Velocity Account Suspended! Been Advised That Account Is Being Investigated. Anyone with Similar Recent Experience?

aspirepranesh on 05/11/2018 - 11:34
Last edited 15/11/2018 - 13:32

A bit of background.

  • I fly Virgin a lot for work via my company and have accumulated points via flights, credit card and point transfers.

  • Back in March this year, I sold 50,000 velocity points to someone on OZB. First and only ever transfer. No other transfers.

  • In the last week, due to the 15% bonus points promotion, I moved all my AMEX points and Flybuys points to my Velocity account totalling over 50,000 points.

I have a NZ trip for work coming up in February for a week and was gonna pool my wife's flybuys points and book her flights with Virgin since my work is paying for mine. Logged in to my account today to check flights and how to use points and got a message that my account is suspended and I called them and they said my account is being reviewed and I will have to wait to be contacted by them. Until that time, I have been advised that I can't redeem any points.

I understand the T&C's about point transfers allowed to only immediate family members.

What makes this odd is that my account has been suspended after 7 months with only one transfer ever!

I have gone through some old threads from 2016…. But…Has anyone had recent similar experiences?

UPDATE as of 15/11/2018:

The investigation is now complete, and no action is required from you. Your account is no longer suspended.
We have identified that you previously engaged in a Points Transfer – Family transaction which is not in
accordance with the Velocity Terms and Conditions.
This letter serves as a reminder that such actions are in breach of the Velocity Frequent Flyer Program
Terms and Conditions of Membership (“Membership Terms”) and any future breaches will result in the
termination of your Velocity Membership.
Section 12.1 of the Membership Terms state that you may only transfer Points with an Eligible Family
Member, defined as:
Eligible Family Members are defined in section 1.1 of the Membership Terms to include persons
related to the Member by virtue of the following relationships: spouses or de facto partners, children,

parents, siblings, grandparents/grandchildren, uncle/aunts, nephew/nieces, first cousins, or any in-
law, foster, step or adopted relationship in any of these categories.

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Comments

  • CLoSeR on 05/11/2018 - 11:39
    +9

    You've breached the terms and conditions by selling points, there is always the risk this will result in suspension.

    Just because it was months ago doesn't mean you're in the clear, they have records and perhaps your recent transfer of points caught their eye and resulted in further review of your account.

    Let us know what the outcome is.

    • aspirepranesh on 05/11/2018 - 11:41
      +1

      Yeah! a little annoyed that the massive transfers into the account might have resulted in this!

      • HighAndDry on 05/11/2018 - 13:00
        +4

        Yeah - pretty unlucky to get caught for something which a lot of people do. But the transfer in on top of the transfers out probably triggered something. And even a 1-in-a-100 risk means someone still ends up being that '1'.

  • Diji1 on 05/11/2018 - 11:56
    -3

    So on top of losing money by participating in a spending incentive scheme the tokens that you received to spend on pretend bargains have also gone.

    I can see why you use it.

  • chumlee on 05/11/2018 - 12:25
    +23

    Tell them you are a war veteran. Should smooth everything over

    • follow on 05/11/2018 - 12:47
      +9

      and everyone clapped

      • Seedy seed on 30/11/2018 - 16:37
        +1

        For the war vet handicap?

  • shaz0316 on 05/11/2018 - 14:08

    Sorry about your situation- same thing happened to me and now I am not eligible for a velocity account. Good news is that you will still be okay to hold a Kris Flyer account so your FF points can go there though I'm not sure how out works with status credits.

    • aspirepranesh on 05/11/2018 - 14:23

      Hopefully they don't cancel it. Lounge access is one main reason I love flying with Virgin. Still waiting to hear from them.

  • bitesized on 05/11/2018 - 14:13

    When you did the points transfer, did you match your address up with the other party?

    • aspirepranesh on 05/11/2018 - 14:22

      I did this back in March, and he was based in Sydney. I still have his contact details and have contacted him this morning to provide me some additional information just in case Virgin ring me.

      When I did the transfer, it only asked for the velocity number and relationships, don't recall seeing any addresses.

      • bitesized on 05/11/2018 - 15:01
        +1

        Yes it does not ask for addresses, but in the page before (which talks both about family pooling and transfers), there is a portion regarding members having the same address.

        I am not sure if same address requisite is for family pooling only, but even for transfers, I think matching addresses eases the level of suspicion. Best of luck in your case anyhow.

