A fraudulent transaction

[philip_hughes]

Hey guys. My mother just got a text from her bank saying that her credit card was suspiciously used. The website that recieved the money was:

Code: Select all

http://www.btrimmixcs.com

{code tags added to reduce the chances of anyone clicking on it withing thinking - CBJ}

Can anyone shed some light on this site?

Caution: unsure on the consequences of clicking. Do so with caution.

[Golden_Gonads]

Are you sure the text was from her bank? Fake texts warning of dodgy transactions are a common way to scam people. My advice would be that she should pop into her local bank to confirm things, if she wants to call them instead, she should dig out the number from her paperwork as opposed to any number given in the text.

[matthewfarmery]

I wouldn't trust the text,

if you want to double check, pop into her local branch, but I suspect this could be a fraudulent text that is trying to get her details.

On the BBC recently, this came up, and its can also can be called carrier fraud.

Basically, you can get phoned by the police or by the bank, they will say your account has signs of fraudulent activity, and in the case of getting a phone call from the police (which are fraudsters in this case) they will ask for your card, then your pin number, then they will say they will send someone around to pick it up as they want the card for their inquiries.

I also got several phone calls from what first appeared as by my bank, as the phone call also said there was some unusual activity, and wanted me to ring a number.

instead of the number that the phone call issues, I looked up the number for my bank, on their website, (something else you sometimes have to be careful of) and ring their call centre, and everything was fine.


But this kind of thing is growing, and very easy to be caught out.

My advice

Don't reply to the text, don't ring any number given you by the text, and don't give out your pin.

Ring your bank direct, the number will be on your bank statement, if you aren't sure.

that is the advice I will give to anyone in this position, otherwise, you maybe left penniless.

[pjknibbs]

Yeah, I would sooner assume the text is dodgy than anything else. If your bank genuinely believes the credit card has been used fraudulently then they'll block it being used in any future transactions until the cardholder has had a chat with the fraud prevention team, so it's not like you have to respond to this immediately, even if it *is* legit.

As far as the domain in question is concerned, WHOIS records say it was only set up in March, so I doubt it's been around long enough to have acquired much of a reputation.

[philip_hughes]

Yeah. I've taken all this on board. Mum tried to call the bank but after hours. .. you are 2335 in the queue...

[Mightysword]

Yeah. I've taken all this on board. Mum tried to call the bank but after hours. .. you are 2335 in the queue...

Huh? What kind of bank doesn't have an after hour custom service? I use a small local Union bank and I can get quick answer even if I call them midnight on a weekend.

[philip_hughes]

An Australian bank. ...

[Usenko]

We have fairly extended hours, but that's mainly because call centres have to be ready to offer business hours service to Western Australia, which is several hours behind the Eastern states. But not 24 hours. And in many cases not weekends.

Hoping Mum won't have to wait until Tuesday to sort this out (it's the Queen's Birthday Weekend!). . . .

[felter]

Also be careful when you get these calls claiming to be from your bank and they ask you to confirm they are the bank by getting you to phone the bank, as they do not hang but keep the line open and play a recording of the dial tone, and when you think you are dialing the bank you are actually still connected to the scam artists. Alwaya go into your bank phisically if you have any problems, don't trust the phone.

[matthewfarmery]

Also be careful when you get these calls claiming to be from your bank and they ask you to confirm they are the bank by getting you to phone the bank, as they do not hang but keep the line open and play a recording of the dial tone, and when you think you are dialing the bank you are actually still connected to the scam artists. Alwaya go into your bank phisically if you have any problems, don't trust the phone.

The problem with that is, at least in the UK, many banks have closed branches left, right and centre, and ultimately think that call centres and online banking is the answer.

Which is I think one reason for the raise of fraud. So for many people, there is a local bank, instead a closed building, or a nightclub where there was one, I still remember the claim from one of the british banks, (I think Natwest, but can't remember now) where they claimed they won't close ANY branches, and claimed it was every other bank that did that. Only later, they changed their adds, and started to close branches left, right and centre, then said in a new add, Bank closure cancelled, (only after closing all the branches they needed too)

But the point still stands, in the UK, people sometimes have no choice but to use the phone, silly I know, but local branches are few and far between, unless its a city, then you can walk only a few yards to see many banks.

[mrbadger]

why would the bank text you about a transaction? have they ever done that before?

I'd guess no, because that's not how banks work.

It's fraud. Something you can just ignore, because it wasn't from your bank, nothing has happened to your mums credit card, but if you responded to that text, something bad definatelly would, and pretty fast at that.

The best course of action, and the only thing your bank will tell you to do after you spend hours on hold is delete the text and move on with your life.

[Jericho]

why would the bank text you about a transaction? have they ever done that before?

I'd guess no, because that's not how banks work.

That's how my Barclaycard credit card works. They text and then call if you don't contact them. Great fun when I'm working abroad and they stop my transactions...

