Warning Please Check Your Ultimate Gift Card Balance and Transations ASAP Possible Data Breach

ggfatty on 03/10/2022 - 15:21
Last edited 03/10/2022 - 15:40 by 1 other user

I did a quick search and surrising see no one mention this.

I have a $500 electronic ultimate student gift card with two unauthorised charges to "yd Pty Ltd" on 27th and 28th of Sep, two charges $239.99 and $249.97 has been made to my gift card and I only have $10 left

I contacted the phone number 1800 862 126 on that warning email, the agent is helpless and has no idea what to do. They escalated this issue then told me to contact "yd Ptd Ltd" to dispute as they cannot do anything to help me.

I have raised a credit card dispute to my orginal gift card purchase, but I am not sure if they can help as gift card purchase dispute always complicated.

Please feel free to let me know if any other suggestions.

Below is the warning Email I received last Friday :

Cardholder Services Update
Dear Customer,

We are contacting you regarding your Ultimate e-gift card.

We recently detected some irregular activity, and out of an abundance of caution, have sent you a new Ultimate e-gift card to replace your old card.

Please visit https://www.myprepaidcentre.com.au/ to log in and view your replacement egift. The balance of the old card has been transferred to your new card. If your Ultimate e-gift card is already in your digital wallet, the card details have been automatically updated and you can continue to shop with the card in your digital wallet. For more information about how to use your Ultimate e-gift card and adding to your wallet, click here.

If you have any questions, please visit our Contact Us page on the Ultimate gift card website or call 1800 862 126 Monday–Sunday 9am–10pm AEST.

Blackhawk Network

Financial

Related Stores

Ultimate Gift Cards
Ultimate Gift Cards

Comments

  • HairyChickens on 03/10/2022 - 15:36
    +1

    Coles Visa gift cards were compromised too

    @WookieMonster Have TCN gift cards ever gotten compromised??

    Makes me think that hoarding 10% gift cards is a bad idea. Probably should keep the time between when you get the gift cards and when you buy the item you want as short as possible.

    • WookieMonster on 03/10/2022 - 16:00
      +3

      I have not heard of physical TCN gift cards ever being compromised, as they run on the EFTPOS network. It is possible for someone to try to exchange the gift card balance either through “hacking” (i.e. guessing and checking) or by skimming the card whilst it is unactivated, then return it to the store and then wait for someone to purchase and activate it. However, the only way you can exchange the gift card balance is through TCN themselves, so you only have one avenue to “hack” a physical TCN gift card. It’s very unlikely someone would be able to pull off a “hack” on physical TCN gift cards, but not impossible (much like it is very unlikely you will win Powerball this Thursday, yet you always hear of at least one person every few weeks winning the jackpot).

      However, the digital TCN gift cards would be susceptible to the same issue as illustrated in OP’s post, because those operate on the Mastercard network, so it opens up the door to card-not-present transactions (e.g. online transactions).

      I agree that hoarding Ultimate (Visa) gift cards is now a bad idea.

      • HairyChickens on 03/10/2022 - 17:00

        Just to clarify ultimate cards are different to TCN?

        issued by Heritage Bank.

        It seems to be always Heritage cards.

        • WookieMonster on 03/10/2022 - 17:13
          +2

          Physical TCN gift cards are different to physical Ultimate gift cards in the fact that the only type of attack where you do not need to the physical TCN gift card to pull off the attack is accessing the gift card exchange facility through TCN themselves.

          However, I do not need a physical Ultimate gift card to actually redeem it; as long as I know enough of the card details, I can add it onto a mobile wallet or add it to an online checkout to redeem funds from it or exchange it for a digital gift card from one of the participating retailers…

          It seems to be always Heritage cards.

          Lol, before I ever purchased a single prepaid gift card, I remember watching a piece on A Current Affair about a number of Australia Post Gift Card cardholders complaining about their cards being “hacked”. Would it surprise you that Australia Post Gift Cards were (and still are) issued by Heritage Bank too?

          To be fair, the (now discontinued) Coles Gift Mastercards were issued by Indue, so it is not always Heritage Bank cards suffering from these attacks!

          • geshc on 15/10/2022 - 22:51

            @WookieMonster: Hey wookie, I bought a bunch of ultimate cards from coles last year and feeling nervous now. If I load it all onto my mobile wallet, will I be safe? Any downsides of putting it all on the wallet?

