Oolite Bulletins

Well over the weekend - Barclays Fraud contacted me (on a Sunday) - to check whether I was in Milwaukee (which given they'd rung me on my land line...) as I'd spanked my card in Milwaukee and this was outside my normal spend pattern (no sh*tting).

So, I've gone from healthily in credit, to substantially overdrawn and while the Fraud people have blocked my card, the "Dispute" people can't help until they can see the actual transactions (they can see I'm overdrawn, they can see "pending" payments - but these payments are detail-free, so I can't dispute them yet). While the Fraud people told me they were ATM transactions in the main, the only details the Dispute people can see is that they're online payments initiated in the US - so I now have no idea what's going on. Barclays say international purchases can take up to 10 days to make it through the system - so I'm stuck being overdrawn until then...

This is one of those nightmare scenarios you hear about and pray never happens to you! I would hope that as the fraudulent transactions were carried out in the States this should be a clear case and therefor relatively easy to sort out, but that's cold comfort.
My most sincere best wishes to you that this is sorted out quickly.

It's one of the wonders of the modern age - we can have our pockets picked by freaks all over the world, without the inconvenience of even having to leave the house. I hope you get things sorted soon, DH! I also hope the perpetrators get hit by a truck full of raw sewage. Fingers crossed, anyway.

I'll be happy to aim the lasers of my Imperial Courier at some point in Milwaukee, as soon as you give me a GO!

But seriously, that's indeed something I'd wish to nobody. Your head must be spinning right now trying to find out where they fished your card details...

DaddyHoggy - Sorry to hear about that - I hope that this get resolved quickly.

Apparently it is happening more and more that card details are copied and cashed outside europe. This year, two major Dutch banks already blocked all their new cards for use outside Europe. When you do need to use it outside Europe you must lift the blockade before going abroad.
One reason Dutch cards are cashed abroad is that the easy to copy magnetic code is no longer used in Dutch ATM machines. Instead only the chip is used. But the magnetic code can still be used at ATM machines abroad.

However, that is no comfort for DH. I hope the bank will show compassion in this fraud.

Looks like I'm going to be overdrawn for a bit. Barclays can't let me dispute the payments (which are still "pending" even though Barclays has already handed over the cash!?!?) until they hit my account, then the transaction details will be available and I can go "no definitely wasn't in Milwaukee at 11.05, 11.06, 11.07 and 11.08pm UK time" and then they (should) give me my cash back.

Fraud people say first transaction was an ATM (which means my card was cloned and they have my PIN), Dispute people say what limited data has shown up indicates these are Online charges initiated in the US...

No neither I, not Barclays (it would seem) currently know what's going on (but I definitely wasn't logged on to a machine in the US even via a VPN/VNC buying stuff off the Internet!)



[Barclays have it on record that I will always, and always have, let them know when I'm using my card abroad - so they stopped accepting the card after the 4th spend in under 10 minutes - otherwise who knows what might have happened. Note - the only US thing this card has been used for was to back Amanda Palmer's Kickstarter (US based "company") back in May, but I can't go around accusing Kickstarter (yet) of leaking my card details...]

Disembodied wrote:

I also hope the perpetrators get hit by a truck full of raw sewage. Fingers crossed, anyway.

At least that - that would be the nice thing that should happen to them .

DaddyHoggy wrote:

Note - the only US thing this card has been used for was to back Amanda Palmer's Kickstarter (US based "company") back in May, but I can't go around accusing Kickstarter (yet) of leaking my card details...]

I just discovered the Grand Theft Orchestra recently - they are quite good. I hope this gets sorted out painlessly.

CommRLock78 wrote:

DaddyHoggy wrote:

Note - the only US thing this card has been used for was to back Amanda Palmer's Kickstarter (US based "company") back in May, but I can't go around accusing Kickstarter (yet) of leaking my card details...]

I just discovered the Grand Theft Orchestra recently - they are quite good. I hope this gets sorted out painlessly.

I wasn't overly keen on Amanda Palmer's sound when she was in the Dresden Dolls, but either she/I/we have matured and I started listening to her work with Ben Fold's (who my wife likes but I find suicidally dreary) which seemed to work. So, when I heard about her Kickstarter via her hubby (Neil Gaiman) on Twitter I decided that anybody who was trying to beat "the man" deserved some cash (I did the same for Radiohead when they indie released In_Rainbows).

Thank's for your support (and to everybody else who has commented and/or shared their own tales of woe) and I shall keep you informed...