Online accounts - any point?

[french frank]

I don't know a lot about credit cards (I have one, but don't use it), but was under the impression they will reimburse you if goods are not delivered.

Not sure when I'll be able to say they haven't delivered (trainers). But it's not so much losing the money (it won't cause bankruptcy) it's the thought that the money will go to the scammers, even though the card providers were told I want the payment blocked. Incredibly difficult to get through to any of the agencies that it's not my personal loss that I care about, or reclaiming any losses: it's getting the website investigated and taken down .

[Andrew Slater]

If it's a .co.uk, then Nominet is the domain registry, and presumably the first port of call to start the process of shutting down the website. You can use the 'whois' facility on the Nominet website to find out more about the rogue website in question. This usually includes info on the site's registrar and sometimes also the webhost. You might have to contact the registrar rather then Nominet - not sure.

[french frank]

If it's a .co.uk, then Nominet is the domain registry, and presumably the first port of call to start the process of shutting down the website. You can use the 'whois' facility on the Nominet website to find out more about the rogue website in question. This usually includes info on the site's registrar and sometimes also the webhost. You might have to contact the registrar rather then Nominet - not sure.

I'm hoping the original trader will do something. I rang a neighbouring business to ask if the other business had closed down (yes, it had) and I think he became quite intrigued. He spotted the owner outside and went and suggested that her reputation would suffer if she didn't look into it, so I hope she will. She thought the website had been closed down, along with the Facebook page and telephone account.

I looked at Whois and that just seemed to complicate matters more. ActionFraud, supposed to be the national cybercrime police agency, were pretty unhelpful. [Just tried to check whether the payment had been made, but it looks as if the PO have already blocked the account until my new card is activated. ] Ah, well …

[Dave2002]

I never did it myself, but at one time some of my friends were trading with some sites which were perhaps slightly dubious. I think they were ordering cheap music recordings from sites which may have been in Russia - which of course doesn't guarantee that they were rogue sites. I asked if they were concerned, and they said that they used cards which had been preloaded, so that in the worst case if all the money was cleared off a card it would only be of the order of (for example) £20.

I did have some bank cards hacked nearly 20 years ago and all the money taken out of my account (several £000s IIRC), and it happened twice. The bank traced the transactions, and reinstated the funds within an hour of my walking into the branch, though that was in Sweden. I was told that it was Russian gangs who had done it, and it appeared that the bank knew quite a lot about their modus operandi.

There were several reasons why that was uncomfortable for me. Initially the major problem was that I was not able to buy anything - and it was only because I had other cards that I was able to function at all. For a few days that was a real nuisance and I wondered if I was going to be able to fly home (not in the UK at that time). Then when I went to the bank and they said I hadn't any money left that was a real shock - but it was resolved quickly enough. It would have been very unpleasant if it had not been.

There are some dodgy people out there.