        • aspirepranesh on 05/11/2018 - 15:06

          You could be right. But there is no way for me to test the process again as my account is locked.

          Just need to hold tight until I hear from Virgin.

  • herbo on 05/11/2018 - 14:49

    That's no good. I was thinking of offloading some velocity points shortly too. Apologies for the high-jack but if anyone can let me know what the general precautions are that should be taken when selling points that would be great. PM if needed. I don't really understand how it all works, assume there's some trust involved, i.e. seller waits for cash before transferring points, etc.

  • cybapete on 05/11/2018 - 20:59
    +10

    who knows maybe there was nothing on your end that tipped them off
    for all you know the buyer could have hit up 100 other people and bought a million points then when they were busted virgin went back through their transactions hitting all the sellers

    • stirlo on 06/11/2018 - 10:18
      +4

      This is very likely what's happened…

    • aspirepranesh on 06/11/2018 - 10:51

      By the looks of it, you could be right! having looked at the member's history on OZB, he seems to have posted quite a few times wanting to purchase points from people.

      When I spoke with him yest, he said the account was his mum's and since then has stopped responding to my msgs after I asked him to send some information about the account, just in case virgin contact me and maybe… maybe we could cook up a story (but I highly doubt that would stay)

      • tomclancy on 06/11/2018 - 15:41
        +1

        Definitely ^^ this is how you got pinged. Too many points purchases from the same buyer in a 3 month period.

        Sorry OP, hope it gets resolved positively for you. I've heard stories of Velocity accounts remaining open but they wipe any VFF points balance. If you're the seller and you had minimal points in your account then you may not be as affected. Good luck

        • aspirepranesh on 06/11/2018 - 18:37
          +1

          I just had an other member pm me saying that velocity have suspended his account after he sold points to possibly the same guy in March.

          I am thinking of writing them and owning up to it and come to a compromise so they could let me keep my membership and gold status

          • Peck on 06/11/2018 - 18:56
            +4

            @aspirepranesh: It looks like you have nothing to lose. But maybe wait for a while until you get the outcome of their investigations,and then throw yourself at their mercy.

  • Gotchas on 06/11/2018 - 19:25

    Never participated in this type of activity but you could cover yourself to a certain degre by transferring to a spouse/family member first then sell from that account. That way you’re protecting your status and still buy tickets for that family member even if they get barred

    • aspirepranesh on 07/11/2018 - 08:29

      In hindsight, that seems to be a good idea. Too late now.

      Might lose 80000 points if they let me keep my membership

    • runamuck on 07/11/2018 - 09:08
      +2

      Does not work. They will know.

      • [Deactivated] on 07/11/2018 - 23:53
        +1

        true. they will see all the links you have made the close the lot of them.

        trust me from experience lol

        • runamuck on 08/11/2018 - 07:24

          So what was the outcome? They closed off all the accounts and you weren't able to come up with a good explanation?

          • [Deactivated] on 08/11/2018 - 12:55
            +1

            @runamuck: Closed all connected accounts.

            Look I did the wrong thing so they were perfectly in their right. If you don’t play the rules around family pooling well they will come after you it seems.

  • aspirepranesh on 07/11/2018 - 12:13

    So this guy had his QFF account in trouble in 2016 as well : https://imgur.com/a/sb7ZBRf

    Same guy who msg'd me to the points off me, couple of other people have PM'd me about this guy!!

  • voteoften on 07/11/2018 - 15:39
    +3

    I do not think you should do anything until they contact u. They won’t deal with u until the investigation is complete.

    • aspirepranesh on 07/11/2018 - 15:51

      I already did email them this morning after coming across this thread. I have a few flights coming up and can't afford to have my membership suspended for 30 days!

      I was apologetic and I mentioned that this was the only time a transfer has been done.

      Lets see what they have got to say.

      • voteoften on 08/11/2018 - 07:16

        Please keep us updated, but as.i said, I don’t think they will deal,with it until their investigation is completed. What is so urgent about these upcoming flights? Are they award bookings? Is it just so you can use the lounge?

        • aspirepranesh on 08/11/2018 - 07:36

          It does make sense in a way to wait until they reach out to me… But then I'm in two mins mainly bcoz of a mixture of everything, upgraded flights, lounge access and also the fact that I have just transferred over 50000 points in to my account last week, which is now sitting at 85000 in total. Ideally it would be great if they let me keep the points and just give me a warning.

