Wonga tried to take ~£500 from me today - I've never used it

[JimmyTheHand]

wst said:

just remember to keep an eye on your statements, people!

and keep an eye out for missing mail - someone was pinching the mail from a guy at work out of the letterbox in the block of flats they lived in (just putting hand through opening) - had applied for quite a few cards etc.

[wst]

DWP said:

Aut quaeram vos volo respondit aut develope sensu humor.

Humor perfectam rationem habeo. Es iustus non mauris.

Think I've got all of the useful information out of this thread, thanks! And hopefully it won't happen to you. (Even if they weren't a scummy service with stupid interest rates, I'd not go to Wonga just because they have stupid, stupid adverts. I avoid gocompare as well, for the same reason. Stupid adverts.)

[streaky]

XDA said:

sugerbear said:

streaky said:

There is a low level of compromised PEDs in use. Some petrol stations have used them.

Streaky

PED - Performance Enchancing Frug or Pressure Equipment Directive ?

Pin Entry Device (Chip & Pin terminal)?

Actually, PIN Entry Device - as "PIN" is an acronym for Personal Identification Number.

Streaky

[Garvin]

streaky said:

XDA said:

sugerbear said:

streaky said:

There is a low level of compromised PEDs in use. Some petrol stations have used them.

Streaky

PED - Performance Enchancing Frug or Pressure Equipment Directive ?

Pin Entry Device (Chip & Pin terminal)?

Actually, PIN Entry Device - as "PIN" is an acronym for Personal Identification Number.

Streaky

Not short for PEDant then?

[streaky]

wst said:

DWP said:

Aut quaeram vos volo respondit aut develope sensu humor.

Humor perfectam rationem habeo. Es iustus non mauris.

Sophos.

Streaky

[Benbay001]

wst said:

this stuff was never taught in school or college, but instead I had to learn bloody Latin...

Absolutely, this drives me mad! I have no idea how to sort my finances, and always have to consult my mum.
A serious flaw in the education system!

[rallycross]

There is a free credit check service called noddle.com if you register there you can see any existing or new accounts against your name - when Someone set up a false account on sky tv using my card I found it here.

[streaky]

Garvin said:

streaky said:

XDA said:

sugerbear said:

streaky said:

There is a low level of compromised PEDs in use. Some petrol stations have used them.

Streaky

PED - Performance Enchancing Frug or Pressure Equipment Directive ?

Pin Entry Device (Chip & Pin terminal)?

Actually, PIN Entry Device - as "PIN" is an acronym for Personal Identification Number.

Streaky

Not short for PEDant then?

Well, there was a question mark at the end, so I took that as meaning that XDA wasn't sure ... but YMMV when it comes to punctuation.

Streaky

[sugerbear]

Garvin said:

streaky said:

XDA said:

sugerbear said:

streaky said:

There is a low level of compromised PEDs in use. Some petrol stations have used them.

Streaky

PED - Performance Enchancing Frug or Pressure Equipment Directive ?

Pin Entry Device (Chip & Pin terminal)?

Actually, PIN Entry Device - as "PIN" is an acronym for Personal Identification Number.

Streaky

Not short for PEDant then?

Technically POS (point of sale) terminals also allow signature entry as well ) so they are SAPEDs. Although if you want to go even further some dont even require a PIN or Signature so they are just EDs.

I wondered though, exactly how do Wonga process the cash advances and subsequent repayments. If its by your card then surely the money would have to be deposited into the account the card is linked to and any subsequent repayment would have to be made by direct debit against the bank account which wouldn't be recorded on the point of sale transaction so there is no way the account number could have been cloned from the card (unless the card issuer is very sloppy and included the account information on the card or in some of the discretionary data within the chip.

Apologies, I know nothing about how wonga works but I dont see how a card could have been cloned from a POS/ATM terminal to get the informatin required.

[XDA]

streaky said:

Garvin said:

streaky said:

XDA said:

sugerbear said:

streaky said:

There is a low level of compromised PEDs in use. Some petrol stations have used them.

Streaky

PED - Performance Enchancing Frug or Pressure Equipment Directive ?

Pin Entry Device (Chip & Pin terminal)?

Actually, PIN Entry Device - as "PIN" is an acronym for Personal Identification Number.

Streaky

Not short for PEDant then?

Well, there was a question mark at the end, so I took that as meaning that XDA wasn't sure ... but YMMV when it comes to punctuation.

Streaky

1-0 to you!

I was quite sure what a PED is as I setup and install them! And yes, they are very easy to compromise!

[XDA]

sugerbear said:

Garvin said:

streaky said:

XDA said:

sugerbear said:

streaky said:

There is a low level of compromised PEDs in use. Some petrol stations have used them.

Streaky

PED - Performance Enchancing Frug or Pressure Equipment Directive ?

