Bank bans WoW renewals

[Gorion]

UK Bank Halifax has now taken the drastic measures to combat credit card fraud, and that is refusing any credit card transactions coming from Blizzard for World of Warcraft renewals.
 
They're not blaming Blizzard of course, but seems the kiddies that get so desperate to renew, that they do anything in their means to have it renewed, including stealing credit cards.
 
In a statement released by the Bank:
 
« "We have seen a significant number of fraudulent transactions through Blizzard's gaming sites. We have, therefore, blocked the majority of Visa/Mastercard transactions we receive from there in order to combat this. We do not believe the fraud is anything to do with Blizzard themselves, their sites or the integrity of their billing systems, rather it is site users utilising stolen credit card details to pay for subscriptions," the bank said. "If a customer does want to subscribe to a game site operated by Blizzard, using a Halifax or Bank of Scotland credit card, we can arrange for the payments to be processed for them if they contact us." »
 
A spokesman for the bank declined to elaborate on how many organisations were also blocklisted explaining that details of its anti-fraud systems work is confidential.
 
This issue came to light, after a WoW player living in Canada, but banks with Halifax, was being declined all WoW renewals. Upon calling the bank, he was greeted by:
 
« We made the decision to decline all Blizzard transactions due to the high volume of fraud and a high incidence of compromised details ».
 
It's unclear whether any other banks have acted over similar concerns. Blizzard representatives didn't reply to emails requesting comment.
 
Very ironic, given that in the middle of last year a separate US bank in collaboration with Blizzard released a series of very beautiful WoW themed credit cards.
 
Let's hope nobody else starts having ideas. :blink:

[Bastet]

This sounds very familiar
 
Still, no good.

[Jim]

WoW thats harsh on all the people who actually use halifax (who DONT steal cards)

[Carr0t]

Um, am I the only person not seeing a problem with this? If you actually want to validly pay for WoW using the card you can phone/write to Halifax, provide them with various extra details, and thus prove that you do in fact want the payment to Blizzard to go through. It's not that much extra work, given that you only have to set it up once and then just leave the transaction running until you decide to quit.

I'd rather have that than be paying for some little scrote's WoW subscription for a year or so without noticing.

[T-Bag]

Um, am I the only person not seeing a problem with this? If you actually want to validly pay for WoW using the card you can phone/write to Halifax, provide them with various extra details, and thus prove that you do in fact want the payment to Blizzard to go through. It's not that much extra work, given that you only have to set it up once and then just leave the transaction running until you decide to quit.

I'd rather have that than be paying for some little scrote's WoW subscription for a year or so without noticing.

So if you went into a petrol station and you had to ring your bank up, enter a pin number and say "I'm buying petrol in Ipswitch and would like the payment to go through" or "I'm at Tescos, I've just bought £34.25 worth of shopping" etc. I'm sure a stolen card would often get used for petrol or groceries.
WoW could easily just block access to an account if the payment for the character has been made fraudulently. Any gold transfered from that character could go into arbitration so you have to prove you traded something of value for it otherwise it's just gold farming. If people know they can loose their accounts the public won't use stolen cards, and if they can't sell gold from the characters then there's little/no profit to be made.

My dad had fraud protection kick in on his debit card once for buying petrol and groceries in the same day. The card was new, and he was just following a routine he'd used for years and the card wouldn't work....none of his cards would even one with a different account linked to the first. He rang up and they unlocked it. A bank should hold your money for you, not make it a pain to get to. Since pretty much all of everyone's money is in a bank, if one starts blocking certain companies it's a huge step back in online shopping.
For online banking I have a Barclays "Pin Sentry", a similar scheme will surely follow for secure online shopping.

[DuVeL]

This sounds very familiar
 
Still, no good.

Lol Bastet. I was allready thinking :g:, mhhm, sounds familiar. :flirty:
 
Nice find Syrupwaffle-addict...I beat you to it.

[Gorion]

didnt notice that, not really into the banter section tbh

[Carr0t]

So if you went into a petrol station and you had to ring your bank up, enter a pin number and say "I'm buying petrol in Ipswitch and would like the payment to go through" or "I'm at Tescos, I've just bought £34.25 worth of shopping" etc. I'm sure a stolen card would often get used for petrol or groceries.
WoW could easily just block access to an account if the payment for the character has been made fraudulently. Any gold transfered from that character could go into arbitration so you have to prove you traded something of value for it otherwise it's just gold farming. If people know they can loose their accounts the public won't use stolen cards, and if they can't sell gold from the characters then there's little/no profit to be made.

I don't really see how this is the same. If someone steals my card then it doesn't really help them if they go into a store and try to buy something, as they will not know the PIN they have to enter to be able to authorise the transaction. With an online or telephone transaction the PIN is not required, so it's far easier to steal the card and then use it fraudulently.

Further to that, most online or telephone purchase sites (for this very reason) will only allow the first transaction made on setting up an account/changing the card details to go to the billing address (and if the card's registered address does not match the billing address the transaction won't go through *either*), so at the very least someone is going to be suspicious when a package turns up that they didn't request.

When paying for my WoW subscription there is no physical item sent out, so there is no real way to check that the card being used is actually owned by the person making the transaction/that they have authorised the transaction. It's not like I have to contact my bank and auth the transaction on a monthly basis. WoW transactions can be set to be taken on a 3 or 6 monthly basis, and can be set to automatically repeat with the same details unless you explicitly cancel it. In such a case I strongly suspect that the bank just requires authorisation on the first transaction made, and any further transactions with the same details will go through smoothly and without your input.

As to the issue with your Dad and his card, that *is* daft. I have protection on my card as well. When I bought 3 grands worth of computer hardware in a day they didn't just cut my card off without contacting me. They phoned my mobile (which I had provided for this purpose when setting up the account) and checked with me that the transaction was valid  before taking action one way or the other. I had in fact made several purchases after the 3 grand one which also all went off without a hitch, even though it was before they had got into contact with me. That's how it *should* be done.