Amex payment scam?

[Lucan Unlordly]

I've had several (8 to date - 2 in last few minutes) Amex payments appear on our bank statement, all made in the past 3 days and bearing no resemblance to or connection with any orders.

0.03p up to 0.50p

Clearly some sort of Phishing attempt but how will they convert these payments to me, to their advantage? I'm £1.28 up at the moment!

 

[Daybooks]

I've had several (8 to date - 2 in last few minutes) Amex payments appear on our bank statement, all made in the past 3 days and bearing no resemblance to or connection with any orders.

0.03p up to 0.50p

Clearly some sort of Phishing attempt but how will they convert these payments to me, to their advantage? I'm £1.28 up at the moment!

It could be an attempt to establish valid account number and sort code for a later automated withdrawal; or indeed to obtain account name for fraudulent reasons should you be able to contact them. I would put your banker on notice that they are suspicious and that any subsequent fraudulent withdrawals must be refunded and are not authorised.

Your banker may demonstrate that their “your security is our primary concern” is just words.

 

[Lucan Unlordly]

It could be an attempt to establish valid account number and sort code for a later automated withdrawal; or indeed to obtain account name for fraudulent reasons should you be able to contact them. I would put your banker on notice that they are suspicious and that any subsequent fraudulent withdrawals must be refunded and are not authorised.

Your banker may demonstrate that their “your security is our primary concern” is just words.

We process through Worldpay and over 200 attempts to pay 0.00 have obviously been refused. Strangely the one's for a few pence have cleared, we've received email confirmation of such from Worldpay, yet no order placed or could be placed. We don't sell anything for less than a few pounds and most orders are in the hundreds.

I've tried to talk to Worldpay using the usual number but the language/accent barrier meant a worthless conversation both ways. Interesting that you mention refunds. The Worldpay operative asked for sort code and bank account details, which is normal practice (I didn't give them) and suggested I refund the payments. I think/hope she was just confused and got the wrong end of the stick.

I'll call again in the morning...

 

[WaveJumper]

Don't spend that £1.28 all at once on a series note it seems very suspect interesting to see what they come back to you with, best of luck

 

[japancool]

Same person/same card?

 

[fisicx]

Stolen or cloned card. They are checking to see if it’s been reported. If not they buy something of high value from another site.

 

[Lucan Unlordly]

UPDATE:

From Worldpay. We're investigating the points you’ve raised and will provide you with an update or a full written response within the next 15 working days.

The points raised were 'how come money can be paid into my account without an order being placed?'

From my webguy, The dodgy transactions are not referred to Worldpay via the website, so are being created elsewhere. Worldpay should be able to see the issue and block them.

From Worldpay. Recommendation to update the Installation ID from 7 digits to something more significant, creation of an additional security layer. To refund payments to avoid chargebacks.
Lets see what they come up with in 15 days?

 

[Lucan Unlordly]

Same person/same card?

99.9% the same but a couple of others in a different name, both emanating from Brazil.

 

[japancool]

Yeah, they're as @fisixc says. 0 value transactions are usually where they're trying to confirm the security code still works, and the small values are making sure the transaction goes through. You wouldn't expect the 0 value transactions to go through because they're not actually submitting a transaction.

 

[WaveJumper]

Speaking to my son about this last night reminded him of the similar pattern he had with this only difference was they appeared to come back a couple of days later and put through transactions valued anything from £300 to £695 it was predominately always Brazil but Canada came up frequently as well .......... he always deleted the sales and never sent anything