Disputed online ticket purchase from GWR

Hi. Need a bit of help guys.

I received an email early yesterday morning (10th Jan) from GWR stating I had bought 2 advanced Bodmin Parkway to Reading outward and returning journeys on 7th March with their seat sale costing £12 each with a railcard.

I use this website regularly and have had no problems like this. Although I did log into my account and entered these journey details I decided not to by these tickets and simply left them. Usually after an hour or 2 the option to purchase disappears and I assumed this would happen. I usually have to enter my 3 digit security code but on this occasion didn`t which is why I know I never made the purchase. What I would like to know is this normal practice if someone doesn`t enter their 3 digit code as it hasn`t happened to me before despite the fact I may have done the same thing in logging in and leaving intended ticket purchases to simply expire in the past.

I have contacted GWR and they think it may be fraudulent activity but I don`t think so. Why would a hacker purchase exactly the same tickets I had intended to buy but didn`t. Thanks in advance.

Master29 said:

I have contacted GWR and they think it may be fraudulent activity but I don`t think so. Why would a hacker purchase exactly the same tickets I had intended to buy but didn`t. Thanks in advance.

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Is there any possibility that someone else used your PC and completed the purchase?

So GWR have said they think it may be fraudulent. Therefore they are duty bound to refund you. Have they confirmed they are going to do this? If not, I would also contact your card issuer and state this was an unauthorised transaction they will then place the transaction into dispute. They may insist on issuing you with new card.

najaB said:

Is there any possibility that someone else used your PC and completed the purchase?

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No. I wasn`t out of the room up to the point I received the email which was only minutes later.

gray1404 said:

So GWR have said they think it may be fraudulent. Therefore they are duty bound to refund you. Have they confirmed they are going to do this? If not, I would also contact your card issuer and state this was an unauthorised transaction they will then place the transaction into dispute. They may insist on issuing you with new card.

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I will visit Barclays tomorrow asking them if they can take this up with GWR. As I said it may be that I was logged in but didn`t take the final step of entering my 3 digit pin. I just want to know if this is normal practice for any TOC not just GWR. The point you make about GWR being duty bound. Would that be the case if it were my PC that were hacked even though I`m not entirely convinced of this....yet anyway.

The best way to dispute a transaction is to phone the number on the back of the card. Keep it simple though and don't confuse them but giving too much over detail. It is simply a case of you did not authorise the transaction on the card.

Master29 said:

I will visit Barclays tomorrow asking them if they can take this up with GWR. As I said it may be that I was logged in but didn`t take the final step of entering my 3 digit pin. I just want to know if this is normal practice for any TOC not just GWR.

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No, it's not normal practice for any card not present transaction.

It's very odd, but the best way to dispute a transaction is to contact your bank and have them charge it back as suspected fraud, though most likely that will mean a new card with a new number so the associated faff of changing stuff over.

Has the money actually gone from your bank account / been charged to your credit card? If not, then I'm not convinced there's a problem.

Fawkes Cat said:

Has the money actually gone from your bank account / been charged to your credit card? If not, then I'm not convinced there's a problem.

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I haven`t checked as yet but assume it has as I`ve received the tickets today.

Seeing as you have received the tickets, you might as well go on your trip and use them. Thanks to the fraudsters, there are now less advanced tickets left in the quota for other people to buy at that price. It might even be already full now.

This very unfortunate. You could prevent this from happening again by cancelling the transaction completely each time so that the cookies are deleted.

BluePenguin said:

This very unfortunate. You could prevent this from happening again by cancelling the transaction completely each time so that the cookies are deleted.

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I often make trips to Paddington just for the trip. Especially when they have offers on like this it`s tantalisingly cheap but of course there is a principal here.

najaB said:

No, it's not normal practice for any card not present transaction.

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Slightly off topic, but some websites allow you to make a purchase without entering the cardholder verification value; including Paypal and Amazon (which must make up a significant proportion of online sales).