Illegal use i9n Abbey account - please help!

highlyevolved

Hi everyone! I have an old current account with Abbey which I no longer use and opted out of having my monthly details sent by mail. It is a graduate account with very low interest and has a limit of £500. I was alarmed to recieve several emails notifying me that charges were due to be charged to my account for going over my overdraft limit.

I asked for my accounts to be delivered again, when recieved i noticed there were several payments between £25 and £30 to websites I've never heard of. When researching them I found they were online merchants, similar to PayPal where payments had been made. (bluemedia-help.com, epoch.com to name a few).

Then there were payments made every day of random figures between 0.60p and £4.

The bank cancelled my card - excellent and said they would investigate.

I have just receieved a letter which says that all of the payments will unfortunately not be refunded, as they were over 60 days ago. Is this legal??? The payments were made abroad, and I haven't been abroad since last August. Surely the fault lies with Abbey for clearing these international payments in the first place.

On top of this the bank have charged me £25 several times for exceeding the overdraft and these charges have not been withdrawn either.

Please can anyone advise me on my rights and what I should do.

Many Thanks

Sharon87

Have you contacted the police? Sometimes the banks need a crime reference number when dealing with fraud.

highlyevolved

I haven't as the bank said they informed the police of any fraud on my behalf. But from past experience what they say and what they do are two different things so I will contact police definitley that's a good idea.

I have requested statements for the last six months so I will wait for those to arrive to get a better idea of the extent of the fraud before I contact them.

milfordmadness

highlyevolved wrote: »

I haven't as the bank said they informed the police of any fraud on my behalf. But from past experience what they say and what they do are two different things so I will contact police definitley that's a good idea.

I have requested statements for the last six months so I will wait for those to arrive to get a better idea of the extent of the fraud before I contact them.

To establish whether Abbey did report it to the police, request the crime ref number from them.... when they can't provide it, there's your answer! When you ring police and get one, send it to the bank special delivery - proof of signature and receipt will only help you at later date

highlyevolved

Thank you, I will definitely do that

Colliefrog

I too have an Abbey account. Last year I discovered several unauthorised payments to epoch.com. I contacted the bank, who cancelled my card but I never got refunded.

This morning I have checked my account and it's happening again! There are 2 payments to epoch.com. I have no idea who they are!! There is also payments to PAY-CYTEK, who I have never heard of.

highlyevolved

I have sent a letter to their CEO explaining what has happened, i've yet to receive a reply but it was only two days ago.

If the same thing is happening to you with the same company "epoch" they obviously have a serious security flaw. Let me know if anyone wants the CEO's email address and i'll pm it.

willo65

On epoch.com they have an option to search for an account with them and you can see what you have been charged for. Or they have a live chat support which may be able to help?