Credit card hunters


So apparently my credit card number was stolen, how, I don’t know. But they rang up 3,000 dollars on it and some of the charges have yet to go through, but I suspect they will. Strangely, I have the card with me, there are no other copies of it, but it was somehow used (swiped) several times when I was working. Luckily, I probably won’t b fucked and lose the cash they spent, but its still a strange thing. But it makes me wonder: Has anyone else experienced this type of activity before?

These are the companies that are raping my card:
S*CHECKERS HYP SANDT – SANDTON ZA
PNP MORNINGSIDE GAUTENG ZA
PNP VILLAGE WALK FAM VILLAGE WALK ZA
TOUCHTONE HARROGATE GB
Makro Woodmead Johannesburg ZA

But looking at their merchant names, I really do suspect I didn’t make them. Considering that ZA is the country code for Zimbabwe and Most of those are cities in Zimbabwe. But you know.. Apparently I can be in two places at once according to quantum theory *(superposition).

I’ll keep posting about this interesting predicament.

,

350 responses to “Credit card hunters”

  1. I’ve recently only just several days ago come across the same problem with my credit card. Harrogate Touchtone?… What is that? However the amount billed to me was a puny $12.65 thankfully. Whoever or whatever Harrogate Touchtone is it goes to show how certain people are not really fit to be human.

  2. Hello Chris,
    I just found out that and authorization has been put on my debit card account for the Touchstone Harrogate company you mentioned in your post. I’m just curious as to how your situation ended up? Apparently this company is in the UK. What’s weird is that I did purchase something online from another company in the UK and apparently 20 minutes later this company had a $725 charge that I did not authorize. Just wanted to know if the charges ever posted to you account?

    Thanks

  3. “TOUCHTONE HARROGATE GB” Have authorized £199-00p on my card? HSBC Fraud Dept picked it up, But cannot stop it being taken? Only when they take the money can they act ?

    That`s MAD ?

    regards
    Gerry

  4. Same happened to me, but with a Paypal Debit/Visa card. The criminal tried to make two payments to TOUCHTONE HARROGATE GB which were unsuccessful. It really bugs me though…as I have never had my card out of my wallet! I have no idea how he got my number…but if I find out who it is…

  5. Hi there,

    Touchtone is a grocery supermarket located in Harrogate in England.
    A friend of mine has been done by them for just £11.00 recently.

  6. Hello, I just had the same problem with Touchstone Harrogate and have ben charged for 54,65 euro BUT I found out calling my credit card service that this is the payment company for some 2nd category hotels and casually I booked an hotel last friday so I called them and they actually charged me today for a part of the amount I will have to pay… So what I can say for your case, if you didn’t booked any hotel in the UK when you have been charged, it’s probably someone who raped your credit card and used it to book some hotel… That’s it 😉
    Ciao

    Leo

  7. i was billed last week for £5 and again to day for another 2 £5 to this ghost company yell.com hasnt even heard of them

  8. Hi

    I had the same problem last week, don’t know how they got my card details, but it was the same Touchtone bunch. Luckily it was picked up by my banks fraud dept

    At 10.28am Touchtone debited a small amount (Around £20), then at 10.31am a few hundred was taken out by Providian nat bank.

    I think I got of quite light, would love to know how they got my details though!

  9. I’m on the touchtone wagon. I am always VERY careful who I give my card details to. Only well known gateways, shops, etc.

    HSBC said most people who have had fraud recently also used paypal recently. Unless they hacked paypal themselves they only know the last 4 digits of my card.. so very odd.

  10. Hi All, just gone done out of £278 by Touchstone Harrogate – seems they have getting away with it for some time judging by the dates – last time I using the net to buy anything.

  11. I am seeing that my card has been debited of 230 GBP in name of Touchtone Horrogate……

    did anyone get their money back as refund from bank ?

    Regards,
    Sanjay

  12. We just had the same thing happen with the Touchtone Harrogate jerks taking over 300 pounds from our account. What is strange is that we bought a TV in person last night from Curry’s and this bogus charge went through less than 20 minutes later.

  13. I was charged CAD$81 by Touchtone yesterday. Interestingly, I made an online purchase through a merchant in the UK for the very first time..

  14. I have also discovered a charge from Touchtone Harrogate – However the amount £14.00 is still as a pending status – because I discovered and reported in time. There was another transaction for a camera – the item was delivered to my home address!! I have reported these two incidents to the police and I think I can identify whom was responsible.
    The idiot identified a vital piece of info for the camera transaction….

  15. I wonder if any of these credit card companies are trying to do something about this company. It seems to have tons of negative reviews and tons of claims against it.

  16. I’ve just discovered that Touchtone Harrogate tried to take £65 from my debit card – but luckily my bank stopped it. A day later, 2 tries of £140 and £139 to a ‘Tsumbe’ in South Africa. Again these were (luckily) stopped by my bank. I have no idea where they could have got my details from, as I’ve not bought anything online for some time?

  17. I also got hit by Touchtone Harrogate. A token amount ($2) went to them but then subsequent charges ($300 at Nike.com and a $600 unsuccessful atempt) came. This is way dodgy. Luckily my bank caught on to it and we’ll see how the dispute process works out.

  18. Woke up this morning to an alert email from BofA, and was charged 98.00 USD from this company. I am waiting for the w/d to clear so BofA can prosecute.

  19. When checking my credit card balance on the phone, my credit card co told me £45.75 had been refused to someone I wanted to pay yesterday, and that £46 had gone out to Touchtone Harrogate today.
    When I enquired as to who Touchtone were, a manager came on the line to explain that they are a legitimate company who cover when a payment would otherwise have been refused due to being over the limit.
    He said that by the time I get the paper statement, only the £45.75 to the company I bought from would appear, and if I hadn’t happened to call today I would never have known about it.
    I rang the company that I bought from and they said my credit card payment had gone through perfectly normally. They also had never heard of Touchtone.
    If the result is as promised, then I am not complaining. However Touchtone should have a web presence that explains what they do – at present this blog is the only thing that comes up – setting off alarm bells!
    Will be watching my credit card statement closely when it comes through at the end of the month…

  20. They are still at it. I just got a small charge from touchtone and judging from the previous entries I will be checking my account often. I also had four other unauthorized charges for over $1000 from two other companies, one caught it and stopped the orders but the other said it had already shipped the product to whoever it is. My bank has put a freeze on the card but what a hassle!

  21. Same here : 69.93 SEK i guess is about £5, phoned my bank and they canceled my card. the transaktion is pending, and stay pending for 5 working days. If the charge does go through I have to file a complaint with my bank and I’ll get the money back. That’s the way it works in Sweden.

  22. I have just had exactly the same problem. I had my debit card stolen from my bag over the weekend. three transactions came out of that account within an hour of me realising my card was missing from my bag, all to Touchtone, Harrogate – £60.00, £45.00 and £42.00.
    I didn’t make these transactions!Called HSBC the following morning as the money was not taken from my account, they said that they couldn’t cancel the transaction!! which is sooo stupid.
    The money has now come out of my account so I’m £147 down, hopefully this will be refunded by HSBC but can take upto 28 days!

    I have recorded this with the police as I was in a bar in North London at the time. I asked if any other simular cases had been reported and there had been, another case in Angel, london. Sounds like Toouchtone is a bogus company of Hackers!

    This was so easily done and the transactions were made before I even realised my card had gone from my bag!

  23. Touchstone Harrogate has arrived in ItalY: they have charged me £85 and I have had to cancel my card.
    It seems they have been going for over a year: is it possible the banks and the police cant stop them?

  24. I paid for business items to the sum of £79.44 , went to use my card a couple of days later to find it was blocked. On enquiring to HSBC they say the same amount was paid to this company in Harrogate. Would seem the original company I was dealing with was paid in full but now not sure whether it has gone out twicw because I can’t seem to get any sense out of the bank. If this is such a widespread thing why is nothing being done about it?

  25. My father got a call from the bank due to many credit card operations.
    He got charged more than 600 € via paypal (from two companies which I guess are from the UK)
    (he never has used Paypal, never bought anything online) … then more than 627 € from the apple US online store. Then they tried 800 € in a travel agency in south africa … and 7 minutes later 2000 € in the same travel agency.

    Seems that none of the were successful but we have to wait.
    …he almost never uses the credit card … but in october he used it a lot to pay tolls in the highways in Spain. He guesses there is some kind of gang replicating and trafficking with the cards.

  26. Hi.. I’ve recently had the same problem with someone spending £450 on my card – even though I had it all the time! Did anyone here find out who this company is and did you all get your money back? I’m seriously worried and have no money now!

  27. Just this morning I was informed of over $700 charged to my card. The name was TOUCHTONE HARROGATE GB. Everything on my end has been changed but would like to get ahold of these cowards!

  28. I just got hit for $50 from “TOUCHTONE HARROGATE GB” on my Paypal card..
    Have reported it and given them this url
    We’ll see..

  29. Just joined the club, a small (30 GBP) charge to the infamous Touchtone Harrogate, following a total of about 3000 USD withdrawal from various banks in NYC.

    BTW, CHris – ZA is for South Africa, and Sandton is a shopping mall in Cape town.

  30. My bank rang me yesterday to ask if I had authorised a payment of £35 to Touchtone Harrogate via my Mastercard. I, of course, had never heard of the company. Luckily for me the bank had intercepted this before payment had been made, and will now be issuing me with a new credit card.
    It looks as though this company is well known to the banks, etc, so I wonder why they can’t trace them and stop them.

  31. Hi

    I used my debit card at Marks & Spencer to buy groceries the next morning my debit card had been blocked. My bank luckily blocked my card as this w***ers TOUCHTONE HARROGATE GB tried to take £39.99 from my account but the bank knew it was a fraululent outfit as they have a number of customers which this has happened to.

  32. Thought my credit card was being declined because the magnetic strip was scratched. Ordered a new one without a problem from the company. Had the cashier run the old card manually a few hours later, still declined. Called back to find out $9000 was attempted on card. And I am very carefull about letting my credit info out. No one from the bank decied to let me know. They couldn’t give me infor about the company only Harrogate. So glad this has been going on since SEP 06 and companies keep sending them money.

    http://www.touchtoneprogram.com/
    any info on this company, I tried calling and got a message saying they would be out of the office till 07APR great for a credit card processing company supposedly open 24/7

  33. How can these guys still be getting away with this? I just got hit by TOUCHTONE HARROGATE GBR too. Thankfully it was only for $21.22. But still, the first posting here was made in October 2006. How can this still be happening? And by the same people none the less. I’m going to start reporting this right now… I’ll come back to update when I have more info.

  34. Looks like touchtone harrogate are making a mini fortune! They tried to take £1 out of my account last week, luckily hsbc noticed this and stopped cancelled my card, which left me none the wiser untill i called them and asked why! But since then ive had £46 come out from tesco express balham, when i have never even been there!

    This transaction was made on the same day as the Touchtone Harrogate one was tried..

    I did use paypall recently and im wondering if that is where this stems from! If everyone could remember where and what they used there cards for online may a trail could be followed back.

    Your ££ Is just not safe these days!

  35. bank called about ‘suspious activity’ in our checking; $1,800.12 was taken out… Touchtone Harrogate gbgb was where our money went… its crazy to hear this from so many people being taken’ by them.. how does this happen? we went to sheriff dept… hope bank can take care of it…

  36. “Touchtone Harrogate” is still at it. Today Mastercard fraud division called. There were two unauthorized charges made on my Mastercard debit card within minutes, the first to “Touchtone Harrogate” for 5 British pounds, then a second to “Hong Kong Post” for the equivalent of US $1862. Mastercard told me to call my bank. Something about the transactions triggered Mastercard’s fraud people to call my home. My wife answered. They asked her if her husband was still in Hong Kong. No, she said, he’s at his office in Seattle. So they cancelled the card and told her to have me call my bank.

    The $1862 charge has been “pre-authorized”, but has not yet cleared. The bank said it may take up to seven days to clear. I asked them why we had to wait for it to clear – they know it’s a fraudulent charge, so why are they going to pay it? They said that’s just the way the banking system works. They said to file a dispute form. I am not liable for the charges, but when the $1862 charge actually clears, it will be taken out of my account for about a day.

    Meanwhile the card has been cancelled and a new card will be sent to me (which takes 7 to 10 business days).

    I do a lot of international travel and use my Mastercard frequently on every trip. Obviously this makes me think about changing my habits and only using the card to withdraw cash. It would be inconvenient to go to an ATM every day and get enough cash for the day’s shopping, restuarants, taxis, etc. But at least doing it that way the card number could not be stolen.

