![]() ![]() Unfortunately, it is very much not the case. Looking at a bank card’s 16-digit card number and four-digit expiry date, you might be forgiven for thinking that the combination would be too complex to simply guess. They didn’t need to have stolen the card number in a hack or physical theft, and were able to use it as soon as it was activated. In my case, Halifax’s fraud investigations team said I had fallen victim to what is called a “guess attack”, where an organised criminal gang work out the card number and the expiry date. I am not the only person to have found myself asking this question recently – this week, the Guardian Money reader Phoebe Maddrell got in touch to say that her debit card details had been used for fraudulent transactions even though she had never used it – either online or in person. Given I had only activated the card 16 hours prior, hadn’t used it, entered the new number into Apple Pay or any other service, it hadn’t left the house and no one else had access to it, how on earth had someone already spent money on it? These weren’t at Domino’s but an unfamiliar sportswear company in the Midlands.įraudsters are using people’s credit card details to buy takeaways in the UK. The next day I checked my statement to make sure the pizzas had been refunded – only to find to my horror seven fresh fraudulent charges totalling £465 – all on my new card. Having activated it, I stashed it safely in a drawer. Three days later a replacement card arrived on the doormat. In my case, Halifax froze my card to prevent further charges, and the next morning the card was cancelled and the charges marked to be refunded. ![]() Mention to friends or family that your card was used by fraudsters to buy takeaways, and you will soon learn that you not alone. This week, thousands of First Direct customers found their cards had been used to order chicken dinners in Nando’s. Recently a colleague’s card details were used to order £300 worth of takeways in the Andover area all over a single weekend. ![]() In fact, the UK appears to have been in the grip of a takeway fraud boom. Clearly, I wasn’t the only one paying for someone else’s takeaway. At 10pm on a quiet Thursday night in January, I got a text from my bank, Halifax, saying my credit card had been used at Domino’s Pizza for an order costing £30.67.Īfter 30 minutes on hold on an extremely busy Halifax line the customer service rep asked why I had called. ![]()
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