Our Saskatoon IT Tips are from the Trusted professionals at Burnt Orange Solutions.  We promise to have a one-hour response time for all your Saskatoon IT support needs. Honesty and respect are important to us. In our latest news, we share a very stressful situation we personally found ourselves in recently at Burnt Orange Solutions! Credit card fraud is rampant across the World, including here in Canada, unfortunately, Burnt Orange is the most recent victim of a scam. We felt it our responsibility to share our situation with others, in the hope that we can prevent them from falling for the scammers!

Beware Of Being Scammed by Canadian Credit Card Fraud

A word of warning for you, or the story of the most stressful week of our life here at Burnt Orange!!

Do you take credit card payments over the phone/internet?

In September we sold $10,000’s worth of computing equipment to a new client, we received payment and all the equipment was delivered. This week we found the full amount missing from the company bank account.

The card used to purchase the equipment turned out to be stolen and the company who bought the equipment has disappeared.

Our credit card vendor’s process is to take the money back and then investigate. We are now 48 hours after they recovered the money and we have managed to get 1/3 back into our account. No word yet on the balance.

We have only been taking credit cards for around 1 year, this was a larger transaction than usual for our company to take on a credit card so it was flagged. We had to go through further security checks with our credit card vendor, they checked out the card and said all was ok. So, we sold the computers.

Our one saving grace was that we had taken the security code (CVC) from the card. Without it,  we believe we would have been liable for the whole amount!

Our bank had no option but to give the credit card company the money as this is the agreement they have with them. If we had only $2 in the account, the bank would have still have had to give them the money and we would have had a huge unauthorized overdraft.

A lesson for ALL of us, even our bank didn’t know this, but their credit card company has this rule: If the payment is NOT processed by chip and pin at a card machine, the seller is responsible. They are black and white about it. Luckily for us, as we don’t use our bank for credit card payments., we use a 3rd party company.

Takeaways:

1. Your credit card company can claw back money from you and don’t need to notify you they are doing it.
2. Your bank cannot protect you.
3. Always insist on getting the CVC security code.
4. If possible, use a card machine in person.
5. Insurance for this does not exist apparently.

QUESTIONS ABOUT OUR CREDIT CARD FRAUD.

When I shared this warning with clients we had many replies, some asking questions other simply expressing their concern for us and appreciation that we had reached out to warn them.

One client replied wondered where the company who ‘ bought the equipment’ was based, as they thought they were probably based overseas.

The answer is, they were out of British Columbia.  We did our due diligence ( or so we thought), I checked out the company online ourselves, they looked totally legit, great website and all. I personally spoke with the guy and we emailed back and forth for 2 weeks to get the equipment correct for their ‘new’ office. We made sure the money had cleared and was in our bank BEFORE we released the computers, not that that seems to matter as it turns out.

Another client shared that they found out recently that Paypal, who handles their funds’ capture for their e-commerce also hold companies entirely accountable for fraud from consumers.

Although this credit card scam is not directly linked to IT, it really is a scary example of how businesses AND consumers in Saskatchewan and elsewhere are under attack from crafty criminals looking to get hold of their data to access their assets. The scams are getting more and more sophisticated, so it is important to ensure you are doing what you can to protect yourself, your business and your family.

If you want any clarity on the above, please feel free to reach out.

Please note that this does NOT put Burnt Orange Solutions at risk, we are financially sound, it just means that my purchase of my Caribbean island will have to be put back a year.

Onwards and upwards

Gareth

We hope this article gave you some insight. If you want to ensure your business’s IT security, contact the Trusted Saskatoon IT professionals at Burnt Orange Solutions and we can take IT worries off your plate.

Burnt Orange IT Solutions Products & Services:

• Managed Networks
• Backup and Recovery
• Data and Network Security
• Hosted Services
• Telephone Systems
• Secure WiFi Networks

“IT Support You Can Trust and Understand”

Burnt Orange Solutions are Trusted Saskatoon IT Experts