Credit Card Fraud

[upanatem]

My wife went into our credit card A/C yesterday online to pay a bill and the A/C was frozen. She telephoned them to ask why, and was told that they had just put a 'stop' on the A/C because MasterCard had informed them that our card details were found on a compromised website. Apparently quite a few other account holders' details were found on the the same site.

I subscribed to Sportsmania for a period and did not renew in January when they only accepted payment by bitcoin, and was wondering whether this might be the source. This is not an accusation, just conjecture. Has anyone else experienced similar?

[cricketfieldclarets]

Suspect it will be. Can't believe how many people (not a dig btw) are so naive to pay for so much with their cards without checking the security of it.

Sportsmania, a service that effectively lets you illegally stream content. People may as well send their bank account number and mothers maiden name to the Nigerian bloke who emails once in a while saying you have inherited some gold.

[JimmyMac'sMate]

Cricket field clarets sounds like a man about town utc

[Sidney1st]

Suspect it will be. Can't believe how many people (not a dig btw) are so naive to pay for so much with their cards without checking the security of it.

Sportsmania, a service that effectively lets you illegally stream content. People may as well send their bank account number and mothers maiden name to the Nigerian bloke who emails once in a while saying you have inherited some gold.

"What if there actually is one legit Nigerian billionaire prince who genuinely needs to use my bank account?"

Spotted this on factual franks FB the other day

[cutsy123]

Suspect it will be. Can't believe how many people (not a dig btw) are so naive to pay for so much with their cards without checking the security of it.

Sportsmania, a service that effectively lets you illegally stream content. People may as well send their bank account number and mothers maiden name to the Nigerian bloke who emails once in a while saying you have inherited some gold.

Willo who runs the SM site is based in and around there too haha

[tim_noone]

Cricket field clarets sounds like a man about town utc

He's served his apprenticeship.

[bfcjg]

If anyone is concerned I can check for you free of charge. Just send me your card details .
princeoneborneveryminute@nigeriaisfine.co.ng

[starting_11]

Presumably they had to use a card processor so I doubt they'd have access to the details anyway.

Could be a keylogger, employee stealing data at Mcard or someone whos hacked a database.

[Hipper]

Willo who runs the SM site is based in and around there too haha

An SM site? No wonder people's credit cards are tied up.

[FactualFrank]

I always pay via Paypal if there's an option to do so. Even moreso if I was paying for something from a company I don't know much/anything about. Most reputable sites will nowadays give that as an option. You can then cancel the payment through Paypal when you wish to stop using the service. If they don't allow Paypal, that can often raise an eyebrow.

[cricketfieldclarets]

"What if there actually is one legit Nigerian billionaire prince who genuinely needs to use my bank account?"

Spotted this on factual franks FB the other day

[cutsy123]

An SM site? No wonder people's credit cards are tied up.

Sportsmania is run by a guy called willo and his servers are in nigeria or surrounding areas

[mealdeal]

Sportsmania is run by a guy called willo and his servers are in nigeria or surrounding areas

Whooosh!

[LeadBelly]

"An SM site? No wonder people's credit cards are tied up"

Its a spanking new site though.

[aggi]

Sportsmania payment was done through one of the proper payment portals (Stripe or Worldpay maybe), they wouldn't have access to any card details. I imagine their current problems are that they can't get any of the companies to process payments for them now.

More likely it was some little web store who processed their own card payments, stored your card details in plain text on their server and got hacked. Pre-paid cards such as Revolut where you can top them up just to the level you want to spend and freeze the card can be useful for protecting yourself.

[UpTheBeehole]

Yeah, Sportsmania used Worldpay, and that's fully legit.

[Eloise Laws]

Within the last 4 months I have had my Nat West chip n pin card compromised twice - the first time it happened Nat West fraud rang me to tell me about some activity that had been brought to their attention - they went through recent transactions with me confirming whether I recognised them or not - there were 3 that definitely were not mine so my card was cancelled and they issued me with a new one. The second time, about 2 months later I notice a Netflix payment on our account which was nothing to do with us. I rang the bank and it was duly sorted out and refunded, card cancelled again and another issued. I asked the lady I spoke to why this might have happened to me twice within a short space of time - after years of banking with not a hint of a problem, - the only think I was doing different was to start using contactless payment more. She suggested I was just unlucky but she did say that since she went to work within that department she herself was very careful where she shopped on line, and never used contactless payment.

