Please Read - Possible Credit Card Scam In Lothians

[scouk]

First off this has nothing to do with the McRae Gathering event itself.. THere' is no scam on the event or anything.. !!

Need to clear that one up right away.. and apoliges if it causes any problems with the 3 amigos...

However I have reason to believe that during the weekend I was stung..

Here's the short story..

Last week while checking my credit card statements, noticed an off transaction of 1,200 Australian Dollars (aroudn £540) beign taken off my card in sydney.. Clearly dodgy got on the phone to the card company and they are dealing with it (albeit slower than I'd like)

But I believe I've found the possible time and place of where the details were taken

Card Scam in lothians and borders:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/edinbu...ast/7767051.stm

Now the only time I've been in that area in years was one night in Livingston for the McRae Gathering.. Just to let you know the only places I used the card in the area was at the Premier Inn where i was staying and the Shell Garage at the other end of town!

So it's a pretty good guess that one of those two places were SCamming during the Gathering weekend...

(Note I apologise for suggestiong people stay at the premier inn if they are the source of the scam...)

Edited December 5, 2008 by ScoUK

[scoob fae ork]

First off this has nothing to do with the McRae Gathering event itself.. THere' is no scam on the event or anything.. !!

Need to clear that one up right away.. and apoliges if it causes any problems with the 3 amigos...

However I have reason to believe that during the weekend I was stung..

Here's the short story..

Last week while checking my credit card statements, noticed an off transaction of 1,200 Australian Dollars (aroudn £540) beign taken off my card in sydney.. Clearly dodgy got on the phone to the card company and they are dealing with it (albeit slower than I'd like)

But I believe I've found the possible time and place of where the details were taken

Card Scam in lothians and borders:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/edinbu...ast/7767051.stm

Now the only time I've been in that area in years was one night in Livingston for the McRae Gathering.. Just to let you know the only places I used the card in the area was at the Premier Inn where i was staying and the Shell Garage at the other end of town!

So it's a pretty good guess that one of those two places were SCamming during the Gathering weekend...

(Note I apologise for suggestiong people stay at the premier inn if they are the source of the scam...)

Thats not good mate thanks for the heads up will check as soon as. My Fiance's aunty stays down that area and her plus loads of her work mates had their cards cloned in Shell garages and lost alot of money. I was one of the ones to go to the BP station accross from the Premier inn

[cullenmin]

My bet would be the Shell garage.

This disgraces me as I am a Shell employee and these people are the point of contact to many customers of the Shell brand.....and some of them can't even speak english!

[RA Dunk]

.....and some of them can't even speak english!

yes i have noticed shell employ quite alot of these type of people

[Midnight21]

Yip it was the Shell garages the one near me was cloning cards too and a few of my friends lost money from their bank accounts and it was around the end of August

[scoob fae ork]

Is Shell doing anything about this cos its an absulute disgrace that its happening

[scouk]

Ok.. that sounds pretty conclusive!

I remmeber the guy behidn the counter too.. Youngish guy.. possibly inexperienced.. DOn't recall any extra swipes on the card, don't like lettign the card out of my sight for this very reason.. Used the thingy attached to the til... Hmnn...

Just goes to show..

Shame it was a shell mastercard as well..

[gus the bus]

Deffo been the Shell garage at Lizzie Bryce.

A few folk from the Football Club have been caught out there too with $AUS appearing on their accounts. but its been from the ATM attached to the building. Did you withdraw £'s from there?

Gus

Edited December 5, 2008 by Gus the Bus

[jodie typeRA]

i got done a few month ago ,,shell at quennsferry road (card cloned at the hole in the wall)

got phoned from the HBOS FBI saying some1 tryed to take $500 out in OZ (thay refused it) then thay tryed to take $50 (bank refused) thay phoned me the next day to make sure it was not me,,,,,,,,,man if ive not got anuff to worrie about, now ive got to watch for people on the otherside of the planet trying to nik my hard money

[DR Motosport]

Still happening at the Lizzie Brice Shell last weekend.