  • WookieMonster on 03/10/2022 - 15:47
    +2

    I actually received an email similar to yours last week too, although thankfully my Ultimate Students gift card did not have any of its balance redeemed by someone else. I redeemed my reissued Ultimate Students gift card at Officeworks not longer after receiving that email, because I did not want to be in your position.

    Considering yd is only a participating retailer on the Visa version of the Ultimate Students gift card, that means that your compromised Ultimate Students gift card was issued by Heritage Bank. If you are getting nowhere with yd and a chargeback via your financial institution is not feasible, my suggestion is to raise a complaint via AFCA against Heritage Bank. Someone recently reached out to me for assistance with someone fraudulently redeeming funds from a Perfect EFTPOS gift card, and as soon as a complaint was raised via AFCA, a replacement gift card was sent to them.

    Btw, Blackhawk Network (which owns and operates the Ultimate gift card scheme) are generally hopeless, which is why I’m hardly surprised the person on the phone line was unable to help you.

    • ggfatty on 03/10/2022 - 16:06
      +1

      thank you so much. I am guessing AFCA might be my only go to place to get my money back now

    • jackofspade on 03/10/2022 - 17:18

      Do you know whether it's possible to use Ultimate Home gift card to pay for Coles Myer gift card at Officeworks?

      • WookieMonster on 03/10/2022 - 17:20

        Yes. That’s what I did myself.

        I stored my Ultimate gift card on a mobile wallet first and redeemed it from there, because I didn’t want to swipe my Ultimate gift card on the EFTPOS terminal. In my experience, Officeworks staff get very suspicious if you swipe a card on the EFTPOS terminal, especially if you are purchasing a gift card.

        • hanofee on 03/10/2022 - 19:08

          How do you store in on the mobile wallet if it's a physical card from Coles/Woolies? Just enter the card number manually?

          • WookieMonster on 03/10/2022 - 19:19

            @hanofee:

            Just enter the card number manually?

            You manually enter the card number, card expiry date and the CVV2 value on the screen where you add a supported card.

            • hanofee on 05/10/2022 - 22:25

              @WookieMonster: Thanks, but it seems to be troublesome. I can add some, but some would keep failing. Have to keep retrying until I can finally add them. Something wrong with the provider backend?

              • WookieMonster on 06/10/2022 - 00:22

                @hanofee: I’m not entirely surprised, as a couple of people have told me that happens from time to time with Ultimate gift cards when adding them to a mobile wallet. I suspect it is the provider backed playing up.

    • truetypezk on 08/10/2022 - 01:39

      Just curious about the fraudulent activities on the perfect eftpos card, how did that happen? Cheers.

      Edit: just saw your reply down below. Even with the magstripe data, the fraudster would need to know the PIN. Scratching off the original one and putting on a new sticker maybe?

      • WookieMonster on 08/10/2022 - 08:38

        Considering it was with the older style Perfect EFTPOS gift card, you can just peel up the sticker covering the PIN, then stick it back down.

        The good thing about the newer style Perfect EFTPOS gift card currently pictured in the Woolworths catalogue is that you have to destroy the material covering the PIN in order to see the PIN, so it would be much harder to get away with that sort of attack.

  • randomusername2017 on 03/10/2022 - 15:50
    +1

    Wow..how generous.. they flag the fraud and transfer the remaining $10 to a new card…

  • PensionerXXL on 03/10/2022 - 16:33
    +1

    Optus: 👀

    • HairyChickens on 03/10/2022 - 16:55

      How else are they supposed to find 1 mil?

  • hanofee on 03/10/2022 - 16:47

    Was it a physical or digital card?

    • trixieb on 03/10/2022 - 17:01
      +3

      Digital
      Quote from OP: I have a $500 electronic ultimate student gift card

      • hanofee on 03/10/2022 - 17:02
        +1

        Oh thanks, missed that word. Does it mean physical is, in theory, safer?

        • WookieMonster on 03/10/2022 - 17:34
          +2

          It depends on the vector of the attack in OP’s case (and in my close call too):

          • If the attack was pulled off by guessing and checking multiple card combinations until one worked, both physical and digital Ultimate gift cards are at risk (at least Ultimate gift cards where yd is a participating retailer). If you want to add a physical or digital Ultimate gift card to a mobile wallet or redeem it online, there is very little difference between the two versions in terms of the information you need and the method for adding or redeeming them.

