Finally got around to returning the second call from Barclays fraud department. They called once while I was away in Canada to ask me whether transactions from “VIA Rail” should be on my account. I called them back at premium transatlantic mobile rates to tell them that I’d already warned them I was travelling across Canada and the US for a few weeks and would be going by train for some of it. So you can imagine that, after this general ineptitude on their part, I wasn’t desperate to pay out again on a call until I got back. They called again just a week or so ago, fun. I decided to wait until I got back to sort it all out.
Turns out that sometime around the 29th July someone did start trying to go crazy with my credit card details – but in the UK. So not only was I not in the country and not spending money with my credit card in highstreet stores or online, but this must have all transpired sometime previously – they must have stolen my details weeks or months previously in order to use them at this point. This seems to be standard practice for credit card fraud though – obtain details, wait a while for cooling off, then try small purchases and take it from there. Fortunately my Canada trip meant the card was nearly maxed out this month anyway and so the 1000+ GBP transaction for a new computer sometime tried to buy at my expense did not go through – but many smaller transactions for mobile phone “top up” cards did go through. There’s a suspicious amazon purchase I’m not sure about either. More silly paperwork to go through at some point.
So, I’m without credit card and waiting to hear what the fraud team say about the culprit. I’ve gotten them to undertake that I won’t be liable for the purchases, but it still sucks.
Jon.