A Telstraclear customer says $1500 was stolen after she gave credit card details to TelstraClear call centre staff in the Philippines.

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Patricia Holborow says $1500 was charged against her credit card without her knowledge, part of it in cash and another two payments to a business in the Philippines.

The money was charged in Philippines pesos, after she had earlier given her card details to a call centre worker called "Mark" on October 27 to pay a bill in New Zealand.

When she called TelstraClear it told her that it "suspected" the fraud was carried out by "Mark" in Manila, because "he had done it to someone else", Holborow said.

While TelstraClear staff in New Zealand told her they considered it serious and were investigating, they refused to refund the money.

"I think they should have [refunded the money]," Holborow said. "They were a bit in denial ... saying that I should be paying that money, but I said not in pesos."

"I'm always nervous about giving out credit card details, but you need to do it to get the bill paid [immediately]," she said.

She had since cancelled the credit card and is still trying to find out if her bank will cover the loss of the $1500. Holborow was initially told by her bank that "it couldn't be a fraud" because it would have happened again, not just once.

Telstraclear spokesman Gary Bowering said: "We take the security of our customer's information extremely seriously and acted immediately this customer contacted us."

A specialist had been "personally assigned" to investigate the case. "We cannot comment further while this investigation proceeds," he said.

TelstraClear has more than 100 call centre staff in Manila, but also has call centre staff in Christchurch and Auckland.

Holborow's daughter, Shona Jaunas, said: "I think everyone with TelstraClear needs to check their credit card statements." Jaunas is a crime prevention manager for the Kapiti Coast, working for the Kapiti Safer Community Trust.

Telstraclear had told Holborow that it had found the culprit but "that her bank will reimburse her".

"But I don't think that is good enough," Jaunas said.

"This is totally unacceptable.

"Telstra are just fobbing my mother off and they have not offered any kind of apology."