Barclaycard fraud called me yesterday

Are you sure it was Barclaycard fraud who called you?

I've had similar calls from HSBC before. I my case they said it was MasterCard who had advised them of the possibility of my card having been compromised.

I know it's a pain having your card replaced, especially if you have a number of auto-charge agreements in place to pay bills. HSBC said I could keep my existing card if I insisted, but that I would have to take responsibility myself if my account was subsequently used fraudulently.

On Sat, 14 Jan 2017 06:39:15 -0800, Michael Ejercito wrote as underneath :

Yes

I had to change by card number once because my provider thought my card was being used fraudulently. In fact it turned out it was simply because I was having trouble using the verification pop up on my computer at work, and had tried over a couple of days to buy something in my lunch break, each time failing.

But they did not tell me (at the time) why they though my card was being used fraudulently, and if they had I could have cleared it up, but instead they just cancelled it and issued a new one.

OK, no big deal. I changed the number everywhere it was used and thought no more of it.

And then a few months later, the credit card company called me again to say my card was being used fraudulently. This time I insisted that they told me what was going on and it turned out that this time I'd had a pre-ordered DVD go through on Amazon and they had tried to collect off the credit card that was active when I pre-ordered, so the cancelled card, rather than from the replacement card that was set up for new purchases.

I managed to stop the credit card company re-issuing my card for a second time, and I understand that they need to keep an eye out for fraud - but seriously. :-)

It was *all* me, they just needed to ask.

I believe it was a similar problem that triggered the call I received from HSBC. In my case I had tried to buy something online using PayPal a couple of days before, but due to some technical problem (either with PayPal or the merchant) the transaction didn't go through properly.

Because of this I chose not to have the card replaced, and no fraudulent transaction ever appeared on the account.

On Tue, 17 Jan 2017 10:20:04 +0800, Chris in Makati wrote as underneath :

Thanks for the replies folks but this is a financial institution instigated problem of some unspecified sort and not just card user finger problems - I was just wondering if anyone knew the backstory as I know most bank fumbles, frauds, loss of data etc are never ever reported to anyone - really annoying and they are never encouraged to heal the incompetent culture. C+

Why do you assume Barclays has been incompetent here without knowing where your card detail might have been leaked from?

There have been many reports of online hacking attacks where people's personal details have been obtained. It's quite possible that a merchant where you previously used you card has been hacked, and they're taking this action as a precautionary measure, not knowing whether your card details were actually compromised or not.

On Wed, 18 Jan 2017 10:34:26 +0800, Chris in Makati wrote as underneath :

I did't say anything about this being a Barclays originating problem - read again pal... but it was Barclaycard numbers compromised somehow. And they are not saying how! C+

You said "financial institution instigated problem", but you don't know that, and it may not just be Barclays who were affected.

It could be a retailer was hacked and has passed a list of possibly compromised cards to their merchant card acquiring service. Mastercard, Visa, Amex etc have informed the respective card issuing banks who have then contacted their customers.

What would you expect Barclays to do? Just ignore the information they received and hope for the best that no fraud occurs? It seems to me they've done the only responsible thing they can by contacting their affected customers and advising them to replace their cards.