Dear Hugh Collins/Lynn Morgan
On Friday evening at 17:40 South African time, an amount of $1 500 was deducted from my credit card account. Until then I had never heard of your company.
The fraud was immediately reported to the credit card issuer (Discovery – it is a Visa card) which had sent me a standard SMS which notifies customers when funds have been deducted from their accounts.
The exercise caused me inconvenience. Firstly, I was forced to spend a considerable part of my Friday evening reporting the fraud; then canceling my credit card, apply for a new one and informing all of the companies which have debit orders on the old account to issue them onto the new one. Also, because the banks in SA debit you first and then reverse the amount later, and because I settle my monthly accounts in full, I have had to transfer the R14 347.09 as part of this month’s settlement.
Given this inconvenience I would appreciate your assistance with the following:
* I would like to understand how a NYSE listed company can accept a credit card payment from a South African cardholder (remembering we have very strict Exchange Control laws in this country) purely on the basis of someone offering an account number.
* Secondly, what kind of checking process do you have – all other online payments that I have made with this card have a double checking process where a security number is SMSed to my mobile before the transaction can be concluded.
* Given that the fraudster has inconvenienced me, please let me know soonest the name and address of the person who “paid” you this money and what service it was for.
* If this is an internal fraud, please keep me updated on the progress of the investigation.
* What steps will you be taking to ensure this kind of thing never happens again – and how will you inform the NYSE and your shareholders of this serious deficiency in your processes.
I am copying this note to Jacyln Klein, VP of Communications at FXCM. This is obviously important information for the company which is considering the potential takeover of your business.
In the interests of full disclosure, I am a financial journalist and will publish my experience, this letter and any subsequent developments on my website (alechogg.com)
Looking forward to your earliest response.
Sincerely
And the response:
Alec,
I have forwarded your message to GAIN’s customer service department. You should hear from them shortly.
Thanks,
