Dodgy 1c Credit Card Transaction - Scam?

Lsmurftastic on 25/10/2021 - 15:11
Last edited 25/10/2021 - 16:20 by 1 other user

Hey all,
this has happened twice to the wife and I now and I'm curious if this has happened to anyone else.
Last year I noticed a pending transaction from a company I didn't recognise for 1cent. I called the bank to query this and they reckoned it was someone dodgy who was testing the waters, so to speak, to see if they could successfully charge my account. Their assumption was that on a successful transfer the potential scammers would then try and draw more.

This again happened to my wife's card this week.

I'm also curious on why they would go down the path of testing the 1c transaction before going for a bigger bite; why not just test with a larger amount and, if successful, they get away with a larger amount of my cash? The only other reasoning I can come up with is if they are doing this over a large amount of different accounts (e.g. hundreds of thousands) to fly under the radar (think the plot of OfficeSpace)

Financial Credit Card

Comments

  • orangetrain on 25/10/2021 - 15:16
    +14

    Your card details have been leaked. Cancel them asap.

    You're seeing small amounts being charged to test authenticity of your card details.

    • pharkurnell on 25/10/2021 - 15:19

      ^^^ This Lots

    • smurftastic on 25/10/2021 - 15:47
      +2

      Thanks, yeah cancelled the cards as soon as we saw the 1c transactions. But I was wondering why test the authenticity and not just try for a bigger amount? If successful that not only answers the question of if the card details are authentic and the scammer gets the cash.

      • MeesusEff on 25/10/2021 - 17:48
        +2

        Maybe they onsell it if it's successful. Most people would just glance at a 1c charge, think about it for 2 seconds and just shrug it off.

        • DoctorCalculon on 25/10/2021 - 19:26
          +2

          Most people

          But not us OzBargainers. ;)

          • Seraphin7 on 25/10/2021 - 20:01
            +1

            @DoctorCalculon:

            But not us OzBargainers. ;)

            True. There's cats on here that will cut you up for that 1c.

        • Kyle-K on 26/10/2021 - 16:37

          In the carding world tested cards go for more money.

    • Paul Atreides on 25/10/2021 - 15:49
      +2

      as above, happened to me.

      two seperate $1 easyjet transactions about a week apart, followed by a circa $1500 british airways charge.

      Picked it up just before the BA charge came through, still showed up as a pending transaction, which later dropped off

    • pandadude on 26/10/2021 - 11:30

      This is correct.

      Credit card are based on card number, expire date and CVV only.

      All the scammer do is literally run every single number and every single expire date after this month.

      Once they get a hit they can issue your card with someone else name to anywhere in the world so long swipe is still accepted.

  • Hithere on 25/10/2021 - 15:28
    +2

    Did you sign up to eBay's seller payment system as they do a couple of transactions for cents to verify your account?

    • Naigrabzo on 25/10/2021 - 15:41
      +2

      This as well. Ebay is known to do this legit. Otherwise time to cancel card and move on. Also do a darkweb scan of your card details and see whether there is a leak. for educational purposes.

      • smurftastic on 25/10/2021 - 15:53

        I really should learn how to do this ,should be a reddit thread somewhere that has instructions…..for educational purposes of course.

        • Naigrabzo on 25/10/2021 - 16:50
          +1

          Education is king! You can easily do darkweb search using a trusted antivirus provider.

    • smurftastic on 25/10/2021 - 15:50

      Pretty sure I didn't for mine, and definitely didn't on my wife's card.
      We both have our "dodgy" bank accounts for online purchases - i.e. only keep a small amount in those accounts that we top up when we want to make online purchases.
      My wife also does not make many purchases online, that's generally up to me, and she's pretty sure that her card was only ever used to order a dress from Forever 20 (or 21, whatever the actual name is)

      • MS Paint on 25/10/2021 - 15:53
        +1

        Forever 20 is the dark web p⁰rn site.
        Forever 21 is the clothing retail store.

