Banks and Card Fraud

[Dr Interceptor]

Morning,

We seem to be getting more and more fraudulent card attempts, both mail order over the phone, and online.

One this morning, a nigh on £1300 order on the website, passed 3D secure, but delivery address is a flat in East London, and the products on the order simply don't make sense. Mobile number only on the order, dodgy yahoo email address, and no answer on the phone.

So, I have the last four digits of the card number, I know the card issuing bank, I have the card holder address and postcode, but why do banks make it so hard to report fraud to them?

I wish they had a dedicated number retailers could call to report instances of fraud. Cards can be stopped/replaced sooner, and their customers can be saved a lot of hassle. But i guess, ultimately, all the time its the retailer that loses out when the chargeback comes, the banks just don't care?

Yours,

Grumpy of Farnborough.

[DSLiverpool]

Credit 12p back to the card, call buyer or leave message saying you have madd a fraud check refund as per policy and can they advise the amount.
Generally sorts it out.

[Dr Interceptor]

DSLiverpool said:

Credit 12p back to the card, call buyer or leave message saying you have madd a fraud check refund as per policy and can they advise the amount.
Generally sorts it out.

No point, it's clearly fraud. Nobody gets swimming pool new build equipment delivered to a high rise flat on an east London council estate.

Voided the transaction.... just wish the bank had a line we could call to let them know one of their accounts has been compromised.

[DSLiverpool]

Love that - a pool in a flat ! How stupid are they

[Charlie1986]

Have you not heard the property add on the radio some flats do have pools

[eybic]

A few years ago I was victim of card fraud, luckily I spotted it early on during the "tester" transactions. I managed to get quite a bit of information about the delivery address (flat on a housing estate in North London) and transactions but the bank were next to useless. I spoke with the police force that looked after the area of the delivery address to ask why they weren't doing more to catch the person responsible. Their response was that as I was going to get the money back from the bank for the transactions, I was not the victim, the bank was. Unless the bank reported it to them they were unable to do anything and it was unlikely the bank would report it as it would show up as an instance of fraud which leads to higher insurance premiums for them etc. etc.

I tried demanding that the bank involved the police through their fraud team but they decided to stop returning my calls.

[Dr Interceptor]

eybic said:

I was not the victim, the bank was.

That's the problem, the bank isn't the victim either, the retailer where the transaction occurred will be the victim.

The card holder initiates a charge back, and gets any money refunded, the bank collects this back off the retailer. The police don't care because the card holder is not left out of pocket, and the bank won't pursue it as neither are they.

It's the retailer who is left out of pocket, and without the goods, but with no-one interested in listening to them - "should have been more careful, sir".

It concerns me though that the crooks are now getting over the 3D secure hurdle, I guess if they have the card holders date of birth they can easily reset the password.

[mdianuk]

Don't forget also that eventual chargebacks place a strike against your account with the payment gateway etc. Too many and they'll bring into question your security checks.

Nice idea on refunding a small amount and asking the customer to check, but the issue with this is that it isn't always instant. A better method (for online) is to have the customer phone their bank for an authorisation code (6 digits) and see if it matches up. Work on the basis that if they can get through the banks security checks, and provide the number, it is likely to be genuine.