Something smells phishy

[cdave]

So far it's taken over 10 helpdesk calls to sort out find out what's going with the stupid stupid Verified by Vista phishing look-a-like payment site. (MasterCard SecureCode is the same damn thing).

If a payment site:
appears in an embeded iframe (with no way of seeing the URL),
or in a pop-up with out an address bar,
or comes up after I've already entered my card details and asks for them again,
or triggers a javascript XSS warning on noScript,
or only lists a phone number which is not valid ( 0870 154 0121 );
then I'm not going to trust it!

Here are some valid numbers:

0844 811 9111 Customer service: Takes a while to get through the menus but eventually a human told me there was no failed transaction on my account, but there was a £1 charge due to expire on the 10th. However they can't help with the secure.barclaycard site (and as an aside only have access to 6 months of account data).

0870 156 6485 Barclaycard Secure/3D Secure queries: Only for Debit cards, can't help with Credit card problems.

0844 811 9152 Barclaycard Secure/3D Secure queries: Only for Credit card, can't help with debit card. Only one that seems to be based overseas.

They said that the receipt history page isn't receipts, it's a list of attempted transactions. Clearly. The transaction that was showing up on there was a failed transaction. Even though there's no indication of this. I eventually paid again, and apart from a slightly higher Receipt ID the two "receipts" look identical.

Raah!

If I see a site uses Vilified by Visa, or MasterCard SuckyCode, then I'll will first see if there is another payment option. Then see if there is another site selling the same thing. Then consider if I really need to spend money, before going through all this again.


Then the shop downstairs closed as I walked up to it.
Then vending machine wasn't taking pound coins, so I went and got change.
Then it wasn't taking change.
Then the coffee shop had a massive queue.
So no sugar for Dave.
Grr.

Comments

[watervole.livejournal.com]

I loathe Verified by Visa. With Passion.

[cdave]

Too bloody right. I'm fairly mellow about most things, but almost everything about this site is just wrong.

[gaspodia.livejournal.com]

I loathe them too - nowhere on their shoddy little pop up does it say "The information you are asking for is case sensitive. Yes, that means your name needs to by typed in upper case"

[cdave]

I get annoyed with the whole "third character of your password" bit, as it means they clearly have my password saved as plain text. A decent site encrypts (makes a signature) your password when it's entered, it's only ever stored unencrypted in RAM for a fraction of a second. Then they just compare signatures.

It means it's not possible to stick the keys on a USB drive and drop it in a carpark!

[sarahdotcom.livejournal.com]

grr. They use that on the Camden council tax payment site, but there's an option to skip it. Only for some reason my payment didn't go through last night, and it said I needed to enter a password or something. So I filled in the stupid verification thing. And it still didn't go through. Did exactly the same thing this morning and it went through.

Can you recommend a bank that's better than HSBC? They keep bouncing my internet payments for no apparent reason (ok, maybe it's fair enough they wouldn't put through a payment for £470, but still) and they won't give me a credit card even though I'm no kind of credit risk and indeed have a lot of money saved with them. HATE HATE HATE!

[cdave]

Nope. 'fraid I hate HSBC as they wouldn't give me a student rail card for ages.

Natwest are okay, but I've had friends they've pissed off.

Some mates where raving about the egg cashback credit card. Seems perfect for a netizen. Try them?

[sarahdotcom.livejournal.com]

oooh cashback cards are all good, that's what my NZ Visa is. It's just a nuisance to pay it off is all as I pay £9 every time I transfer money to NZ!