Leave my wonga alone!

[BarleySugar]

Several days ago I noticed a payment for £10 was taken from my bank account, but it took a couple of days to see who it was going to! I was sure I hadn't forgotten any outgoing payments. Then it told me it went to wonga.com. I hadn't even heard of them (don't watch much tv), so checked them out online. Amazingly sad that some people are desperate enough to borrow from them.
When I went into my bank she didn't seem that surprised, she said a couple of months ago she had a customer who had lost £800 to them in the same way. They couldn't have got that much from my account It was my card number that had been used to debit the account, not my actual account number.
She put me through to the fraud team and after answering a few questions, like was I sure no one else in the house had used my card, where did I keep it etc, I was told the money would be back in my account by 6pm, card was cancelled and a new one ordered. I also authorised them to contact the police, hope they trace who and how. The account is one I use for online shopping, and unless I'm plannng on buying something big, it only has a nominal amount in there. Not a nice feeling all the same.

[julesapple]

Not nice at all BS. You have my sympathy.

My account was hacked a while back after topping up my phone online. How it got hacked through 02 I don't know, but they took a lot of money and it was weeks before we got it back, but we did get it eventually. The BH had his debit card hacked in a supermarket petrol station - one of the employees had attached a gadget to the chip & pin machine that read and recorded the details. He was caught very quickly though.

It's scary when it happens and it makes you feel very vulnerable.

[veggiechicken]

Thanks for that BS. I'd never heard of Wonga so just had a Gurgle. There are several reports of fraudulent use of someone else's bank account. I'll definitely keep a closer eye on my bank account now.

[VirginVegGrower]

I recommend keeping all your receipts and checking against each monthly bank statement. A pain but a necessary chore. Once done, burn the lot or shred. Keep those receipts for electricals or stuff with warranty.

[lettucegrow!]

This is all very scary, thanks for letting us know. Will go through the statement much more thoroughly now.
Afraid my daughter, who lives away from us has borrowed from this lot and ended up with a bid debt. It's all too easy and expensive.

[Potstubsdustbins]

I had my card hacked a couple of weeks ago but it flagged up to the banks security and they contacted me before releasing payment.

The person told me they don't even have to get your card details now. They can computor generate card numbers and then try a test purchase for a small amount. Mine was tested by making a £10 phone top up in Milton Keynes. Apparently it was the fact it was done in this location that flagged it up.

Colin

[JanieB]

Mmmmh! I've had my cards hacked several times. I've actually worked in the security/fraud part of a bank and am ultra careful but it can still happen.

Worse was earlier this year when my businesses website was hacked so that we got the orders and sent them out but the payments were being syphoned off into someone elses account. Fortunately we spotted it before too much damage was done. It unfortunately coincided with Natwests snafu so that we had our cards re-issued and withdrawn several times over about 6 weeks making it nigh on impossible to restock.

[HeyWayne]

Tried to pay for Chinese takeaway over the phone a week ago - three attempts and the card didn't work. Bank called me 3-4 minutes later to alert me that my card details had been compromised - and checked a series of transactions with me to ensure they were genuine. One wasn't - Wonga.

Card blocked before I'd even realised - banks aren't all bad.

I needed to draw cash out, so bank told me to call when I was at an ATM - I called, they unblocked my card until the cash was in my hand, and the card was then immediately locked down again. Impressive.

New card winging it's way to me.

[chris]

It'll be people using the details to get a loan from Wonga, not Wonga themselves - pretty much as they're an online loan provider ().

But yes, I've had calls from my bank/cc provider(s) before saying that they've just blocked the transactions, cancelled the card and a new one has been sent out to me.