UCT "flagged for security"

[babyruth]

And even so, I sent you a picture of the card in my hand covered as appropriate. Obviously I had the card, unless you accept the reasoning that this whole thing is ridiculous and a picture proves nothing.

 

[AngiTN]

Yes I looked it up afterward. Pretty much the same as what most have been saying. They ask for the picture, someone is(understandably) uncomfortable with the request, and it ends with them calling the company and either not having to submit a picture or ultimately deciding they felt comfortable enough to send it.

Like I said, I have NO DOUBTS this company is honest and tries to do right by its customers. The great reviews speak for themselves and I almost felt comfortable buying from them.

But how do you know they have been safe with the info? They could TELL you they are being safe with the info, and they say that because they themselves genuinely believe they have been safe with the info. But if they are not technologically competent enough to know exactly what it means to be safe with my info, then I don't trust them. Not because they're TRYING to be dishonest. They just don't know any better. That's what a completely archaic practice like this tells me about this company.

And it only takes ONE security breach. And it just takes moments, and some random dude or group of dudes irreversibly has EVERY customer's info to do with as he pleases. This has been PROVEN in major hacks that made international news in recent years. Google major hacks such as Ashley Madison, Sony, and Target. Millions of dollars stolen within days or hours. Many people's reputations permanently destroyed(whether they deserved it or not ).

I'm not touching this company now that I know some of their procedures! But that is my personal opinion, No judgment on others!

While I can't know with out a shadow of a doubt I do feel very confident in saying had UCT had a breech so many Dis board users would have been affected it would take 5 min for the word to spread. Since that has never happened, I feel very certain UCT has not had a breech. And since what they requested is something they've requested on occasion for years I do believe the procedures they have in place work to protect the information.

 

[Robo]

Things that make you go, "Hmmmmmm."

 

[ErinC]

I just got off the phone with an Undercovertourist rep. The tickets my daughter ordered were to be mailed, so this excuse they are giving is not true. We were not offered another option on the phone. My college daughter obviously has a college Po box that is different than our home address. I'm not risking sending my 20 year olds picture with a half a credit card number across the internet. STUPID. It proves nothing, and UCT needs to come up with an effective business plan. This is an extremely poor practice. We've used them several times for tickets. We won't be using them anymore. Not worth the poor business practices.

 

[MikeOhio]

And even so, I sent you a picture of the card in my hand covered as appropriate. Obviously I had the card, unless you accept the reasoning that this whole thing is ridiculous and a picture proves nothing.

Is it really worth getting so upset about. If you don't want to send the picture then don't do it. Move on and get over it. It's not like they personally insulted you.

There are tons of places to buy tickets. No use getting bent out of shape over.

 

[David Brent]

I don't understand why people keep saying UCT is a reputable company etc. I think we all know they have a good reputation on here and they obviously aren't trying to scam anyone. It has nothing to do with UCT. It is the simple fact of having to send a company your picture with your CC. The point is very simple and general. As a small business owner that does a lot of e-commerce, I've never heard of a 'selfie with CC' for any safety/verification etc.

 

[ErinC]

Is it really worth getting so upset about. If you don't want to send the picture then don't do it. Move on and get over it. It's not like they personally insulted you.

There are tons of places to buy tickets. No use getting bent out of shape over.

I'm not the OP, but I can understand her frustration. I advised my college daughter and 3 of her friends to use this company. Now, they are all having to cancel their purchases made last night. These are college kids with limited funds. I"m sure the hold on my daughter's debit card will not come off near as quick as they placed it on there. They were trying to order passes for their trip so they can get fastpasses in place and make final arrangements. Just hate that this is what I recommended to them. I"m sure the OP has reasons to be frustrated as well.

 

[AngiTN]

I don't understand why people keep saying UCT is a reputable company etc.
I think we all know they have a good reputation on here and they obviously aren't trying to scam anyone.

Do those 2 sentences not contradict each other?
You can't understand why people say they are reputable but in the next sentence you say they aren't trying to scam anyone and have a good reputation here
So are they reputable or trying to scam?

