Online Fraud: A Real Story

Spread it!

Email This

One of the challenges with digital is the impact fraud can have. The data breach at Epsilon has exposed email ids and personal contact information for consumers. Businesses need to take extraordinary steps to protect consumer data and more importantly they need to respond to queries from consumers.

Hope, who is a good friend of mine (and a digital knowledge diva), is still waiting for one of the largest retailers in the world to respond to a fraud on her personal account that took place in January of this year.

I am republishing this story for three reasons - first, to highlight fraud, second, so businesses can take the time to think of response strategies, and third, to see if poor Hope can get some response from this big retailing giant.

What happened is listed below...

I met Hope on Friday January 7th at 8.30 am in Providence, RI – we were working on a presentation that pulled together converged channel best practices. At 9.37 am, Hope got an email alert on her smart phone, ‘Your order is ready for pickup!’ It was from a large multi-channel retailer. She was surprised, as she wasn’t expecting anything so she turned on her computer to look at the details.

A tablet computer worth $400 was ready for pickup in a store in Dublin, VA (700 miles away). The email provided order details and even listed a ‘Regina H’ as the person who was going to pick up the tablet. This was startling, but Hope stayed calm and we sprung into action. Hope called up her credit card provider and I called up the store.

Poor Hope, even though she is the one without the accent, she struggled with the automated phone system in an attempt to get to the right department. She kept repeating the words ‘Fraud’ & ‘Representative’ while I was put on hold by the store in VA as they were paging the manager on duty.

The store manager was phenomenal, he heard what I said and quickly summoned his electronics person to alert them about the possible fraud. I could hear him ask his sales rep to ‘tactfully delay’ the person coming to pick up the merchandise as much as possible. He then returned to the phone to tell me that he really couldn’t do much without a ‘case number’ from a police report. He gave me a number to call and I proceeded to call the police department while Hope was still trying speak to the right department at the credit card company.

I started my conversation with a very helpful Deputy ‘C’ who asked me to describe the situation, as he proceeded to fill out the police report. I provided Hope’s full name, her address, her phone number, date of birth, height, weight, hair color, and even eye color! I was stumped as to why the person filing the complaint had to provide so much information.

Fortunately, by the time we got to the end of the form, Hope was done speaking to the credit card company who had cancelled her card but told her that they would have to still work on giving her credit for the order as it had already been processed. For her to get the credit, Hope would have to provide the credit card company the case number and attest that she didn’t order or pick up the product.

Hope finally called the big retailers store and provided them with the case number. The store confirmed that they were now empowered to block the transaction and officially call the deputies to apprehend the perpetrator (Regina H). Hope inquired about how she could freeze her ‘dot com’ account with the retailer. The store manager was very courteous and helpful but he insisted that the store had no way to reach their ‘dot com’ department.

So Hope got back on the phone to try and sort out the situation with the ‘dot com’ group. After many futile attempts with their automated voice activated system Hope finally got through to a person in sales who helped her reach customer service. Hope had to explain everything that happened yet again, but was promised prompt follow up.

Still Hoping For Answers

It has been a few months and Hope is still waiting to hear back on a number of fronts. Good news first. They arrested the primary perpetrator, apparently the cops had been trying to catch this gang who has used stolen credit cards and hacked accounts to buy and sell expensive electronics. It was our diligence and urgency that helped the police show up in the store on time to catch the gang’s leader.

Hope’s credit card was cancelled, and a new one was issued. The store has even offered her a free cup of coffee. The big retailers store continues to empathize with Hope that their ‘dot com’ group is very hard to reach.

Here’s more bad news. Hope still has no idea as to how her account with the big retailer was hacked into. She is also not sure how her credit card (which wasn’t used in a while) was compromised. She had used the same credit card with the big name retailer before but was promised that her credit card information would not be stored. Hope has also received a call from an investigative agency in Virginia telling her she might be subpoenaed to testify in person. She is unsure about how she is going to go or who is going to pay her expenses. The ‘dot com’ has still to return her call and she is still struggling with many questions and no answers. She is concerned that the crooks know her name, her address, and many other personal details.

The Irony

Hope’s online activity on her credit card companies site and the big retailers site has resulted in her getting a number of targeted banner ads on both sites. These ads continue to add insult to injury as both companies ‘people departments’ have yet to respond. Hope even received an email from the big retailer trying to up-sell her on accessories for the product she did not purchase. The big retailer is already seeking her feedback on the purchase on their Facebook page. She is being asked to write a review. The biggest irony is something I mentioned in the beginning of the article – we were working on some case studies of converged channel best practices!

Isn't 2011 About Trust and Security?

Yes, 2011 is the year of trust and security. Consumers like Hope prefer the convenience of converged channel shopping and are willing to provide businesses with their personal information. However, there is an expectation that businesses will protect the information and that the channels will come together to serve her with convenience. Businesses need to make sure that their channels are coordinated, that their channels are aware, and that their channels are responsive. Here is the article on what consumers expect from businesses in 2011.