How do they do that?? Bank? Fraud?

jeannieblue

I've just been trolling thru the forums and have come to the conclusion that I do not know where to post this...

Boss bought a new car on Friday. He paid with his bank debit card. The usual security phone calls etc ensued to make sure that it was all legit.

This morning, he goes to the bank for some reason (take some money out perhaps) and it is refused. He is 'majorly' overdrawn. He finds out that on Saturday morning around 9 am, the money he paid out on the Friday, has been taken out yet again!!!! We are not talking peanuts here, we are looking at close on 20k.

Now the dealership are blaming his bank and his bank are blaming the handling company that the dealership use....

None of this is constructive at all, after all, who is incurring all the bank charges!! My boss.

He has found out that this is common..., well it does happen... that is what the bank is saying.. (Barclays by the way).

But how?? It would seem that the amount that went out on Sat morn had been 'signed' for... but he wasn't there. And, why did his bank ok the Sat morn transaction, when the day before they put him thru all the security??

They say it is a 'glitch' in the system and sometimes the money gets taken twice........... ????? Its alot of money...

I find this kinda scary. But how does this happen? You pay for something and it can go thru twice? Nearly a day later??

Looking forward to finding out some possible answers people.

jeannieblue

Is there a 'better' forum to post this on? I can't see one that relates to banks........ Really need a banking expert on this one I think...

Can't believe they can take the money twice and it is not questioned by the bank...

If this were a small amount, one may not notice. That in a way, is more worrying.. and they say it 'happens'. :eek:

d.edna

Depends, they could be doing cardholder not present transactions, or they took a swipe of his card.

Your boss could call 01604 614811 (Mon-Fri 9-5) and speak to the fraud team there, of course he could report his connect debit as missing cancelling further transactions and report the others as fraud

jeannieblue

Oh they have admitted that it was a mistake but the bank is blaming the handling bank (also barclays) and vice versa. They have said that the money will be put back into his account.......... takes about a week!! And they have said that they will reimburse charges.

But it is more, as to how this could happen - that is what we are curious about.

Even so Edna - how come the second transaction went thru without any security checks like the first time?

hollydays

thought they couldn't take money out without your permission,and you being present.

Freddie_Snowbits

It could be a simple mistake, where the clients bank has asked for the money twice. A bank reconciliation run should pick up this error, although it could take two or three days to clear. As for the money gone from their account, unless this was done as a BACS transfer, the money should not have moved yet, but the available balance and future tranbsaction may be holding this data.

Better to go into the branch and explain

superscaper

hollydays wrote: »

thought they couldn't take money out without your permission,and you being present.

What about mail order and internet shopping?

hollydays

No,but I mean when you have made the original purchase being present.

superscaper

hollydays wrote: »

No,but I mean when you have made the original purchase being present.

But being "present" is only a procedural formality and not actually physically part of the system is it? I don't think that the software systems actually really do check whether the customer is present and so whatever "glitch" this was that cloned the original transaction would probably have cloned whatever "tick box" there was to say they were present. Big difference between not supposing to do something and not capable of doing something.

d.edna

jeannieblue wrote: »

Even so Edna - how come the second transaction went thru without any security checks like the first time?

The bank builds a profile on you, so if you make £100 transactions every day, then make a £500 purchase, the bank will say "hang on doesn't fit customers profile is it actually the customer?" then go to Voice authorisation required.

Now Your boss has bought a car (Think you said £20k) so if they put another £20k transaction through the bank will say "We got authorisation for such a huge purchase another time from the customer, it must be the customer" its a computer who cannot decide otherwise, sometimes the system works othertimes it doesnt.

I've had voice authorisation at work for lunch, yet went and bought something big and it flew through.

Sometimes the bank don't care your spending a large amount and approve it

its hit and miss

jeannieblue

It's a worry that 'glitches' like these can occur.

If it was small amount - it could catch out the less observant of us.