 

[JohnneeO]

really wahmtexas that is interesting, because I just got off the phone with them and they would not help me out at all. I'm going to send a note to mousesavers too. I really can't believe they recommend this place. Just for the full story because ....

.....So, I call. I give the order number, tell her what has happened, that I was nervous and unhappy about the security issues and she literally could not have sounded less concerned. The rep can give me no confirmation number or anything regarding my cancellation. She says she doesn't know and IT will address the system issue. I told her I was not comfortable with the photo and all she did was read the email script to me. I asked what the initial problem was, it was that my IP address pinged from another state. I work in RI and live in MA. I said couldn't you have called and told me that and confirmed with me instead of asking for a photo of myself? Again repeated the script. I said I wanted confirmation it was cancelled within 30 minutes or I would file a BBB complaint. She said she had no guarantees it was up to IT. As of right now at 3:26pm I have no confirmation of an order or a cancellation I placed this morning, but there is still a charge on my card. Email, chat and called. I obviously can't show up at their Florida office myself which is what I think they are banking on! They know I can't and I'm a sitting duck at this point, they have my name, address, email and credit card number. Now they have my work phone number that I called from. I am pretty upset.

Just remember the golden rule of calling customer service for help; if the first CSR you reach cannot help you, politely say "Thank You", hang up, and call back again. Call center service can vary widely depending on many factors, and it may take multiple calls to acheive the desired result.

In my most recent experience with UT, I purchased UOR tickets under a "Buy 2 Days, get one Day free" special. I did need to verify something to complete my order (which I had not previously needed to do with UT), but it was a simple matter to resolve. As I recall, I may have purchased from work, which is in a different state from home address on the CC account.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I'm not the OP, but I can understand her frustration. I advised my college daughter and 3 of her friends to use this company. Now, they are all having to cancel their purchases made last night. These are college kids with limited funds. I"m sure the hold on my daughter's debit card will not come off near as quick as they placed it on there. They were trying to order passes for their trip so they can get fastpasses in place and make final arrangements. Just hate that this is what I recommended to them. I"m sure the OP has reasons to be frustrated as well.

I so completely understand your point. I do get the frustration here and admit it is a strange way of doing it even though my order last year had no problem. Then again my CC's billing address is the same as the shipping address, the IP address of the computer used is in the same state, I did have my WDW tickets mailed but had my USO tickets e-mailed.

However I will say college kids with limited funds=disney trip? Normally I really don't like this phrase on the DIS but if the disney tickets put that much of a strain on their bank accounts..I realize there is the hold-over for the funds to be released but still.

I say this as I was the college kid with limited funds....like real limited funds and with my limited funds in my bank account during college it was food, it was clothing, it was gas, it was school stuff that I was concerned with not buying Disney tickets and worrying about FPs and a Disney trip. And I'm not trying to be mean or anything really it's just a bit of a contradiction here: college student with limited funds upset about having to cancel disney tickets and having a hold on their account. I would say the same thing if someone had an issue with say buying gas and having their bank account hold the money..but I would be more understanding when it comes to gas in your car.

 

[TXAKDisneyFan]

Hi All,

So we understand the concerns and would like to shed some light onto this subject. E-Tickets are not the same as ordering physical items that are delivered to your home*.

*"Why do we do this? Unlike airlines, hotels or attractions, we can't verify your identity and/or payment details in person before providing your tickets or reservation. We work hard to responsibly and securely protect our customers and our company from fraud. Thank you from the Frog Family."

We deliver millions of tickets per year both via regular shipping (mail) and email. A relatively small number of transactions are flagged using scores of metrics (using our past experience with millions of $ of fraud and attempted fraud). Due to other companies security breaches over the past few years we have seen a massive uptick in attempted fraud on E-Tickets due to massive amount of stolen credit card numbers out there.

We do receive the credit card at time of order. For your protection we do not store the credit card number. We are also not asking for the full credit card number simply the last 4 digits. Upon releasing the order we delete the image. So it is not stored beyond releasing the order, it is just the last 4 digits.

Now of course we recognize this may not to be to everyones taste and we do have a regular mail option which when shipped to the billing address is almost never flagged!

Yes we want to avoid millions of dollars of fraud but it does truly protect you too. We have received dozens of messages of thanks from customers whose cards were not successfully used for fraud. The less lucrative the fraud is, the less attempts are made.