  37. Just a note to say we live in North Yorkshire UK, not a million miles from…. Harrogate. Our cards were stopped a few weeks ago because of suspicious activity, lucky for us. One of the two miscreants was, you guessed, Touchtone, Harrogate (the other was Check.com, can’t find them) So it’s STILL going on! I’ll contact our local police and report back if anything happens.
    Cheers, Chris

  38. WHEN U SWIPE UR CARD IN ANY SHOP,ANYWHERE MAKE SURE THAT U SEE WHEN THEY SWIPE,BECAUSE THEY HAVE THEIR OWN SPECIAL MACHINE TO SWIPE UR CARD,AND ONCE THEY HAVE ALL THE INFORMATION,THEY COPY IT TO ANOTHER UNUSED CARD,NOW WHAT IS HAPPENING IS THIS U HAVE UR CARD WITH U AND THE MASTERMIND IS HAVING A COPY OF UR CARD ON THE OTHER SIDE,THEY DONT SLEEP UNTIL UR CARD DOES’NT HAVE ANY MONEY SO PLZ BECAFULY WHEN U PURCHASE FROM ANY PLACE AND KNOW WHO ARE U BUYING AT

  39. i recently had a phone call from my credit card fraud department asking if i had just used my card for £10.00, they said they had authorised it and it had gone to touchtone harrogate i had never heard of this so they cancelled my card and are sending me a new one, how come these people are getting away with this time after time?

  40. Again, yet another example of Touchtone stealing money from accounts. My partner spent £141 in Toys’r’us in Bristol yesterday, and within 2 minutes another trasaction of £141 went through to Touchtone Projects, Harrogate.

    Who are they, what are they doing? More importantly, how can we report them? The bank have been great, they cancelled the transaction and reported this to their fraud department. I doubt this will solve the problem, as it seems plenty of other people have been through the same process.

    I cannot understand how they are STILL getting away with this. We have now had to cancel her card, order a new one to great inconvenience to her.

  41. I have done some further research following on from my last comment. Toys’r’us use a company called “Streamline” to authorise their debit and credit cards. This company is based in Harrogate and trade under the name of “Touchtone”.

    Toys’r’us (and probably a lot of other companies) call 08457600500 and enter the debit and credit card information using the touch tone pad on the telephone. They then take this payment and “hold” the payment to make sure they can authorise this. What a terrible way to do business. Their contact details are as follows, and I will be in touch with them to bend their ear…
    Address:
    Streamline
    PO Box 600
    Central House
    Otley Road
    Harrogate
    HG3 1XG

    Telephone: 0800 01 01 66 (UK Freephone number)
    Fax: 0800 01 01 77 (UK Freephone)

  42. Following on from this last comment, I contacted Streamline, and they confirmed they are responsible for the transaction. They promised me a supervisor would call me back, but – yes you guessed it – that call never came.

  43. I just got hit for £5, luckily my credit card co seems to have picked up on this. Good job I have a small credit card limit. I paid my ebay fees using my card (which I don’t normally do). Seems to be a Paypal/Ebay link.

  44. so did anyone find out who they are? are they a credit card clearing company or simple thieves?
    if they were a legitimate co they should have a web presence and banks’ card departments should know about them. apparently this is not the case, so they must be a bunch of swindlers.
    i was also hit by them for 11 quids. my bank says every 5th credit card used in the uk (or london? cant recall) is copied and abused.

  45. Just been done for 55 pounds by, you guessed, Touchtone, Harrogate. Now I’m from London but I was in Orlando Florida in June on holiday, stayed at a hotel etc. I was just wondering if there could be some sort of link seeing as a lot of the fraudulent activity from Touchtone Harrogate seems to be against Americans on this forum, maybe my card was cloned whilst I was on holiday..? Has anyone else here been to Orlando recently where this could have happened?

  46. I’ve been dupped for $279.16 by Harrogate Touchtone. My bank told me I had to wait until it was actually debited to my account before I could file a dispute. I found the problem when I checked my online bank account and saw that these charges were pending. There is also another charge for 1.86 that I will have to file a claim on also. I have no idea where they got my number. However, I did find out that the credit company who handles my debit transactions can issue a card number that I can use for just online transactions that will not lead to my actual account information. I’m skeptical and will use alternative methods for doing business.

  47. Hi guys, I work for the HBOS FRaud Department so I thought I might clear up Touchtone for you as much as I can. It is an ambiguous concept – most of our operators do not know how to explain it – and I am not even 100% sure. However, my understanding is that Touchtone Project, Harrogate, is an external authorisation processing centre for many retailers across the UK. It is not the name of a store. Rather, if a retaler is having a problem with their processing terminal then they route the payment through the Touchtone Project as an alternative. That is why many of you may notice a transaction of a corresponding amount to one you were attempting to a genuine UK reatiler. That is to say that Touchtone Project is a genuine processing centre.

    However, by the same toke, Touchtone Project does cause us many problems. The reason for this is not because they are attempting to gain from the proceeds of fraud (notwithstanding the possibility that some of their staff may be bogus). Rather, fraudsters are aware that by routing the payment through the Touchtone Project, they can process transactions without having to know the pin number, as these transactions usually show as card-not-present.

    Hope this debunks some of the myths propagated on this website.

    • Owen, I found this so useful thank you! I work at LTSB fraud dept and touchtone comes up for me all the time, I’ve always wondered what touchtone actually was, customers always ask me and I can only go by what my system tells me, ‘some sort of direct marketing company’. So I thought I’d do a bit of research as it was becoming a bit of a problem, I couldn’t find much on the web, until i found your comment, I will spread the word.

      Thanks again 🙂

      • Hi Emily.. I’d want to add up something on this topic… I work for a fraud department too… As far as my experience is concerned, I’d say that Touchtone had always been a “Test Merchant” before the fraudulent transactions are actually being attempted…. This had always been a test merchant since i have known what a fraud on a credit or a debit card is. Its a well known test site for a counterfeit activity. There are so many card acceptor IDs for the merchant so its difficult to formulate rules to pull accounts for monitoring purpose… And yes…Touchtone merchant is probably a victim rather than a fraud… lookout for transactions from touchtone… Do not wait until the next transaction occurs.. better contact the customer ASAP and reissue the card as a security measure. You could restrict the card from further usage if you need to…

    • found your entry interesting.I live in Spain and in the last few years have only beento uk for 10 days,last june.Just had bill for22.99 euros from the above.the interesting thing is that the cards on this account were cancelled last year.i have incidentally a Spanish bank account.

  48. My card was stopped the other day.

    Touchtone had tried to take £24 I think most banks are on to these low life rat b@st@rds!!!

    I think they are trying smaller amounts as to not arouse suspicion.

    My bank caught it but the nice lady in India (on the Phone, very big Bank) did try to persuade me it would be a good Idea if I talk to the company and tell them that I was canceling the transaction!!!

    A: If I could talk to them I might say a little more than that Mofos!

    B: Isn’t that a bit like persuading a mugger that its not very good manners now is it to rip people off at knife point!!!

    B

  49. Well it would seem I also have been hit by Touchtone Harrogate GB. In my instance it happened with my Tesco Christmas food shoppng.Luckily my mother was able to pay for it otherwise I may not have had any Christmas dinner!What sods these fraudsters are,just what you need before Chistmas.They took nearly £200 from me.

  50. My details have also been cloned. I bought items on Sunday 4th from Mataland in the West London area. Yesterday I checked my account and found that I was overdrawn by 5UK sterling pounds. I spoke to a very helpful lady in customer services, but as she was based in India, she really couldn’t help me that much, other than to cancel my card at my request. I have to wait until Monday to speak to someone from Barclays Bank and clear this up. However, after reading this blog, I feel that I have more grounds to tackle this sore subject.

  51. I had a call from paypal reporting a possible SUSPICIOUS transaction or two so I checked my paypal account and it showed zero balance.Touchtone Harrogate first ran a transaction for $2.96 and then somebody paid their electric bill in Glasgow Scotland $419, by the way I am in St Louis,Usa.Apparently it is connected to ebay/paypal I often use my paypal mastercard online for purchases and I am from the UK so often use merchants over there for gifts etc.As it was a paypal debit card the transactions have both been authorised but I have filed a dispute and praying I get my money back.This is some form of huge worldwide scan which is probably making someone very rich or funding terrorism.I will persue this all the way and post back if I get my money back ,surely it would be easy to trace the transaction if someone paid their electric bill through Scottish Power.co.uk.This has really stressed me out BIGTIME!

  52. What charges do we all have in common. Did any of you visit the U.S. recently? Namely, Key West. The only charge to my debit card with citibank in the last 14 weeks was at Irish Kevin’s Retail shop at Irish Kevin’s Pub in Key West. Just in case we all visited the same place, that is the shop that stold my info.

  53. @Poodlekiss: Paypal will likely refund your money, they did for me.
    @Lark: I live in the US and haven’t been out of the country. I did however make a purchase from recordstore.co.uk before this incident happened so many years ago. It could easily be an international credit card processor that lost our credit card information.

  54. I live in Canada. I visited Scotland 4 weeks in August 2008 and used my VISA credit card through out the trip. On January 29 th 2009, I received a phone call from the security department of my bank that issued my VISA card. They asked me if I had made an internet purchase at 4 am in the morning in the amount of 17.84 dollars to TOUCHTONE PROJECTS. Of course I did not. They immediately cancelled my VISA card. Fortunately this transaction was picked up by the security dept. If it had not been picked up by them, you can imagine the rest. Obviouly someone ( probably an inside job in the UK ) is stealing credit card numbers via legitimate business transactions. Hope they will get caught and punished accordingly.

  55. I received 2 charges, both over $100 US, from the City of Dublin Clamp & Tow. I now have a 3rd fraudulent charge for 7.17 US from “Touchtone Project Harrogate”. I have contacted my bank…I’m sure they will fix it, but it sucks! I have not purchased anything from the UK, but just a couple of days before these charges I was surfing, looking at gardening info. and found myself on some UK sites…one of which was PumpkinPatch, I saw this site mention above..
    These really aren’t that bad, the last time the people were trying to buy thousands of dollars in airline tickets from Africa to Istanbul to Paris….

  56. They are still at it,
    Just had £1.00 taken by Touchtone on 17th
    & T mobile took £2.00 on 16th.
    Rang Tmobile who have already identified it as a credit check fraud
    Touchtone in search brought me here.
    In case the perps are reading this my cards stopped.

  57. Wow, here I am surfing the web trying to find this company and I got ‘tagged’ by these guys too. On my statement it says, “02/04/2009 3:02 PM TOUCHTONE PROJECT – MC Declined $141.86” Thank God USAA caught it! I’m glad that the credit card companies are staying on top of these scammers and its getting harder to steal people’s money. Another reason why I only use credit cards so they don’t dive into our actual bank accounts.

    • Hi..I have USAA to..I’m glad to find out they fix yours…touchtone had taking out 144.38…I’m so mad because I had banks before they haven’t done shit about it. I hope USAA get my money back.

      • did you get your refund from usaa? i just had this happen to me today..1st my card came up missing and looked online to see 169$ pendibg card purchase! I’m frantic

  58. I just got hit by the Touchstone Project Vandals….for about $56. Luckily my bank froze it when they tried to key in the numbers the second time…

  59. touchtone are still going strong.. I’m in Australia and have just realised $264 has gone missing from my debit card. my bank have put a stop on the card but apparently the money will still be taken.
    ‘LARK’ i too used a citibank atm in the last month but in tokyo, i have also had a paypal transaction go through 2 months ago.

  60. I Am with HSBC, and Touchtone have just taken 10.ooGBP from my account, what is interesting, another 30.00 have been taken twich by a company called Coverlook, so this starts to look like and organized money pumping. Have reported to bank, we’ll see the outcome.

    I would have thought that after 2 years of fraud, someone would have finally closed this place…

  61. I had a big drop in my bank balance today, so I called the bank and found out that tere was a pending payment being made to Touchtone Harrogate. I dont even know where this is! It was a payment for £191, which I 100% have not authroised. All you have to do is call your bank and ask to make a fraud claim, they send you a form of declaration and the moeny is reclaimed.
    I noticed some of the copmpanies you have listed, ZA is actually the code for South Africa. I spent a month in South africa in december, where i paid by card for a lot of things.
    Sandton is where I stay, its and area in Johannesburg. Checkers Hypermarket and PNP ( Pick n Pay) are both big supermarkets and Makro is a bulk buy store, Im guessing your card was cloned. In south africa, you dont need to use chip and pin, they arent that advanced yett, its still a signature.

    Hope this helps

  62. My bank card was marked so I couldn’t access funds via an ATM. I was on the phone with my bank for 20 minutes and ended up receiving no useful information. When I got home i checked my account online and discovered Touchtone Project GB submitted a charge yesterday for $6.99 but it hasn’t posted yet. It will post and I will have to go to a branch and dispute it at that point.

    I use Paypal and I notice many of the individuals who have posted to this blog use Paypal in some format. I don’t think it is a coincidence.

    I tried searching to see if there has been any news reports of credit card numbers stolen or any reference to an investigation. What is distressing is this thread started in Oct 2006 and it is still active. The fact that criminal action hasn’t been initiated is very disturbing. This problem appears to be prevalent and it doesn’t matter how complex it appears on the surface, nothing is that complex – it is fraud and that is a criminal offense.

    There must be numerous reports, complaints on file with some authority and the banks that are tied to the individuals that are victims of this particular fraud are not forthcoming in their disclosure that this entity is still ripping people off. This type of activity has to prosecuted and it the current laws are inadequate in regards to dealing with this then new laws must be introduced and the international banking community needs to address this type of activity immediately before these companies execute a mass action and either go after many people scattered throughout the world in a day or they and others become more sophisticated and create additional layers to obfuscate their transactions.

    Otherwise, it doesn’t look good for the future of Internet Financial Transactions.

