[alanwarwic]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21058994
"almost) made me a fraudster"

I can't quite join dots on this one.
Any thoughts to what exactly happened?

[psionic]

Well. Changing the motherboard will almost certainly cause Windows to prompt for re-activation. But I've never come across a credit card being declined because of it. Besides people regularly use their cards from different places on different machines as matter of routine. Seems the article was edited and originally mentioned MAC addresses being logged by ISPs, which also sounds like a red-herring.

[IvanIV]

This was a debit card, but it sounds as a nonsense to me. I use my credit cards from several computers and never had a problem. BTW they talked to n experts, but I was missing a reaction from the bank why the transaction was refused

[call100]

The whole article is peppered with 'could have' and 'may have'. No conclusion was ever made as to the reasons behind his card being flagged.....A bit of a non story really..
I've used my debit card in internet café's and not had a problem.

[alan1302]

Never heard of changing your motherboard being classed as hacking either...seems a bit of a nonsense story really.

[Migster]

It all seems highly speculative.

The automated fraud warning he mentions would almost certainly have come from his bank and therefore it is clear that it was the bank who was declining the transactions. The bank has no visibility of the device used to place the transaction (I'm assuming these were online), as it does not form part of the payment authorisation message sent by the merchant.

The merchant would potentially capture this information and use it as part of its fraud screening processes, but I'd be very surprised if they would reject an order based on this alone (as other's have already mentioned, people these days tend to have access to more than one PC). Even if they did reject the transaction on this basis, they would either:

a) do so prior to requesting an auth from the bank, in which case the bank wouldn't know the transaction had taken place or,

b) after successfully receiving an authorisation from the bank.

In either of these cases, this would not result in an automated fraud warning from the bank (which is what appears to have happened).

[Stig]

Originally Posted by alanwarwic

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21058994
"almost) made me a fraudster"

I can't quite join dots on this one.
Any thoughts to what exactly happened?

Absolute bollocks.

As the disclaimer at the bottom says, MAC addresses aren't passed over internetworks, and that's the only thing that would identify a PC from the motherboard.

Very poor journalism.

Edit: it's more likely the ticket machine had been hacked.

[barkingboy]

Is changing the motherboard really considered hardware hacking?

[tealady]

The story raises more questions than it asks. I have purchased items and been called within minutes as part of fraud prevention.
I find it hard to believe that if the author had already made 6 transactions, the first time he had a call was when he got on the train.

[whoever,hey]

Originally Posted by barkingboy

Is changing the motherboard really considered hardware hacking?

This is what i didn't get about the entire article. Its the poorest journalism i've seen in a while if there is such a thing.

[psionic]

Originally Posted by whoever,hey

This is what i didn't get about the entire article. Its the poorest journalism i've seen in a while if there is such a thing.

Well in his own words: "Could it be a virus? How embarrassing would that be for someone who regularly writes about computer security."

Perhaps he fell asleep a lot when he was a student? Anyway at least he learn enough to make 5 tweets a few years ago
https://twitter.com/markbward

[flashgordon1952]

someone somewhere does not want yu to use your old pc unit. lets ne honest the manufacturers do not want there users to put addons and upgrades (thats why upgradeing laptops is difficult) they want yu to buy with your flexible credit card a new pc. especially as it has windows 8 on it WOW! what a con !

[rottweiler]

It's Tosh !

[emptybox]

Must admit when I first used my computer to make a sale on ebay, after a motherboard upgrade, they recognized it as a machine I hadn't used on ebay before, and they texted (or phoned?) me a code that I had to put in before the sale would proceed.

I found it a blooming nuisance as I don't get a very good mobile signal at home, and had to make two attempts.

Never had any trouble buying anything though.

[!!11oneone]

Coincidence.

I've had my card declined and perfectly normal transactions flagged as suspicious. I phoned the back, ok'd them and carried on.

[TrueCard]

The Blizzard emails look suspicious I still get those continuously and they're all phishing attempts.

If you follow the link in those emails and enter account details the hackers have your private information including credit card number (last 4 digits only maybe) although they usually use a stolen credit card to reactive your account and nick your virtual stuff.

GG as they say in WoW.

[d'@ve]

As others have said, the article is bollox, shame on the BBC for publishing it.

The only thing changing the mobo might do is make you phone Microsoft to update your licence, the rest of it (even that from so called security experts) is tosh.

Any problems he had with card transactions would be as a result of the bank's systems flagging suspicious transactions, probably only ONE transaction - the first one, be they duplicates, out of character, very low value (used to validate stolen cards), made from a different Country than normal etc., etc.

The bank/card issuer would have blocked his account until he contacted them after the first suspicious transaction, that's the most likely reason for all the other blocks - he didn't get their call or didn't return it. It's how they MAKE you contact them, by blocking everything!

My goodness me, what is journalism coming to?