          • If the attack was pulled off by some other way, it is hard to tell whether a physical Ultimate gift card would be any safer. For example, who knows whether the activation system for digital Ultimate gift cards has been compromised.

          • cloudy on 05/10/2022 - 09:29

            @WookieMonster: Sorry to hijack this thread, but you think these gift cards are safe from hacks?

            • WookieMonster on 05/10/2022 - 10:48

              @cloudy: Probably.

              Transactions from a Perfect EFTPOS gift card should only be possible if you have the physical gift card with you. There is no way (I know of at the moment) where you can add the Perfect EFTPOS gift card to a mobile wallet and redeem it that way.

              Having said that, I will note that one OzBargainer messaged me two months ago, as some random managed to redeem $490 from their $500 older Perfect EFTPOS gift card. I am not sure how that happened. They insisted that no one stole their gift card after they bought it, so I suspect someone stole the gift card from Woolworths and used a card reader to read the information on a magstripe, then cloned the card and then had fun spending the gift card balance at a random business. That is much more sophisticated than the “hacks” you see with Ultimate gift cards, Coles Mastercard gift cards, Vanilla Visa gift cards, etc, so it is unlikely that someone would attack an older Perfect EFTPOS gift card like that.

              • ivyholmes on 14/10/2022 - 00:41

                @WookieMonster: But for the new version of The Perfect EFTPOS gift card, you can just insert the card number and pin, then you are good to go right? I mean there is a chance if the cahsier staff swiped the card for you and remember the card number and pin. They can use it, can't they?

                • WookieMonster on 14/10/2022 - 10:09

                  @ivyholmes: The one thing i forgot to mention in my previous comment was a key difference between the older and newer Perfect EFTPOS gift cards:

                  • The older Perfect EFTPOS gift card covered the PIN with a sticker. However, this sticker can be peeled up to reveal the PIN and then stuck back down again.

                  • The newer Perfect EFTPOS gift card uses material that you need to destroy in order to reveal the PIN, so it would be much harder to reconceal the PIN again.

                  This method of attacking an older Perfect EFTPOS gift card is so much more complicated and sophisticated than simply guessing-and-checking (i.e. "hacking"). If you have one of the newer Perfect EFTPOS gift card, i would not be worried about someone attacking it this way.

                  Yes, there is always a chance your Perfect EFTPOS gift card is skimmed when you use it as a payment method at a merchant and someone records your PIN as you punch it in on the keypad (or a crook swaps out the merchant's EFTPOS machine for a fake EFTPOS machine actually owned by the crook), but then it's not just Perfect EFTPOS gift cards that would be vulnerable to that kind of attack…

  • ozwolf on 04/10/2022 - 00:51

    Thanks a lot for the warning OP. Probably many ozbargainers need to check as many would have some Ultimate card or the other.

  • CheapskateQueen on 04/10/2022 - 22:33

    i got the email but for the life of me can't remember what gift card it is. how bad is that!!

    edit- figured it out. Bought the discount giftz promo

  • Tyrx on 07/10/2022 - 17:33
    +1

    I also received this email and purchased the giftz discounted promotion.

    Blackhawk Network confirmed (after much pushing) that the security breach was on their end, and not that of customers.

    • ggfatty on 07/10/2022 - 17:43

      Hi mate, thanks for confirming. However even with their end sucurity breach, it seems no one at their team is interested in helping me to get my $500 back

      I raised AFCA complain still no news so far

  • ivyholmes on 14/10/2022 - 01:46

    by reading this post, i'm so worried that my perfect gc could be a chance to get hacked too! Oh MY!

  • hamwhisperer on 22/10/2022 - 05:59

    I can't find the URL, to convert my current "HIM" card to a JBHifi card.
    Is this down? I keep ending up here:

    https://cms.thecardnetwork.com.au/error

    "Sorry - looks like we’re experiencing a technical issue.
    Please contact [email protected] for further assistance."

    Is this due to this breach? I'm trying to turn $100 TCN bucks into $100 JB bucks :/

    • WookieMonster on 22/10/2022 - 07:38
      +1

      Nope, I’d say it has nothing to do with this issue with Ultimate gift cards. JB Hi-Fi’s redemption option was changed to only in-store around this time last year as well, and you were not able to exchange a TCN gift card for a JB Hi-Fi gift card through TCN again until mid-Dec 2021.

