Sorry folks - not the mystical World of Hades reached only by crossing the river Styx. Instead the murky underworld of crime; online fraud has hit us - and that is scarey!
We all get spam emails and countless viagra offers, etc., but duff transactions with validated cards? Now that IS news - at least to us anyway. Beware any overseas originating credit card registered to a UK address, even if all the addresses match…
All remedied now with a new layer of security in place but curious how Barclays Merchant Services, Sagepay and 3rd Man do not have a cohesive policy of prevention between them - thanks guys! Any loss is born by the merchant, of course.
I wonder, though, if one can get caught up in a suckers loop of some sort? Reason being, we have now had two stolen or cloned UK cards (again validated?!) attempt to be used to purchase champagne - but our human alarm bells rang because the purchases did not fit with the normal pattern so we checked in the old fashioned way and you know what: our telephone messages were not returned… 
Beware Rebecca Romero - but not the real one, of course!
And now we have a gazillion spam comments attached to various blog posts and my email account has been hijacked - apologies if I have not sanctioned your genuine comment or responded to an email query but I will as soon as normal service is resumed.
Roll on spring - and an end to this perpetual cold (and rain) - thanks Withnail; we do need a jukebox, methinks!
Pip pip.
Tags: Barclays Merchant Services, dodgy credit cards, online fraud, Parklane Online, Rebecca Romero, Sagepay, The 3rd Man
