Help desperately needed - bank fraud!!!!!

suebea_2

Hi i hope someone can help us.

In November 2009 my mam found that her current account card had been used in two restaurants in London she reported this and it was investigated and the money repaid to her and she thought she was extremely lucky to have caught it so quickly, obviously her card was cancelled and she was issued a new one.

Last week she received her yearly ISA statement to find that over £3000 had been transfered out of her account in small amount from April to November 2009 this money had been taken half in cash and half transfered to her current account but on checking her account this had then been withdrawn through cash machine throughout the weekends.

She has been to her bank and they say that they can see that her actual card was used to make the withdrawals and not a cloned card and therefore this is a matter of theft not fraud and that someone must have access to her card and pin number. My mam is 100% certain that this cannot have happened and is also adamant that she has not had this money and did not request the transfers.

Can the banks tell if a card used has been a cloned card?
Is it just coincidence that this stopped when her previous card was cancelled?
Where do we go from here is there anywhere we can go for advise (pref free)

We appreciate any help you can give. All suggestions welcome.

pmduk

Where were the cash machines? If they're close to the restaurants but not your home that could be an argument to use in her favour. Drum into her to check each statement regularly from now on.

rb10

There are still unanswered questions before anyone can give any particularly constructive advice...

How was the money transferred from her ISA to her current account? Internet? Telephone? Branch?

How did she not notice that £3000 was credited to her current account over a period of six months? Did she not read her statements? Even after she found some other fraud on the account.

suebea_2

hey thanks for the replies, We are still waiting for the info from the bank as to where the cash machines where that the money was withdrawn from (she is going in again today to demand it after two requests for this info). Whilst she has been checking her statements for her current account (she only gets one statement per year for her ISA) she admits that she checks her final balance is as she thinks it should be and that all DD etc have been taken and pension etc has been paid in but doesn't go through each transaction (she knows know to do this). She works night s every Fri and Sat and it looks as if the money is transfered on a Fri and withdrawn on Sat, Sun which means when she checks her balance on the machines it looks correct. Asked in Nat West how the transfers where made and they said in branch using chip and pin (again waiting on info of which branches are used). She shreds her statements each month after she has 'checked them' and was confident that the ones prior to Nov where ok so didn't think to ask the bank for copies after the initial fraud was detected.