Phones 4 U and potential fraudulent activity

Now, having suffered from fraudulent use of my cards and thinking about Chris with his scam call, I have thought and thought and thought how could they have got hold of all my data etc?.
Yorks Bank told me that the most likely scenario was that my cards had been cloned. How and when?, I have no idea.
However, in November, I was daft enough to go to 'Phones 4 U' - my sister had recently purchased from them and was well suited. I thought why not?, I needed an upgrade and wanted to change providers.
I was stuck in there for 2 hours plus. It was a nightmare.
They used 3 of my cards to allow the transaction to finally go through and 2 would not work. The one that did they took the card to the other end of the room and proceeded to photocopy it.
Hang on, I wasn't too impressed with that and asked what they were doing and why the felt it necessary to photocopy my card details? At this point I should have cancelled the transaction asked for the photocopies and walked out, but stupidly I didn't.
Hubby was very angry with me saying that they had no authority do do that type of thing.
I had to agree.
When I asked them why they felt a need to do this, they said it was a condition of sale and was for security etc etc.

I wasn't happy but in the end it went through.
This was last Nov 07
My problems with my cards started in Feb of this year onwards when they startted to withdraw small amounts 1ps etc

Previous to this I had had no problems whatsoever

Devon has its problems with thieves and conmen and workers in the area often drift from job to job or leave the area altogether. An unscrupulous worker could sell these details on and make a nice little earner for themselves.
The more I think about it, the more uneasy I feel.
They photocopied my sister's card details too.
Surely this is not right.

 

they shouldnt be doing that. its naughty.

 

infact three cards - very naughty!

 

Well, that's what I thought. They gave the impression that it's standard practice with all the phone operators!
Think they were telling porkies.

 

So what was the scam then?
2 wouldn't go through although they worked perfectly fine.

What were they up to?

 

How were they taking the card details for payment originally?

 

Well, putting it through their machines (swipe)

 

using the till at the same time or a seperate machine?

 

Can't remember about the till but it was a swipe machine on the desk.

 

I take it you have mentioned this to your bank?

It may also be an idea to mention it to the Police and see what they say.

 

the cards might be fine but given that they use a fancy multi branch EPOs system in which the PDQ (crd) machine will be inter linked. the software and hardware costs a small fortune but its all rubbish. too slow for the job in hand and sometimes will not connect to the till from the card machine.
However, three tries suggests its a problem with the card machine not dialing out to the bank as one card did work.
if they photocopied your card thats a big no no due to data and credit protection rules.
I would suggest that you inform the bank of what the store did regarding photocopying your details then approach the stores manager and make a full complaint in person followed up by a written complaint to their head office CC the correct trading ombudsman and your legal representative.
Fair enough the paperwork might have been destroyed correctly but there is no reason why they should be taking it anyway.

 

I'll be contacting the fraud section at the bank Laura after the Bank Holiday. It's only 'come to me' this weekend where the cards may have been cloned. Hope you are well.

 

as for condition of sale - thats *****.

 

Thanks for that D/T.

I'm on holiday where I bought the phone from so will pop in this week and do what you say. Thanks for the advice, I really appreciate it.

 

I'm not too bad at the moment,

just a broken toe. I'm at the hospital to see the Renal Consultants tomorrow so should know more of what they have planned - Sheffield are considering transferring me back to Nottingham now I'm classed as having severe failure rather than chronic.


I hope you get the problem sorted.

 

You are very brave. Are you managing to keep up with everything at school?

 

Touch wood,

I think so. I've just sat my KS3 SAT's and hopefully done ok in them.

For my GCSE options I've chosen:

Maths
English - Literature and Language,
Double Science
History
French
Drama
Food Technology
R.E


Think that's everything.

 

What's double science Laura? Not heard of that one. I'm presuming it's 2 science subjects on one exam lol!

 

and you a teacher tut tut

 

double science

it is the double award science. You do physics, chemistry and biology but you are awarded 2 GCSEs not a GCSE for each subject.