Card Fraud: CA comes up trumps

[Clair]

Last weekend I was surprised to receive an email from Amazon UK concerning a purchase I had made on the site the day before, saying my card (which they have the details of) had been declined.

Another purchase attempt was also unsuccessful and I contacted my bank (Credit Agricole Nord-Midi-Pyrénées) to find out why my card had been declined on two occasions.

It turns out that some snake somewhere had attempted a fraudulent debit in the US, using my card number.

The amount was only $0.71 and I understand it is a classic attempt where if the first fraudulent withdrawal (usually undetected by the card owner because of the very small amount) goes through without raising suspicion, a much larger amount is withdrawn soon afterwards.

Fortunately for me, the attempt was detected immediately and blocked by CA/MasterCard.

The card was blocked for all "distant-purchases" until I received a replacement card, which arrived today.

My only reservation is that they should have informed me as soon as possible when the card was blocked, but I am really happy they took action as quickly as they did.

I don't know how or where my card details were lifted. It has never happened to me before and I always make a conscious effort to shop safely online, even if I pay more for it.

I have used the card for purchases at M&S and Play.com, which both contacted their customers recently regarding the hacking of their customer data, although both companies have said their customers' banking details were safe.

As far as CA is concerned, I am particularly pleased, as I do not pay any fees or insurance premium for my bank account and I only pay the usual annual fee of around 38€ for the MasterCard.

[Mr Wiggy]

Hi Clair.

I suffered a similar fate myself a couple of years ago, believe me it wasn't a very good experience, the treatment I got was completely opposite to the way you were treated.

 

I received a letter from my local bank, Credit Mutuel asking me to go and see them. Unfortunate for me, I was treated as though I was 100% guilty by the jumped up young manager who was an extremely arrogant person.

My interview with this individual was more of an interrogation, I was asked to relinquish my card and had to sign an agreement to that effect.  

He then showed me an extended statement with my dealings and all the fraudulent purchases which were, as long as your arm.

Whoever had done this had quite a field day at my expense which by this time had run into several thousands euros.

When the fraudulent amounts were filtered from my statement, I was amazed and angry to see the amount defrauded; over 2500€ I just looked at him and demanded, “Why didn’t you just stop the card instead of letting it continue?” No answer.

 

Then a good friend of ours (S.D.) who came to my aid and also didn’t agree with this guys attitude and mannerisms, we went to report this incident to the local Gendarmerie who thankfully managed to clear my name and I believe the bank did recover most if not all of the monies. I never received any apolgy from the TWERP at the bank so!!

Shortly after I wrote a letter of disgust to the head office to complain of this manager’s grossly bad attitude and explained my reasons for this. He was shortly after removed to a lesser bank.

 

[Clair]

Mr Wiggy,

Reading you account, I am even more thankful for the speedy and efficient manner in which my incident was handled.

The kind of attitude you encountered harks back to the early days of online purchases, way back in the 80s, when banks were omnipotent and consumers almost at their mercy.

Unfortunately, it is still very much in line with the still-paternalist approach taken by some bank managers who have failed to evolve with the modern world. [:@]

Thank goodness for S.D., a uniquely helpful individual [:D].

[Mikep]

I too was impressed by CA's prompt action when a friend's card went astray in the post and was fraudulently used. I had taken him into my local branch of CA to open an account - he's an artist (Raymond Hunt) and held an exhibition of his Alpine landscapes in nearby Chatel. He needed to be able to pay in euro cheques when paintings sold. There was no trouble opening the account, although he is resident in England.

The troubles surfaced a few months later when the local branch rang me informally to ask if my friend knew he was overdrawn. Several suspicious transactions in Belgium had drained the account. A quick call to him established that he had never been there, so I dashed down to the bank to confirm their suspicions. In Belgium at that time you didn't need chip and pin, just a signature on the sales slip.