  • Bargain Master on 08/11/2018 - 12:24

    I just received an email also saying my account has been suspended. I did sell points but that was over 2 years ago and nothing since.

    • aspirepranesh on 08/11/2018 - 12:25

      Did you sell it to a guy from ozbargain? username bbqwer?

      • Bargain Master on 08/11/2018 - 12:32

        Just looked through my PM's and he did contact me but i did not sell to him.

        • aspirepranesh on 08/11/2018 - 12:36

          I have had 3 other people PM me since this post who all sold points to that guy including me who are getting screwed now!

          Sorry to hear that your account has been suspended almost 2 years after the transaction!

          • kanister1987 on 08/11/2018 - 13:12

            @aspirepranesh: I have received an email today that my velocity account is suspended. i haven't had a points transfer on that account in 2 years, and have had no messages or transactions with bbqwer…..

            i'm not losing any points out of this as i stopped earning velocity… but it is annoying.

  • tellhimhesdreaming on 08/11/2018 - 12:52

    I'm quite interested to see how this turns out. I've been on the fence about selling points partially because I don't want to lose the perks in the future. Has anyone else experienced this with Qantas?

  • voteoften on 09/11/2018 - 10:47

    Any idea what happens with award bookings? I guess they stay in place until they reach a conclusion? Or do they wait until you respond to them?

    Do they give people notice their flights were cancelled?

    • aspirepranesh on 12/11/2018 - 10:09

      I was told that no redemption can be made while the account is suspended! Not sure about bookings already made.

  • joshm998 on 10/11/2018 - 23:17
    +5

    I just got the email too, also sold velocity points to bbqwer early this year.

  • Cheongah123 on 12/11/2018 - 09:20
    +1

    https://www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au/virgin-velocity-a…

    This is the latest news. Seems like once in a blue moon (2 years) velocity will audit, weird but oh well.
    Buy all you want within 2 years and shut it down once its over? (they seem to suggest this lol)

  • Peck on 12/11/2018 - 09:34

    It seems that you can't close your account online. And to ring to close it may draw attention to yourself.

  • Bargain Master on 12/11/2018 - 16:57
    +5

    Update from velocity

    The investigation is now complete, and no action is required from you. Your account is no longer suspended. We have identified that you previously engaged in Points Transfer – Family transactions which may not be in accordance with the Velocity Terms and Conditions.
    This letter serves as a reminder that such actions are in breach of the Velocity Frequent Flyer Program Terms and Conditions of Membership (“Membership Terms”) and any future breaches will result in the termination of your Velocity Membership.
    Section 12.1 of the Membership Terms state that you may only transfer Points with an Eligible Family Member, defined as:
    Eligible Family Members are defined in section 1.1 of the Membership Terms to include persons related to the Member by virtue of the following relationships: spouses or de facto partners, children, parents, siblings, grandparents/grandchildren, uncle/aunts, nephew/nieces, first cousins, or any in- law, foster, step or adopted relationship in any of these categories.
    You may access your account online or contact our Membership Contact Centre on 131 875 if you have any questions or require clarification on how the program works.
    Any queries in relation to this letter should be sent to [email protected].
    Yours sincerely Velocity Frequent Flyer

    • aspirepranesh on 12/11/2018 - 17:15

      Glad to hear that! Atleast they let you go with a warning.

      Mine is still suspended unfortunately.

    • quickling on 12/11/2018 - 21:22

      hahaha, profit always wins out in the end.

    • kanister1987 on 13/11/2018 - 12:20

      I hope I get the same response. I made one transfer in 2016.

  • voteoften on 13/11/2018 - 11:49

    Anyone else get a resolution? 😃

    • [Deactivated] on 13/11/2018 - 14:24

      Nop - still suspended

  • voteoften on 14/11/2018 - 10:00

    As far as I know, the letters were dated 5/11 but emailed 7/11. Wonder if there’s a delay n notifying people they are in thelear as well.

    • aspirepranesh on 14/11/2018 - 10:08

      I got an email 3 days after my account was suspended. There definitely is a delay.

      I just tried logging into my account this morning and it still says suspended and no resolution email yet!

  • aspirepranesh on 15/11/2018 - 13:39
    +1

    Finally! Just got an email saying my account is no longer suspended. They let me off with a warning!!

