I've a new-ish Sainsbury's Bank credit card. Just tried to buy a £5 used CD from CEX. Transaction declined for no obvious reason.
Within a minute I had a text from 'SAINSBURYS' saying that they'd like to check some transactions, and a minute after that another from 85016 asking me to reply 'Y' if the £5 transaction from CEX was me, and 'N' if not, or to call 0800 3683262. I tried to reply Y, but my phone warned me that there would be a charge if I sent a message to this number.
Alarm bells started to ring and I called the Sainsbury's Bank helpline (from their website, not the 0800 number above). After some faff I got through to the fraud team. He's told me that a) he could see the declined transaction, b) he didn't see any reason for it to have declined, c) Sainsburys have not sent me any text messages.
He asked me to try again with the transaction and it went through. He didn't seem very worried about the text and was only concerned with making sure my card was unblocked - he has asked me to check further transations with them to make sure no-one is using my card.
Meanwhile, my mobile rang - from the same 0800 number above. It left an automated voicemail giving the transaction details and asking me to call back.
Can't quite get my head around this. Either Sainsbury's is just being massively incompetent, and the fraud staff I spoke to couldn't see on his screen that they had texted and rung me. But that still doesn't explain the warning that my mobile would be charged for replying.
Or this is some clever scam, where replying to the text will result in a large charge being made to my mobile bill? But how the heck did they know that CEX had just mysteriously turned down a transaction?
Any ideas?