This has been very effective in reducing the successful fraud (which is costing millions of $ of losses within Theme Park E-Tickets alone) but if you are uncomfortable with the small risk of being flagged and still like our service please consider choosing the Mail to your home option. Right now, we are working with the credit card companies to add other layers of protection and adjust our fraud metric system to reduce the number of flags by 80% of an already limited number of people flagged. This issue is very unique to 'Theme Park E-Ticket' fraudulent attempts.

So in conclusion, we are not asking for your full card number, just the last 4 digits, we delete the image upon order release, the image is uploaded through our secure website. If you are still uncomfortable please consider choosing to have your tickets mailed to the address that matches the billing address for your card.

The flagged orders must meet many indicators of potential fraud, the number is low. The photo does help for many reasons and we do have the mail option.

We have reduced our fraud to 1/42th of the successful fraud of our competitors. It costs us more money to deliver tickets by mail, but if it gives more peace of mind then we are happy to do so! We all win if we stop this rampant fraud. If the fraudster placing the order is successful, they are willing to pay more for stolen credit cards (to the original thief). If they are willing to pay more to the original thief, it is more of an incentive for them and others to steal even more cards as they get paid more!

It does cost cardholders time to clear up fraudulent orders and many people work for or own retail businesses that are victims of fraud. The cost of fraud is passed onto us as consumers in the form of higher prices, time to clear up issues and a 'it takes a village' to not reward people who attempt to cheat and steal rather than working!

We hope this insight helps and we can deliver via mail too.

Thank You

Undercover Tourist

Out of genuine curiosity, can someone please explain this statement: "Unlike airlines, hotels or attractions, we can't verify your identity and/or payment details in person before providing your tickets or reservation."

I personally haven't ever purchased plane tickets, made hotel reservations, etc, in person. I've also never purchased anything from UCT (and I won't, thanks to this thread), so maybe their business and/or the purchasing process is different than that of "airlines, hotels, and attractions," but how so?

As others have stated, I don't think UCT is trying to scam anyone. However, they have some obviously strange business practices that I think open them and their customers up to fraud. In the referenced post, UCT states that "we delete the image upon order release." Isn't there a saying that nothing is ever truly deleted?

Also, what is "1/42th"? You mean 1/42nd. I'd hope representatives of a business would be more professional in their writing, including forum posts, and use proper grammar and spelling.

 

[ErinC]

However I will say college kids with limited funds=disney trip? Normally I really don't like this phrase on the DIS but if the disney tickets put that much of a strain on their bank accounts..I realize there is the hold-over for the funds to be released but still.

I say this as I was the college kid with limited funds....like real limited funds and with my limited funds in my bank account during college it was food, it was clothing, it was gas, it was school stuff that I was concerned with not buying Disney tickets and worrying about FPs and a Disney trip. And I'm not trying to be mean or anything really it's just a bit of a contradiction here: college student with limited funds upset about having to cancel disney tickets and having a hold on their account. I would say the same thing if someone had an issue with say buying gas and having their bank account hold the money..but I would be more understanding when it comes to gas in your car.

I'm not going to turn this in to a budget discussion with you. My point was, many college students do not have extra funds to tie up $300+ dollars on their debit cards. My own daughter does not have a credit card and keeps limited funds in her checking account for security reasons as well. The trip is not an extreme burden on any of them or they wouldn't be going. They are all working college students and no one is starving or needs gas money. That wasn't the point of my post.

 

[babyruth]

Is it really worth getting so upset about. If you don't want to send the picture then don't do it. Move on and get over it. It's not like they personally insulted you.

There are tons of places to buy tickets. No use getting bent out of shape over.

I know. I'm not "personally" insulted. I like coming to Disboards to hear first hand experiences from other travelers, so I'm offering my entire experience with this vendor here. The way they do business does make me "personally" question their practices. And I know that for some people, saving the most money possible is important so that impacts their purchases and who they buy from. I do wish there was a different end result, that they somewhat acted like they appreciate each customer and/or provided other ways to conduct security checks. At least I said something and made other people aware it could happen.

