Fraud on my Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

[Andrew.]

marshy11 wrote:

Text today to tell me that the dispute has been ‘looked at’ and the transaction has been debited to my account (not held or pended but charged). If I want to dispute further I should fill out the form that will arrive in the post.

Unimpressed today.

Checked the new card and the transaction shows as ‘signature checked’.

Too many questions. How did they check and verify (presumably) my signature? I don’t recall ever giving my signature to Barclaycard.

Suddenly I fear I may be in for a battle to prove against this.

“Signature Checked” means that the person presenting the card signed a card slip rather than keyed a PIN. So the serving staff checked the signature – the signature on the card presented will have matched the signature on the receipt.

Don’t panic, they are simply following process in a dispute. The dispute is that you claim to have the card in Cornwall at the time of the transaction and the restaurant claim that they were presented with this card.

The reality is someone has obtained the data from the magnetic strip on your card, and coded it onto a fake card, with their signature.

You will get your money back from Barclaycard in due course. If you had happened to have done a chip and pin transaction in Cornwall, within say 3 hours, of the signature checked transaction in London the fraud team’s refund would probably have been expedited. As the restaurant didn’t process it as a chip and pin transaction, they will also be charged back in due course.

[marshy11]

I do apologise to those that don’t have this sort of issue on their radar, it has ‘properly freaked me out’ as they say down here! I am truly grateful for those that have commented, because, not least it helps me understand how backward we are down here in Cornwall and we really don’t have a handle on the fraud thing!

That said. The form came today. Very odd. It asked me to write my email and mobile number (both of which they have – are they training calligraphic evidence?) along with my signature under the disputed amount to confirm I have not used my card on that date at that establishment.

There was a paragraph of blurb saying they may consult with the CPS, Police etc.

I signed.

There was nowhere for me to add anything else so I added a ‘statement’ story say I was in Cornwall and that I have evidence if they need it. I don’t have a transaction within a few days, but I do have one at 8am the next morning – anyone could whip up the A303 and back again in that time….!

Thank you Andrew for that succinct explanation – very, very helpful and of course puts my mind at rest. I just wish this card wasn’t SO new that they had some form of ‘history’ with me, but they don’t.

The letter today was more akin to them investigating and agreeing with me the transaction was rogue, the text yesterday was the complete opposite.

The letter today came with a 2nd class return postage.

I shall get a POP from the PO tomorrow as BC say if they don’t hear in 28 days the charge is mine forever.

[NorthernLass]

I thought signing for card transactions was pretty much a thing of the past in the UK? I know I’ve forgotten PINS a couple of times after 2 years of contactless and mostly online shopping and been expected to use a different card, not offered the option to sign.

[marshy11]

NorthernLass wrote:

I thought signing for card transactions was pretty much a thing of the past in the UK? I know I’ve forgotten PINS a couple of times after 2 years of contactless and mostly online shopping and been expected to use a different card, not offered the option to sign.

We sat here this evening trying very hard to remember how we signed (apart from those days where the machine slid back and forth over 5 layers of carbon paper). We can’t recall how we did it prior to PIN.

I really cannot imagine paying £996 on a card where my PIN failed (assuming this happened) and then gave a signature.

[NorthernLass]

Me neither. I would be wanting to see that restaurant bill and have a chat with the manager about who accepted the payment with the signature!

I’ve just had 2 1/2 weeks in GCM signing for most card transactions – every time it occurred to me that I could be using absolutely anyone’s card as long as it wasn’t cancelled! That’s my old job hardwired into me lol (not card fraud, btw 😂)

• This reply was modified 54 years, 4 months ago by .

[marshy11]

Well, I did email the restaurant and today have had a reply from the manager.

The reply is very odd (I think) and says:

Hi,

Sorry to hear about the incident happened with you.

Guy came to the restaurant asking food and alcohol which we served and he paid the bill with card. He inserted the card in the machine. He got charged without asking the pin but it is very common if you don’t set the pin for the card. We have seen lot of transactions without asking the pin but we do take signature from the guest which we did on that night. We never ask for identity proof to any of the guest while paying.

We will ensure all the support from our side which is needed by the police.

I am not sure what to think. Is it possible to put a card in a machine for £996 and not input a PIN?

At least I know the fraudster is a male – I am definitely female.

[CarpalTravel]

How odd! In the UK all cards have a PIN set on them, be it yours or an initial one allocated to it. Imagine the carnage if financial institutions started sending cards out without – how would that even work?! How could you then go about setting a PIN?

The only time I have been able to make a non-online payment without my PIN (or signature) that exceeds the contactless limit, is if I am doing it over the phone, as a “cardholder not present” transaction.

Could it have been via Apple/Google Pay, I wonder. That would certainly help police with their enquiries.

[AJA]

marshy11 wrote:

Well, I did email the restaurant and today have had a reply from the manager.

The reply is very odd (I think) and says:

Hi,
<em readability=”7″>
Sorry to hear about the incident happened with you.

