Crazy PCS email today

[Paulo]

Hi guys,

Bit of back story, ordered my laptop on April 10th and still in Pre Production (13th day) - how long do I have to wait?!

I received the following email this morning to my surprise. Has anyone else had this??? They could do anything they want with all that information, they could practically go online and get a loan in my name as they already have my debit card details too from the purchase (& sub order made this week).

Cheers,
Paul


Dear Paul ******,

Thank you for your order (number: ******) and welcome to www.pcspecialist.co.uk.

To help me process your order as quickly as possible, please can you reply to this email and send me

• a copy of either the driving licence or passport of the cardholder. If this is not you, please ask the cardholder to provide this directly, quoting your order number
• a bank statement or recent utility bill (in order to verify the billing address)
• If the address to which you wish to have your order delivered is a work address please also provide the company name and telephone number.

In reaction to a recent spate of incidents where credit and debit card details have been lost, this is a routine security check to verify the owner of the credit/debit card and whilst the production of your order will not be held up by these checks, it will not be dispatched until they are finalised.
Please note failure to provide this information within 7 calendar days will result in the cancellation of your order.

Your assistance is appreciated in our strive to reduce credit card and identity fraud.

Kind Regards,

 

[DeadEyeDuk]

Sounds awfully fishy to me and not something that PCS would send/kind of info they need.

Could be wrong, but would need clarification from PCS.

 

[dogbot]

I would not call it crazy at all and they have explained the reason for it.

It is a common procedure where large amounts of money are concerned to ensure that a fraud is not being committed. I have recently bought a car and am also in the process of selling my house. In both cases I was required to produce driving licence, passport etc to prove identity.

If you are unsure, contact or supply the information using the messaging service within your order.

 

[SmokeDarKnight]

If any company asks me for identification i usually call them up and speak to someone using their official number just to make sure.

Never had it from PCS though.

 

[Wozza63]

Would be best to ring them, that way you can get a direct answer and won't have anyone attempting to steal your details. Also mention the email so that they are aware if it is a scam.

 

[Paulo]

It has come from a PCSpecialist email account, and to me it is crazy - think of the endless possibilities with all of this information. Plus it really is only £800 or so for a laptop, when spending thousands on holidays I've never ever had this.

When the payment bit when through originally I did the Visa Secure & had to call the bank to confirm the payment was legit. That is enough checking for me - I am happy this is not a fraudulent payment & I would hope PCS would take Visa and Halifax as a benchmark as to what is legitimate or not...

I've emailed them back & will call them at lunch.

 

[Paulo]

Due to a delivery address change which makes sense - might have been worth mentioning that on their website when they give you an option to change the address!

Still nothing to confirm movement from it's 13 working days in Pre Production!

 

[GeorgeHillier]

It has come from a PCSpecialist email account, and to me it is crazy - think of the endless possibilities with all of this information. Plus it really is only £800 or so for a laptop, when spending thousands on holidays I've never ever had this.

When the payment bit when through originally I did the Visa Secure & had to call the bank to confirm the payment was legit. That is enough checking for me - I am happy this is not a fraudulent payment & I would hope PCS would take Visa and Halifax as a benchmark as to what is legitimate or not...

I've emailed them back & will call them at lunch.

As others said, call to confirm it's real, I guess they've had a few recent incidents and are not implementing this to stop it, so it wouldn't just be you.

I'd prefer a company ask me for a few extra details to be sure about everything than be really relaxed about it, it shows they take things seriously

 

[Wozza63]

Due to a delivery address change which makes sense - might have been worth mentioning that on their website when they give you an option to change the address!

Still nothing to confirm movement from it's 13 working days in Pre Production!

If that is the case then the email may well be legitimate and the build will have been frozen until the change of address has been confirmed.

 

[Paulo]

I did ask them about the delay.

I have forwarded your complaint, regarding the length of time your order has been in production, onto our customer service team who will be in touch to explain why production of your order has been help up. I can assure you the production of your order is not held up by our security checks.

 

[Spuff]

• a copy of either the driving licence or passport of the cardholder. If this is not you, please ask the cardholder to provide this directly, quoting your order number
• a bank statement or recent utility bill (in order to verify the billing address)

This isn't an unusual request for identity verification (there is often a bit more flexibility for the type of document needed for address verification). They only mean the name/photo page from the passport and you can redact the money information from a bank statement. Without a national identity card how do you check someone is who they say they are and that they live at a particular address?
If you don't have a passport or driving licence then that is more problematic. I suppose you would have to take that up with them.

 

[SmokeDarKnight]

good on you for checking the authenticity of an email though. I know a lot who wouldn't.

 

[moosEh]

Sorry for the confusion, we do occasionally request ID if the payment is not 3D secure and we cannot ascertain proof of address if you have two addresses on the system (not always an issue).