ANZ bank have fraud protection that they call Falcon. Essentially the goal of it is to prevent fraudulent transactions taking place on your credit cards and in my case, my Visa debit card connected to my savings account. Nice idea in theory, but in my case, annoying and wrong.
It all began when I received a suspicious text message claiming my card had been suspended due to a security concern to prevent unauthorised usage. At first I thought it was a scam, so I called ANZ and sure enough, it was the real deal (the number it came from was +61427042684).
They verified my details, then told me Visa international had detected a security concern (he couldn’t tell me what that concern actually was). The customer service guy by the name of Greg was very nice about it and went through my last 5 transactions over the phone with me to see if anything suspicious stood out.
He would list the name of the transaction and then the amount. I responded yes to all of them as my own transactions. Not one single transaction he mentioned was suspicious in the slightest. The last transaction I made was at a lunch place with a French sounding name called La Rotisserie that did fried chicken and whatnot.
Could it have been the French sounding name that rung alarm bells? Maybe Visa thought $18 for a chicken sandwich with a bottle of water was akin to fraud and suspended my card? It was a good sandwich though (and massive). Perhaps a little overpriced.
Anyway… After saying yes to all of the transactions and confirming nothing sounded suspicious I expected my card to be reactivated, no problem right? Nope. Greg informed me that I would be sent out a new card complete with a new card number, CVC code and a new pin number too, and to destroy my current card immediately.
WHAT. THE. FUCK.
No fraudulent transactions were made on my card, nor were there any attempts they told me of trying to make fraudulent purchases, so why suspend my card?
Now I have to wait 3 to 5 business days for a new card and then the pin number will follow 2 business days after I receive the card. Because my card number has changed I now have to go through all of my services and change my card details to match the new card.
This means having to change my Paypal details, the credit card details for my hosting, Playstation Network account and a plethora of other accounts online were I use my credit card.
As a result of my card getting cancelled, online services that I pay for using my credit card will now fail. I have already received an email from Github informing me my payment has failed. Luckily, I have two weeks to pay (my new card should arrive by then).
Who knows maybe one of those said providers were hacked and someone got my card details? ANZ didn’t give me any information as to why they are sending me out an entire new card with new pin number and card number.
It is very frustrating that I have to go to the bank if I need to withdraw any cash and I have to pray nothing that gets billed to my card before I get a new one and get online to change over the details.
If someone did get a hold of my details, I am grateful ANZ stopped them. However, there were no suspicious transactions and ANZ couldn’t even tell me what the security concern was with my card in the first place.
Fortunately my wife-to-be has a card for the account and that hasn’t been suspended, but it is a completely different number.
Found your blog looking for something similar to what happened to me. I never had any suspicious transaction claims but mine is just as infuriating!
I swear customer service is dead and I think my situation proves it, my story is as simple as waiting for my new cc to be sent to me via Aust. Post (these guys are equally inept) as it was expiring this month.
Now in the past they would send it a few days to a week before the expiry date no probs but this time I didn’t receive it as per usual so I decided to double check and ring ANZ. The guy I got told me that if it wasn’t sent out by the 3rd week of the month to ring back, so naturally today is the 3rd week, I ring back and this time the clown I get tells me that it was meant to have been sent out on Feb 27, I tell him I obviously never received it, so he tells me I can either wait for it (wtf it’s not been sent why would I do that?) or they can cancel that and my current card (the one old one still in my possession) and re-issue me a completely different card with a different number etc. I explained I would wish to keep my current card number that I’ve had for almost 20 years, he tries to tell me that I can’t do that now because it’s deemed lost or stolen (err didn’t he tell me I could wait for it….yeah I’m confused as well?) and now I have to wait another 5 business days for my new card. I asked if my current card is now null and void, he says yes, I ask him how the hell am I meant to get $ out now he’s cancelled that card, he tells me he hasn’t cancelled it yet and can put a hold on it while I go and get some $ and then to ring them back to notify them so they can go ahead and cancel those cards and re-issue my new one.
This is where it get’s good, I ring back and get a female who actually seems to know wtf she is doing and talking about, she looked through my file and noticed that someone had apparently sent out a second card on March 8th, which she said was odd because it was a Sunday, she then asked but pretty much knowing my reply if I got that card, obviously I hadn’t, I then thought to myself I wonder if they sent it to the correct address, so I asked what address they have down for me, I mean who knows, someone could have hacked it or posed or more to the point a clerical error at their end? All good on that front, they had the right address, so I’m thinking this is really odd as pretty much all my other mail is on time and delivered, so it’s either some tard at ANZ admin or someone is stealing my cards but I’m doubting the latter because so far no one this month has made any fraudulent transactions.
Anyway we joked about the whole situation for a bit and then she “promised” me that my new card would be sent by at least Monday and if not to call her back specifically, I’m not holding my breath, to say the least.
On top of all this I made a query with Aust. Post but never got anything back which didn’t surprise me at all and even if they did get back to me and said they had both cards it’s redundant now anyway!
I swear if this one doesn’t turn up, I’m closing my account and going to a new bank, this is just way too much incompetence for my liking, problem is that means notifying and changing everything that used that old card account, such a pain in the butt and unnecessary as well 🙁
Yep, just had this happen to me. Your description is identical to my situation.
Falcon claim a merchant has been compromised and my CC details were part of that. Ok, fine, thanks for the save.
Here’s the thing. If the merchant was compromised, then more than just my CC details have been obtained. My name and address usually being part of the basic account information an online merchant holds. If I had a transaction agreement with the merchant, then that normally involves terms and conditions I’ve agreed to. Those terms and conditions will usually cover the obligation of the merchant to protect my information. So, Falcon intervene and essentially aid and abet (and protect) the merchant by not allowing me to exercise due legal process and pursue the merchant for the compromise of my legal property (name, address etc).
Yes mine was cancelled because of suspicious activity, anz sent a message I call and the cancel the card and now I have to wait for the new one to arrive. I go down to the bank to get some money out and the teller informs me at Morayfield branch that they can not help me, so I am led to believe that if a card is cancelled you can no longer withdraw money until your new card arrives, after waiting at the bank for ages and then to find out this makes me seriously think of switching banks because ANY other bank would have been able to let me make a withdrawal, the bank account is still active regardless if I had the card or not, very disapoinyed with the Morayfield branch and their lack of help !