    • I’m surprised the banks don’t run trend analysis on their fraud complaints that end up being actual fraud to find the institutions that are submitting these transactions to create legal action against them. I’m guessing they’re insured on some level and just don’t see the point.

      • Hi Chris….Every bank does trend analysis… there is nothing that could be done to the merchant as its just a test site. I mean Touchtone… Fraudsters use the merchant to test the card validity and later use it for purchase…the main issue with this activity is that mostly it happens from out of the customer’s location (Mostly out of the country). for example, If the is card issued in the US and if the fraud is happening from Europe, what would the bank do? its totally out of their Jurisdiction. Every bank is concerned about their customers… Personally i myself had done a lot of analysis regarding such activities and had saved a lot of money for the customers as well as the bank…

  63. Hello,

    I have heard about people having funds deducted from a company called Touchtone Harrogate. Please be assured that this has absolutely nothing to do with my website http://www.touchtoneprogram.com. What we do is setup small businesses in the United States to accept credit cards using a touchtone phone but any of the billing is in their own company name and we don’t do any billing at all for anyone under the name Touchtone.

    Kevin Aniess
    Credit Card Processing Services

  64. Just got done by this lot!!!!
    In excess of £1000 taken from my account after booking a holiday over the phone.
    Why are our credit cards and banks allowing this to happen???? They must know these losers are out there so why can’t they stop them ? This would save us all the stress and worry!!!!!

  65. Just noticed 3 pending transaction on my cash plus credit card, £1, £6 and £6, TOUCHTONE PROJECT,HARROGATE,GBR

    of course customer services close at 4pm so I have to wait till tomorrow to try and sort it out, this is so annoying, how can they still get away with this, their name should be blacklisted and send up a flag everytime it comes up. Made online purchase from an online guitar parts shop and paid with my paypal (credit card is the backup), what kind of scum do this in the current financial crisis, we need harsher penalties for these people when they are caught. If I caught them they would lose their boll@cks, and I mean that litterally.

  66. I just went to use my Virgin Credit card and the bank had put a stop on my card. Phoned them and TOUCHTONE PROJECT HARROGATE GB has put a transaction through for £25. Luckily the bank noticed the transaction and stopped it before it went through. The only thing I have in common with everyone else is that I bought something off ebay recently through paypal. I am thinking online shopping is now not worth the risk. How come this company has not been shut down? These comments date back from 2006.

  67. I too had my credit card stolen and an attempt to use my card for $27 dollars was declined. I was told Touchtone project is a record store. I have the merchant #. Does anyone know how to trace this?

  68. Ya, I too just got hit by the Touchtone folks myself. Only 70 dollar charge (Pending). Bank of America called me within a few minutes of the charge and told me they suspected fraud. I was pretty impressed. They had me call them and worked it all out for me. In general though, I agree, seems better to stop it at the source, especially if its so repeatable…stop the method of the madness, don’t just waste time cancelling cards.

    Like other I also use paypal and use this card as a “backup” a lot. The only other coorelation that I have with the rest of the thread is this occured while I was visiting St. Louis USA.

  69. JUST BEEN FLEECED FOR £2500 IN 6 HOURS, TOUCHTONE PROJECT ALSO INVOLVED. wHAT i CANNOT UNDERSTAND IS THIS WOULD HAVE TAKEN ME WELLOVER MY LIMIT YET CARD ISSUER STILL ALLOWED THIS, WHEN CHALLENGED THEY CAME UP WITH THE FACT THAT THE TRANSACTION COULD HAVE BEEN AUTHORISED UP TO 6 YEARS AGO AND ONLY JUST BEEN PUT THROUGH NOW. IN OTHER WORDS IT IS NOT OUR PROBLEM

    • I think they approve most of the transactions because its quicker and charge you fees if you go over the limit. Also I think most retailers process in bulk at night, so they get all the transactions together for the day and send them in to be processed so its hard to deny the charges immediately.

  70. $71 charge from Touchtone and then over $1,500 to Aegean Airlines. Thank God our credit card company caught on.

  71. Familiar tale!

    Just had a call from First Direct (HSBC) about an £8 payment to the Touchtone Project in Harrogate.

    It meant nothing to me so my card has been cancelled.

    I’m based in England and buy a lot on-line. Like others on this blog I also use PayPal quite a bit but I’m not convinced that they are the link.

    It does put you off buying on-line which, given the world’s economic situation, is something of a shame.

  72. Well I’m absolutely gobsmacked after reading all these posts. I checked my bank last night to see that i had been charged £35 for exceeding my limit…I hadn’t…Touchtone Project had to the sum of £302. The same amount that i had spent at Ted Baker and given my details over the phone. Luckily the amount was still pending and the bank cancelled the transaction before these scummy fu***rs got what didn’t belong to them. You’ve got to hand it to these guys whoever they are..they are 1 step ahead of every Fraud Department affected. I guess they won’t stop till they get caught!!!!

  73. I had a letter Last week from my bank asking me to contact them the letter was from the fraud dept, whilst going through some transaction detail’s to confirm my identity as they went through the transactions there was one for an attempt to obtain £6.00 from guess who/where Touchstone Projects Harrogate and then over the net trying to buy an electrical item for £549.00 from a shop in Southampton – then they tried the Touchstone Harrogate £6.00 again on all my bank declined the attempts I was Lucky – but I have contacted my Local Police and tomorrow I will take into my bank a form from the Police Economic Crime Unit to push for investigation into the these fraudsters – I would like permission from all on this site and the site owner to show the Police this web page so a complete investigation can commence . can we all come together and find the common link of how they have managed the frauds as my card has always remined in my hands was it paypal ? was it the cash machine ? a site where we have bought media from anything let’s get together as this is INTERNATIONAL CRIME and so the Police should be forced to act – keep at your banks and Police until they are forced to act

  74. I got a text from MBNA saying that I had to contact them immediately regarding some suspected fraudulent transactions…..guess who’s name cropped up? Interestingly enough though the worst bit was that the two biggies each for £500 to Sabina Hair Cosmetics in London were dated a 3/4/09 but the Touchtone transaction for £11 was today….

    I certainly wasn’t in London on that day. Also, I haven’t used this credit card for some time now and it as been locked away safely, so I have no idea how they got hold of the details. I’m suspecting Autoglass because that was one of the last times it was used and they had my address, card details including the security number on the back. Either way I’m now very conscious of security and have cancelled my PayPal account.

  75. I have just found this on the web whilst trying to find out who Touchtone Projects are. My bank just called to say that I had three charges trying to go through on my card to this company. As I was shopping in Southampton last week the previous post caught my eye. I have no idea where my card details were stolen from but I have not done any online shopping

  76. I got the same charge from touchtone project harrogate and they tried charging $1,500 but all is aw on my account was $14.95 and then ti was taken right back out. The charge was made in the UK.

  77. Same story here, live in US have a Paypal account with a linked credit card. Charged $72.78 US to Touchtone Projects, then $390 to Delta Airlines. I got the passenger name and other info from Delta to include in the police report. Flight was purchased for same day travel from Baltimore to LA but the guy never showed up. I doubt this will result in much but its worth a shot. It seems too easy for these crooks, many of whom are young kids in poor areas of the world.

  78. i had a phone call from my bank to say a company in u.s.(i live in uk) had tried t
    aking £386 from my account but a fraud stop was used thankfully.they are called style and enterprise.the same morning touchtone projects took a measley £2 from my account.i have no idea if they are connected but i use paypal and purchase in the us occasionally.i had used paypal the day before but will not be using it again nor pay for anything else on the internet.i spoke to my bank who say touchstone project is in the uk and thats where it was used so HOW was it used? how can anyone know my chip and pin no.? beyond me

  79. I made a purchase of £8.90 today at Topshop and they had to call to authorize because it was an American debit card which doesn’t have chip and pin. Seconds later Touchtone took out about the equivalent in dollars. Thank god my bank froze my account right then. This is quite a hassle when I am studying abroad!

  80. Just got fleeced £5k by these b*****ds, yet the banks since 11 Oct 2006 (date of the 1st post here), just sit there holding their d**ks! No wonder they are in the state they are in – piss up and brewery come to mind.

    Not Angry

  81. SOME HAS ALSO STOLEN MY DETAILS THIS WEEKEND – THINK IT COULD ONLY POSSIBLY BE THE PETROL STATION I USED SATURDAY (WELL KNOWN NAME-BIG AND YELLOW) AS I DIDNT USE THE CARD ANY OTHERTINME SATURDAY AND THATS WHEN THE TRANSACTTIONS STARTED. I HAVE BEEN STUNG FOR ABOUT £200 IN LADBROOK.COM AND SKYBET.COM CHARGES PLUS THE COMMON THEME OF TOUCHTONE PROJECT. LUCKILY I NOTICED YESTERDAY AS LOVEFILM.COM DECLINED MY CARD AND THEN I NOTICED I HAD NO MONEY LEFT. THE BANK (MAJOR BANJK – BLUE WITH A X!) HAVE BEEN VERY HELPFUL – THEY HAVE CANCELLED AND REISSUED MY CARD AND THE FRAUD DEPT IS LOOKING INTO IT AND CHANCES ARE I WILL GET A REFUND. THE THING THAT PUZZLES ME IS HOW THEY GOT MY DETAILS. I KNOW ITS NOTHING TO DO WITH ONLINE AS I DONT USE THIS CARD FOR ONLINE PURCHASES AS ITS MY JOINT ACCOUNT CARD FOR FOOD SHOPPING ETC.

    • Hi Lindsay.. There is nothing to do with online or swipe transactions. the card details could have got compromised any time before and hence its not right to suspect the most recent merchant you had used.Was there any swipe transactions that you dispute? If yes, then its a counterfeiting activity… There are possibilities of even PIN getting compromised in this case…

  82. It has happened to us four time in the last two months. I told my husband I think they are some how getting the number through pay pal, since this did not start happening to us until he started making a lot of purchases through them. It just amazes me that any bank card would allow anything to go through that has the name “touchstone project, harrogate, gb.

  83. Same thing, Touchtone tried to take £14 from my Credit card to be paid for “Electrical Repair work”. Luckily, the bank were on the ball and contacted me before any damage was done. Its difficult to know where the leak is, as I use it on-line, in service staions, shops etc. However, it is also my credit card lodged with Pay pal.
    This seems to be a common theme.

    I would be happy for this web site to be used as evidence as suggested by PATRICK-WAKEFIELD 6th April above.

  84. On the 13th of july i found out that Touchtone harrogate was trying to take £77.00 out of my account! It is still pending at the moment, and my bank said cant do anything , untill the money has actually been taken. this is a horrible experience , as its the first fraud thing thats happend too me! but its quite reasuring to know that there is so much information about touchtone harrogate , and that some thing will be done oncethe money has been taken. I just sruggle with how they got my card details?? this seriously makes me weary about using my card on line , etc etc. i have now cancelled my card , and touchtone harrogate can no longer take any more money. i am just waiting for the money to be taken , as it is pending at the moment, then i can finally do some thing about this!! charlotte .

  85. Our bank account has been attacked by Touchstone Project, Harrogate, GB for almost $1500.00 on car rentals. We found out that we had no money in our account when we went to the grocery store and tried to pay for our groceries. We came home without the groceries and got online to check our bank account. Low and behold there were charges there that we did not incur. I have not been to the UK, or have ever been out of the country for that matter. We also have to wait until the pending charges clear. Our bank must be pretty slow at catching stuff like this. I hope they catch the people that are doing this. It needs to stop.

  86. Also got scammed by Touchstone in the amount of approximately $700. Apparently, I was in London, UK and in Arlington, VA, USA on the same day. The transaction was posted to my account, but then Bank of America caught it and called me, and it is now under investigation. I did not use Paypal in a long time, nor did I buy anything from the UK. I did, however, use the card recently online when shopping at DHC Care.

  87. I too received a call from my redit Card company, with a number of suspect transactions. All between the dates 13/7 to 16/7 2009.
    Touchtone Project €116.66
    Oxfam €5.83
    Sportsworld €228.59
    Concord Gift Card €142.85
    Concord Extra €221.54
    None of the above were actioned by me and I am the sole card holder.

  88. I have so it would seem been scammed too.
    I am in the UK never been to the US and I tried to use my master card in a local Currys store. The guy tried to varify the transaction a couple of times but it wouldn’t work. I then found that £499 was pending foe this Touchtone Harogate, that was over a week ago.
    My card people (although it isnt with a bank… it is a pre paid master card) will not give me any help.
    Any suggestions .. should i talk to the people where i tried to complete the transaction? its the only place i have use my card.
    thanks , sammy.

  89. i as well just got a call from my bank first they got $ 1 then $82 luckily my bank just saved my ass from overdraft. that crap is crazy. maybe doing everything electronicly isnt the best idea anymore. but thanks for all yalls info

  90. Hi
    Well, lightining does indeed strike twice. 4 weeks ago I had to change my bank accoutns because of fraudlent activity on my account from something similar to Touchstone. I was advised to get a new credit card as well. I went on a cruise, and as it’s a cashless community, I registerd my credit card details – guess what – there’s an amount of £29.00 pending from guess where – yes, good old Touchstone Project, Harrogate. Well no prizes for guessing where the fraud was perpetrated. Off to the police and the bank tomorrow.
    I’m angry and feel violated.