      I suspect it has something to do with Black Friday coming up and TCN not wanting their systems being hammered by heaps of people purchasing TCN gift cards at 15% off from Coles around Black Friday, then going to the TCN website and converting it into digital JB Hi-Fi gift cards. It could also be that TCN has exhausted the number of gift cards allocated to it by JB Hi-Fi for a given period and are waiting for JB Hi-Fi to agree to supply more digital JB Hi-Fi gift cards. That would be the reason you likely received no advanced warning of this change for JB Hi-Fi.

      If you were wondering, TCN state in clause 15 of the T&Cs that they can change participating retailers and/or redemption options at any time, and they do not state that they will notify you before implementing any changes.

      I hope this doesn’t put you off TCN again!

  • gingerscale on 10/10/2023 - 18:31
    +2

    Hi,

    TO add to this post I just got 4 x $500 gift cards on the 20th September and tried to use them 20 days later but one didn't work. Logged online to see one had been converted to another JBHIFI card 8 days after purchase. I work in IT so I know all my email accounts are secure and no suspicious log in has been recorded. I put the Digital cards straight onto my Apple wallet and no one else had access to the numbers. something here is SUS. i have logged a support enquiry and its being escalated. waiting 3-5 days for a reply now.

    • ggfatty on 10/10/2023 - 19:51

      you are not alone I have been keeping my eyes on this kinds of issues

      I have 4 confirmed cases from social media that their 500 ultimate home GC has been swaped to some other gift cards showing balance adjustment -500 by BHN

      customer service is not helping at all

      • hamwhisperer on 10/10/2023 - 21:12

        Where is links / discussion? FB? Twitter?

        • ggfatty on 10/10/2023 - 21:15

          xiaohongshu :)

    • hamwhisperer on 10/10/2023 - 21:12
      +1

      Please keep us in the loop on this.

  • hamwhisperer on 10/10/2023 - 21:12

    Can anyone else confirm anything on this? I have 5x500 cards with no issue right now (no systems compromised here)

    Wondering if I should now convert them to JB cards? (which forces my hand on choosing a retailer….)

    • ggfatty on 10/10/2023 - 21:16

      if I were you , I just swap them all now. as they are not secure. It is just roll of dice whether your card number is compromised or not

      • gingerscale on 11/10/2023 - 11:45

        Swap Now. Im down $500 awaiting a reply and dont know what to do.

      • hamwhisperer on 11/10/2023 - 15:05

        This thread is a year old though, so how can they be compromised?

  • gingerscale on 16/10/2023 - 11:40
    +1

    5 business days later and no reply. Will be calling back today and will update the post here

  • Daniel Plainview on 16/10/2023 - 17:24

    What kind of a shytehouse business are these jokers running?

    Absolutely had a gutful of businesses allowing their systems to be compromised then jerking innocent consumers around when they're defrauded through no fault of their own.

    Great job OP, I have GC's from these twats and will have to check now myself.

  • gingerscale on 26/10/2023 - 17:11

    I got a response after another phone call. 16 days later, they are sending me a new $500 card. they didn't admit fault but ill let you assume yourself if it was their fault or not it was compromised to begin with…

    • JHoliday on 19/12/2023 - 13:26

      I purchased a $250 Ultimate Eats Gift Card during this deal.

      https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/800798

      I used it twice after adding it to my Apple Wallet and the balance on it was $233.40 (I used it once at Grill'd and once at Boost Juice). I have gone to use it again in the past few days and it was declined at various merchants, so I called up Ultimate Eats and they told me the balance is less than $2 on the card. All the fraudulent transactions were at Menulog and happened some time last month. This was not by me.

      @gingerscale how did you get them to refund you? The phone agent is telling me I need to follow up with Menulog… Menulog are not going to do anything!

      Was it because you logged a case with AFCA they refunded you? Or because of the credit card dispute chargeback? Or out of the goodness of their hearts?

      • gingerscale on 19/12/2023 - 13:29
        +1

        I went through their support and insisted that I had not used it and they escalated the request for me. After 7 days called again for a follow up with no movement and asked for escalation again (you cant speak to the people who actually investigate it by the looks of it). I called again and got an answer after 14 days. My difference to your situation is that I hadn't used the card at all initially so unsure what the investigation did or how they chose to refund me. Id suggest to ask the first phone agent to escalate an investigation as you didn't use it.

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