Saturday 4 October 2008

Credit Card Fraud

This is becoming more prevalent and the criminals cleverer.

In one instance someone used my details to try to purchase airline tickets for £1,500.

This was spotted immediately by my bank - The Cooperative and my credit card changed.

However much cleverer - another company using the name " VUE BSL LTD" then used the same details to withdraw only £16.20 which was not spotted immediately.

Lots of small amounts add up to one big one and are easily overlooked!

It slipped by me totally.

The latter company was only brought to light when people used the internet to alert others about

VUE BSL LTD and a pattern emerged.

Again my bank alerted me of this ploy and I have confirmed that I did not make a purchase from an Edinburgh firm at the time.

Furthermore the last time I used my credit card - and this is not often - it was to buy a SONY battery from UK DIGITAL through eBay.

The following email was written to them with a copy to the local police but no reply received :

" Someone has used my credit card details to attempt to buy goods and services illegally

Your company were the last people with whom I used my credit card.

You may have someone working for you with access to credit card details who is misusing this information.

As you see I am alerting the police to this possibility."

Feel free to send me similar info confidentially - gd at tygh.co.uk done to avoid SPAM

This reminds me of a newspaper story I read some forty years ago:

A clever fraudster used to comb the obituaries and notices of deaths and send an 'outstanding bill' for a mere umbrella for a small amount of money to many of them.

The executors settled these unimportant amounts without question!

Eventually he was found out, no doubt living in luxury - this guy was caught - perhaps many aren't - the less greedy ones!

4 comments:

Geoff Dellow said...

Received by email:

I first noticed on Tuesday that £790.25 had been paid out to Ticketmaster on my debit card. I immediately telephoned my bank to cancel my card. Then further amounts came out the following day, one of the for £7.05 to VUE BSL Limited.

I telephone all companies concerned, and managed to stop everything he had orderded from being sent. I also managed to obtain the names and addresses he had used.

The frightening thing is that he registered under my name to Tracesmart. If you look at this site, you will be able to see how much information these fraudsters can obtain.

I telephoned them and they told me that he was able to give them my unique 3D Security password, which is how he managed to register. They have now de-registered him. When I looked at what details you need to register with them, you have to give them a email address. So I asked them for the one he had given, but they refused to give it to me under the Data Protection Act, even though he had registered by name and address with them. However, they did say that they would give it to the police.

I do purchase a lot of things through ebay, but all my payment go through Paypal. Did you pay this way?

I think these fraudsters can hack into your computer and this is how they get all information.

I have given a statement to the police and hopefully these people will get caught. Unfortunately, my bank say they can do nothing until they send me a disclaimer form, which I have to complete and send back before they investigate, that is why I went straight to the police. My bank have told me I will have to wait 4 to 6 weeks before this form is sent to me. Its a disgrace.

bemused26 said...

HI- I had a charge from Vue BSL Ltd, but it is a legitimate company. I bought cinema tickets for the Vue cinema in southampton- £16.80. Maybe it is not the company that is being fraudulent but someone who has pinched your card details and is using them to pay for cinema tickets.

Geoff Dellow said...

Thanks for this perhaps there's another story to account for the above.

Anyone with more info?

blin f said...

Hi All,,a few words of warning!!
Just found out my bank debit card has been cloned. They started with small amounts to Vue Bsl ltd(4 in total)and national express( 2 in total)also a company called jaspers for larger amounts(3 in total)ranging from £6.20 - £31.00 each time. I only noticed because a large amount that I did not recognise appeared for £439.61 to a company called jbw.co.uk. I telephoned my bank straight away and they've been really helpful and have cancelled my card and are going to investigate. I've noticed that a lot of people have had problems with vue Bsl ltd taking money in this way???