    • I got a call from my bank yesterday (Fraud Dept) saying Touchtone Projects had tried to take a 1 pound debit from my account. Luckily my bank were on the ball and stopped it. Have now cancelled my card. Where does this company get the info from? Have the police been involved?

  91. Hi

    My card, a cashpasport, had to be swiped so the HMV store needed to get authorisation – from Touchstone. When I checked my account touchstone has also taken the same amount. My recommendation would be don’t use cards in HMV stores or any other store that has to get authorisation! I will be using cash from now on.

  92. I, too, just took 2 hits from Touchtone Harrogate. Also, my card was used in a jewelry store and a supermarket in London. I will only use my credit card for hotel reservations, as you can at least get your money back quicker with a credit card fraud vs debit card fraud. I am a cash person too now.

  93. ZA is actually the “country code” for South Africa, when Dutch was South Africa’s official language it was called Zuid-Africa, hence ZA being used. ZW is actually the abbreviation for Zimbabwe

    • Hi Bevbeautiful card as always. So glad the show was busy for y ou at Harrogate. I was at Olympia and we were rusehd off our feet and sold out of so many items. Are you at the NEC next week? I am, on the Hotshotcrafts stand. If you are there I hope we get the chance to meet.Thanks for joining us with your gorgeous card at TG this week too.Love sarah XXX

  94. I got hit on Thursday for $83.00, but luckily my bank caught it too. In the past week, my card has been used for six different internet/webhosting company; none of which I approved. This is truly crazy! My bank is cancelling my card, though pending charges are still appearing on my account daily.

  95. after talking to my bank about possible fraudulent activity, and the transaction in question was touchstone project harrogate, a search leads to this page. only $3 was charged by them so i guess i had it lucky compared to some of you.

  96. Well, instead of posting anymore stories of how we got screwed – lets do some of our own trend analysis:
    1.) Card numbers seem to be stolen without the card being used recently, or even for a length of time. Has anyone researched the possibility of this group randomly generating card numbers and testing their validity through this “TouchTone” company?
    2.) Why can’t “TouchTone” beef-up their cardholder confirmation process to ensure the card matches the holder?
    3.) With the continued problems, what has this “TouchTone” company done to ratify the situation? Poor business practice if they’re looking the other way when they have obvious holes in their process. Are there other similar companies out there having the same problem? If not, what are they doing right. Maybe the threat of a class-action type of lawsuit may light a fire under their butts. Then again, I’m not privvy to the laws in England.
    4.) Is Interpol, FBI, etc. tracking this?
    5.) I see a trend of “Paypal”, and “vacation/holiday” – am I missing other similarities?

    So it seems that it comes down to a group of hackers getting our card numbers, testing them through this “TouchTone Project” – and if they ping out good, using them for various/random purchases. Good for them on how to cover their tracks. I’m also sure they’re smart enough to read all of our comments in order to figure out how to continue this scam. Too bad for them that eventually they will be caught at the point of sale when as soon as the “Touchtone” company is tagged, the police are moving. Online purchases? Well, every computer has it’s own signature – so that can be traced too. Just a matter of time.

  97. How can they charge to a debit card ? they just did it. they charged $1,129.42 dollars to my debit card, which is linked to my checking account ! that wouldnot be possible if I did not have chcking plus, which is overdraft protection at Citibank.
    My advice is do not ask for overdraft protection, do not link your savings account and checking and keep the checking balance to a minimum to avoid this problems.

  98. We have had the same thing happen – approx 10,000 GBP has been charged – we have our cards – but the charges are flying thru shops in the UK – we are not in the UK – Our bank has stepped in with in 72 hours of the fraud but now what?
    How do we help the police narrow in on these thieves? It is the same as them coming into your home.

  99. am really shoccked i have a pre payment credit card and been scammed by touchtone for thirty pounds in two seperate transactions today have phoned my company of the credit card to see if the money goes out of my account cant believe the company havent stopped my card so as matter of urgency am going to phone company on monday to get card stoped forthwith has made me think twice about giving details on line am worried about this so much cant believe that a prepayment card could cause all this trouble

  100. ok i support your theme i was just charged a cost of $40,000 because Touchtone-project GB(Great Britain, england) for a car and a car repair
    i am furious but i am an expert on hacking pretty much anything when i need it and here are th possible definitions.

    GB – Great Brittan
    ZA – South Africa (not very good answer )

  101. On Sept 3rd, I learned that someone tried to use my credit card (altho they did not have it on them) to charge 1800.00 in a state other than mine. Fortunately, both the business and my bank caught the act right away. A week late, the individual then tried making charges using a ‘Touchstone Project” Harrogate BGR location. Both were declined.

    Please keep me in the loop as I plan to press charges both at the state and federal level.

  102. Chris…you’ve started this blog and over 100 of us have been hit by this Touchstone Project Harrogate.

    My research is leading me to believe this scam might be connected to computer stores where individuals – like myself – are buying a new computer with a credit card and allowing the respective store’s ‘geek squad’ to install software while we ‘wait.’

    Could you ask the 100+ if any of them in the last two months purchased a new computer with a credit card?

    Thanks,
    ltt

    • You just did.

      When this happened I was using it mainly at grocery stores, gas stations, and the occasional visit to Fry’s Electronics. Some online retailers too like newegg and some record store in the UK.

  103. I was also done this week (30th Sept 09) to the tune of £5, to as you can all guess, The touchstone project in Harrogate, luckily Barclaycard stopped the next transaction 10 minutes later for £147 to TM Lewins in London and locked down my account.

    This may also be related to a mobile phone store, as this was the last recent place mine was swiped.

    Any one else had similar findings.

  104. Yesterday, Sunday 4th September, I checked my bank balance online and went to do some shopping as I have been poorly. I got a few bits of shopping from one store and then went to my other store and found my card was acting up. I checked my balance by mobile phone and found I was adrift by £15 so I left my shopping went home and checked my account. Yep I was “Touchstoned” to the sum on £15!

    I contacted my bank this morning and cancelled my card and put the sum in dispute, the bank said if they, Touchstone, don’t dispute it I will get my money reimbursed in about 4/5 days. The hard thing is that I am a Pensioner and I now have to wait for my new card and pin, up to 7 working days, before I can get any money!!!!!!!!! I am going to be writing some strong letters to my bank and the bank Ombudsman as something should be done about such a long term Thief. Knowing a bit about databases I know that all the Banks need to do with known scammers is to put in a “IF” command and there request for payment would automatically be denied.

    Thank you Chris for this website, which hoping you wouldn’t mind have referrred to my Bank.

  105. I just got pinged by Touchtone Project Harrogate three consecutive times.
    I am in SF., CA.
    Haven’t purchased any computer software.

    Although, I think they may have picked up my card number while traveling thru Southeast Asia. There were also charges from Hong Kong that were charged on my account along with Touchtone.

    Any new information on this fraudulent company/scammers?

  106. I get my child support on a debit card. Went to check the balance, and guess what…3 pending charges from this touchtone harrogate project, they weren’t for a lot, $5, and then there is 1 from Travelodge Website, Thame, which is in the UK, I am in Indiana, that one was $79. I had the card canceled, and have to wait till the charges clear before I can dispute them. Would love to be able to see something happen to these people!

  107. Yup, just got hit here in Phoenix by Touchtone Harrogate 01 for $79.80. And I too was in Fry’s Electronics recently. On the other hand there are several other charges in the last 6 hours that I fortunately caught. Who kind of dumb criminal sends flowers over the internet using someone else’s card? Geez. Shut off the card immediately and will be filing a police report.

  108. I had a problem with Touchtone Project seemingly taking what should have been a £150 cash advance on a credit card made INSIDE A BRANCH OF MY OWN BANK! I discovered this when I phoned the card company to find out what had happened to the cash advance which had not appeared on my online statement to discover that this amount was logged to Touchtone Project Harrogate. I had the card shut down straight away and went to see my bank manager to protest. He had never heard of this company (and he’s in banking) but investigated for me and discovered that the weirdly named Touchtone Project is in fact a processing system (not a company) used by an electronic transaction company working for my bank called Streamline. He relayed my annoyance that this name then appears on the card transaction log and looks like a fraudulent payment in the name of some church-based charity for deprived children in rural Yorkshire! Clearly others are experiencing legitimate transactions appearing with the transaction system name instead of the name of the retailer. Clearly others are victims of electronic mix-ups occurring which should simply not happen. Wasn’t much more I could do about it via the bank but Streamline is clearly the source of the problem in the UK.

  109. I have just been debited £109 while getting a refund onto my card in WH Smith in Kings Lynn Norfolk UK, luckily my credit card compnay spotted it and suspended the card immediatly. Yes it Was Touchstone Project Harrogate

  110. i am in the usa and just got hit by touchtone today for $80 something dollars. i haven’t seen any postings since july. has anyone had recent problems? i am not going to purchase online anymore after this and i plan to do something about this

    • Yes Ive been hit twice by touchstone last Friday (18th) for small quanitities and then quickly followed by other transactions totalling about £1400.

  111. so does anyone know how to avoid this happening again? do i cancel my account and start another one?? or do i go to another bank??

  112. I just got charged a double charge of nearly the same value at a Toys R Us in the UK today Oct. 30th. I live in the U.K. but use my U.S. Credit Card. They don’t have the chip in them and the lady at the counter had to get an authorisation code via the phone, then she swiped the card as normal. The 1st charge was valid, the second was TOUCHSTONE PROJECT Harrogate GBR, only 1 minute after the actual ToysRUs charge and NEARLY THE SAME AMOUNT ($370 U.S.). Luckily, I was checking my balance online via USAA and was able to call and dispute the charge. I then googled Touchstone and found this site, I immediately called back USAA and CANCELLED my card. Thanks for giving me the heads up regarding these Jerks! Best of luck to everyone dealing with these very crafty idiots.

  113. Has anyone made an attempt to contact these people? or have any contact information that they would like to share? I too have been a victim of this apparent scandle, I’m actually Unemployed, an recieve payment thru Chase bank on a Debit Card. I have no idea how they would have associated themselves w/me.

  114. I was also hit by this Touchtone Harrogate Project. They took out $8 and then a company called the Late Late Store took out over $400…If anyone decides to file a suit please post info on here.

  115. I had been ill recently and tried to make a payment to Next for £30.00. When checking my account I found a payment for £30.00 had been made to Touchstone Project Harrogate exactly 24 minutes later. After finding out this was a scam we phoned the bank as the £30.00 was still pending on my account to tell them to cancell it, only to be told they could not stop the transaction from going through!!! Crazy!!!!

  116. Over the weekend my bank was hit from this same company TOUCHTONE PROJECT HARROGATE, for 8.35 then another charge from a company I don’t even know or can make out charged $500 .. Right now I am trying to get everything cleared from my bank. I have no idea how they got my card number. I live in Louisiana and I see someone of you in Texas got hit as well .. This really sucks considering there is NO contact info for this company.

  117. Well, I live in the US in Pennsylvania and I just got charged from “Touchstone” for $64.00 ! I also got charged from: “Total Fitness UKLTD Bolton, Lancs GB” for $600.00″! I searched the internet for the Fitness one and it states it is a Health Club in the UK! AGAIN, I LIVE IN USA !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  118. I was also hit by Touchtone on 19 Oct 2009 for £500. Fortunately by bank stopped payment, but possibly coincidentally my cards (£ and Euro) would not accept my PIN numbers at ATM’s though tollgates and airport carparks accepted them no problem where PIN No’s don’t have to be entered. The only point which corresponds with some of the other postings above is that I used the card to book with Travelodge by phone on 15 October. Coincidence?

  119. My bank recently called me asking about a $202.04 transaction trying to go through from Touchtone Projects (saying its a merchant, grocery store, supermarket)being billed from Great Britian. The transaction tried to go through at 1:30am… At first my explanation was that my husband (in afghanistan) was using the card……that is until I googled touchstone and found this site! My card is on hold currently while I wait for my hubby to call so I can ask him. However, I believe I’ve gotten my answer here! I do make many online purchases. But mostly only childrens clothing stores. UHHHH!

  120. I just took a hit on my PP Card for $81. I canceled my card and faxed my affidavit to PP. I live in USA and have not traveled to UK or made any purchases there in awhile not since the beginning of the season and I bought City’s new kit. I also subscribe to Setanta online which is billed across the channel.

  121. My bank called yesterday querying a £5 transaction by Touchstone to a record store. I actually live in Harrogate but have never heard of this company. Luckily my bank was on the ball but it means I have to wait 5-7 days for a new card. I’m racking my brains trying to work out when my card could’ve been swiped or cloned.

  122. My bank called today, 3/12/09, re suspect transaction on my account for £31.
    at Touchtone, Harrowgate, at 1pm. My bank alerted me within half an hour of the transaction and was was blocked.

    My card has been blocked, and the only hassle I will have will be to wait for a replacement. I will be talking to my bank after reading the comments, to ask if the frauds are being investigated by the police.

  123. i only got $8.33 taken, but Bank of America stated that it appeared to be a test charge to determine if the card was valid.