A mate that stays in Mid Calder told me his wife was in there last weekend, then later noticed £350 in Aussie dollars missing.

On Monday my wife came in from work (School teacher in Livingston) with an email from the school warning about using the Shell garage for card fraud.

David

[RA Dunk]

if its happening that often at the same petrol station surely somebody must have complained to the owners

[euan_r]

was it the shell at south end of livi. i filled up there and withdrew cash from machine outside too. i havent noticed anything out of ordinary on my account. i did use a debit card as apposed to credit card thing, if it makes any difference.

by the number of replies of folk saying they have been scammed specifically at shell im surprised they havent been informed or investigated. its shocking, i would happily boycot shell from now on.

[micra_wrc]

I remember Shell had this problem before, thought they'd fixed it....

and as for boycotting Shell and not putting V-Power in the RA, absolutely nae chance I'd stick anything else in the tank, I'll just pay by cash

oh and Al, hope you get this sorted and you dont get billed/penalised for this

[st3ph3n]

Used Shell Lizzie Brice a few weeks back. Will double check my accounts for the next few months!

I got caught last August with someone trying to do a western union money transfer for three hundred sheets and a few other transactions for small amounts including the congestion charge in London!

Must admit that it took the bank longer than I'd have liked to deal with it too. I was alerted to it by an email saying my visa secure password had been changed (it's a flawed system) and I immediately phoned the bank to get everything stopped. Needless to say they didn't phone back as promised so I had to do it again 5 hours later.

[RA Dunk]

I remember Shell had this problem before, thought they'd fixed it....

and as for boycotting Shell and not putting V-Power in the RA, absolutely nae chance I'd stick anything else in the tank, I'll just pay by cash

oh and Al, hope you get this sorted and you dont get billed/penalised for this

tescos 99 does just fine Imy, ive been using it since i got my RA and all is well to date

[AlanG]

i did use a debit card as apposed to credit card thing, if it makes any difference.

It *could* make difference. In Oz, credit card is king. For the majority of transactions, a UK debit card is not allowed. That's not to say you can't use your UK card over there, but only for withdrawing funds from an ATM.

For Oz accounts, you can pay by debit card (called savings), credit card (preferred) or by cheque ( 2nd most popular method of payment), so if someone over here is trying to use your uk debit card for an aussie transaction, then more than likely it'll be refused.

[scouk]

Have to admit.. if it's known to be going on for so long I'm surprised the police aren;t all over it, interviewing all the staff every two days and asking for seciruty camera video from behind the counter.. Ho hum..

My bro also used the same shell garage with a credit card but later on in the day and so far no signs of any dodgy transactions on his card.. Lucky Git!

Should get sorted out without too much trouble.. have been informed I wont have to pay the money that came out (phew) and apparently the seciruty departments of shell/CitiBank is overwhelmed at the moment.. Hmnn I wonder why.. Shell credit card and cloning happenign at shell stations.. Whoops!!

Still waiting for a replacement card though....

Kinda makes the whole chip & pin thing useless at the moment really.. if money can still be taken out the old fashioned way in other countries.... Either all countries need to adopt chip&pin or wimply remove the magnetic strip from UK cards! IMHO

[st3ph3n]

You can take money off in this country without chip and pin too though. It's not the saviour. Biometrics might be.

[AlanG]

Have to admit.. if it's known to be going on for so long I'm surprised the police aren;t all over it,

They seem to be.

[scouk]

They seem to be.

Yep but it took until yesterday for it to be publicised to the public... Hmnn...

[neill54]

so all should be well if you really mask your pin no entering and not let anyone swipe your card as the chip and black strip are seperate

i use that garage nearly everyday and its been going downhill but its the cheapest around but i might just start using the one on the bypass!!

neil

[Midnight21]

Yep but it took until yesterday for it to be publicised to the public... Hmnn...

I first heard about this a few month back about the shell garage at Mayfield near Dalkeith but I think it was only in the local paper at the time I assumed it was only this one!!