Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Thursday, Feb 26, 2004
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Thursday, Feb 26, 2004 |
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Money & Banking
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Credit Cards & Debit Cards Fraudster on the prowl with `Visa-security' id? D. Murali
Chennai , Feb. 25 VISA hardly needs any introduction for credit card users. So, it came as no surprise last Saturday to find in my inbox an e-mail from what announced itself as "Visa Service". But, the `subject' line carried the phrase, "Visa Security Update" and that was queer. "Dear Sir/Madam," the letter began, and proceeded thus: "We were informed that your card is used by another person or stolen. It could happen if you have been shopping online, and someone got your `billing information' including your card number. To avoid and prevent any billing mistakes and to refund your credit card, it is strongly recommended to proceed filling in the secure form on our site and apply for our zero liability programme. This programme is free and it will help us to investigate this accident." At this point in the mail, there is a shaded box that reads "Continue... " inviting to click, but I desisted. The mail closes: "Sincerely yours, Visa Support Assistant, Alwin Desagun." The mail id is security@visa-security.com and that has all the appearances of legitimacy. But a click on `Continue... ' would show http://thewwwcompany.de/? on the Internet Explorer's address window. And the body of the letter is so boilerplate that it should have gone to many other credit card users like me. I use an SBI card and it has the Visa affiliation, so I called up their help-line to check the authenticity of the mail. "Your card number please," says the voice, well-trained for work such as this. "One-two-three-... " I reel out, waiting anxiously to know that she is going to tell me about a big debit run in my name by the perpetrator that Alwin is trying to warn me about. Luckily, the balance was what I had left it at. The call centre operator could not see anything wrong with the mail. "We're in Bangalore, you see, and it could be the local office trying to check something." But I was adamant that I speak to the supervisor, who in turn heard me read out the mail again and guessed that it must be talking about an insurance product from Visa about which the SBI's call centre did not know as yet, perhaps. A mail to the Local Head Office of SBI, however, produced some immediate result in the form of the AGM interacting with the `help-line' by appending a note: "We forward the e-mail received by us from Shri D. Murali. Please look into the matter and verify the genuineness of the mail received by him. Please send your reply to him at the earliest under advice to us. Our telephone number is: 044 28214270 / 28214635." A copy of the complaint was sent to globalmedia@visa.com immediately, but even after two days, there has been no feedback. In the meantime, the Gurgaon office of GE is working overtime to still find out the genuineness of the mail. The unanswered question is simple: Is a fraudster on the prowl with `Visa-security' id?
More Stories on : Credit Cards & Debit Cards | Economic Offences
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