  124. The same thing happened to me. I was just recently looking over my statement and had three things on it that I had no idea were.
    1. Birth-Ease Ltd Surbiton — I’m not pregnant nor do I know anyone that is.
    2. Island Importer Ashland — never even been on the website
    3. Touchtone Project Harrogate — wtf.

    a total of $206.63

  125. I have just been hit for £756 my bank have confirmed the transaction was to a touchstone project in harrogate, only site I have used recently with my card was zazzle.co.uk so I advise not to use this site, I feel sick to my stomach being overdrawn at this time of year and having to wait to claim it back.

    • Update on this my bank managed to stop the transaction clearing, so it may be that if you are quick enough to notice a pending transaction they are able to stop it. For info im with Halifax/BOS

  126. Found out this morning that £308 has been taken out of my bank initially I did not recognise the transation. After investigating the matter I was told by my bank that the transation was made by ‘touchtone project’ Harrowgate. I have reported the matter to the police be aware.

  127. Same thing happened to me today. I believe it happened when I ordered something online from a company in London. The very next day I got a call from bank inquriing about a charge from Touch Tone Project Harrowgate. If I had not googled it and seen all of this I might have let it go and who knows where I would be. Cancelled my card.

  128. Got charged 3 times for a total of 40$ from a record store. Then an $8.30 charge to touchtone. I called and cancelled the debit card. Wells fargo didnt seem very concerned over the phone. Also they could not tell me where the purchases took place. Pretty weak.

  129. I have just been hit by TOUCHTONE PROJECT for 919 euros. Luckily I have noticed immediately and canceled the charge and credit card itself coz I usually receive a sms everytime I use the card. If not I would not notices it at all. My only guess is that they stole my card number at my internet shopping, or, an tele-operater stole it? I bought a flight ticket one month ago by internet for a similar amout (939 euros) but there was a problema with the transaction of my card then I had to spoke with different operaters several times and they made me say secret number (the one on the back of the credit card), and actually I was wondering those people would be able to use my card if they want. I do not know what to do from now on as I do shopping by internet quite often, I might have 2 cards of which I would use only by internet but with the low limit like 200 euros set up. I live in Barcelona. Anyway thanks to this site I have got to know that I am not the only one hit by them, as I was really scared when I received the sms.

  130. I too had given all my c card details on the phone to a call centre in order to set up broadband and telephone in the UK, it doesn’t mean it was them but it makes me suspicious.

    • I just got a call from my credit card company that my account was flagged d due 2 suspicious charges late last night. One was for Kaplin University on-line for $6.03 at 1107 pm and another just after midnight for Touchtone Project grocery for $16.03. The last charge I had made was at 6:30 last night at McMcDonalds.I had stopped at Mc Donalds just after leaving a car dealership where I had purchased a new car. I don`t think it had anythingdo g to do with the auto purchase because I did not submit any credit card
      info but of course GM did run a credit check on me yesterday prior to approving financing for the vehicle. Thank god my credit card company
      was on the ball. They closed my account and reopened a new one for me
      They also are overnighting me a new card.

  131. I requested my account balance today to find I had “effedtively” been charged twice for a £200 item from a local electrical store. I spoke to my bank who informed me two transactions had been made, one to the electrical store and one to TOUCHTONE PROJECT, HARROGATE.
    It was explained that something called a “pre-auth” is made by a company (in this case the electrical store) via a third party (in this case TOUCHTONE) they look at your account and “ring fence” the money for the item. That accounted for one of the amounts. As for the second amount, the girl at the electricl store had to manually authorise the transaction for reasons unbeknown to me (probably because they had already charged me for it) so therefor charged me a second time!!!!

    Finally I spoke to the less than helpful call centre staff for electrical store who explained it was “unfortunate” and “rare.”
    He couldnt appreciate my distain at being out of pocket for £200 for a period of what will turn out to be a full week thanks to what I feel is incompetence of behalf of other people..

    So bottom line from my experience is that I will get the money back when the electrical store/Touchtone have had their share of my interest and decide to – for once – put the customer first….

  132. Touchtone Projects Harrogate have just fraudulently used my card as weel, I cannot recover the money at the moment as it is pending authorisation. Does anyone have a contact number for Touchtone Projects Harrogate, please?

  133. A mi también me querían sacar 140,31 Euros la institución Touchtone Projects Harrogate. Pero tuve la suerte de que mi Banco sospechara y me avisara. No lo pagué. ¿Cómo pudieron usar mi tarjeta? Yo creo que me pillaron el número al reservar el hotel y eso que siempre he utilizado conexiones seguras “https”.

  134. There’s something really funny with touchtone. I made a £1000 transaction yesterday with a funeral directors. 30 mins later a 2nd transaction for £1000 went through, for touchtone, but my bank tells me that touchtone also styled themselves a funeral director. What does that tell you. I made the legit transaction on the phone. Thankfully the bank caught the touchtone transaction, but I can’t see how on earth they managed to call themselves a funeral director as well without some access to the bank records. I made my transaction in absolute privacy. I can’t imagine it was someone at the funeral directors.

    • I had my cards taken out of my purse which was put back in bag (it was on flor by my feet but they had drop a coat over it!) and if had not gone food shopping would not have realised they had gone! Apart from losing £2200 out of bank accounts – they presented my cards at branch and it was handed over! – two items came up touch(s)tone harrogate – watch out for these bastards they are not druggies but people who know what they are doing – they went to two different towns where they know security appears not to be too hot in certain branches!

  135. I was hit with ywo purchases with my chase debit card one for 32.oo and one for 48.00 I cancelled my card and my bank siad I should be able to get my money back I guess my number was stolen in the Dominican Republic that is the last place I used it. the name of the company was touchtone project horrogate

    • On Jan22,2010 my credit card was hit with a unauthorized charge along with charges to two other companies for total 0f almost $700 I cancelled my account and will bring charges against them as well as touchtone project horrogate

    • OH MY GOD!!! I just checked my Chase account on line today and had the same thing happen to me!!!! There was 2 transactions( thousands of dollars gone!!) from TouchTone Project Harrogate GB. I’m furious that Chase did not alert me on this matter as they claim in there commercials!

      I’m posting this to any website that will listen!! I’m even going to the TV stations!

      CHASE HELPS KEEP YOU
      SAFE AND INFORMED YEAH RIGHT!!!

  136. I received a call from my visa fraud department today making me aware that Touchtone was trying to charge over $800 in groceries and apparently the company was overseas. I have not idea how the card number was retrieved but I feel fortunate that my credit card company monitors this and did not accept the charges and are cancelling my account since my card number has been compromised.

  137. OK so we are all being hit by this Touchstone Project company but can we get to the bottom of how they manage this. I do not believe it is someone swiping cards in store.
    I would strongly suggest this is a internet virus or a virus within a payment providers system otherwise how can they obtain card details from all over the world ?
    It does not seem that anyone on here would have anything else in common apart from online shopping.

    • Well my daughter is in London. She went shopping at Top Shop. Her card is with a Credit Union in Australia. When she made the purchase the girl at the counter looked at her card and made a phone call saying she had to verify the card. My daughter had just purchased a Louis Vuitton item and had the bag on the counter. My daughter has now received an email from her bank asking that she verify the two transactions for the exact same amount on the same day. THANK GOD her bank is on the ball. But my daughter is still in London and has the receipts (2) in her bag. I told her to go to the store and let security know that Rosie is a thief. Her bank can now reject the bogus claim from Touchstone. Be careful.

  138. Same happened to me yesterday and today and it included $3:20 to TOUCHSTONE HARROGATE GBR
    The other two were
    $5.91 to MCDONALDS REST. BROMLEY GLADE GBR
    $320.09 to BOOTS 2817 LONDON GBR

  139. On my day off , I happened to check my chase account . to my surprise there was a 1319.00 transaction to a TOUCHTONE PROJECT HARROGATE GB . Chase usually contacts me for almost any transaction I make that is any significant amount , much less than 1300 dollars. I am still waiting for the alert ! After recieving by Chase a significant run around and cavalier attitude about my hard earned money! we finally spoke to someone who finally did something , but it Truly was not a pleasant experience , nor were we alerted that this seems to be going on for a long time and if you search like we had to , you can find other people this has happened to. I am very disappointed in Chase bank .This is not what they advertise on t.v ,which is why I moved my money there in the 1st place.
    shame on you chase bank

  140. I just found a $1.00 charge on my credit card paid to Touchstone Project Harrogate 01. I have not lost my card – it is in my possession. I called my bank and they have shut down my credit card. The bank indicated that this company was a “sports” company in England. I am in the U.S. Just yesterday I went to a seminar about identity theft and they mentioned that often a test is made for $1.00 by these people to see if the account works. I wouldn’t have normally paid attention to a $1.00 charge but am thankful that I went to the seminar and knew to take action!

  141. This also happened to me last night. Somehow Touchtone pulled my card information during a purchase.

    I was shopping online for a plane ticket on United.de., for 445.09 Euro. Somehow during the attempt to purchase the ticket Touchtone got my card info, and minutes thereafter, almost simultaneously, tried to run four purchases, at 620 USD, then 453, 72 Euros, 442,51 Euros and 396 GBP. Thankfully, my credit card company blocked the card.

    Touchtone apparently was able to collect my card nformation from the internet while the purchase was taking place. Inside of those seconds/minutes that the card information was being transfered from the airline nternet website to the credit company for approval and back to the airline website Touchtone was able to steal the information.

    So I have to say this: online purchases are no longer secure. Be very careful when you purchase online. Check with your credit card company immediately after your purchase to see if the original purchase went through.

  142. My bank just called this morning to say that touchtone harrogate had used my Spanish card on 3 occassions in the past 7 days (Feb 2010). Luckily bank put a stop to it.

  143. My bank in Australia rang on Monday 1st Feb to notify they had stopped a $1100 transaction that was attempted at 5.00 am Saturday after a successfull $25.00 debit on Friday Jan 29 from Touchtone Project UK which had not been authorized.This Blog is a fantastic explanation of what the banks do not know or disclose.I have no idea how they had my details.All transactions through Streamline should be banned!

  144. yes I have 1800 worth of pending charges on my account from this company. 3 seperate transactions….My bank is not going to do anything until the transactions post to my account. Needless to say I have all kind of things bouncing due to this fradulant activity….

  145. Touchtone Project withdrew $957 from my checking account over two separate transactions using my check card number. I do not know how they got the card number. It is a new card which I have never even used yet. (just got it less than a month ago). I do not use my check card for online shopping. I do use online banking though.

  146. I got hit! I’ve been had for two transactions; $15 USD and $316.15 USD. I saw these charges to my account and called my bank, but it seems they can’t do anything yet because the transaction is still in pending status. That’s understandable, BUT the person that I spoke with did NOT tell me that my card was no longer valid.

    I decided to wait and see where the transaction was coming from, because I recently paid my dad’s credit card bill (a phone call that routed to INDIA). I thought that maybe they accidently deducted the wrong amount, so I figured that I’d be able to keep my debit card numbers and just have the payment adjusted.

    The person that I spoke with at Capital One said NOTHING about my card being canceled. I try not to keep a lot of money in my account (or I’d spend it), but my dad needed me to pay some bills. I deposited just the right amount and wrote out checks, but those two charges via Touchtone had my account over-drafted! I quickly ran over to the bank today to make a deposit and went to a drugstore a few minutes after to get some contact solution for my brother. From past experience (during the Christmas season), I know that I can still make purchases even if I have a negative balance.

    MY CARD WAS REJECTED! I was soooo embarrassed! I had to dig through my bag for spare bills.

    We ought to bring this to international awareness! There is someone (or someones) at Touchstone that MUST be stopped!

  147. Same thing happened to me with unauthorized charged to Touchstone Project, Harrogate and to Sofas in stock in UK

  148. same thing happened to me – in Canada. my credit card fraud department called to verify a charge from Touchstone Project and a $1.00 charge to itunes which I also didn’t make.

  149. Yes the same thing recently happened to me, but all of the charges were made in London. The Touchtone Project appeared as one of the charges, but ironically was one of the only ones that dropped off and was not paid.

  150. I also had charges on my bank account from touchtone project. Luckily I check my account daily. this is amazing!

  151. O..godness,yestarday i went to the Top Shop and when i was at home i received the sms from my bank with my balance and suddenly get find that Touchstone took from my account extra payment,double summ!!!!!!!!!!Is anybody know how to fith with them,how protect the card and how to get money back??

  152. Hey,

    I just found out today that my card # was also stolen. luckily, chase blocked my card. but it is frustrating to hear this. my card was charged for touchtone project harrogate as well. the $1000.00 is still pending but chase blocked it. they were able to charge my card $164.00 for some company named Testco Shrews as well. that is so fucked up that we are working n trying to save $, while some motherfuckers are committing fraud.

  153. UGH – happened to me today $5000!!!! for us it is like a million though. Touchtone HArrogate GB also!!! of course its the day that we pay bills and the accoount has its highest avg balance! Chase was so unhelpful. Now recently i charged about $20 in one state and about the same amount only 150 miles away and they STOPPED me thinking it was fraud. Total inconvienience to ostensiblly “protect me” . But somehow they missed the fact that I used my local atm last night and a few hours later defied physics and emptied my account in HArrogate Great Britian – grrrrrrrrrr!!!!!

  154. Same touchstone crap happened to me! I knew Id not done it since I live nowhere near Harrogate, or the UK. Anyone know where to file a complain abt this?