        Which was it?

        • smurftastic on 25/10/2021 - 15:55
          +5

          I'm really hoping it's the clothing retail store.
          Then again, if the first one I may be in for a surprise tonight…..

          • MS Paint on 25/10/2021 - 16:02
            +2

            @smurftastic: Well it does specialise in smurf kinks* so half ya luck.

            *So I've been told

        • Naigrabzo on 25/10/2021 - 16:52

          Oh man. I am going to use a Forever 20 for private jokes ( I will laugh alone on the inside ) with friends who will have no idea…

        • burningrage on 25/10/2021 - 21:36

          Oh wow. Didn't know that.

          Will check Forever 20 out.

  • AndyC1 on 25/10/2021 - 15:33

    It's a scam…

  • srsparky on 25/10/2021 - 16:01
    +3

    I've noticed Google Pay do this as well to verify the CVV for any transaction I make using it.

  • Hardlyworkin on 25/10/2021 - 16:17
    +3

    Sounds dodgy - just wanted to add my 2 cents

    • pharkurnell on 25/10/2021 - 16:33
      +3

      Should have been 1 cent

    • Naigrabzo on 25/10/2021 - 16:34
      +1

      PAY THIS MAN at least one cent for his good work.

  • Agarwal on 25/10/2021 - 16:41

    What company was it? I had one recently which I can't for the life of me remember what it was, Authorisation Services or something, ING had a popup on their internet banking the other day saying it was legitimate, and was used for recurring transactions or something.

    • smurftastic on 26/10/2021 - 12:00

      Just said "Fabrication" on the wife's statement.
      I can't remember what it was on mine from last year, but not a company or organisation I recognised.

  • coffeeinmyveins on 25/10/2021 - 17:14

    Can be dodgy, can be legit.

    Only way to find out is checking each company and if you made a purchase against them.

    If you're that worried, get new cards.

    • smurftastic on 26/10/2021 - 12:01

      Yeah, contacted the bank as it was not a company we recognised and could not attribute it to any recent purchases. They thought it was dodgy and cancelled the transaction (I think it was still in pending state) and reissued the card.

  • bobbified on 25/10/2021 - 21:20
    +1

    I had one this week.

    I ordered something online (for the first time from this shop) and got an email to say that they're going to charge the account a small amount (it was $0.02) and they'll refund it and dispatch the item once I confirm the amount charged. Similar to eBay/Paypal some time ago.

  • kallico on 26/10/2021 - 07:38

    If you have some direct debits with your card details and you receive a new credit card and update the expiry date you'll often get a 1 cent charge, it's them verifying the details. One verified it disappears. Both Vodafone and iinet used to do this

    • smurftastic on 26/10/2021 - 12:03

      Thanks Kallico, though there were no direct debits set against these 2 cards. Unfortunately I agree with the consensus of it being a scam to test if the transaction would go through.

  • OzHunterNSW on 26/10/2021 - 09:52
    -1

    Just ignore it…. ignore the calls when your phone tells you it is a potential scam. Ignore the 1C when your bank tells you it is a potential scam. Ignore the 1C when you don't even recognise whom the other party is.

    How simple is it?

    • smurftastic on 26/10/2021 - 12:05
      +2

      Yeah, but I'm a certified Ozbargainer. It would keep me up at night knowing that I spent 1c more than I had to

  • MontyMacaw on 26/10/2021 - 13:11

    Accommodation providers will often do a preauthorisation for 1c to check that the card is valid and has funds in it. The charge expires over time usually no longer than a month. Also many companies trade with one name and have another name on their banking so it is sometimes confusing when you look at who has made charges on your card.

  • smurftastic on 26/10/2021 - 20:12
    +1

    Good point, I know they have done that in the past when checking into some hotels.
    Though I think in my wife's case she had never used her card for accommodation….that I know of….hmmmm

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