Identification required by uk company

grellan1

After ordering over the internet,using my credit card, the order was confirmed but then received a further e-mail saying that as I lived outside the U.K. I needed to send
ID proof of address (passport/driving licence ) plus 2 utility bills.....
Has anyone else been asked for identification?
Am not very happy about this and may need to cancel asap........
Grellan

IrishTonyO

Sounds dodgy to me. What site you order on? There is no need for them to require your passport for sure, and no bills either, once you have paid.

ejmaztec

Some do, including Dabs, and I think that Komplett also does it, and they're Norwegian. They're covering themselves.

I understand that the reason for not many German companies, for example, dealing with credit cards for distance selling, is that they've experienced a lot of credit card fraud.

I wouldn't be put off by this condition, you have to see it from the seller's point of view, because they don't know you.

IrishTonyO

ejmaztec wrote: »

Some do, including Dabs, and I think that Komplett also does it, and they're Norwegian. They're covering themselves.

I understand that the reason for not many German companies, for example, dealing with credit cards for distance selling, is that they've experienced a lot of credit card fraud.

I wouldn't be put off by this condition, you have to see it from the seller's point of view, because they don't know you.

And with your name and date of birth from the passport, your address from the bills and your credit card details, they can have a ball at your expense. I'd be careful.

ejmaztec

IrishTonyO wrote: »

And with your name and date of birth from the passport, your address from the bills and your credit card details, they can have a ball at your expense. I'd be careful.

It depends which company it is, and I would only send them a utility bill. If you don't want them to know your address, or your credit card details, you stand a fat chance of getting your parcel.:P

Stercus Accidit

I'd cancel and take my business elsewhere OP.

CC number, name, address, copy of passport, account details from bills.

Buying lost treasure from a Nigerian prince I take it?


Seriously, contact cc company, charge back money as you suspect fraud, use another company to buy what you want.

grellan1

nd with your name and date of birth from the passport, your address from the bills and your credit card details, they can have a ball at your expense. I'd be careful.

My feelings exactly.
Just googled Coopers Sewing Machines and am even more unhappy NOW with what I have read...has anyone ordered from them recently??

IrishTonyO

God I just googled them as well, I have never seen as many complaints about one company before. The Guardian in england even ran a story about them!!

grellan1

Yes, I will have to order to order from another company now.
Thanks all, am now a day older and not much wiser.
Grellan

tallaghtoutlaws

This asking for ID and Proof of address isn't a new phenomenon. It has been around for years. As for what is required I used to work for a company who asked for ID and we used to tell those sending this:

A: We already have your address, The bill confirms the address to be legit, If sending a bill black out any sensitive info. All we needed to see was the bill was a legit bill with your address.

B: The photo Id all we needed was your name and the photo. You could black out the DOB and any other sensitive number on there i.e Passport number etc etc. Once it looked like a legit passport and had your photo and name it was good enough.

As for the other info, Well you generally in this case you have already given them your name and address and credit card details so if they really wanted to defraud you they could. Ask yourself this how many websites have you bought off that ask for your DOB anyways? Not giving them your DOB just stops identity theft really but still doesn't prevent fraud.

Companies that do these checks have most likely as someone said experienced many cases of fraudulent cards being used on their site in the past. And by proving you are who you say you are guarantees them the sale is genuine and they aren't going to get a call from the bank telling them the card was stolen and they ain't getting their money.

dudara

Moved to Online Buying & Auctions

dudara

jor el

IrishTonyO wrote: »

And with your name and date of birth from the passport, your address from the bills and your credit card details, they can have a ball at your expense. I'd be careful.

But they already have all that information from when the order was placed. An ESB bill, or your date of birth, aren't going to make it any easier when they already have the name, address, credit card number, expiry date and CVV2 code. What are they going to do, book a flight in the OP's name, or pay his ESB bill?

As tallaghtoutlaws said, asking for proof that you are who you say you are is a means of the company protecting itself from fraud, as well as helping to protect those who's credit card has been stolen. It doesn't make the company dodgy, though in this case the company does seem to be very lax in customer service (nothing to do with them being dodgy though).

grellan1

My using a UK credit card and having an irish address seemed to cause problem.
Payment now confirmed so dispatch promised this week for delivery early next week.

I will confirm how things go as regards deiivery and quality of the product.......

Thanks again to you all -loads of useful information gleaned on this subject.
Grellan

posgoofy

I had to do this for a uk company. But it was fine.

delllat

jor el wrote: »

But they already have all that information from when the order was placed. An ESB bill, or your date of birth, aren't going to make it any easier when they already have the name, address, credit card number, expiry date and CVV2 code. What are they going to do, book a flight in the OP's name, or pay his ESB bill?

As tallaghtoutlaws said, asking for proof that you are who you say you are is a means of the company protecting itself from fraud, as well as helping to protect those who's credit card has been stolen. It doesn't make the company dodgy, though in this case the company does seem to be very lax in customer service (nothing to do with them being dodgy though).

they dont have all that info,theyre payment processors would have that but its not available to the store itself,even then its encrypted

IrishTonyO

and anyway, once the transaction has been approved by the credit card company, they are covered if it turns out to be fraudulent.

tallaghtoutlaws

delllat wrote: »

they dont have all that info,theyre payment processors would have that but its not available to the store itself,even then its encrypted

That depends on the company and how they set up their payments through their websites. I can tell I worked for 2 companies where we could see all the card details on a person account when the person setup their details online including their cards. Hence why from my example why we asked for ID and bills to confirm the details the person used to make the purchase in the first place.

delllat

in the Uk they just run your address agaisnst the address your credit card has on file ,then they check the postcode and if its valid they deliver ,where i worked the card number and ccv were entered into a gateway that belonged to the processor ,works quite well

Gamesnash.ie: Pat

IrishTonyO wrote: »

and anyway, once the transaction has been approved by the credit card company, they are covered if it turns out to be fraudulent.

Unfortunately this is untrue. If a stolen card is used to purchase goods on your site the retailer is liable. ( This can be moved if the retailer has signed up to verified by Visa / Mastercard systems ) but in that case the cardholder has had the chance to authenticate themselves through their card issuer.

When we get first time laser card purchasers ( who offer no protection whatsoever to retailers ) we have to do a serious amount of background checking before we accept the order. A lot of the time we have to ask people to send proof of address / utillity bills and copies of the card itself. Some people automatically assume we are intent on defrauding them but it's just us verifying the information already given to us.