  155. Touchtone project harrogate is on my statment for 30.95 usd and asda home delivery, apparently in gb, for 290.42, my bank called and i immediatley cancelled the card. I havent been out of the country or even the state for several years, and my last transaction had been 17 days earlier for gas, strange!

  156. This happened to me as well last Friday, and I’m really perplexed. I did actually receive a call from Chase to alert me to this charge from Touchstone as well as an attempted $900 purchase at an Armani Outlet somewhere. I’m not sure how they got my info either, as I have not made any online purchases in the last few months with my Chase debit card AND my card has been in my possession. Has anyone been able to get to the bottom of how this company has gotten access to these debit card numbers?

  157. it just happened to me
    and chase called me to alert me
    my card was locked in the dresser the whole time
    weird

  158. this crap is horrible! i just checked my account and have 3 pending transactions. I called chase and they said they blocked a fourth transaction that tried to go thru today! Of course nothing can be done until the charges are posted, but I’m ready to leave chase for this s*&^ Guess we’ll have to go back to putting money under our mattressessssss!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  159. touchtone got my card number yesterday and tried to get 516.00 chase blocked it and called me but I know someone else this happened too and they have chase as well. im wondering if this doesnt happen a little more often with chase. … as i was reading the above blogs i noticed a lot of chase customers as well. i wonder if someone has access to their system.

  160. Touchstone Project took me today 58Euros. My card was with me and my bank called me a few minutes after the transaction to check the validity of the transaction. Card now is blocked thanks to my smart bank !
    I am in Italy.

  161. yes also me the same operator TOUCHTONE HARROGATE GB ask me 25,eur, fortunately I’m protected with a sms that inform me about any money tansaction . I locked the card immidiatly, infact 20 minutes later a operator FRANCE PRINTEMPS ask me 1045 eur and GAME FRANCE 75 PA 😯 EUR, but the card was blocked.
    I do not usually use the card to shop in internet and it remains always with me, and i dont’ know how it ‘s possible to get the code..i’m thinking about tocheck better the latest shop, where I’ve shopped.

  162. Today at time 14:44 i received sms on my handly for amount of 28,75 Euro spent in Touchtone Projec with my credit card but i was at home in Italy and it wasin my pocket. I called credit card’s number and the secretary said to me : Usually when someone make an illegal copy of your credit card, spend a lot of money and not only 28,75 Euro !!! I ask her to block my credit card and at time 15:49 i received a second sms : 1265,00 Euro from Hermes Avignon/8, but fortunately my credit card was blocked one our before !!!

  163. same here touchtone projects took £167 out of our account at tescos GB mansfield.
    it baffled us till its been shown on your statement who took it as our shopping came to £167.14 but touchtone took £167.00 at the time as we did not know who took it because it was pending we thought it was tesco as we also had to have a security check done at the till before we paid for our shopping shame our bank were not and the ball!!! now were short for paying our rent till this is sorted out!!

  164. Time has passed…but these people keep on screwing guy like us!
    This saturday (15/05/2010) I got two charges on my credit card:
    one from TOUCHTONE HARROGATE GB for £432
    another from DH Evans for £762
    they tried on sunday to make 5 more transactions that thankfully were blocked by my bank.

  165. I am in South Africa. Yesterday I got a text message saying that R565.08 is reserved for purchase on my credit card to Touchtone Project. I Googled “Touchtone Project” and found this website (thanks Chris Easton!) so I had my card canceled *immediately* – The transaction has not shown up on my internet banking yet, so hopefully it was blocked in time. My bank was very understanding – I have submitted a letter of dispute to them & am waiting to hear back. Crossing fingers that there will not be an issue with the outstanding amount.

    The unnecessary admin time makes me so angry on top of the fact that someone has abused my account.

    My card has been with me the whole time. The only internet payments I made internationally in the last 2 weeks were through PayPal..
    I purchased from one other site (in SA) that I have ordered from every month for the last 6 months yesterday morning…the Touchtone Project one came through about 5 hours later.

    I had a situation about 8 years ago where somebody got hold of my UK credit card number (the card was with me) about a year after I moved back to SA & bought porn over the internet. The UK bank reversed the charges. They said that it sometimes happens that bank employee type people use seemingly ‘unused’ credit cards to make purchases…

    Thanks again for all comments on similar experiences!

  166. hi
    your post is old – its 19th May 2010 – I have just had a R3529.58 and R113.67 debited by “Watsons & Touchtone projects” – also fraud, but in Hong Kong. I was in SA three weeks ago and used my card. Did you find out anything ? I was in HK this time a year ago and this is the third card of mine being used fraudently – I thought it was originating there, but am a bit dumbstruck to read that SAfrica is also a common factor.

  167. I live in Florida, USA. Touch tone project in Great Britain charged $103.01 on my Visa card today. I’ve only had this credit card for a couple of weeks. Does anyone know how to contact Touch Tone? My bank will not hold me responsible for the charge, but I am still furious! My bank advised me to file a police report.

  168. Same here. touchtone project has used my acct and i have no idea who or what this is!! It has been pending on my acct for a few days now and im waiting for it to post so i can fill a dispute and im freakin pissed bc i have bills to pay and dont have time for this bullshit!!

  169. I just had the exact same thing to me.I went to topshop in London,I spent 155pounds and when I went to pay for my things the lady made a phone call to someone to verify my card apparetly and then swiped my card for the purchase as per usual.
    Then last nyt I checked my account online and saw these touchstone holgate people had taken out 155pounds on the exact same day as my topshop purchase!!I have phones my bank and they are aware on the situation and will hopefully get my money back soon.
    After hearing about most people getting caught in topshop I think something is definatly going on, I am def going to find out as much as I can and complain!!

  170. I’m in the US, Michigan and Touchtone Harrowgate charged my Acct 1.00. After that 2 charges to http://www.bonprix.co.uk were made in the amount of $150.00 US and $557.00 US against my card. The Touchtone charge has been pending since 6-2 and has still not cleared, but the 2 big amounts to BonPrix have gone through. AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGG!

  171. I just had a fraudulent transaction picked up on my Australian debit card on 20 May 2010 for AU$82.99 credited to Touchtone Project UK. I used the card a few times in London a year ago, both in retail stores (including TopShop) and the ATM. Thanking my lucky stars it wasn’t for a larger amount. Why is this company still up and running?

  172. Well, there’s not been a comment left here for a while, so just to let you know that these guys are still around. I have had £18 taken out of my account by touchtone, and then a total of around £4,000 for td waterhouse, although some of the transactions I’ve been told have been cancelled and some are still pending, It’s so fustrating, my card has now been blocked so I now can’t access my online account to see what’s going on.

    I have never used this card for paypal and I’m really struggling to find the link.

  173. Same here. Touchtone Project…. I’m in the UK on travel (so no chip and pin card) from the US. Charge was $75.42.

  174. Just had 2 charges from D H Evans for $502.06 and $486.96.

    Can they find out where the card was skimmed? I want to give them a piece of my fist.

  175. Topshop has just done the same to me, had to suspend card and can’t dispute the transaction until i return to australia, not shopping at topshop again ever!

  176. I’ve just had £300.00 taken from my debit card by STREAMLINE AUTH HARROGATE GBR on 28th Jan. Similarly, I have only the one card and haven’t made any transactions to anyone resembling this name.

    These people should be caught, strung up by their privates until we can get to them personally, and then left to us!

  177. The same thing happened to me and my Chase Account.
    In my case, Chase fell for the first one and caught the others. Storm, UK
    Boots, UK Shelby’s, UK and Streamline, Harrogate.
    Someone must be hacked into the Chase bank?
    I am in the USA and all attempted purchases were in the UK.

  178. Same here.. Montana, USA
    Two fraudulent transactions:
    “STREAMLINE AUTH HARROGATE 01”
    also
    “AVON ONLINE STORE 800-500-2866 01”

    I called the 2nd 800 number and they immediately acknowledged fraudulent transactions even before I had a chance to describe the situation (so they get a lot of calls like that) but would take no responsibility or action.

  179. They use a random card number generator and then try making purchases to a small known place. Once they know they have suceeded, then they start making larger and more numerous purchases. It is luck of the draw until they get a good number, then they try it all over again.

  180. STREAMLINE AUTH HARROGATE….my account number just got compromised with bank of america and thats one of the descriptions that came out on my account information for only a few dollars but as well as with a $625.26 charge to the seddon p&e for a lawnmower. I froze my account since the claim agency said that they can’t process it since the purchases are still processing which could take 3-5 days. I emailed seddon to see if i could get the person’s information by me using my account number for verification so maybe I could catch the person.

    • My card from Chase just got hit by POS DEBIT STREAMLINE AUTH HARROGATE. There were two charges for $83.81 right in a row. Chase said it was from the UK. I was like, what? I would never use my card to order anything abroad. Thankfully, they were still pending when I caught them. Chase promised an investigation. I only use that card with a few trusted merchants but no more. I’m going to take out cash from my account and deal in cash except for utilities which I pay online. Good luck, all.

    • Me too! Glad I thought to google the name of the company that made a small charge to my account and sure enough, it’s….Streamline Harrogate! No wonder the bank reacted like they did! I’m in New York by the way. These guys sure do get around!

  181. My Visa Debit card was blocked by the bank today due to a possible fraudulent transaction of $7.92 from Streamline Auth UK. I have no idea how they got my number and if they do use a random card number generator, that is just scary!!!! Just a warning to all and I am from Australia so can happen to anybody. My card has now been closed so I guess I was lucky as it could have been a lot more. Thank you ANZ.

    • Same happened to me. Streamline Auth UK tried to charge $151,000.US to my VISA even though I do not live in the UK. I have high security on my computer, browser, router etc. so I suspect a random number generator was used.

      I’m checking my credit cards and bank accounts weekly now to make sure fraudulent charges do not sneak through.

  182. My account got compromised as well. They got 1360 EUR out of it. There are 2 entries – one is YVES SAINT LAURENT LONDON the other is STREAMLINE AUTH HARROGATE. It’s f..ing ridiculous. I have blocked my account at Raiffeisen Bank. I am somewhere off-shore. I do not really know how they did it. I did not expose my card anywhere unsafe but apparently one of the locations got a copy of it. It’s unbelievable.

  183. my mum just got a total of au$7000 taken out of her account to streamline auth harrogate… we have never been to europe or shoped at top shop ect.

    they also tried to take out $15,000!!!!!!!!! lucky the bank cancelled it… wtf these scammers are the lowest of the low!!
    (in in australia btw)

  184. I just got a call from my bank who held my account for suspicious charges from abroad on my debit card from STREAMLINE AUTH. So sketchy that it’s the same company/person hacking away…Cancelled my card immediately. Good luck to all! Fuck you, streamline!!!!!

  185. Just had creditcard blocked. Call from the bank, well done to them, blocking a dodgy transaction on our CC for $12 from STREAMLINE AUTH.

  186. My husband called me at work yesterday furious because he thought that I had bought $300.00 worth of shoes without telling him. I ask for more details and found out that there was a shoe website that I had NEVER even heard of (endless.com) that was processing a payment for over $300.00. We called the company and the bank and everyone is in agreement that the charges were unauthorized. Today we were looking at the account to see if it had been processed yet so that we could have our money returned and found yet ANOTHER charge from STREAMLINE AUTH HARROGATE for $40.00 AFTER our account had already been frozen. This has been a huge problem financially with my 2 young childern starting school so I really hope this doesn’t happen to anyone else. BTW if we catch whomever is doing this I would love to know, I work for a law firm and would love the chance to see this person or people in court. 🙂 I hope the person or people at STREAMLINE get ass raped in prison. 🙂

  187. A mi padre le ha sucedido los mismo. Le llegaron al móvil unas transacciones realizadas por un valor de 3.000 euros en total. Le hicieron 4 retiradas de dinero por ese valor. El dinero se retiraba por la empresa o lo que fuese STREAMLINE AUTH. Nosotros somos de España, no sabemos cómo lo pudieron hacer porque mi padre tenía la tarjeta consigo en ese momento. Hemos ido a hacer la denuncia y ahora toca esperar…A ver si tenemos suerte y nos devuelven el dinero.

  188. I have just lost my wallet..And someone had raped my credit card from bank of communications in China for consuming 10 pounds in UK. The information of that consuming record is streamline auth harrogate..What is that kind of place? And I am very urgent to get my wallet back. Is there still any possibility for my wallet returning? I have been mad and upset about that. Could anyone please tell me what am I supposed to do??

  189. From the UK. have been hit for £400 with MB Moneybookers.com and £19 from streamline auth. If my bank had not spotted strange transactions and contacted me then went on to block them, I think I would have seen a sizeable chunk quickly go. Thank you bank.

    A quick way to spot the start of dodgy activiities is a very small amount being charged, on my account it was £0.51, which is the minimum charge that can be made.

    Keep checking

    • Same here $450 from moneybookers and $2 from streamline auth these people disgust me id like to have a little one on one time with them, choke there fuc**ng lights out!!!

  190. Tambien tengo el mismo problema con la misma compañia, no se como pero desaparecieron $841.13 dollares de mi cuenta, jamas he ido a europa , y tengo mi tarjeta en la cartera , Como es posible? Por donde se cuelan estos bandoleros?

