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

[wst]

Today, I got a phone call from Barclays. Their anti-fraud robot had flagged some of my transactions.

It appears today, Wonga.com tried to take two loads of £250.54 from my account today. I have never even been to Wonga.com.

I have only purchased things from trusted websites, using an encrypted connection, used an ATM (and I always look at it before I use it!), and one or two of the little handheld machines at the petrol station, Morrisons, etc.

Luckily the anti-fraud thing caught these transactions... So there's no more proceedings for me to take as far as I can tell... just remember to keep an eye on your statements, people!

[wst]

I think wonga were given my account/card details by someone who had the loan paid into a different account. It's a flaw in wonga's business plan, certainly.

How does one go about getting a credit check? Let's just say that as a 20 year old, this stuff was never taught in school or college, but instead I had to learn bloody Latin...

[wst]

DWP said:

Google

Y'see, the point I was making was more along the lines of "what the hell is a credit check?", rather than "Where do I go?" - everyone's seen the experian adverts, but none of this stuff actually explains what it actually is... hence my comment about learning a dead language instead of getting a "PErsonal finances" lesson in school. Great answer, you sarcastic twunt. Use your brain once in a while, aye? We're not all born as little Alan Sugars, you know. It's no stupider a question than "what car?" and I don't see you being a moron in those threads (because I don't read them, to be honest. But if I did, I imagine I wouldn't see you being a moron there, or is that a case of me displaying too much hope?).

stew, that sounds quite nifty. I'll have to do a bit more research as evidently my financial knowledge is bloody lacking, partly from a lack of education in the matter, and partly because when I ask for information (for example, when it is relevant, like now) I get some decent answers and some stupid people wasting pixels. Thanks for the tip, should I take it!

[wst]

Thanks guys, it's quite a... strange system, but it seems to make sense now. I'll take a look into it, and I'll also have a chat to someone in the bank and see what they have to say for advice (actually going into the bank, the call centre is in India and what with phones being awful sometimes I feel like occasionally I'd have more luck understanding a Scotsman!)- at the end of the day it's in their interests to keep my money safe because I'm out of there if they lose it...

I might give Wonga a ring to register a complaint and get them to put a black mark against my name on their records. I'm never going to borrow money from them ever anyway

[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.)

[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

[wst]

sugerbear said:

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.

The PEd is one of those chip and pin machines, right? I don't think the magstripe goes far enough into the machine to be read, surely? In which case, it's my regular ATM at fault, as that's the only thing that I've used that eats the whole card! Sound about right?