Just logged onto Internet Banking and saw that £1600 has been transferred through a company called "HY MERCHANT SERVICES LONDON GB" which appears to be some sort of Asian WesternUnion-type service. No idea what the fuck to do, I've called my bank straight away, had my card cancelled and a new one is being sent out. So scared, cause Jesus Christ that's literally all my money. I've got a couple hundred in cash on person, so I should be okay until the replacement card arrives.
Can anyone let me know what the chances are of me getting this money back? The payment was authorised on the 4th, but it shows up on my statement on the 6th of December. It's still relatively recent. Waiting to see what my bank says, but has anyone who's been through this before able to tell me how optimistic the situation is?
If it was a credit card, be quite optimistic. Until you actually pay the credit card bill, it's not your money that's being spent, and if you have clearly been a victim of fraud like this, the credit card companies generally take care of everything for you.
If it was a debit card, the outlook's generally not quite as good but I'm not familiar with UK laws and policies regarding debit card protection, so don't rely on me for advice here.
Fuck. It was a Debit Card. Bank got back to me and said within 48 hours a conclusion will be made by the investigation team. They said if it's found that I'm indeed a victim of fraud, they'll credit the money back into my account? So I guess I should feel slightly better, seeing as I am a genuine victim of fraud.
Stone in my stomach right now.
Your bank will pay it back, you will need to fill out a fraud form
No need to contact the police, your bank will do that
Cheers guys, I appreciate the support. Just racking my brain over how the fuck this happened. I figure the investigation will tell me whether it was a website, or if someone used my chip & pin (which indicates I used a modified ATM). I'm thinking it's most likely a website? Though I can't for the life of me think what websites I've used within the past couple of weeks that'd be a scam.
I once had my credit card number stolen and used to buy $2500 worth of jewelry online (going several hundred dollars over my credit limit, even!), and I was very careful about using my credit card (never ever without https) and scanned my computer to within an inch of its life for rootkits or keyloggers and it came up empty. All they need is one weak link that doesn't perform proper validation on cards and bam, charges get "authorized" by a flawed point of sale/online retailer when you totally didn't do it.
I've paid for things that didn't even ask for the full info on the card (hello Wii Shop), so it's a possibility that someone's just out of compliance and the fraudsters literally ran random numbers until something worked.
Same thing happened to my dad, some guy from stockholm managed to copy his card or some shit, and got on a ferry from Stockholm->Poland->London and back, he spent 2200 EUR on booze, slot machines, food and other stuff on that boat. He got all the money back tho, so don't worry too much. The dude never got caught however.
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