I woke this morning to find a text message from Westpac on my phone telling me that a suspicious transaction on my Mastercard debit card had lead to my card being blocked and asking me to confirm whether I had made it, which I hadn't. After checking my account and discovering a couple of dodgy transactions adding up to around $400 I texted to confirm that a fraud had taken place.

Within a few minutes I had a lady from Westpac fraud prevention on the phone going through a series of about a dozen other transactions that had been blocked and defining which transactions were genuine and going on to tell me that I would receive some paperwork within a couple of days and that the transactions would be reversed within a couple of weeks. Apparently the major transaction was for a flight booking in China and the buggers had tried to make things look genuine by making a couple of tiny donations to charities in between their buying spree.

I just wanted to give Westpac a great big pat on the back for a great job of prevention and excellent customer service. This is the first time I've had this happen to me and it was a big wake up call. In future it's Paypal or nothing when it comes to online transactions for me. I don't do much online transacting, but I have bought a couple of things recently for my studies, so it's possible that those merchants have a security problem.

Take care online people! If you get caught out I hope your bank is as efficient as Westpac in dealing with these sorts of problems.

Dear Craig,

Thanks for that.

I'm also with Wespac so its good to know that
they're so efficient.

I sometimes watch TVSN and very often am very tempted
by the products they are promoting - especially fashion.
Recently I saw these wonderful Kaftans (Kelly's Closet)
from California that were magical in design, colour, and
style, and could be worn at any time of the year. I've
got holidays coming up plus several other occasions
and I thought - "Wow, these outfits would look great!"
Sacha Drake (Brisbane - Gold Coast - designer) is also
great - but her I can get in Melbourne.

However, they would need my credit card for the purchases.
So I decided not to do it. My husband has been telling
me for ages - "Don't give out your card number."

Now, I'm glad that I didn't.

I don't have a credit card, only a debit card. I don't do net payments with my main account, ever. I don't do internet banking either.

My wife has a couple of thousand disappear recently, from her Suncorp card, in a couple of UK transactions. They corrected it in a similar couple of weeks, & now check questionable transactions via email.

I was rather annoyed with Suncorp a few years back, when I decided I did want to buy a few bits for my cars from overseas suppliers over the net. I asked them to open a totally separate account, divorced from my main accounts, with a debit card I could use for this.

A few months later I checked the balance on this a/c by phone, & was horrified to find it was linked to my main accounts. Once this supposedly separate a/c was accessed, it gave access to all the others. The bank would even give me the numbers of all the other accounts, including offset accounts, just to help.

When I complained bitterly they admitted they could not divorce it from my other accounts, or my ladies account, where I was listed as an operator, as she was on mine.

We now have my accounts spread over 3 banks, which is mildly inconvenient, only because the banks are either too slack to do the job properly, or employ lousy incompetent computer programmers. We have yet another account on a 4Th bank for net use, which is also inconvenient, but I don't want to use PayPal.

I guess I've become a rather suspicious old dinosaur.

I am a regular online buyer. I've made over 500 transactions and I pay all my bills online. I have never had any problems however I am selective with who I use my credit card.

PayPal is an excellent way of making purchases online. PayPal is safe and secure.

The only time I have ever had a problem with my credit card was from it being skimmed... that's when crooks manage to infiltrate an ATM machine and steel your credit card details, including the pin number. In my case the crooks must have telephoned someone in Los Angeles with the card details almost immediately. Within two days they maxed out the card limit of $8000.

This was a GE 28 Degrees Visa which I use for travelling (no credit card fees, best exchange rate, no international transaction fees). When I notified the card company, they cancelled the card, reissued a new card straight away and wiped the illegal transactions after about a month. With the card maxed out I wasn't able to use it until the dodgy transactions were cleared, which is fair enough.

There are so many crooks out to get your cards you do have to be very careful. Fortunately the banks and card companies are cooperative when you can easily prove the transactions were not yours. In my case, as in Craig's, the credit fraud people were onto it very fast, however in my case since I do travel to LA, they didn't pick it up fast enough. It was scary seeing $8000 of debt that wasn't mine sitting on the card; and it was slightly worrying until the debt was cleared; but if it happens to you, be patient and let the process unfold in its own time.

It always pays to notify your bank and credit card company before you leave the country in order to avoid having your card cancelled when you've used it overseas genuinely

PS... it's a nice change to have a discussion topic that doesn't immediately turn into political mud slinging match. Thanks Craig.

I get them all the time & I don't even have an account with Wespac. Ba afraid, very afraid. Ring the Bank immediately to confirm the email.