Sometimes you just get lucky!! A tale of two frauds.

This morning, just a short while ago, I had a look at my emails and found that I had bought two new PCs to be delivered to Leeds - I live near Hertford. The total was almost £2,500.

In the intervening period I have managed to successfully cancel everything, including my debit card. The only echo is that I am now without my main debit card for a few days, but otherwise I am unscathed.

The fraudsters were unlucky. Normally I do check my emails, but not until 7:30'ish. This morning however I woke just after 5am all bunged up with cold. As a result I took myself downstairs and had been dosing myself with throat spray and cold remedies, waiting for the normal family awakening. At 7am I woke my daughter and went to look at my mails. This was earlier than normal and lucky break #1

The first thing I saw was a confirmation that I had reset my safety password with my Bank - funny, I didn't remember doing this. That message was sent at 6:53am. Then I saw I had bought a gaming computer for around £1,800 from Best Buy - timed at 6:59am. Again this had passed me :).

I then found I had bought a high end laptop from Best Buy at almost £700 at 7:04am.

Luckily these were all very current. In truth the only reason I got the emails was that a) the fraudsters in the interest of making it look legitimate had used an email address using "thesutherlands.com" domain, one I own and administer. They had used Ian33, but as all unrecognised addresses come to me I saw these immediately, lucky break #2.

I quickly tried to find a way to contact Best Buy, but hesitated. I saw a contact number starting 0333 and wondered if the scam was actually to get me to call a premium number at some extortionate cost; the orders being false and intended to scare. A quick google told me that 0333 was OK, but Best Buy customer services were not open until 8:00am

So what to do, phone my bank or something else? I realised that I did have an option, As I had access to the email they set up I could reset the password and try to cancel the transactions. This I did. I reset the password, accessed the orders and cancelled them all by 7:27am. Lucky break #3 ie being so immediate and being able to reset and access the account.

At that point I phoned my Bank, who, once I explained matters, stopped the card - ordering a new one, marked the two transactions, assuring me that with the orders cancelled, that the amounts should not go through, but if they did they would be reimbursed, and also confirmed that there were no other improper transactions. This was completed by 7:45am.

At 8:00am on the dot I phone Best Buy who were very helpful confirmed the cancellations and closed the online account.

By 8:15 I think I had cleared the mess, but it had been an exciting(?) start to the day.

My wife's reaction was that I had left my card behind a bar to run a tab, but this was not the case. I realised that the fact they linked my card number to the right email domain, strongly suggests it was sourced from an online transaction. This just proves that while the technology may be secure, there are still weaknesses in the people who operate these systems - don't be complacent.

I will say that along with riding my luck, LloydsTSB and Best Buy were very helpful in resolving this little issue.

Let's see what the rest of today brings?

UPDATE:
Well I thought I was so clever and all I was missing was a plastic card for a few days. Wrong! I went to my bank with my cheque book to try and take out cash to tide me over until my new debit/cash card arrived only to find that the placemarks left by the two transactions, even though they had been cancelled, exhausted my account including the modest overdraft limit. The cashier told me that the cancellations from merchants often take three days tto process!!!

So, even though the transactions were fraudulent and cancelled, I could not get at my cash. It seems there is no way to expunged those holds on funds from the account. Instead they just have top "fall off" in a few days time. Seems a bit archaic to me, but I guess there is a reason.

Now the staff in my local Lloyds TSB branch were very helpful and within 15 minutes had set up an extended overdraft facility to cover the problem and cashed my cheque. What they did say to me is that they recommend using a credit card for online transactions, because not only do you get more protection against fraud, you also avoid this sort of problem with a cash account.

I guess I just have to wait a few days to get everything back to normal.