£1180 taken out of my Satander current account over the counter, please help!

chillinbloke

I checked my balance on Tuesday to discover that £1180 was missing from my account. Looking at my statement £10 was deposited into my account on the 29/3/10 over the counter at the Ealing branch. The Next day £500 was taken out over the counter at the Burnt Oak branch, the same again the next day at the South Harrow branch. Then they finally cleaned my account out the next day (1/4/10) at the Kingsbury Branch by taking out £190.

I phoned Santander up on Tuesday to tell them that I had nothing to do with these transactions & I haven't lost my card/passport/driving licence/cheque book. They put me through to the fraud department who have blocked my account to stop it happening again, even though the account is now empty and overdrawn. They said they will be doing an investigation and they don't know how long this will take.

I went to the police and reported the money being taken and they have given me a crime reference number. I also went into the South Harrow branch to speak to an advisor about the money going missing and the fact that I am now broke until payday. He didn't seem that bothered, so I asked him to phone the fraud department and find out how long the investigation would take. They said to him it would take about 3 weeks as they would have to check all the payslips for the 4 different branches as the transactions happened over the counter. I asked if they would be checking the CCTV for these transactions, and he said he didn't know.

I live in close proximity to all the 4 branches used so wondered if it could have been done by someone I know, not family or friends but possibly someone from work who may of seen my card(paranoid?)? Or is just the fact my card has been cloned locally, but if it was cloned wouldn't they have the pin so would have taken money from a machine instead? I have heard a number of cases like this and the person usually ends up getting their money back.

Will the investigation really take 3 weeks? As i'm pretty sure I could get around all 4 branches in one day and find the payslips for all these transactions. Is it just a case of me being patient and waiting for them to contact me or should I be phoning everyday to check on their progress? Is there anything else I should be doing?

I am really worried and have not slept properly since I found out, so I would appreciate any help you could give me. Many thanks!

usedandabused

firstly, OMG i hope you're ok, i can only imagine the anxious wait, and stress you must be under especially as you have nothing to do with this.

Secondly what is worrying is two things:

1) how the hell did they withdraw the money? have you been a victim of ID fraud? are you not shredding bank statements properly? is someone going through your rubbish? or your online security being compromised?

2) the sheer attitude of the abbey staff.

btw you live in close proximity to all four branches?
what is your local branch? south harrow?

chillinbloke

Hi, yes this is all doing my head in to be honest. Especially not knowing what Satander are doing about it all. South Harrow is my local brach, and I shred all documents before they are recycled.

From reading Santander's T&C they say you can go into a branch and just show your debit card without ID over the counter to take out up to £500. I have never done this so wouldn't know. I also did not lose my card either. I recently sent a cheque to Ealing council to pay a bill and am wondering if someone has used my account number to make a fake card (paranoia?).

All the cashiers do is enter your account number into the computer to access your account. I wish they had asked for date of birth or address!

apt

Every bank would block an account in these circumstances. Although 3 weeks sounds a long time it is probably not unreasonable.

usedandabused

chillinbloke wrote: »

Hi, yes this is all doing my head in to be honest. Especially not knowing what Satander are doing about it all. South Harrow is my local brach, and I shred all documents before they are recycled.

From reading Santander's T&C they say you can go into a branch and just show your debit card without ID over the counter to take out up to £500. I have never done this so wouldn't know. I also did not lose my card either. I recently sent a cheque to Ealing council to pay a bill and am wondering if someone has used my account number to make a fake card (paranoia?).

All the cashiers do is enter your account number into the computer to access your account. I wish they had asked for date of birth or address!

when i forgot my card i was asked for ID before i could even get a balance request even though i had my account details, but this was with Lloyds TSB so i'm not too sure Abbey's policy.

maybe fromthe cheque some muppet has made some fake id, taken your account and sort code number and cleared your account.

chillinbloke

They say that my pay can still go into this account and my mortgage and other direct debits will continue as usual. They say the block just stops people taking money out over the counter without id, which I wish it had in the first place. I also don't think I can make purchases with my card, but would need money in my account to do that anyway!

I thought 3 weeks wasn't to bad compared to the 6 weeks that I have heard in some card cloning cases. I just keep worrying how long do they keep CCTV recording's for, then I think I probably wouldn't even know the person if I got the chance to see it anyway.

CLAPTON

in this case, it's not clear exactly how they got the cash from your account but it likely to be a cloned debit card... they must have had some sort of id to get the money...

I've no knowledge of santander expect for people on this bulletin board but they do seem to be exceptionally rubbish

when one of the family had their nationwide debit card cloned and the account emptied, nationwide blocked the debit card and gave an immediate (free) overdraft so that DDs, cheques and money (internet ) could still be withdrawn. Although they said a new card would take 10 days it actually arrived in 3
We were all very impressed by nationwides response to the mini crisis.
The whole saga continued for 4-6 weeks but the a/c could still be used and all the money was refunded.

chillinbloke

when i forgot my card i was asked for ID before i could even get a balance request even though i had my account details, but this was with Lloyds TSB so i'm not too sure Abbey's policy.

Everyone has been telling me that Lloyds has much better security, my wife is with them and gets text alerts for her transactions. Will be moving to them once this is all sorted.

30 years with Abbey!:mad:

chillinbloke

The advisor at Santander didn't offer any kind of money help, it's lucky me and my wife don't have a joint account. Would have been a poor easter holiday for the kids with no money!

missprice

CCTV recordings are kept for 28 days min
so the 3 weeks they say it will take is well within the timeframe


hth

chillinbloke

CCTV recordings are kept for 28 days min
so the 3 weeks they say it will take is well within the timeframe

Thanks for letting me know! The advisor did not know that!