Help! I think I've been frauded!

gemmaj

I just can't understand this, and HSBC were no help.

I haven't used my HSBC account for at least 2 years. Just never got round to closing it down (oooooopps). I just got a letter about being overdrawn and I looked and there are 3 transactions for Vodafone and BT Open Zone. I phoned HSBC and spoke to 4 (!!!) people and they are telling me its card transactions. Well the card hasn't left my attic since it arrived and got chucked up there so no one has had my card. I did deal with vodafone YEARS ago but I had a PAYG sim so don't think they had my bank details, and have never dealt with BT (don't live in England!)

They are doing a fraud investigation but the last person I spoke to was the worst-spoken of a load of badly-speaking foreign people. I could barely understand what she said and just couldn't bring myself to ask any questions.

She is sending me something to sign so it can be investigated, and she is sending me a new card (which I *presume* means no more of these charges can be made?)

How can this happen? All I can think is if HSBC sent me a card and it got intercepted before it reached me? Unless this is a HSBC clerical !!!! up? I don't even get statements posted to me (all online) so it can't be that someone got statements out my bin. And I certainly haven't been writing down my details and handing them out as it sounded like they were suggesting!

Do I need to panic? At least its £127 so I have enough that I'm not going bankrupt or anything, but I'm going to be pretty ticked off paying it!

LongTermLurker

Any chance you have set up a repeat payment mandate with vodafone & BT that you never cancelled? I assume you've lived in UK at some point, to have UK credit cards? 2 years is a long time, must admit.

They will send you a dispute form to fill in about your use of the card and they will then take it up with the suppliers to see what's happening. While that's going on, the bill will be frozen and you shouldn't have to pay it until it's cleared up.

It may also be worth you ordering copies of your credit files to see if anything else is going on in the background.