Emperors Gate Residence by Allô Housing

I’ve got no trust in Allo after this. I booked the property, but before I could check in they demanded a 300GBP deposit. Instead of taking it directly through an EDC machine, they insisted I give them my credit card number, valid through date, and CVV. That felt very strange. I tried twice to provide just the number and validity date, without the CVV, but they said I couldn’t enter the property I’d booked unless I gave them everything. My group and I were already outside, and they wouldn’t hand over the key, so with a lot of hesitation I gave them the details. Their T&C said the deposit would be refunded 14 days after check-out. I checked out on Dec 24, and by Jan 26, when I wrote this, it still hadn’t been returned. 300 GBP is a lot to have tied up, so I kept emailing to ask when the refund would be processed. At first they replied that it would be 14 days after check-out, even though I’d told them that date had already passed. I was tired but kept pursuing my refund, of course. Their last email said they’d check with their finance department and get back to me, but that was more than 1 week ago, and they haven’t replied to my follow-up. Today, Jan 26, my credit card was scammed. There were 2 transactions by a scammer, one from Sainsbury UK. I got scammed. By who? You name it!!! If I ask about the refund later, they might happily say they tried to return it but it failed, because I had to block my card to stop the scam. How am I supposed to get my money back now? Please do something to stop this and help me recover the deposit. Be careful before booking. If you’ve already booked, it’s WORTH cancelling and finding somewhere else. Please don’t let anyone else go through this.