Unauthorized payments from unknown account

[Anonymous User]

I or rather NOWtv have a weird problem which I now fear can only be resolved via legal action.

About 5 months ago my credit card was debited for £7.99 several times. After much chat with NOWtv, it turns out nobody can trace not just why this payment is being taken, but we don't know from which account it's being taken from - it's certainly not my account.

I asked my credit card company refunded those payments, I then asked them to exclude NOWtv from any further access to my card. Unable to facilitate this, their solution was to cancel credit card then issue a new one with a new number. Two months later, not only did NOWtv debit a further two payments from my card but increase the aamount to £8.99. So how did Nowtv obtain my new card number?

My credit card company said they needed to advice VISA not to pass on my info to Nowtv. Once again the cancelled my credit card and issued another, with another new number.

Why do I write today? Because I've just found NowTV have taken another £8.99 from that card too. I'm beyond wits end now.

I bought a NowTV season ticket in Sept - I paid £199 in full via my bank current account. That payment can be seen on my NOWtv account. Only that payment can be seen, it's the only service I've bought from NOWtv. I find it quite incredible that NowTV cannot trace these transactions - they don't know anything about them, they don't know what the £8.99 payment is for, and they don't now which account it's being paid to.

And to top it all off, NowTV ignored my requests to which address I should send legal documents.

It's nothing other than fraud. 

[Anonymous User]

Thanks so much. Think I’ve got everything in process now. Bank sent CPA
stop request and NowTV got back to me to investigate and sent details to
ActionFraud so they can contact the now tv police liaison desk. I’m
guessing this is a scam ongoing so reckon there will be a few folks this
happens to (was wondering whether linked to the easyjet hack)

[ukbobboy]

@Anonymous User 

Hi BG

This tale of yours is chilling, and what is worse anybody could fall victim to this scam and not know about it until substantial damage has been inflicted.

However, now that you have this particular "trouble" pegged and have the authorities investigating it, could you let us know the outcome and ultimate conclusion of this attack on your finances.

UK Bob 

[Anonymous User]

Latest:

“ Home Office Counting Rules set out the circumstances under which we can record a crime and on this occasion the matter you reported to us cannot be classified as a police recorded crime. Home Office Counting Rules for Fraud and Cyber Dependent Crime can be found online at [url]

You have indicated within your report that the misuse of your personal details or that of a company trading style played a part in the matter you are reporting. The use of another person’s identity, often referred to as identity theft, is not a police recordable crime. Where the details are used to obtain goods or services, we can only record a crime on behalf of the person or organisation which was defrauded as a result of the misuse of an identity.”

I’m assuming this means only your credit card provider can request this. Pretty annoying as now tv told me to contact the police and that they can’t do anything to remove the account unless this happens. This is a major problem!! Hopefully gets sorted through the CPA stop request, but think I’ll end up just having To close the CC account and keep the cards blocked. Pretty clever scam ...

[ukbobboy]

@Anonymous User 

So BG

A crime is not a crime and we cannot be bothered to look into it anyway, so go take a running jump and next time look out for yourself and don't bother us anymore.

My interpretation of the Home Office's note to you, because it does not meet their counting rules. This is not what is expected from a government office, but maybe it me, I expect a government to not only govern but also protect us from the bad guys, no matter who they are.  However, this government is saying "go forth and don't bother us" just sort it out yourself.

Sorry BG, I don't know what to say because this, for me, is such an unexpected reply.

Still, you have to protect yourself so, first things first, cancel that card the crims are using deplete your resources, then plan and take your next steps from there.

UK Bob

[RoyB]

@Anonymous User 

CPA seems to be the card issuers’ dirty little secret. Try finding anything detailed about it on Google.

Unlike the payments you make over the counter, where the Bank of England has this very illuminating description:-

https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/knowledgebank/how-do-card-payments-work

Which, plus a few clues elsewhere, leads me to believe that it comes as complete news to NowTV when you contact them to talk about unexpected payments from your bank account.

As they have no idea what, or where, your bank account is.

To take their CPA, they go to your card issuer. The issuer knows what the account linked to your card is, and passes the request to your bank (debit card)or credit provider (credit card), or takes the money directly (prepayment card) but they never give these account details to the holder of the CPA.

This cutout makes it problematic to link the money leaving your bank back to the CPA that NowTV hold.

Another thing that makes it problematic is that the description on your bank transaction just has this description:-

4752 20May20 , Nowtv.Com/B , Illinghelp , Sky Gb

plus an amount from which you can usually deduce what sort of Pass the fraudster is enjoying.

But the only clues you get from the description are that the card number used ends in those four digits (not my real ones here!) and you are paying NowTV, or perhaps some Sky entity behind it.

I think NowTV should give the account name used, as part of the description. A simple(?) improvement that would greatly aid tracking down the source of the rogue payment, both for NowTV and for the customer.

[Anonymous User]

Yep - looks like we have the same issue. Maddening! 4 parties who all don’t
have a solution NowTV, MasterCard, Creditcard provider, police - passing
the buck. I think the responsibility finally rests with your credit card
provider who is legally required to stop CPAs but apparently it’s a total
pain in the ###### and they will do all they can to avoid doing so. Solution
for me is just keeping account blocked and closing the CC account once paid
off. Seems that Netflix and NowTV , as well as some super dodgy businesses
(e.g debt collectors , slimming pills etc) use this route, which seems
pretty ripe for fraud if someone successfully steals your cc details.