HELP Debit card Fraud advice required

hippey

carlos1973 wrote: »

I work in retail security for a major supermarket.
What or where was the fraudulent use? Was it online or somewhere that allowed the card to be signed for?
IMO there should be some form of 'trail' and A&L should be able able to tell you exactly where and when the transactions took place. They should also advise you to contact the police, especially in light of the amount involved.
From there you can trace the transactions, Till records cctv etc, atm cameras. Time is the crucial factor here as dependant on the security systems used the cctv footage may be recorded over.
Bear in mind that even if you know your card was used in store xxx at xxx time you will not be allowed to request the cctv yourself as it is covered by the data protection act and can only be requested by the police.

And unfortunatly the police will not take the report from the banks customer, it will have to come from the bank. And I say this all the time, it is the bank who is the victim, although a cusomer could report as a 'informant & witness'

If I gave you the time line which has to be followed in just requesting CCTV you would laugh!! The request for CCTV can come from a number of people not just the police, (Covered by Sec 29(3) & 55 of the DPA) however not anyone who is the victim, or some witnesses and informants.

This is on top of getting information from banks, that can take a few days (or weeks even) and then even if the retailers play ball with the CCTV you will spend hours watching footage that may not even show any offences. And when you do spot the people who are doing this the images then need to be circulated, which is even more paperwork. Thats why in many cases the banks will just write off the amounts and until various patterns start to form the police and other agencies will appear to do nothing.

Carlos1973, I don't mean to sound negative and believe me I deal with CCTV every day and have loads of success, as well as various agencies, but you have to be realistic, it just aint that easy.

carlos1973

Thanks hippey, I wasn't aware that it was bank who had refer the matter to the police.

Not wanting to argue, but I have spent countless hours pouring over footage trying to reconstruct various fraudulent acts and tracking suspects as they have moved around a store.
A good example is making off without payment. It can take around two hours from the vehicle leaving to the police contacting the suspect. That is a relatively straight forward matter compared to some cases I know.

As far as the OP is concerned they are £2500 down and unsupported by their bank. There is a way of following up on this, alledged, crime and £2.5k is about 2 months wages for me so in my opinion anyway of tackling it would not be a waste of time.

hippey

I do agree with you, however in reality you are looking a fraud offence, however the evidence required for a 'successful conviction' to even meet the required test would take hours. And some of the biggest problems would be getting the information from the banks.

Like you said with a 'making off' offence you might well be dealing with either 'known' people, or have a VRM. However in these credit card offences they do get very complex, and in reality this is often to complex for you local main office CID, they will be dealt with by special units set up, and unfortunalty there is far more out there than £2.5k frauds. However for the OP's benefit they should keep pressing the bank to get this sorted.

James

From The Independent (25 April, 2009)

'We lost 4,000 after an ATM took our card'

My mother repeatedly phoned Abbey, which accused her of giving her PIN to someone. This was untrue. Nor was anyone behind my mum at the ATM, who could have witnessed her PIN entry.

Story click here.


I wonder if the Victims Card was trapped using this method (Click here)? which has been in operation for years.

There are numerous ways of capturing a PIN. (Click here).


If you are a victim and you're lucky enough to have the media put your case, you're not left high and dry.


</EM>