[Leisure]

What is the issue/problem with using contactless payment?

[Eloise Laws]

What is the issue/problem with using contactless payment?

I am not sure whether there is or isn't an issue, but I thought it odd since I started to use Contactless my card has been compromised twice, and the lady in the Fraud dept of Nat West didn't sound keen.
There are/have been articles about card readers etc picking up details.....how true these reports are I don't know, but just gave me something to think about, and I don't use contactless myself now.

[CharlieinNewMexico]

The small, strange payments like Netflix and similar are tests by the new number holder to see if the number still works. They buy lists (but don't have cards yet) and go through testing each one by trying to purchase small items online.

[UpTheBeehole]

It's nothing to do with contactless transactions

[aggi]

Theoretically you can get the long card number and expiry date from a card using a contactless reader. It won't have the security code or your address so it should be somewhat limited on what the info can be used for.

I'm not sure if there are any reports of it actually happening in the real world though.

[KRBFC]

Suspect it will be. Can't believe how many people (not a dig btw) are so naive to pay for so much with their cards without checking the security of it.

Sportsmania, a service that effectively lets you illegally stream content. People may as well send their bank account number and mothers maiden name to the Nigerian bloke who emails once in a while saying you have inherited some gold.

I got one the other day from a women in India who said her mother died of cancer so she inherited a fortune but decided to give it me.....

[Paul Waine]

Several years back I got a call from Nat West: "Had I received my new credit card?" I'd rec'd new card a couple of months earlier, so replied "yes, I've had it a couple of months." They said, "No, did you get your new card yesterday?" Of course, I answered "no." They then asked "did you withdraw £1,500 in USD from Thomas Cook in Croydon?" I answered "no, I don't live or work anywhere near Croydon." They then asked, "And, did you withdraw a further (approx.) £1,500 in USD (or perhaps the second currency was Euros) from M&S Travel Bureau?" Of course, I answered "no" again.

It turned out that someone had got my card details (possibly a Nat West inside job?) and had gone into a Nat West bank in Croydon to say he needed a new card. They said, "No problem. We can get one in a couple of days. Please bring your passport with you when you come in to collect it."

So, that's what happened, someone had a passport with my name on it - but, his own photo - and he collected the new credit card. Then he rushed into Thomas Cook and withdrew a lot of foreign currency - and 20 minutes later did the same at M&S.

Nat West then thought, "hmm, Paul Waine doesn't normally withdraw cash on his credit card." (Well, who would, the extremely high interest rates they charge). So, they gave me a call - and only then did I learn that someone else had obtained a credit card in my name.

We went through all the "fraud procedures." Local police weren't interested "it's not you that have been defrauded, it's Nat West in Southend, or wherever they are..." Also not interested that someone had a fake passport "he will have dumped it as soon as he had the money...."

Nat West cancelled my cards - and cancelled the fraudulent charges to my account. They did run a check that no one who knew me had been part of the fraud - I had to send them a copy of my passport and make statements and so on...

Then a new replacement credit card arrived - followed by a further set of credit cards - which I'd not asked for. Seemed Nat West wanted me to have both Visa and MasterCard cards. And, then we talked about passwords - and all Nat West wanted was "mother's maiden name." So, then I closed my Nat West credit card account - and told them that their security was weak.

Postscript: A couple of years later I read a report of a number of people being sentenced to jail - they'd been operating in Croydon area - creating fake passports and using them to obtain copies of credit cards.

[TheFamilyCat]

I got one the other day from a women in India who said her mother died of cancer so she inherited a fortune but decided to give it me.....

The Walker Trust got one similar a few years back. Savvy bunch though, they managed to palm their football club onto them in return.