[mrbadger]

I stand corrected then. But what an odd way to operate. I've never heard of that before, no bank I've used does that. Mind you I've only had the one credit card, a Mastercard, and that scares me.

I pay it off as soon as I spend any money on it. It's only around because it's useful, getting me Nectar points and being handy for large purchases.

If I end a month with anything other than zero balance I get worried. Credit cards are not nice things.

Once I took over managing my mums estate the first thing I did was close her cards.

Barclaycard were rather keen on finding an alternative to my doing this, but my somewhat firm and repeated use of the phrases 'potential for fraud' and 'I don't care' got through to them eventually

[Chips]

Not having online banking service available to check her balance for a fraudulent transaction?

As for branches - the only time I've used one is 5 years ago, in Canada, when my bank blocked my card as I had failed to tell them I was travelling abroad. Actually, I tell a lie, Santander tried to level £150 worth of bank charges against me for going £2 overdrawn. Needless to say when I went into the branch they pointed me to the bank of phones to call through to the call centre (I got my money back, if they had failed it was a strong case for unreasonable charges anyway).

If something major went wrong then a branch would be a nice thing to approach - but otherwise banking online.


As for the text, why would visiting the url matter? What's that going to prove "oh, no, i've not bought via there" - first action should be to contact the bank. I have had a transaction blocked in the past with similar action "did you try to buy something from this place?"; they blocked the transaction until I okay'd it.

As it is, you can put the uri into Google to start finding out some general information. It was registered 14th March this year and there's bugger all info on it I'm not visiting it

[Morkonan]

Hey guys. My mother just got a text from her bank saying that her credit card was suspiciously used. The website that recieved the money was:

Code: Select all

http://www.btrimmixcs.com

{code tags added to reduce the chances of anyone clicking on it withing thinking - CBJ}

Can anyone shed some light on this site?

Caution: unsure on the consequences of clicking. Do so with caution.

http://digtheweb.co/en/ore-item/btrimmixcs.com

Not clickin' on it..

Probably a scam. One year registration, just registered in March. Server page says "Tall and brown people rule." Yeah, not going there.

[Morkonan]

Hey guys. My mother just got a text from her bank saying that her credit card was suspiciously used. The website that recieved the money was:

Code: Select all

http://www.btrimmixcs.com

{code tags added to reduce the chances of anyone clicking on it withing thinking - CBJ}

Can anyone shed some light on this site?

Caution: unsure on the consequences of clicking. Do so with caution.

Registered for one year reg in March. Probably fraud. Server page says "Tall and brown people rule"... So, I highly doubt it's legit.

[philip_hughes]

why would the bank text you about a transaction? have they ever done that before?

I'd guess no, because that's not how banks work.

It's fraud. Something you can just ignore, because it wasn't from your bank, nothing has happened to your mums credit card, but if you responded to that text, something bad definatelly would, and pretty fast at that.

The best course of action, and the only thing your bank will tell you to do after you spend hours on hold is delete the text and move on with your life.

The law in australia passes the majority of responsibility for fraud to the bank. That makes it easy for customers to recoup the cash from the bank out of their profitssssss. They therefore have a large variety of methods in place to stop the fraud. Text and cold calling are therefore not off the cards.

[Morkonan]

In the US, depending upon one's bank I suppose, they can text, email AND call you, depending on the agreement. I've been awakened in the morning by a friendly call from my bank asking me if I charged $500 worth of crap online after buying several Playstation cards. (They use the Playstation cards to verify whether or not the card number/info is legit before trying a major purchase.)

[Mightysword]

In my experience it really depend on the vendor reputation. If you purchase several hundreds dollars from a little known vendor, they'll put a hold on it until you verify either by phone or by text.

But if you buy from a place like Amazon, or floor your card on a well know mortuary service then they can clear thousands without having to ask you.

[Morkonan]

In my experience it really depend on the vendor reputation. If you purchase several hundreds dollars from a little known vendor, they'll put a hold on it until you verify either by phone or by text.

But if you buy from a place like Amazon, or floor your card on a well know mortuary service then they can clear thousands without having to ask you.

Most e-transactions and, actually, all transactions, are first monitored by AI attempting to detect trends and deviations from trends, locations, amounts, etc.

The thing about fraudulent use is that it's not usually just one person. Most cards are scooped up online or in data breaches with a few being skimmed at restaurants, simmer-covers on card readers, etc..

So, for instance, if a card is used in a state five states from the registered address and then, fifteen minutes later, is used in another state at least several hours away, or gets used in an online transaction for an e-retailer back-to-back across different retailers, etc... When any or all of that breaks with the cardholder's normal use behavior, a flag goes up and alerts someone.

These systems are pretty good at figuring out unconventional, unauthorized use, but it may take them a few times before they'll finally flag. (They'll also pay close attention to common checks that criminals use, like buying telephone cards, console credits, etc, to "test" a card number before they risk a big purchase or actually try to print it out to use by hand, which is much less common these days, since card numbers are so cheap.)