OnePlus blocks card payments as it investigates fraud complaints

Customers took to the OnePlus forums to highlight the issue

OnePlus has had an excellent start to the year, releasing one of the market's best phones in the form of the OnePlus 5T - but for now, you can't buy it with a credit card.

The OnePlus website was recently accused of being used in a fraud scheme, with many users reporting that they had found false charges after using their cards there. OnePlus has now disabled credit card payments on the site while it investigates.

An earlier report from infosec company Fidus blamed the payment processing platform Magento, which has been the culprit of several similar attacks in the past. OnePlus says that although its site was initially built using Magento, it has been moving away from the tool since 2014:

‘Oneplus.net was initially built on the Magento eCommerce platform. However, since 2014 we have been re-building the entire website with custom code, and credit card payments were never implemented in Magento's payment module at all. So no, we shouldn't be affected.​'

Although Magento might not be to blame, OnePlus does subtly point its finger at its payment processing partner, where customers' credit card details are stored:

‘Is my credit card info stored on oneplus.net?

‘No. Your card info is never processed or saved on our website - it is sent directly to our PCI-DSS-compliant payment processing partner over an encrypted connection, and processed on their secure servers.​'

Although the OnePlus website is the only place to buy its phones, the move doesn't block interested customers. PayPal is still available as a payment option, and the company says that it is exploring ‘alternative secure payment options with our service providers'.

Regardless, the block of credit cards will undoubtedly affect sales.