  191. Just got a $1 charge from them and some site called askmoses.com!! Not as bad as others, but obviously my card is comprimised!!!

    • askmoses.com haha im sorryyou card got compermised but askmoses.com? it just sounded funny to me. They tried taking out over 153k off my credit card and then another 15k its crazy. I dont know how they got my card.

  192. Friday 24th Feb 2012: Yep, Today the bank called me . Crooks wiped me out over $600. STREAMLINE AUTH HARROGATE. That’s the name on the transaction. The bank were right onto it within 15 mins. (Probably because my account was overdrawn. Bank is losing their money. Luckily I keep only a few hundred dollars in that account and I have a sister account with no cards and no access via the net that wages go into. Bank says it came out of the UK ( some record store) and I’m in Australia so, dunno how. Cut all my cards up, now I’m not purchasing anything overseas via the net.

  193. From the US just had my card compromised with chkcardstreamline authharrogo charge of $31.48 USD cancelled the card as the charge was from the UK and I am in the states. unreal!

  194. Add me to the list. My wife had traveled cross-country to visit her Mom in Philly so I had to deal with the bank account and bills, which I really never do. I managed to get to our bank’s on-line statement and saw a charge for $809.10 (US) to our friends at Streamline Harrogate along with offsetting $2.14 credit and debit to Sleep Inn. Looks like the did the little one first to test the account number and then popped it for the big one. If this has happened to you as well call your bank’s customer service branch IMMEDIATELY! The bank cancelled my card and will cooperate in the investigation and claim against Streamline Horrogate, and will waive any NSF charges that might arise out of all this.

    Good luck to all.

  195. And add me: I just got the message from my bank that the security system had refused to pay out two small charges on my visa card from the UK – STREAMLINE AUTH HARROGATE – (I am living in Norway – and luckuly all other regions are blocked except when I am travelling) I haven’t been in the UK for months and I have not bought anything over the net. The big mystery is how they got my card number. I have absolutely no idea.
    Bjorn

  196. I just receive an email and sms from the bank that i was charged a 35 GBP from streamline auth, i told them that i never heard of them and that i have my card with me here in saudi and i asked them to temperarly stop the card, how i wish they will be in jail sooooooooooooon, take care all.

    • Clearly not I jail, just had a charge to my card today in nov 2015 from STREAMLINE AUTHORISATI HARROGATE GBR… Damn

      • 2019-08-16:
        “STREAMLINE AUTHORISATI HARROGATE GBR” transaction for 50 GBP.
        I use card in Russia and in Turkey.

  197. My Visa Debit card was blocked by the bank of America today due to a fraudulent transaction of $7.79,$9.35 and $12.46 from Streamline Auth UK. I have no idea how they got my numbers, this so frustrating. Just a warning to all and I am from United states so can happen to anybody. My card has now been closed so I guess I was lucky as it could have been a lot more.

  198. I just check my bank acct. online and I was charge 8 dollars from streamline and 101 $ from molton brown Ltbishopsort . I call my bank right away and cancel my card but wait, There are more transactions coming. I hope this people and this company burn in hell and put their sorry asses in jail.

  199. Same transactions on my bank account (I am from South Africa)

    All the transactions are UK based which I visited recently. I only used my card to access Boingo wireless at Heathrow airport – so, they must have let my details slip out.

    Card stopped – but will be contacting Streamline Harrogate, Worldpay (holding company), Boingo for being the weak link and the authorities about this.

  200. -$1.52 was deducted from my PayPal account today by STREAMLINE AUTHORISATI,HARROGATE,GB

    A little over a week ago, EDF ENERGY-ECOM PLYMOUTH GB made 4 separate transactions:
    Mar 19, 2013
    -$16.60
    -$1.51
    -$150.92
    -$28.67

    I contacted PayPal and they were very helpful. They issued a charge back and I should receive my funds in the next few days. Not sure what happens if these companies were to challenge this.

    I believe these transactions are done online. I never use my PayPal Debit Card physically. I wonder if there is an investigation going on.

    For now I have a new debit card coming, and I will try my best to keep my account safe.

  201. Just found several fraudulent transactions on my acct, one of which is Streamline Harrogate. What concerns me is the fact that I only used my card in my home town ATMs – I live in North West London. I’ve notified my bank who are investing these transactions and card is now cancelled.

  202. I just had 4 fraudulent charges on my debit card from Spain, Great Britain…who knows where else…to the total tune of $1,200 USD. Really thieves? Just let me find you creeps! Thankfully the fraud department at my bank saw this and worked with me. You thieves will not get any more of my money, go to work and make your own!

  203. I need everyone to check their accounts to see if they went to McDonalds right before they started seeing the charges appear…that might be the only thing you guys have in common.

  204. Add me to the list. Wells Fargo just called me (THANK GOD THEY DECLINED CHARGES AND FOUND IT SUSPICIOUS) and said that CHKCARDSTREAMLINE AUTHHARROGA tried to charge like $183 and some change on my account, along with several other transactions.
    I am suuuuuper paranoid and secure, but apparently not secure enough!!!

  205. same thing here, first charge was JUST EAT.CO.UK for $47.00 then next was STREAMLINE HARROWGATE GB for $812.00. Account was frozen by my bank for suspicious activity, and I was called. Was told they attempted to charge a hotel room at SPRINGFIELD SUITES I think is what they told me but it was declined due to the hold on account.
    I agree- last charge for me was at a STARBUCKS located inside a TARGET before going to class…. I was wondering if that was where it was stolen. Yes- I had my card with me too, so it was just the number that was taken.

  206. I just got 3 unauthorized transactions in the amount of $1065.00 all within 5 minutes. Two were from a OCADO LTD,HATFIELD,GB and the other streamline authorisation harrogate gb. I had to cancel my card. This has never happened to me It’s frustrating especially now that Im out $3k and Christmas is right around the corner. Damn bastards! Can anyone tell me if they got their money back? and how long?

  207. Just looked my account n saw 200 pound missing n its STREAMLINE HARROGATE who da fuck are they I hwd plan with my money today but thank god my bank blocked my card n the money of pendind so they cancel it.

  208. I was charged by this company 5 times yesterday. I was so confused and frustrated to see that my account had a negative balance and within a matter of several hours. Apparently while I was at work, in the U.S., a company in the UK was taking all the money I have off of my account. Fortunately, I’m not loaded, because there were many declined transactions by them as well. I’m in the process of closing my account, but I don’t know if I will get my money back or not. I’m so frustrated by all of this. Especially now that they’ve been getting away with this for 8 years!!! Whether or not it is individual perpetrators, this company needs to stop allowing fraudulent transactions. This is rediculous!

  209. Just realized that I did use my card at McDonald’s the day before Streamline charged my account. What the f is going on?

  210. Sadly, I’ve been hit by these assholes as well. Only found out by luck yesterday, but they tried to steal all the money of a prepaid creditcard in seven different charges (later I also heard that they tried to do 14 additional chargers, but thankfully they couldn’t as they already emptied my account). I have no idea how they got my card/number, as I don’t use homebanking and only use that card for Amazon purchases (granted, that includes Amazon UK).

    I just don’t understand why the autharities don’t look further into Streamline Authorisation Harrogate, as I’ve been reading all these comments and everyone else seems to have been hit by either this, or something called Touchstine, which also seems to be from Harrogate. You’d think by now, since the opening post was from 2006, they’d at least look into it…

    Anyways, a total of 174.34 euro’s got stolen from me, though thankfully the money hasn’t been stolen yet, and is stuck on transactions. However, for some reason the bank cannot stop these transactions, and I got to either wait till they do go through, and thus have my money stolen, or wait a freaking month so they automatically cancel themselves…

  211. Saw a charge I did not recognize on my card so contacted my bank….They said it was from Streamline Authorization in Harrogate, Great Britain. Never heard of them till now and I see they’ve been stealing from people for awhile. Why have these people not been stopped, it’s been going on for years. Luckily it was only $33.

  212. I noticed a charge for $8.34 from Stream Line Authorization on my debit card. I called my bank immediately and they told me the transaction happened about 6 hours before I called. They canceled my card immediately. I have a TD Bank account and live in NY State close to the city.

    I have a feeling I know who is doing this and how. The bank said this transaction happened around 3:00PM while I was at work. About two hours prior to this I was searching the internet on my lunch hour looking at foreign currency markets. After I received this bogus charge on my debit card I looked at http://www.streamline.com and it was one of the websites I was looking at during my lunch hour. I have a feeling I clicked on a link or an icon on their website that, unbeknownst to me, enabled them to get into my computer and retrieve my credit card information.

    I know this sounds a little far fetched, but I am like 99% certain that this is how I was scammed. I am going to relay this information to the bank tomorrow when I pick up my new debit card. Has anyone else been to http://www.streamline.com or looking at foreign currencies before this happened to them?

  213. Got a call from my bank in the wee hours of this morning saying they have blocked my credit card because of an unusual transaction.

    Minutes later I received a message saying a transaction was done to the amount of British Sterling 111.00 and Streamline Authorisation in Harrowgate,

    I am in Malaysia.. ????

  214. It would seem Streamline Harrogate GB are a legitimate third-party online transaction centre for businesses. Today we thought we had lost £600 to this fraud, but after further inspection it turns out to be payment we had made to a local business and this is where the process went through.

    It does seem possible that hackers could be operating as a bogus business and are using Streamline to cover their tracks. But do double check you have not made a payment to any local business (particularly in the UK) for the amount you are missing.

    We spoke to our bank before we realised our mistake, and they were very helpful. They also said they are aware the Touchstone Harrogate IS a fraudulent operation and is a massive problem.

  215. Yep, I’ve just been done as well. $3000 Australian taken from my Visa Debit account.
    Not exactly handy when I’m backpacking around Europe, and that was all I had left…
    Hoping the bank can rectify it ASAP!

  216. I too have been hit by a fraudulent charge ($15,000 USD!) from Streamline. I had no idea until I logged on to my bank account to pay the balance on said credit card and found that the bank had flagged it. Two months ago I had two unauthorized charges placed on my debit card, one of which was at a McDonald’s, so it was very troubling to read the McDonald’s-Streamline connection upthread. In my case the thieves used different accounts. Luckily my bank did not hold me responsible for the debit card charges and did not allow yesterday’s attempt on my credit card to go through.

  217. I am from Australia and have a visa card . My bank has blocked my card after a transaction for under $3 from streamline auth on 28th of July 2015.

    I am checking that it is not an innocent by product of some other online purchase in europe or uk but suspecting that I will have to get a new credit card issued. Glad they picked it up.

  218. I just had an attempted fraudulent withdrawal by Streamline in the amount of $16,000 as well. It concerns me that this thread began in 2011 and they’re still at it. Exactly why and how are they still in business? I see that online they are apparently a legitimate company.

  219. Had email this morning from American Express. There were 4 fraudulent transactions for Ocado Ltd. 2 for $1.56 , 1 for $1.54 and a last one for $260. The $260 they declined but the small ones were authorized and are pending. I have to wait until they clear and they will reimburse them. I use my card quite a bit so I’m not sure where they got it. I imagine it was stolen when I got gas as I remember the reader at the pump didn’t work. I had to go inside for it to process.

    I travel extensively also so it makes pinpointing the culprit impossible. Getting my new card is gonna suck too. I’m not even going home til the end of October. At least they didn’t nail me for a fortune and I feel so blessed that American Express was on the ball.

    • Got the same thing Char from Ocado, for 1.50 … luckily my bank was on top of things as well and they contacted within mins of the transaction…

      unfortunately i’ll have to get a new card as well …
      just thankful it was a 1.50 only

  220. You say that ZA is the country code for Zimbabwe and the most of the cities cited are in Zimbabwe. That isn’t true. ZA is the country code for South Africa. Certainly Johannesburg is in South Africa. Gauteng is a suburb of Johannesburg.

  221. This just happened to me too. Streamline Harrogate was one of the transactions. They made of with £215.00 in total but bank will reimburse if & when it clears. Its upsetting as i work hard f

  222. This just happened to me too. Streamline harrogate was one of the transactions. They made off with roughly £200.00 in total. Got Bank cancel card & they will reimburse if this clears. Its upsetting as i work hard to earn this money.

  223. I just noticed a pending transaction from ‘STREAMLINE AUTHORISATI HARROGATE GB’ forn £18, googled it and saw this page, so thanks for the comments confirming its fraud, cards now been cancelled and i the ‘fraud ‘squad’ at the bank are looking into it!

  224. Just got hit with them too today but it was for crazy amounts $15234.50 & $152343.48 i don’t even have that sort of limit on my card so they declined but got a fraud alert on this and 2 other 89.27 dollar charges from GTR WEB RAIL SALES one declined and the other went through but its still pending on my account. I called my card company and they took car of everything. They are closing that card and sending me a new one. This is annoying cause I now have to re setup auto payments with my new card now.

    I didn’t use my card at a fast food place. Last physical place I used it was a grocery store but it wasn’t the same day and a few days before. Other then that I have been using amazon.com to place some orders that doesn’t even show the full card number either and non of the merchants would get that info. as its all processed through amazon i’m assuming.

  225. I had to lock down my Visa card, because of an unauthorized purchase for $1.50 from OCADO RETAIL LIMITED HATFIELD. Unfortunately, my bank, Bank of America did not react. Fortunately, I had no transactions that day, so I was able to detect this purchase.

