Laser Card Fraud - We've just been scammed

maryt said:
I don't think we're covered by any insurances but I will check this out. I was just talking to AIB merchant services. The safest thing that we can do is to ring their authorisation centre..Otherwise they said if we take an order and payment over the phone and the customer is not present and the card turns out to be stolen the onus is on us. It's a sore lesson to learn.
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Rotten thing to happen. Unfortunately these fraudsters are everywhere, and are thinking up new scams all the time. I know someone who found peculiar transactions on their credit card statement and their card had never been out of their possession. The card had been 'skimmed', he was unaware of anything until the transactions showed up. In that case, I think, the purchases had been made over the phone, and the shop was stuck with the loss.
 
This would be classified by the bank as a "Cardholder not Present" or CNP transaction. Laser was never designed for CNP, and few merchants are authorised by their bank for such transactions. I suspect that this is the case here

The capability to accept a Laser transaction by keying in the card number is, as far as I understand, a facility which should only be used if the normal security features (PIN etc) fail, and the the cardholder is present and the retailer is sure that he is the card owner.

As regards legislation, until recently there was no specific legislation covering card payment in Ireland. Card payments were almost entirely governed by the terms and conditions issued by the banks. Since November 2009, specific legislation covering electronic payments including cards was introduced by a ministerial order called SI 383 of 2009
EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES (PAYMENT SERVICES) REGULATIONS 2009 (download here). This covers the rights of cardholders in the event of fraudulent transactions, but provides little comfort for the merchant.​
 
That sounds crazy to me. If accurate then I feel that the clear solution would be for no retailers to accept 'person not present' laser cards, and for retail associations to advise that.

Eventually the banks will realise that their cards are useless for those transactions, and will either stop issuing those cards, or change the terms so that all authorisations are honoured.

If I accepted laser cards, and was told that some payments will not be forthcoming in spite of authorisation, I wouldn't accept them. If there was additional authorisations that could be got to ensure payment I would use that in every case..even if it took longer, and the bank was annoyed at the extra work.. I would consider charging the customers for the extra time spent and the phone calls.

What value is there in an authorisation if it can be revoked later?.. none at all I'd suggest...
 
Whatever about the card 'Alarm Bells' should have sounded when buyer told courier, I will meet you out the road. I don't think he should have taken it upon himself to do this without express permission from the supplier.

He's probably not the culprit in this case....but should have known better or at least reported back for clearance.
 
MODS -- after reading this SCAM, a new thread should be started to advise business owners as to what scams are currently going on. After all the name of the site is 'Ask About Money'
 
Maryt, firstly I am very sorry for yourself and your husband. We all know how hard it is to keep a business afloat in these times without these scammers trying to rip you off.

This type of scam has been doing the rounds for years in various guises. I worked as an area manager for an English furniture retailer (no longer with us) in 1996 and the same scam operated then.

Suite would be ordered and paid for with a stolen credit card. Courier would be sent to deliver (the one I distinctly remember was an apartment block Dublin 8.) When delivering the suite, the courier met another van there, who was moving the people in, supposedly, Suite unloaded - once courier went, suite into other van and away with them. Scam would not come to light until some random person got their credit card bill and noticed they had paid for someone elses suite.

We stopped taking payments by card, unless the card was presented at the shop.
 
hi
It's a good lesson to learn. That's a lot of money to be scammed out of but it could be a lot higher. The worst thing is the fact that you were suspicious and they managed to scam you anyway.

Basically, only deliver to a cardholder address and don't let the courier deliver to any other address. It does make perfect sense unfortunately and a lot of English companies will only deliver to the billing address.

My mam works in a shop and someone phoned to order a €200 gift cert. Her boss answered and was delighted.. "yes, of course we accept laser.. yes that's fine, your friend can collect it.. no, we don't need to see the card." English accent. well spoken. No alarm bells at all.

About 10 minutes later someone from the shop next door arrived in and said they had a phonecall for a gift cert...... they reported it to the gardai and luckily the gift certs weren't collected.
 
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