No problem, no hassle - they simply reversed the transactions (for electronic equipment, flowers, luxury stuff). I asked if it would be a problem for the shopkeepers - the bank shrugged - it was the shops' problem for not checking identity adequately.

What impressed me most was that the local staff took the trouble to contact me, a third party - no doubt strictly forbidden in the UK under data protection - and fixed the problem without stress. Of course there were forms to be filled in, but they were helpful with those too.

I still find their charges too high!

[Clair]

[quote user="Mikep"]I too was impressed by CA's prompt action when a friend's card went astray in the post and was fraudulently used. ... I still find their charges too high![/quote]

[:D] No charge on my account, unless I use the card outside the Eurozone.

[Mikep]

Which account is that, Clair? My Compte cheque charges 5.95 euros every month, plus 108 euros p.a. for PEA (shareholding) accounts, plus 36.70 for a Mastercard debit card.

I did a breakdown a few years ago of my Jersey sterling accounts which have similar balances and transaction loads - they paid me a couple of hundred in interest. I took in to my CA branch who were flabbergasted at the idea of a bank paying their customers! It didn't do any good - the CA charges stayed the same, and Jersey subsequently stopped paying interest. The good old days!

[Loiseau]

I found my UK MasterCard didn't work on arrival in France a couple of years back, when I was trying to pay for lunch en route to my cottage.

I rang MC when I reached the house, and they asked me if I had used the card to top up a Pay-as-you-go phone the day before.  "Yes," I said, "I just decided yesterday to set up an online top-up before leaving, as the phone signal is very dodgy at the place in France to which I was heading so it's hard to top up once there".
"Aha," they replied.  "That's why we have stopped it, but we'll put it back on stream now."
They explained that - in the same way as the OP's small Amazon deduction - a favourite ploy of fraudsters is to test a stolen or cloned card by ordering something like a phone top-up that does not physically get delivered to the cardowner's address.

I was glad MC was on the ball.

Angela

[Clair]

[quote user="Mikep"]Which account is that, Clair? My Compte cheque charges 5.95 euros every month, plus 108 euros p.a. for PEA (shareholding) accounts, plus 36.70 for a Mastercard debit card.[/quote]

Mine is a basic compte chèque, with no extras and no fees, except for the MasterCard annual charge of €38.

it sounds like you have a compte-service, which has bells and whistles like insurance for this, that and the other...

See below (source)

1. Le compte chèque

Ouverture de compte	Gratuit
Clôture de compte	Gratuit
Retrait d’un des co-titulaires du compte joint	31,00 €
Frais de tenue de compte inactif (Compte sans mouvement depuis 12 mois)	50,00 € / an
Frais de tenue de compte actif	Gratuit

2. Les comptes-services

Souscrits depuis le 17/11/2009

	Initial (*)	Equilibre	Optimum
Faire face aux imprévus : le découvert
Taux préférentiels des agios
Franchise d'agios
Assurance décès accidentel invalidité
Gérer ses excédents de trésorerie
Epargne automatique
Moyens de paiement
Chèques de banque
Assurance vol Sécuricompte
Pas de frais d'opposition sur chèque (**)
Prix / mois	3,20 €	5,35 €	7,40 €

^(*)Uniquement pour les clients n’ayant pas accès au

chéquier

^(**)Opposition à l’initiative du client

[Clair]

[quote user="Loiseau"]...They explained that - in the same way as the OP's small Amazon deduction - a favourite ploy of fraudsters is to test a stolen or cloned card by ordering something like a phone top-up that does not physically get delivered to the cardowner's address.[/quote]

Small clarification:

The fraudulent attempt was not made by or via Amazon. I found out there was a problem with the card when Amazon contacted after the card had been declined when they used it to pay for a legitimate order. The card details have been "stored" by Amazon for about 18 months without any problems.

From what I remember, the fraudulent charge of $0.71 was made by a company by the name of "Avon Something".

(clearly not Avon as we know it [:)])

[Mikep]

Thanks, Clair. I'm off to the bank!