Another victim of cloning (credit card that is)

Chirimoya

Well-known member
Dec 9, 2002
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It's happened to me. I hadn't used my card for a couple of weeks and when I checked my online balance the card details didn't appear on the screen. I entered the number and got a message saying it wasn't a valid number. I phoned the bank (in the UK) to ask why, and they told me it had been used in Japan several times for over ?1000 before being blocked.

When I visited Italy in summer 2007 the card was blocked on the second transaction (just 35 euros) and since then I've ALWAYS informed the bank before travelling. Yet they managed to use it 6 or 7 times in Japan.

They say the money will not be charged, and the main inconvenience is not having a cc for the next few weeks until the replacement arrives.

Questions are - is there any way of finding out who may have cloned it - presumably one of the last few places I used it - could have been here in the DR or online - and is there any procedure for reporting it locally - it's a Visa card issued by a UK bank - or will the UK bank take care of that?
 

Matilda

RIP Lindsay
Sep 13, 2006
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My Visa card was issued by a UK bank and was cloned. They could not tell me where -as they said they have no way of knowing, but given that i had not used it online - only in Iberia supermarket where I have used it for years, where it is swiped in front of you, I think it is more likely it is at the central Card Net offices.

Matilda
 

LaTeacher

Bronze
May 2, 2008
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wasn't there a ring of credit card cloning a while back where the people at the actual processing place were stealing the numbers?
 

Chirimoya

Well-known member
Dec 9, 2002
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You're right, I know. The processing/cardnet explanation is more plausible than the places where I last used the card. What do they do, sell the numbers on to people operating in other parts of the world?