.

Yeah, that's true. There are also laws around data handling and responsible disclosure that companies can't skirt with terms of service.

I ended up emailing [email protected] since the call centre weren't helpful. From their response:

We can confirm that suspicious activity on your account was detected, and your account suspended as a security precaution. An investigation into the matter was subsequently commenced by our fraud prevention team in accordance with our internal processes, which confirmed that there was unauthorised access to your account. There is no evidence of any unauthorised changes to your account or unauthorised Velocity points transfers.

Whilst there has not been changes to your account and your Velocity points remain intact, the third party may have been able to view personal information on your account such as your name, DOB, address, security question but not the answer and any linked partners or accounts.

It appears that your Velocity number and password were compromised, and the third party was able to gain access to your account using these credentials. Unfortunately, we are unable to determine how your Velocity credentials were compromised by the third party as there a number of ways that this may have happened that are external to Virgin Australia and Velocity Frequent Flyer.

To reinstate access and secure your account going forward, Velocity would like to help you reset the password and security credentials for your account. A member of our Velocity Member Services team will be in contact with you over the phone to facilitate this.

I've asked them for the results of the investigation along with relevant logs or other information.

 

[Sora]

Yes. And we also moved house so that maybe that was the trigger.


Yeah, that's true. There are also laws around data handling and responsible disclosure that companies can't skirt with terms of service.

I ended up emailing [email protected] since the call centre weren't helpful. From their response:

I've asked them for the results of the investigation along with relevant logs or other information.

Are they sure they weren’t the ones compromised?

With the amount of accounts they’re closing it would make sense.

 

[Mr H]

You think? I remember before all this started that plenty of AFF members would come on here bragging about how they had registered their pets or ‘cousins’ to take advantage of family transfers.