Fake Credit Card?

Yesterday, I got a call from HDFC Mumbai asking me if I was in Britain…

When I said “No!!” he advised me to immediately block my card. So while I was sitting working on my client’s website, my credit card was doing some shopping at John Lewis, Oxford… which was strange because I was holding it in my hand!

I got my card cancelled immediately but was forced to wonder if this was a prank being played by one of my friends… my doubts were put to rest within 5 minutes when I received the following message from HDFC Credit Card services:

“Thank you for using your HDFC bank credit card for Rs. 40694.61 in JOHN LEWIS OXFORD @ 26-Feb-2008″

40 &*$%^# thousand!!! Thats like more expensive than a return ticket from London!

I immediately looked up John Lewis, Oxford on the Internet and called them up. They said they could not help me and I should contact my credit card company. When I suggested they look into the recent sales made and see if my credit card was used, I didn’t get a very helpful response (“Please contact your credit card company”). I also sent an email using their Contact form and gave them my credit card number in a hope that they’ll tell me whether it was an online payment (and if yes then they can stop the order from being processed and return my money) or a card was used (in which case, how did someone manage to duplicate the HDFC credit card???).

I did get a reply from them. Ms. Shirley (bless her!) from John Lewis has been nice enough to forward my request to the Audit team. I’m still waiting to hear from them…

And if this wasn’t enough excitement, I received a message from the CitiBank CC company informing me that they’ve increased my credit limit! So I called them up to ensure that they DON’T! I also asked them if it was possible for them to send me a message every time a transaction was made using the CitiBank CC and they said they didn’t have that service! Imagine that.

I’m so glad HDFC does and I was informed by them in advance.

So innumerable calls and faxes later, I’m still waiting to hear if I’ll have to pay for the shopping some j@%$@&& did…

I’m also curious about how this can be solved. HDFC customer care informed me that another attempt was made using my card and some Rs. 20,000.00 was charged. I was surprized that this new store did not contact police or me?

If the card was blocked because it was stolen, why is everyone so slow in responding? John Lewis store has cameras so why didn’t they act fast (since I called them within 3 – 5 minutes of the transaction) and try to catch the thief? How in the world can someone just duplicate a card? If it was an online transaction, what is the address where the merchandise has been requested to be delivered (this is exactly why I think it can’t be an online transaction – I mean really, will that person be dumb enough?)

I use my credit card frequently on the Internet. The fact the my credit card might get misused was something I didn’t really bother that much about.The websites where I used my CC all display “Safe and Secure” messages.

This also brought back an incident that happened almost 3 – 4 months ago when this new card was issued to me by HDFC. At the same time, I was also approached my HSBC and I filled credit card form details. They also took the photocopy of my credit card – front and back (this new HDFC one). Though I cut the CVV number, I still thought I made a big mistake. I was never given a new HSBC card. I was told my the person that for some reason they’ve been given “instructions” that HDFC credit cards beginning with “5243″ should not be issued a CC by HSBC – AND he asked me for another CC, if I had any. I refused. I never got the form I filled back either – which obviously had my address and my phone number and my DOB….

… in December’07 a charge of some Rs. 30,000 + was made on my card but the merchant never claimed the money. Thus, we never found out who the merchant was and never found out who made this transaction.

Does this all make sense? Is it a Cyber Crime? Or did someone make a fake credit card? As per Switched.com, its very difficult but not impossible. MSNBC article shares more information on how this is possible.

Credit card’s mag strip data can be stolen using a skimming device attached to a card reader or a retailer’s processor database – so before you just give your card at a restaurant to the waiter to take it and get the bill back, think hard. He could very well be swiping it over a skimming device as well!

I wonder if it was a physical card, then will John Lewis store share the camera recordings to locate the culprit…

(the follow up..)

Tags: credit card fraud1 Comment