 

[anomamatt]

It might work to help them cut down on fraud, but requesting a selfie with your CC is the strangest thing I have ever heard of for verification... just odd. And for what it's worth (not much), I would not submit to such a request, given other vendors out there. Just saying.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I'm not going to turn this in to a budget discussion with you. My point was, many college students do not have extra funds to tie up $300+ dollars on their debit cards. My own daughter does not have credit card and keeps limited funds in her checking account for security reasons as well. The trip is not an extreme burden on any of them or they wouldn't be going. They are all working college students and no one is starving or needs gas money. That wasn't the point of my post.

I understand with not wanting to turn it into a budget discussion.

But you also sorta proved my point that I was trying to make. If you have issues with $300+ being tied up...in true DIS fashion is a Disney trip right for you?

If it isn't an extreme burden then why even mention they are college kids with limited funds?

I was a working college student too I wasn't starving nor did I suggest that but at the same time with my limited funds I was concerned with things I needed to use those funds on thus mentioning food, gas, school supplies, books, etc instead of concerning myself with a Disney trip with limited funds. This same advice is given over and over and over on the DIS. If you don't have the extra funds for x,y,z...

I know that wasn't the point of your post. Believe me I get that the whole process can create a hold on one's account unnecessarily because of the need to cancel.

It's just at least to me it comes across as a contradiction and really it doesn't even have to be a college student it could be any person for that matter. $300 is a drop in the bucket for a Disney trip. But that $300 could sure get me plenty of other stuff and if I've got limited funds I'm sure not going to go on a Disney trip. Disney trip on a budget is different than Disney trip with limited funds especially if you don't have $300+ to cover a hold-over on your account.

There are plenty of other things that could cause a hold-over on an account it just seemed heat directed at UT and I get part of the frustration is really at the process being described here in the thread (and yeah like I said I do think it's strange) but it seemed the focus of your post that I initially quoted was more about frustration with a hold-over on the account with people with limited funds and you recommending UT to be used. I guess if it was Disney direct causing the same hold-over on the account would you stop recommending Disney direct to be used? Because the issue would be the exact same..person with limited funds now has hold-over on their account they really can't afford.

We can agree to disagree that's fine no worries really.

 

[KristinU]

Yeah, I'd be weirded out by this request. I've successfully used UCT many times over several years, so I have no doubts about them. However if I was asked for a selfie with my CC I think I'd be weirded out enough to just go somewhere else.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I know. I'm not "personally" insulted. I like coming to Disboards to hear first hand experiences from other travelers, so I'm offering my entire experience with this vendor here. The way they do business does make me "personally" question their practices. And I know that for some people, saving the most money possible is important so that impacts their purchases and who they buy from. I do wish there was a different end result, that they somewhat acted like they appreciate each customer and/or provided other ways to conduct security checks. At least I said something and made other people aware it could happen.

I'm really sorry it all went down like this. For me any experience shared can help someone out and it's clear you sharing your experience (and also having an UT rep to share their explanation even if all don't agree with it) has helped other people. So thanks for taking the time to at least create a thread about it

 

[UnderCoverTourist]

Hi All,

So we used this thread to drive change, so that within a few minutes from now we will no longer request a selfie or the credit details to be sent. We have prided ourselves on being quirky, but weird is too much!

We are reverting back to our old procedures and thank you for the frank feedback!

Thank you

Undercover Tourist

 

[David Brent]

Do those 2 sentences not contradict each other?
You can't understand why people say they are reputable but in the next sentence you say they aren't trying to scam anyone and have a good reputation here
So are they reputable or trying to scam?

How do those contradict each other? You took that the wrong way. My point is people on here defend UCT but no one has questioned UCT being a reputable company. If you read on, I said it's more about the weird practice and not the company.

 

[Maistre Gracey]

Hi All,

So we used this thread to drive change, so that within a few minutes from now we will no longer request a selfie or the credit details to be sent. We have prided ourselves on being quirky, but weird is too much!

We are reverting back to our old procedures and thank you for the frank feedback!

Thank you

Undercover Tourist

Excellent. It is refreshing to see a company that actual responds to their customers desires!!

Good for UCT !!

MG