Abbey: Debit Card Fraud

nxsfan

This is my first post, hope this is the appropriate place.

I had 3 fraudulent payments made from my debit card (which is still in my possession) this morning, totalling to more than £600.

The payments were to Orange, Vodafone and DVLA.

The short version of the story is that Abbey have told me that I have to wait for the money to clear (its with-holding atm) before they can even pass it onto the fraud team. There is nothing I can do even though the money hasnt left abbey (and won't do until friday at the earliest). At best all they can tell me is i will probably get my money back.

I want to know, is there really nothing I can do?

The long version of the story, I've given the phone numbers as hopefully they'll help people in the future:

I called abbey on 08459 724 724. It's explained that abbey's policy is to make the payments to the merchants once they have been allocated despite the visa site indicating banks have flexibility to cancel payments. I'm told to wait till saturday after the payments clear. This guy was friendly and polite.

I suggest contacting the merchants to get them to cancel it on their side, the abbey staff member says I might as well give it a go.

I can't find a relavent contact number for orange so I phone orange on 07973 100 450 and press 0# a number of times. I get through to a member of the pay &go team. I ask to speak to someone in their fraud department and am told it's impossible to speak to anyone who might be useful and that I have to write (despite the urgency).

I ask the staff member if they have to write to fraud department for internal queries, she says they do. I asked if there was anyone who would be more appropriate for me to speak to, she says there is not. I then asked for her name which she gave me, when I ask for some personally identifiable information like an employee number she hangs up. (I'd like to stress here i'm a polite guy).

Then I phoned DVLA-widness - 0151 4230119. I get straight through to a human, within about 5 minutes we've found the relavent transaction. I confirm some of my card details and she's satisfied the transaction is fraudulent and promises to escalate it with the appropriate team,

Next Vodafone. I call customer services and they say I need to call Vodafone fraud department: 07770999999. However the fraud people apparantly aren't the right people to talk to and they forward me to Collections. An instantly grumpy lady tells me that they are the wrong people to speak to and I need to talk to customer services, I infer that her name would be useful incase customer services try forward me back again. The lady says "my name is irrelevant, they are the right department to speak to " and she forwards me.

Next I get a totally incompetant guy in customer services. For 5 minutes he's convinced someone fraudulently credited my account. When he starts to understand what I'm saying he wants the name and phone number of the person but of course I don't have that information. He speaks to a supervisor and tells me that I need to contact the police who will contact my bank and get the name and number of the person and then give me those details.

I point out that my bank won't have that information. He revises his advice, I should phone the police and they will contact the Vodafone 'Layers' department (did he mean liason? i asked him to repeat it) and they will persue the matter. The whole conversation is quite difficult as I'm losing my voice and compression artifacts in the voip lines was obviously making things hard for the staff member.

But the police website discussing card fraud doesnt provide a number and says that my bank will contact the police.

Finally I phone abbey once more to update and ask about the police contact issue. The lady is a little defensive, I'm not sure why. She asks why I'm calling as I have already been told everything, I ask about filing it with the police and she says she has no idea what the fraud team does once it's with them.

OK. So I feel really impotent right now, the money hasn't even left abbey and they are insisting there is nothing I can do. I'm worried I'm going to lose money here. Has anyone been in the same position before? Why is it so hard to inform the right people? Why is this post so long?

I'd appreciate any advice.

cdsmiler

Hi there. Not exactly the same situation, but a cheque book (that never arrived, and I was ASSURED by staff in my local branch that it would be cancelled) has recently been used to take £360 from me fraudulently. It could take 'up to 4 weeks' for them to 'look into it' and in the meantime they can't help me financially!! Oh, they've extended my overdraft limit by £200, but can't do more than that. It was going to be a tight month as it was, and all I wanted was a goodwill gesture of £360 which I would then have TEMPORARILY until I had the stolen money refunded. But no, they can't do that.

So I'll just go to my money tree shall I and use that money to pay remaining bills, petrol and for FOOD. :mad:

Being nearly 5 months pregnant, I kinda need food.....

And don't even get me started on the attitude of the woman I spoke to in the fraud department!!! I'm the victim here, but by the end of the phone call she made me feel like it was all my fault!!

The 3 people Ive spoken to on telephone banking have, however, been very helpful. Makes a change mind....

<sigh>

I should also add that the remaining bills were to O2 and AA Car Insurance, and when I phoned both up to tell them what had happened, they were very helpful and talked me through future direct debit and payment options.

Good luck nxsfan!!!

Clare x

nxsfan

Just to update, I phoned on friday despite being told I wouldn't be able to proceed until Sat. A helpful member of abbery staff said he would put through a fraud claim and that the documents would be sent to my address.

I'll update as new information becomes available.

Sorry you are having a hard time Clare, in these sorts of situations you expect staff to at least have a sympathetic attitude!

cdsmiler

nxsfan - glad you're getting somewhere!!

I've been told that yes, it's been fraudulent activity, no they don't know how someone got my details (um...someone stole my cheque book, a cheque book that was supposed to be cancelled!) and they do know where the money has gone (um, yeah, by looking at the cheques... lol Duh, clever arn't they!).

So I've had the money back, but I now have to wait for the switcher team to move everything over to a new account. In the meantime I everything's been blocked on my account, and if I want money I have to go to the bank itself and faff about for about half an hour to get anything. lol

Oh well, almost there. Will still be complaining about the whole thing mind.

Cx