As featured on BBC1 TV News:
When we were approached by the BBC News team who were doing a special feature on the ‘Victims of Credit Card Crime’ to appear on a ‘BBC News Special Report’ we were only too happy to help. Having been the victims of a concerted card fraud attack back in 2002 which cost us loads of money we believe that these days we have the most secure site it is possible to have. In fact shopping online with Stinkyink.Com is more secure than shopping in the High Street.
When the Film crew were here filming their piece they said that if we had any reasonable sized fraud to call them and give them the details. Sure enough on the following Thursday we found an order that had slipped through our Automatic Fraud checking procedures, but failed our Manual Assessment. A plan was hatched between the BBC News ourselves and the Metropolitan Police Dedicated Cheque and Plastic Crime Unit DCPCU (the special police unit that tackles cheque and card fraud criminals).
We carefully packed up a parcel containing some old cartridges and dispatched it via carrier on a Before 9.30 Delivery. Present outside the address were a Police unit and two camera crews. The carriers van arrived and the driver knocked on the door, but there was no answer so he left a card and went on his way. Back in our offices we were watching the Carriers website and were devastated when it came up as ‘carded’ on our screen. Back in London the Police team were also disappointed (to put it mildly), but the decision was made to execute the warrant. Like an episode of ‘The Bill’ the team piled out of their cars sledgehammers at the ready to smash a way through the front door, but when they knocked it the door just swung open, so in they swarmed and found four ‘people’ (editorial rules prohibit me calling them what I really think!) fast asleep in their beds. They were duly arrested and their PC’s and mobile phones confiscated. One up to the Good Guys!.
Card Fraud is an ongoing battle and we have suffered more than most. You have to understand that if you find a doubtful transaction on your card statement, you ring your Bank and they will normally refund your money. The Bank then come back to the retailer and ‘Chargeback’ that transaction so they don’t lose anything either - the only loser is the poor old retailer who has to stand the entire loss.
Here at Stinkyink.Com we have stringent fraud checking procedures in place and over the past four years I am please to say we have not suffered any significant losses due to card fraud. However we are constantly vigilent, we protect your personal data with an SSL 128bit encrypted site, your card details are handled via Secure Hosting who are PCI 1 compliant and finally our own site is checked by Hacker Safe randomly every 24 hours. It has been a costly and painful lesson for us to learn and we are pleased to help the BBC to publicise the fact that this is not a victimless crime.
