My Business Credit Card has been used for fraud

Just got off the phone with the Royal Bank of Scotland’s credit card fraud division. They wanted to run through a couple of recent transactions with me.

Fine - I’ve done this a few times before, and it’s always a false alarm, but I don’t mind - it’s nice to know people are looking out.

They run through a couple of transactions I recognise.

Then suddenly there’s almost £1,000 spent yesterday to a company I don’t recognise. I haven’t spent that much on a single purchase for weeks.

Then there’s the bus ticket for £2.50 I apparently paid for just before that. I haven’t travelled on my card for weeks either.

Alarm bells all round as the conclusion is slowly made clear.

My business credit card has been compromised. My card details are now being used by a third party for fraud.

Luckily the Royal Bank of Scotland saw a suspicious pattern of behaviour and declined both transactions.

Now I have to destroy my business Mastercard and get a new one in - it’s going to impact my payments for online services for a few days, but at least funds aren’t going to get syphoned out.

Apparently, there are various ways in which credit card details can be compromised:

1. Random number generators which attempt to create card details
2. Compromised vendors, where details used for valid payments are syphoned off for storage
3. Compromised staff at call centres who forward the info to organised crime groups

No.2 actually happened in my old home town of Hull not long ago, with petrol stations run by Sri Lankans syphoning card details - allegedly to fund the Tamil Tigers.

No.3 I’ve already reported on at Platinax with staff at call centres in Glasgow apparently tied to card details being provided to criminal gangs.

Apparently what happens when such a third party group believes they have valid card details is that they test it out on a small purchase - bus tickets and mobile phone top-ups were said to be common methods.

Once successfully used, they then turn to bigger purchases at unwitting companies.

Anyway, a few days ago I was railing against RBS as a business service, especially the credit card limits. However, suddenly I’m made very aware of the vulnerability of the service, and flushed with thanks that the RBS credit card fraud dept was able to prevent my company from losing cash to fraudulent purchases.