    • Peck on 15/11/2018 - 13:44

      Did they ask you any questions or ask you to provide anything as part of their investigation?

      • aspirepranesh on 15/11/2018 - 13:52
        +5

        No mate. I even dropped them an email last week owning up for selling the points, but they didnt even acknowledge that.

        This seems to be a similar email that mattg received a few posts above.

        • tomclancy on 15/11/2018 - 14:20
          +1

          Happy days 😀

        • kanister1987 on 15/11/2018 - 21:38

          So no stat Dec. like ygytyg? (see below)

          what is different between the two of you…

          • aspirepranesh on 15/11/2018 - 21:51

            @kanister1987: Not sure. I do fly virgin a lot. Do about 4-6 flights a month. Maybe that could have been a reason for letting me off the hook.

            • Bargain Master on 15/11/2018 - 22:39

              @aspirepranesh: Might have to do with volume of points turnover also. I only fly once a year but have earned/redeemed 3,300,000 since being a member.

              • aspirepranesh on 15/11/2018 - 22:41

                @Bargain Master: It is odd that they are terminating an account bcoz of one transfer, especially when they are giving us one warning prior to termination

  • Nathw on 15/11/2018 - 17:57

    My account is going to be terminated :(

    Velocity has determined that it intends to terminate the Account
    within 14 days in accordance with section 9.1.1 of the Membership Terms.

    • voteoften on 15/11/2018 - 19:03
      +1

      Oh no. Did they specify any reason? Give specifics? I think the 14 days is your chance to give more info. Were you a buyer or a seller?

    • aspirepranesh on 15/11/2018 - 20:57

      Sorry to hear that. Did they want you to prove the family relationship?

      As voteoften asked, did you buy or sell? And was it multiple times?

      • Nathw on 15/11/2018 - 21:34
        +1

        I was the seller and it was my first time. yeah, they want me to make a statutory declaration, but I'm not gonna do it anyway

        • aspirepranesh on 15/11/2018 - 21:51

          Out of curiosity, do you fly virgin often?

          If you are keen on keeping the membership, maybe write them a letter owning up for it as a mistake and see if that works.

          I was going thro an old forum post, and an other user did that with qff and they let him retain his membership.

          Maybe worth a shot

        • Peck on 15/11/2018 - 22:07

          'ygytyg' good for you. Not worth it.

          • Nathw on 15/11/2018 - 22:50

            @Peck: Thanks guys, worth a try.

  • voteoften on 15/11/2018 - 19:20
    +3

    Do the sellers of points in the forum know about this?

    • aspirepranesh on 15/11/2018 - 20:58
      +6

      Unsure. A few people pm'd me since I made the post.

      I think the sellers should be made aware of some of these Moronic buyers who get despsrate and land everyone else in trouble.

      I understand and accept that there is always a risk in buying or selling points, but I wish some people used common sense from time to time.

    • WatermelonJuice on 30/11/2018 - 08:25

      The buyers need to be warned more than the sellers.

  • voteoften on 15/11/2018 - 23:02

    Just curious if those who were warned but allowed to keep their account - have you logged in and started a dummy transaction yet?

  • godzilla123 on 21/11/2018 - 11:42

    My wife's account has been suspended….and the only "suspicious" activity on her account is transferring her points to my account via family pooling.

    • voteoften on 22/11/2018 - 23:30

      Did your account get suspended as well?

      • godzilla123 on 23/11/2018 - 09:06

        Yes mine too. I redeemed points for a flight but booked in someone else's name

        • voteoften on 24/11/2018 - 11:43

          That’s rough.

    • godzilla123 on 24/11/2018 - 11:45
      +2

      Wife's account has been un-suspended. With no mention that she had breached any T&Cs.

  • wellglued14 on 21/11/2018 - 15:13

    Is anyone yet to hear the outcome from Velocity yet? Recieved my letter on the 7th.

    • LemonShapedRock on 21/11/2018 - 20:07

      I’m in your boat, haven’t heard anything yet.

      • kanister1987 on 21/11/2018 - 22:11
        +1

        Still waiting, and received my letter on the 7th.

  • quickling on 29/11/2018 - 19:35

    Got my letter. Slap on the hand but unsuspended now.

  • wellglued14 on 29/11/2018 - 22:18

    Got my letter today - account will be terminated and have a lifetime ban.

