Weblog
15/12: Credit Card Security
I got a call today from my credit card company asking whether I had tried to make a purchase at Comet for £629.99. I couldn't think of anything offhand. When he said it would have been today then I knew something was awry. Somebody had tried to use my name and credit card number to buy something over the internet -- probably some new flat screen TV for Christmas or something.Luckily for me, my credit card company had detected something wrong. Had they used a different delivery address? Maybe the three digit security number was wrong or something? I don't know. Hats off to the anti-fraud systems in place at MasterCard anyway.
I don't know where they got my number from. Unfortunately these days we tend to trust any company that sells over the internet so long as they use SSL encryption on their servers. We don't really know how these companies treat our data once on their servers. It could equally have been someone in a traditional shop although I rarely let it out of my sight.
My card has been cut up and cancelled and I will have a new number as from next week. Hopefully that will be the last of it.
Author: Rob Wills Categories: Technology
1. Steve Castledine wrote:
Happened to me as well ust last week - although the fraud detectors picked it up without a transaction occuring.