    • Got one today from Ocado Ltd for $1.44. Because I set up the automatic alerts, I instantaneously got a message from BofA. Called right away and cancelled the card…now coming to this site I realized it was indeed a fraud attempt… Let’s try to spot a pattern were it was stolen…I live in TX…recently travelled to FL, drove trough LA, MS, AL,… Anyone in those states being targeted?

      • Got a fraudulent charge listed for $1.40 under “24ocado retail limited Gbhatfield”. I used the greyhound, I used my card in two places. Tucson, Arizona with a vending machine at the greyhound station. 2nd place was in El paso, Texas at the little cafe place inside the greyhound station. FYI my card has a chip, I’ve heard they can be scanned at 30+ meters with the right equipment. Fortunately BBVA blocked the charge and locked my card.

    • The same charge was on my bank acct today too. My bank caught it (thankfully!) and they notified me of the suspicious activity right away.

  226. Received an authorization on my debit card for Ocado Ltd. 08453991122 1 for $1.46. Froze my card and am being issued a new card #.

    There was also a charge for $1.00 for Ea *star Wars Tor Help.ea.com Ca 1.

  227. They got me too!! Ocado Limited Retail in Hatfield, which is in Great Britain. $1.39 3 times within 3 days. Thankfully I caught it before anything posted but huge inconvenience. The bank rep stated small charges usually go through 1st to test the waters and if everything goes fine then your card gets HIT!!

    • I was “hit” on Friday. Bank fraud dept caught it and I called to freeze charges and have new card issued.

      Besides Ocado for $1.42, I also had three $0.10 charges on Apple ITunes. Obviously testing the waters with the small charges until the hammer came down.

      Thank you to my bank who flagged those charges. And to this site that clued me in.

  228. Today this ocado ltd company……phone 08453991122 , has debited 2 transactions from my bank. One for $1.43 and one for $1.42. Now I will have to go and close account out before they take out $43.00 like another company did 2 months ago after taking the 2 $1.43 & $1.42 out. Both companies has GBGB on end of name and both are shown as from the United Kingdom.

  229. I just got a call from the bank that $1.49 was charged to My debit card. They are putting a hold on my card To prevent any further charges.
    Thank you Inwood National Bank.

  230. Just had the exact same thing happen to me today, $1.42 charged to my card. Thankfully I have Int’l transactions flagged to notify me. Froze the card immediately and a new one is being issued.

  231. Ha! Just happened to look at my account on line.
    Ocado made a small charge for $1.43 a few days ago and then charged $275.62 today!
    I called my bank and they shut down my debit card.
    While on hold for a bank rep, I searched Ocado and it put me here.
    I feel better I’m not alone. Have to get new card now.

  232. Charged on my card today. They alerted me through a text and i denied the charge. Getting new card tomorrow

  233. 3/21/16 – Ocado LTD debited my card $1.45. Glad I caught it and found this website. Strange, its a shop in GB and I’m in the US. I wonder who is benefiting from this little scheme? Bank is issuing me a new card.

  234. They got me this morning, OCADO RETAIL LIMITED HATFIELD as I get a text alert for any transactions on my account so I called my bank to investigate it and I have to get a new card and the bank put the funds taken back in my account to the tune of $142.00.
    It’s odd that other accounts were hacked for the same amount and they just added another zero when they hacked mine.
    It makes me wonder how safe our money really is!

  235. Same thing with me….€1.00 from my account. Was alerted by bank straight away and cancelled my card. Im living in Ireland. Also googled Ocado Retail and saw they were in GB

  236. I got charged yesterday from Ocado Ltd for 1.41 on my credit card. I work for the bank and I do ATM debit card fraud claims. To get an email from Capital One asking me to confirm charges and I looked at the charge and was like my credit card is in my hand I know I didn’t use it. I automatically knew, I have to get a new credit card.

  237. Thank you for the information, I searched Ocado today when I noticed $1.42 charged on my account, and was lead to this site…shutting down my card today!

  238. My debit card was charged 1.00. Ocada in Great Britain. My bank froze my account and notified me. New card on the way. Eventually my whole bank account would have been drained. Just glad it was caught in time. What thieving bastards!! Beware

  239. just got a $1.46 charge from OCADO RETAIL LIMITED HATFIELD GBR, searched it and it lead me here, i did go to mcdonalds about 2 days ago and this just showed up on my netspend card transactions but is still pending.

  240. Just seen my visa card has been accessed 6 times in 5 days at $26.33 each time……no email like you would get normally on a purchase!! I see I’m not alone…

  241. I just had a charge of $1.40 today. I knew I didn’t do it, because I was asleep at the time, my card was in my wallet, and my wallet was in my room. I found this site and immediately contacted my card issuer and had to have my account closed, a fraud claim submitted, etc. Now I have so much inconvenience because of this.
    According to my card rep, it showed as a convenience store charge.

  242. Same story for me: received a fraud alert from AMEX about a charge for 1.00 GBP to Ocada. Would love to know from whence the thieves stole this data…

  243. Ocado Retail hit my credit card, too! The bank closed that account. I guess I should check my debit card, as well.

    Who raised these people? They didn’t tell them not to do anything to others that they would not want done to them? Ugh!

  244. Sam happened to me, OCADO RETAIL LIMITED
    HATFIELD, GB charged 1,25€.

    Thx god that was a prepaid Credit Card with only few euro, I froze my acc immediately

  245. Is anyone investigating why OCADO is involved in so many of these fraudulent transactions. I did not notice $1.92 going out a month ago and now have had $78. fraudulently taken.

  246. Mine got hit today 4-19 same company same $1.43. The thing is, where did all of us use our card at in order to get hit by this!

  247. I live in Malaysia . My Bank notify me via SMS Ocado Retail Limited Hatfield charged me GBP 1.00 . I am not recognize Ocado, then i calling up Bank Credit Card Centre to report it. The bank suggest me to block card. I am agree. I am awaiting the new card now.

  248. My card was charged yesterday at OCADO for 1.44 us$ and today at Blakely in UK for 313.00. So they use OCADO to taste the waters for a bigger charge. It is clear the OCADO some who is involved. Why they dont close the store or suspend their merchant account? I have written to my bank with a link on this post…it is a no brainier…something is wrong with this store.
    This is a pain in the neck. My credit card was frozen and I spend 30 minutes with the bank. They are issuing a new one…all this things cost money…It is easier to close OCADO.

  249. Confirmation of Recent Account Activity – My bank is opening a fraud investigation. They charged $1.44

  250. My credit card (New Zealand) was charged with $2.09 overnight by OCADO RETAIL LIMITED HATFIELD GB. Fortunately it is still in ‘Pending’. My bank was quick to alert me and the number has been frozen and I am being issued a new card.

  251. I received a charge from Ocado Retail Limited for $1.45. Luckily, my credit card company contacted me with a text alert about a suspicious charge. I called them to make sure that my account was frozen and to send a new card.

  252. I just has the same thing happen. $1.45 charged to my card, and text alert to put a hold on my account. Scary! I’m glad I found this site. Thank you all for posting.

  253. I’m on the phone right now with my bank, Chase, due to a charge of $1.46 from Ocado LTD as POS Debit. Chase had the nerve to ask if I had contacted them first and that they needed to contact them but then came back on the line and said that wasn’t necessary and it appears to be fraudulent. Duh, that is what I’ve been telling you for the last 10 minutes. I live in the US and this is a UK company. They will be removing the transaction and sending me a replacement card. Not happy how Chase is handling this at all. They did not recognize this charge as being suspicious. Maybe it’s time for a new bank.

  254. So glad I found this blog. Just became a victim and it SUCKS that my banks hours are from “8-5″…seriously?!?! I will be calling first thing. Thanks for the info, everyone!

  255. OCADO $1.45 today… fraud!! looks like these guys are farming worldwide!

    i also got hit with a fraud charge at STAPLES $161. ! of all places … bank auto-blocked that one.

  256. I’m in the US. My bank texted me regarding a $1.47 charge from Ocado Retail Limited submitted this morning. They declined it and reissued my card after I texted back that I did not make the charge. I only use my card on certain retail websites and locally so they were able to flag it as suspicious immediately.

  257. They got me here in Sweden as well! ? 11.76 Swedish Kronor (approx. $1.47 USD). Now I have to deal with all the b.s. about getting a new debit card! I am sick of these cyber punks.

  258. Got two transactions of$1.48 and $1.46. On phone with paypal to get this resolved. Shutting my card down to stop this. Fucking hate the UK. Scams always come from this country.

  259. Just had three amounts go through ocado and one for Surf lifesafing foundation brisbane,a small donation. All my money has been drained from my account. No notification from my bank telling me something is fishy. I just watched on my phone notifications,as the money was being removed. Stopped card immediately,too late.

  260. Mike is right: “where did all of us use our card at in order to get hit by this!”
    I was wondering what we could all have in common, since we are from so many different countries (US, Ireland, Malaysia, New Zealand)… Has anyone bought anything on Amazon lately? This would be the only site that it’s not in my country and I bought some CDs last month.

  261. Wow so many years seems like same people are scamming and still not caught, I got charged £1 twice by OCADO and then OCADO RETAIL LIMIT(not even limited). and then 1p from ASDA , Metrobank sent me a text immediately of fraud activity and blocked the card, thank god it wasnt much.

  262. I received two $1 British Pound charges from Streamline last night. And thank god I took time to Google it. This is on a visa card that I only use for business trips, and looking back the only odd place where I used the card was the Shanghai Airport Boingo charge.

    The Boingo service (airport internet service) interface seemed odd and then it asked me for my three digit security code and the transaction crashed after that. That was the only place outside of Hyatt and Westin Shanghai, both where I’ve charged multiple times without incident. I am certain the Boingo service Wifi was a fishing site. Please be aware.

    • Didn’t go too far ‘back’ in this thread, but this last one is about STREAMLINE INTERNATIONAL and a recent date. We just received an email this morning to contact our bank about 2 charges from this company. One for a little over a dollar and the second was over $4300. Seems like this may be a new scammer/thief. Can’t figure out where the card may have been compromised, but we did travel Europe in March.

  263. These people are still at it years later. I had a $12,479.84 charge attempt this morning (US dollars) out of London listed as STREAMLINE HARROGATE with an initial attempt at a furniture store in Minnesota for $1, both red flagged and declined by my bank. I was in London earlier this year but I’m not sure if it’s related. The bank thinks it’s more likely they hack information online and on store websites and clone cards.

  264. I bank with Chase and just received a fraudulaunt charge to my debit card to Ocato Ltd., Seamless, and Buffalo Boss restaurant. Luckily Chase caught it but this happened on Christmas Day! So upsetting.

  265. Just experienced the same with STREAMLINE HARROGATE here in Italy, on something like 56EUR, and few minutes later a much bigger authorization request of 850EUR from an airline…..so if I understand correctly, the STREAMLINE HARROGATE service is used to test the card validity but it’s not (maby not always…) the charging entity, instead whomever got my credit card detail used STREAMLINE to test it then the real target is – in my case- a flight ticket…
    Just cannot understand how can it exists something like STREAMLINE, that can give an “authorization” to a credit card number without that any security PINcode or other systems (I have Mastercard SecurCode activated on my card…) is entered….

  266. Just experienced ” STREAMLINE AUTHORISATION HARROGATE GB ” taking £20 from my account on Sunday. Bank had texted me to alert me to a potential suspicious purchase. Rang the bank, got card cancelled and new one re-issued, however I can’t raise a new fraud/loss report with the bank until this particular transaction actually processed (sitting in ‘pending’ on my account still 2 days later).

    Allegedly the payment was made to a dry cleaner, but haven’t used dry cleaners ever in the last year so safe to say that wasn’t me!

    Unfortunately, living in London, most business make it way more convenient for people to use their card instead of cash, so there are probably a million and one places where my debit card could have been potentially skimmed.
    Going to try withdrawing cash from trusted ATMs and using cash more often where possible, cut down the number of times I use my debit card (and hopefully cut down the risk of it getting skimmed again).

  267. What the hell is this?? This has been going on for (as far as we know) at least FOURTEEN YEARS and these people haven’t been caught?! How utterly absurd is that??

    I myself just got hit by these losers. Only 2 charges that add up to maybe $9 because I carry most of my money with me. They haven’t cleared yet and my bank is pretty good at rectifying this kinda BS, plus such a small amount doesn’t concern me much, so I’m not too upset. I’m more upset that this is just going completely under the radar apparently. What a hassle tho, this will be the 3rd or 4th time I’ve had to replace my card in the span of roughly a year, after my dog chewing one up, once due to another fraud charge, losing one of them… Ugh.

    But seriously, t’s absolutely INSANE that this is literally the only thing I can find through a Google search regarding this. No other blogs or anything, no news articles… How surreal. How does one draw attention to this if all these cases haven’t already?

  268. Just had the same issue with my business account, Coconut. ‘STREAMLINE AUTHORISATION HARROGATE GB’ tried to use my card and take £5. Luckily I already had the card blocked and it didn’t go through.

  269. I had just the same experience with my credit card. 1,00 GBR from STREAMLINE AUTHORISATI, HARROGATE, GB. I’ve blocked immeddiatly my cr. card!

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