Online fraud attempts? Who cares…
I had another attempted fraud on GiftOsphere.ca. That’s not new… and I blogged about it before, but what I DON’T UNDERSTAND is why it’s so complicated to report a fraud. I lost at least 30 minutes on the phone with many people, with no result…
Contacting Mastercard
The attempted fraud was made with a MasterCard. Not knowing where to start, as any good webgirl would do, I started with their website. I could find nothing regarding this particular situation, so I called the general number for Canada. There was the usual “Please press one, Please press 2….” I finally spoke to a real person, was transferred a few times, and winded up with a “fraud specialist”, who told me there was no central telephone number to report an attempted fraud with a MasterCard on a website. He told me that I (ME?) must call the bank that issued the card, and report it myself. I don’t have the full 16 digit credit card number that was used, but he still can give me the 1-800 number of the bank.
Contacting City Bank
I called the 1-800 number that the guy at MasterCard gave me. Since I don’t have the 16 digit number of the card, I can’t enter it… so I pressed “0″ quite a few times! I said I wanted to report an attempted fraud on one of their client’s card, and was told that they couldn’t do anything without the full 16 numbers. I said that I had the date and time (to the second), the amount. Even with that, it seems, they CAN’T do anything… (or won’t?)
I was told that I (me again) have to contact my online banking provider, and ask them to retrieve the full credit card number from their system, and then call City Bank again.
Contacting Psi Gate
I called my online banking provider, but all the lines were busy for about 15 minutes. Then I pushed the hanging-up button by mistake… and that was it for me.
This reminds me of an old Astérix movie with “the nut house”
To conclude:
1. Nobody wants’ to hear about an attempted online fraud
2. Someone will soon receive his monthly statement, will have tons of problems, but will never know that some honest e-commerce owner has taken time to try to warn him, but that his credit card issuing bank didn’t care.