Saturday 2 November 2013

Disputed Transaction

Annoyingly, I've just discovered that one of my cards has been cloned and used to buy a number of theatre tickets from an internet company called Seatwave, which I confess I've never heard of until I Googled it.

Given the card used I know it must have been cloned having paid for some petrol at the Tibshelf service station on the M1 on my return from Harrogate - what is it with service stations? It's not the first time.

So now I have to face the irritations of waiting for a new card and for the money to be refunded from my bank. I’ve noticed that since the introduction of chip and pin there has been a greater insistence of the card provider disputing the ‘disputed transaction’ to place the onus on the card holder to prove that they weren’t negligent or fraudulent, despite that the onus is on your provider to prove that you have been:
But, despite clear rules that state banks can only refuse to refund a customer if he or she has acted "fraudulently" or had been "grossly negligent", there is growing evidence that the banks are taking a tougher line and refusing a refund – in some cases for the sole reason the thief used the card with a merchant the account holder had also done business with.
Even in the face of overwhelming evidence that the account holder was miles away at the time, and it could not have been them, some banks have been insisting their customer is liable.
Interestingly the Cairn Hotel in Harrogate tried to insist on keeping my card (a different one) behind the bar when I requested to open a bar tab - absolutely no chance. The barman in question looked a little puzzled when I informed him that to do so would be negligence on my behalf and a breach of the terms and conditions to allow my card out of my sight.

Anyway, like last time, I have informed my bank that should they continue to drag their heels, and especially if it has to go up to the Ombudsman, I will be invoicing them for my phone calls and my time in dealing with it. I charge a reasonable hourly rate.

3 comments:

  1. Placing a device inside a card machine to copy the details of cards being used on it is apparently quite easy and the once I came across this it was indeed in petrol station machine.

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    Replies
    1. Aye, on cashpoints the devices are relatively easy to spot, but it's always been petrol stations I've had the problem with, when paying for petrol...

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  2. It's a simple matter to fake a card/PIN reader and use the entry results to make the correct payment (to balance the till receipts) and further purchases (to balance their shopping lists.....).

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