    • JDogman on 30/11/2018 - 01:26
      +2

      Dw it'll be the lifetime of virgin Australia, not you… They are haemorrhaging money as a company.

    • [Deactivated] on 30/11/2018 - 01:36

      So What did you actually do?

      • wellglued14 on 30/11/2018 - 07:20

        Bought ~130k points

        • samfisher5986 on 30/11/2018 - 13:35

          Did you end up using it? Or do you lose it?

        • voteoften on 30/11/2018 - 17:35

          In one transaction or multiple?

  • AnDyStYLe on 30/11/2018 - 16:32
    +10

    Ok for all those that may find interest in this or is in the same boat that I was in yesterday.

    I received that 'letter' yesterday, advising that my account was going to be terminated in 14 days due to breaching the "Eligible Family Members" terms.

    In case you were going to ask, I made 2 transactions, one mid last year and the other more recently this year.

    As soon as I received this, I sent them a very apologetic email fessing up and that I won't ever do it again.

    To my surprise (in terms of promptness, and the outcome in my favour), I got a reply just now as follows:

    Blah blah blah…

    The investigation is now complete, and no action is required from you. Your account is no longer suspended. As previously advised, you engaged in a Points Transfer – Family transactions that are not in accordance with the Velocity Terms and Conditions.

    This letter serves as a reminder that such actions are in breach of the Velocity Frequent Flyer Program Terms and Conditions of Membership (“Membership Terms”) and any future breaches will result in the termination of your Velocity Membership.

    … Blah blah blah

    Worth a quick email for those in the same boat as I was yesterday. Great outcome =)

    Lesson learned, I won't be transferring points to bbqwer again lol! Nah, all seriousness I won't be transferring points to any one outside of the "Eligible Family Members" in future.

    • voteoften on 30/11/2018 - 17:34
      +1

      What a fantastic outcome. Thanks for sharing.

    • LemonShapedRock on 30/11/2018 - 18:20
      +4

      Can confirm I followed the same steps with the same outcome

      • voteoften on 01/12/2018 - 07:14
        +1

        Wow, what a great thing. So happy for you.

    • WatermelonJuice on 01/12/2018 - 00:35
      +2

      Thanks for sharing! Many will appreciate this.

  • Donaldhump on 01/12/2018 - 08:48
    -8

    I once murdered someone one, but only once, and when the cops knocked on my door 7 months later I was flabbergasted. How dare they, I only did it once.

    • aspirepranesh on 01/12/2018 - 09:25

      And you think all crimes are exactly the same? Funny world you live in.

      • Donaldhump on 01/12/2018 - 10:52
        -6

        Well one I am being a little sarcastic. Someone one with some wit would gauge that. do you honestly think for one second I was serious and/or am a murderer. You didn't commit a crime, but you breached a contracts terms, so suffer the consequences. Shame on you for complaining IMHO. What do you expect them to do.

        Two my point is if rules are broken then don't complain that you got busted and reprimanded. You violated their terms, you are lucky you got a warning. How do you have the audacity to even complain.

        • aspirepranesh on 01/12/2018 - 11:08
          +2

          In any of my comments, did you see me complain that virgin have done the wrong thing and I'm entitled to keep my membership? I wonder how you came to that conclusion.

          The people who commented here have all owned up for their mistakes, in most cases a once off, and took ownership of it, including myself and wrote to velocity.

          Even vicroads gives you the option of a warning if you are within a 5km over speed limit, if it was your first offence and give you a good behaviour period.

          So take your self righteous preachings elsewhere when no one here complained about velocity being unfair.

          • Donaldhump on 01/12/2018 - 13:49
            -4

            @aspirepranesh: Fair enough, but seems to me like you are complaining, or you would go down that path if you lost your points. You think everyone is entitled to defraud the membership and get a warning. I am sure when you did your sale you knew it was wrong and took a punt, there is nothing to warn

            Or can you honestly say you had no idea what you did was wrong.

            • aspirepranesh on 01/12/2018 - 14:21

              @Donaldhump: Feel free to read my post and all my comments in this thread, the answers to your questions are all in there.

              And I have my resolution already and my thoughts have helped atleast one other person, and that to me, is a positive impact I have made. And whether you agree with my thought process or not, velocity did. So they did for a few others in this thread, so you can still go on and on saying that we are complaining

              Also, to reiterate, if me asking has anyone has similar recent experiences is me complaining… You might need to look upthe word in a dictionary. Cheers

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