Guy came to the restaurant asking food and alcohol which we served and he paid the bill with card. He inserted the card in the machine. He got charged without asking the pin but it is very common if you don’t set the pin for the card. We have seen lot of transactions without asking the pin but we do take signature from the guest which we did on that night. We never ask for identity proof to any of the guest while paying.

We will ensure all the support from our side which is needed by the police.

I am not sure what to think. Is it possible to put a card in a machine for £996 and not input a PIN?

At least I know the fraudster is a male – I am definitely female.

Ignoring the issue of paying nearly £1k without entering a pin it sounds like there is a duplicate card out there as the email specifically mentions “He inserted the card in the machine”

I would be wanting to put an immediate block on your account and getting a new card number and physical card. Given the difference in gender I think BC can hardly still charge you, assuming you’re the primary card holder. They ought to reverse the transaction immediately.

Have you asked the restaurant if they have cctv showing the man paying? This would help both to identify the fraudster and help you in your battle with BC.

[NorthernLass]

“it is very common if you don’t set the pin for the card” – seriously?!
CCTV would be very interesting as I don’t suppose this guy was eating alone, either (unless he has very expensive tastes!). I hope BC haven’t paid the restaurant as too many of these places are lax about card fraud. They will probably say they can only release CCTV to the police, which is a pain (and not strictly true), as it’s probably not a priority for the Met (or London City, I’m not totally sure where Mayfair is apart from on a Monopoly board!).

• This reply was modified 54 years, 4 months ago by .

[duggie1982]

Strange, a few weeks ago i had a transaction done in person from london, a few days after me coming back from kent to Glasgow. Barclaycard took a few days but removed the charge before my bill cycle ended, thinl it was around 200£ it ended up because of a data hack from a copy thats similar to curve that i had registered the card on (vitracash)

[ChasP]

the only time i have had a fraudulent transaction on a credit card (not BC) they reversed it almost instantly and with so few details from me i wondered if it was an error on their system

• This reply was modified 54 years, 4 months ago by .

[Thrillington]

“He got charged without asking the pin but it is very common if you don’t set the pin for the card.”

The second half is baloney – do they really think Mastercard are sending out cards without PINs? Even their gift cards have PINs nowadays.

As Andrew said – sounds like a card clone from swiped details, they will have coded the card to default to ‘chip and signature’ – when I was in retail half a decade or so ago, it was rare but on occasion an inserted card would force a ‘chip and signature’ authorisation on legit cards (which often took the customer by surprise)

Restaurant may be used to it if they get a lot of international diners, especially Americans, who usually have swipe and signature, or chip and signature? Hence the lack of questioning. Of course, a signature check is pointless with cloned cards – the fraudster will have their signature on it, if they even checked it. No wonder Mastercard stopped making signature strips mandatory a few years ago and will be phasing out magstrips this side of the pond over the next few years. Good riddance!

[robkeane]

Quote weird that someone would use a cloned card one time only for a high value dinner/drink evening out. These things are much more usually used to purchase stuff in a shop that can be resold. He is quite an upmarket fraudster basically got an extremely posh meal/drinks. Perhaps it was a team building evening for the fraudsters group.

Likely knows that electronic/phone shop might baulk at chip and sign, but even so, all a bit odd.

• This reply was modified 54 years, 4 months ago by .

[robkeane]

Quote=Quite

• This reply was modified 54 years, 4 months ago by .

[marshy11]

Text yesterday from BC

we’ve now refunded 1 fraudulent transaction(s) totally £996, which will show on your next statement. Thanks Your Barclays team.

Followed this morning by:

Update, thank you, we’ve received your fraud claim form. We will send you a further update when it has been processed.

Left hand right hand?

• This reply was modified 54 years, 4 months ago by .

[RV]

marshy11 wrote:

Text yesterday from BC

we’ve now refunded 1 fraudulent transaction(s) totally £996, which will show on your next statement. Thanks Your Barclays team.

Followed this morning by:

Update, thank you, we’ve received your fraud claim form. We will send you a further update when it has been processed.

Left hand right hand?

I’m going through exactly the same now with 2 transactions adding up to £9k that were placed in Ghana (I struggle to understand how did Barclays allow the transactions to go through when I didn’t have not even 2 weeks with the card and no spending history!).

Long story short: because the fraud orders were over £9k, I immediately hit all of the spending goals and got the welcome bonus and yearly rewards + a lot of avios from the fraudulent transactions. They all got transferred to my BAEC earlier this week.

I’ve been assured by the CS team that the transactions will be refunded, but no one answered what will happen to the avios. Reading through the T&Cs it seems like once the bonus is paid that’s it, doesn’t matter if there is a refund afterwards.

However I think I will get into a “negative avios balance” when the refund actually hits the account? CS couldn’t answer that and said that credits like this could be treated differently (??).

Long shot but has anyone been in a similar situation and can advise what is likely to happen?

I already got presented the option to downgrade to the free card, but have been holding from doing that until the refund actually hits the account (I was advised by CS that this should take some 14 days or so).