Bank details cloned. Can I get compensation?

BIOSTALL

Hi guys,

Apologies if this is the wrong type of question for this forum but seeing as it is money related and I've had success here in the past I thought it a good place to start. So here goes....

About a week ago I received a letter from my bank telling me that there had been some strange withdrawal requests from my account and that certain types of transactions had been prohibited. Since then I haven't been able to make any online payments. About two days later I got an email from a large company in Germany who I'd spent money with a few weeks prior telling me that their servers had been hacked and loads of peoples account details had been stolen.

I rang my bank and due to these weird transactions that had suddenly started going on, they've cancelled my card and I now gave to wait 10 working days for a new one. In this time I now have to go to a branch to withdraw money, which, seeing as I live in the country is a bit difficult.

My question to you is; can I claim any kind of compensation from this company in Germany. a) for them losing my details and their lack of security and b) because of the fact I now have to go 10 days with no money?

Any help would be appreciated as I am disgusted that they have lost my details.

Thanks in advance!!

benoit

Didn't the same thing happen with Cotton Traders? Thousands of people had thier details compromised when they got hacked but i don't recall any compensation being given?

BIOSTALL

Hmm... Thanks for the quick responses. I have already wrote them an extensive formal email and all I got back was a one line response saying 'our security systems have been reviewed'. I hope they didn't get RSI from their well thought out response :-D

I have read both the uk and german data protection acts and although there are sections about compensation I didn't quite understand the lingo :-S

I'll drop them another email about compensation as suggested. I spend about £1,000 a year with this company which is what is annoying me.

Anywhoo, I'll let you how I get on. Thanks for your help. More advice always welcome

glider3560

Care to name the company involved?

BIOSTALL

The company is Metaltix. They're a german based seller of tickets/merchandise etc.

I'd actually like to give a big thumbs up to nationwide who alerted me right away. I've got mates who have had the same problem as me but are with different banks and have lost a lot of money.