I joined a club I’d rather not be in this week. I got my credit card statement on January 5th and found that someone had been spending hundreds of pounds of my money on gaming chips! I went on high alert and spent over an hour on the telephone finding the bank’s fraud team and reporting the matter. I was slightly disconcerted when the Indian lady told me it was “No problem”. ( Am I alone in having a problem understanding some accents?) I pointed out to her that as far as I was concerned it was a massive problem but she reassured me by telling me that they would cancel my card, investigate the fraud as it was still ongoing and that I would be credited with the fraudulent payments as long as the investigation didn’t reveal that I was responsible. I have no fears on that score, I am very careful to safeguard things like card numbers and access. So I think I am safe but won’t be fully reassured until I have my new card and can check the balance.
So far, so good but when I told my daughters I found that they had both been victims of similar frauds! Then I found that at least five of my friends are in the same club. It would appear that I have been lucky to get so far unscathed, it’s the first time it has ever happened to me. This raised further questions, how much of this activity is there and how could it have happened? The answer to the first part is that it is a massive problem and costs the banks a lot of money. As for the second, it’s probable that a rogue employee of someone with access to this data has criminally sold it to the perpetrators. One thing is certain, I will never know.
On a personal level it was a sickening shock to my system. I feel that I have been violated and have lost control of my life in exactly the same way as if I came home one day and found I had been burgled. My friends tell me that I must live with it but I think it may take me a while to get used to it. Previously I had been under the impression that the card companies had sophisticated systems running that would automatically pick up repeats of an identical payment every day for six days but evidently this is not the case.
From what my friends have told me, some of you who read this will have had the same experience. If so I commiserate with you, it’s a nasty experience. Can you remember the advertisements for the first Barclaycards? “Your flexible friend”. Until now I thought this was true and loved the convenience of it. Things will never be the same again! I have lost my innocence.
What price convenience?
