Doagh based Chain Reaction Cycles have acknowledged that a number of customers have experienced unauthorised charges on their credit cards after ordering items from the Chain Reaction website.
I, unfortunately, am one of those customers.
I placed a couple of orders with Chain Reaction at the end of February and the start of March, then, when my credit card bill arrived, I was surprised to find two £15 O2 mobile top-up charges from a store in Slough. I was surprised as I’ve never been with O2, or had a PAYG mobile, or been to Slough. A twitter buddy then alerted me to this article on road.cc.
It’s not yet clear how the card details leaked and the company have called in outside experts to carry out a forensic examination of their systems. Chain Reaction want anyone who may have been affected by this to get in touch with them:
We want people who have been directly affected to contact us so we can personally update you by email. Please contact us on +44 (0)2893343758 between 9am – 5.30pm or emailenquiries@chainreactioncycles.com and we will be glad to help you.
If you have ordered anything from Chain Reaction recently it would serve you well to check your credit card bill for surprises. I contacted my card issuer immediately and cancelled the card.
It’s clear that there is, or has been, a problem but it would be unfair to point fingers until the investigation is complete. In the meantime, the Chain Reaction web store remains open and offers an alternative secure checkout procedure (via PayPal) that should keep your details out of the hands of any fraudsters.
Aha – so ecommerce *is* to blame (writes another letter to MP asking for it to be banned)…