Pin Entry Device (Chip & Pin terminal)?

Actually, PIN Entry Device - as "PIN" is an acronym for Personal Identification Number.

Streaky

Not short for PEDant then?

Technically POS (point of sale) terminals also allow signature entry as well ) so they are SAPEDs. Although if you want to go even further some dont even require a PIN or Signature so they are just EDs.

I wondered though, exactly how do Wonga process the cash advances and subsequent repayments. If its by your card then surely the money would have to be deposited into the account the card is linked to and any subsequent repayment would have to be made by direct debit against the bank account which wouldn't be recorded on the point of sale transaction so there is no way the account number could have been cloned from the card (unless the card issuer is very sloppy and included the account information on the card or in some of the discretionary data within the chip.

Apologies, I know nothing about how wonga works but I dont see how a card could have been cloned from a POS/ATM terminal to get the informatin required.

This is how they do it:

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/cardsloans/arti...

All you need is a compromised PED to collect credit/debit card details.

[wst]

Hmm, so it could be the PED or one of the self-service cashpoint things in Morrisons, the PED in the petrol station, or the ATM outside of morrisons, if those things are so prevalent...

It's worrying I don't use my card much and they still got me... and there I was, trying to use it more so I didn't accumulate many pounds (both weight and value) of change over each year...

Edited by wst on Monday 8th October 23:38

[SuperBen]

Do people actually use companies like Wonga? Silly interest rates and all that!

[stewjohnst]

I'm sure people do. If you actually go have a play on their site, if it's a very short term loan like a few days (maybe you get a puncture are out of spare cash before payday and you need a new tyre to get to work and pay it back three days later) Then you only pay about a tenner for borrowing say £200. This is steep interest when using the APR calcs but in the grand scheme of things it's only a tenner.

The issue with these credit places are those people who borrow for the last week of the month but then don't adjust their budget and the last week becomes a fortnight and then three weeks, etc so they're forever rolling over or applying for more credit and sink under the burden.

[XDA]

wst said:

Hmm, so it could be the PED or one of the self-service cashpoint things in Morrisons, the PED in the petrol station, or the ATM outside of morrisons, if those things are so prevalent...

It's worrying I don't use my card much and they still got me... and there I was, trying to use it more so I didn't accumulate many pounds (both weight and value) of change over each year...

Edited by wst on Monday 8th October 23:38

PED's can be compromised very easily via a number of simple methods.

[sugerbear]

XDA said:

wst said:

Hmm, so it could be the PED or one of the self-service cashpoint things in Morrisons, the PED in the petrol station, or the ATM outside of morrisons, if those things are so prevalent...

It's worrying I don't use my card much and they still got me... and there I was, trying to use it more so I didn't accumulate many pounds (both weight and value) of change over each year...

Edited by wst on Monday 8th October 23:38

PED's can be compromised very easily via a number of simple methods.

And all they can effectively capture is the magstripe data with the PIN which most UK banks will decline unless you have told them you are going on holiday to a certain destination.

It's pointless capturing the chip data because if it's a chip tranasction you cant use the information to replay (as long as you use DDA or CDA authentication or if the processor has implemented EMV poorly). Bank account details dont need to be stored on the card either, just the card number.

I thought Wonga worked by you supplying your bank details and them sending a faster payment same day to credit your account followed by you paying the amount off (or maybe a direct debit). Its the second bit I dont understand, do you have to log on to repay the money or do they collect via a direct debit ?

[Frijj]

Wonga recover their money through a card payment, you give them the details of the card to take the payment from before they even decide whether to lend to you or not. You even get a text message a few days before it is due to remind you.

[kooky guy]

Might be best to make sure that this is actually sorted out with Wonga. From what I remember from the Watchdog thing, they would continue to keep taking money even after being told numerous times that there was a mistake/fraud.

I'm guessing that this could eventually result in a black mark on your credit report if they continued to treat it as non payment.

I would want something in writing from them to this effect if it were me.

[djt100]

SuperBen said:

Do people actually use companies like Wonga? Silly interest rates and all that!

They are a customer of ours, and yes lots of people use then and in 2 or so years they have gone from nothing to doing very well as you can probably guess.

[Gareth79]

kooky guy said:

Might be best to make sure that this is actually sorted out with Wonga. From what I remember from the Watchdog thing, they would continue to keep taking money even after being told numerous times that there was a mistake/fraud.

I'm guessing that this could eventually result in a black mark on your credit report if they continued to treat it as non payment.

I would want something in writing from them to this effect if it were me.

Me too. It's important to find out whether the loan was taken out in the OP's name, or just that the card was nominated to take payments from. If it was a debit card, then mis-keying is unlikely because there is a check digit and the expiry date would need to match.