Barclaycard and the illusion of security

Sep 192010

A couple of days ago, I posted about the call I received from Barclaycard concerning fraudulent activity on one of my accounts, and from which I concluded that Barclaycard themselves have become a victim of social engineering (which I am now able to confirm, and will be updating that post to explain after finishing this one), allowing the fraudster to set up new online access to my accounts – and I dropped in a comment about the security questions that they ask, and would have asked the fraudster, pointing out that they are not actually secure at all. Since then, I’ve called Barclaycard myself, so to illustrate the point that the security questions they ask are anything but secure, here are the three I was asked: Continue reading »

Have Barclaycard fallen victim to social engineering? (Updated 19/9/10)

Sep 162010

I received a partially automated telephone call from Barclaycard today – their systems had been alerted to possible fraudulent activity on one of my credit card accounts. When I initially answered the call and their robot explained this, my first thoughts were that it probably wasn’t fraudulent activity, and that I’d have to confirm a transaction I initiated a few days ago – I booked some holiday accommodation, and the last couple of times I’ve booked with the same company I’ve received a similar phone call and had to confirm that it was a genuine transaction.

However, I soon discovered that booking wasn’t what triggered the call, as the robot revealed two transactions and asked me to confirm if either of them weren’t genuine. Neither of them, one for £3 and the other for £3,762, were transactions I had made.

Continue reading »

Barclaycard expects customers to ignore sensible practices

Nov 302009

I forgot to pay my Barclaycard bill this month. The amount I forgot to pay was massive. Absolutely huge.

Yes, the balance from my statement last month was a staggering £21.28.

Okay, that small amount of sarcasm aside (almost as small as the amount in question), at the end of the day the payment was due and I forgot to make it. It was my mistake, so let’s just get on to the point of this:

Continue reading »