If you've landed here it's because we've sent you an email about your recent purchase from Sportspower.
Firstly, thanks for following through on this, and we do apologise for any inconvenience this causes.
What's Going On?
Sadly, like most online merchants, we receive a few orders each month where card details cannot clearly be matched with the recipient of the order.
As guided by the ANZ Bank, our credit card merchant, we operate a secondary security process which assists us to identify these orders to protect us (and you, as a credit card holder) against fraud.
Please don't be offended, as this is an automated system (and is reasonably common in Australia)!
There are a series of automated checks that every order goes through (see below), and when there are not enough points to verify the identity of a cardholder, it generates an email like the one you have received.
What Do I Need to Do?
Sportspower and ANZ simply need verification that the card used is connected to the recipient of the order and has been authorised. You can complete this verification very easily in one of 3 ways;
- A small refund (usually just a few cents) was processed back to your credit card on the day you received the email. Please check with your bank (via online banking, or by calling your card issuer) to identify the amount of this small refund, then reply to our email ASAP and tell us the value of the refund.
(Australian Banks take 2 days to process refunds - who knows why?! - so please understand that the refund may not show up until a day or two after you got our email and there's nothing we can do to speed it up. Please rest assured the refund has been processed, so check again tomorrow if it's not there today.)
- If you have a work or student email address in your name, please email us from that to verify your order. An email from (eg.) [email protected] or [email protected] is all we need since it is not a public domain service like Gmail or Hotmail. (We will not link this email address to your order - it's just for identity verification)
- Please supply a workplace name and land-line phone number to a business or organisation. If we can call the switchboard at (eg.) XYZ Construction and ask for you, then we can release the order immediately.
Again, you just need to complete one of these.
"How did it come to this?!"
Yes, we agree! Sportspower has been operating for over 15 years and only recently has there been a surge in fraudulent orders.
But "why my order"?
Commonly, orders trigger this verification email because they are made with the following usually-innocent traits;
- A public-domain email address (eg. Gmail or Hotmail) - all fraudulent orders have come from these as they can be set up without being traceable
- A mobile contact number - as above, fraudsters buy prepaid mobiles, use them for a short period, then discard them.
- A street address which is not verifiable on a public register, such as White Pages.
Sorry Again!
We do know that 95% of orders which trigger our Verification Email are legitimate, and again, we're sorry that the dishonest behaviour of a minority of Australians has caused you delay.
But we hope that you understand our caution, and respect that we are protecting your credit card as much as we are our owners' business!