Fraudulent banking transactions: Tell the FSA Consumer Panel your views

andy-d_2

I had about £600 worth of fraudulent transactions on my current account with Barclays. I immediatley reported them to the back who noticed more pending but said they wouldn't cancell them. They wouldn't refund me any money until they had proven that they weren't mine (not the other way around as most banks do). I (read: the fraudsters) incurred over £70 of bank charges which they won't refund me. I have had all of the money back from the fraudulent transactions, but still no charges refunds. The bank have been very unhelpful when i've contacted them by 'phone and not really much use when i've tried to see them in my branch. Overall, terrible service.

I've given up trying to get my charges back and have now switched to Natwest who have impressed to no end - for example - I recieved a call a few weeks ago (after paying some bills online) from Natwest to confirm that they were my transactions and not fraudulent.

Vintage82

It would like to ask you about unauthorised transactions on your bank account (when you have money fraudulently taken from your account without your consent) ...

• Have you had someone take money from your bank account without your knowledge?

Not my bank account, but my Barclaycard. They called me to make me aware.

• When was this?

June 09

• What was your bank's response when you raised this with them?

I called them after I got the auto-fraud alert call. The first lady I spoke to was extremely helpful and emailled me all the disclaimer forms, aswell as copies of the transactions they'd blocked. Unfortunately they'd allowed £80 of transactions.

• Did your bank refund the money taken?

After believing my card would be refunded I left it only to start receiving calls from the Barclaycard collection team telling me I owed them money. I told them I was sorting the balance out with the fraud team but they wouldnt have any of it. I called the fraud team to find out what was going on - turns out the only refunded 1 of the several transactions they allowed.

• If you did get your money back how long did it take?

Several angry phone calls over 6 months for the lot to be refunded. Several pestering phone calls from their collections team after I was told repeatedly all the transactions allowed would be refunded. I have not yet had my credit file repaired for the so called missed payments I incurred over the 6 months. This was promised by one of their representatives who said it would be changed "automatically".

• Was the bank helpful in its response?

To start with - but taking 6 months and talking to 6+ representatives to get it fixed, and also getting the constant phone calls from the collections team. Have cancelled the card since.

• What could, or should it have done better?

They could have listened to what I and they said. "We allowed 8-10 transactions on the card - are they all fraudulent?" "Yes"... Somehow they took this as we'll refund them 1 by 1 depending on how much fuss he kicks up. Now my credit rating is damaged due to their sloppiness.

bamboozler

Have you had someone take money from your bank account without your knowledge?

YES

When was this?

FEBRUARY 2010

What was your bank's response when you raised this with them?

THEY SAID I SHOULD BE ABLE TO CLAIM THE MONEY BACK

Did your bank refund the money taken?

YES

If you did get your money back how long did it take?

11 WEEKS FROM TIME OF INFORMING BANK

Was the bank helpful in its response?

SOMETIMES.

What could, or should it have done better?

FIRSTLY, THE BANK DID NOT CANCEL THE FRAUDULENT CARD UNTIL 1 WEEK AFTER I TOLD THEM ABOUT IT

THEY DID NOT TELL ME WHO WAS ASSIGNED TO MY CASE, AND I WAS UNABLE TO FIND OUT DESPITE SEVERAL ATTEMPTS. EACH TIME I WAS TOLD THAT THERE IS A HEAVY BACKLOG AND THEY ARE TOO BUSY TO TALK TO ME.

IT TOOK 11 WEEKS FOR BARCLAYS TO SORT THE PROBLEM OUT AND FOR ME TO GET MY MONEY BACK. THIS IS A RIDICULOUSLY LONG TIME TO WAIT WITHOUT ANY MONEY AND IN DEBT 1000 POUNDS DUE TO FRAUD. THEY DID NOT OFFER ME ANY COMPENSATION FOR THE 11 WEEKS AND EACH WEEK I GOT A LETTER IN THE POST SAYING I WILL BE CHARGED A FURTHER 22 POUNDS FOR BEING IN MY RESERVE.

BARCLAYS HAVE A VERY POOR SECURITY SYSTEM. IT IS POSSIBLE FOR FRAUDSTERS TO CLEAR SECURITY AND REQUEST NEW PIN NUMBERS AND NEW BANK CARDS IF THEY HAVE ONE PAPER STATEMEMT. FOR ALL THE QUESTIONS ASKED TO CLEAR SECURITY BY PHONE, THE ANSWERS CAN BE FOUND ON YOUR BANK STATEMENT. ALL IT TAKES A FRAUDSTER IS TO STEAL ONE BANK STATEMENT AND YOU CAN BE DE-FRAUDED ALL YOUR MONEY, AS WHAT HAPPENNED TO ME.

sparklinglime

This happened to me earlier this year. I have an account with the A&L, which I use for treats for me and did have one DD on it. There was a £200 overdraft, which I never use.

Checked my balance and was shocked to see the account was overdrawn up to the limit.

A&L were very helpful and refunded the money straight away.

I was charged for being overdrawn though, which I found disappointing.

I've removed the DD and the overdraft is facility is gone.

What I found shocking was that other than putting money in, the account hadn't been used for over 12 months. I've never used the card online, so it still worries me that someone was able to get this information. How???

JStuart

Barclays contacted me by telephone in October 2006, to tell me that an online betting company had withdrawn over £1000 from my account, and also paid in £400!

I had no idea until they told me, but they dealt with everything. They cancelled my card, sent me a replacement, told me how i could get money in the meantime, and organised for the money to be returned to my account. They handled it so well, it went really smoothly.

The only thing I had to do was sign a form to confirm the transactions were fraudulent. They did everything else, they were competent, professional and swift - the whole process had very little impact on me, all I had to do was wait a few days for my new bank card. They did a fantastic job for me.

dorsie

I received a letter in November 08 from a shop in London asking me to confirm an online purchase as the delivery address was different to the cardholder address.(very good of them to check). I hadn't made the purchase and telephoned them asking for details of the delivery address/person. They said due to data protection, they couldn't tell me!! (that really annoyed me - as usual the victim gets the raw deal). I contacted my bank, Lloyds TSB and discovered further transactions had been made to a total of £268. The bank sent me a form to complete, were quick to reimburse me but I didn't hear anything else. I wanted to know that the criminal had been charged and prosecuted and I wanted to know how they got my card details. I'd also contacted the police and given them all the information too but again, never received a follow up. Oh, Lloyds did seem to take advantage of my situation and tried the big sell on their identity fraud products and other insurances!!

billp_2

£3000 was taken from my account in august 2006 via an online betting site, which placed my account £2500 fully overdrawn on it's agreed limit. I found out purely by accident after returning from holiday and checking my online bank account. It was not possible to ring my branch due to them having only one phone number to a centralised call centre and I wasted an hour or more trying to get through to them, so I drove to the nearest branch. The staff there could not or would not take notice of my problem and accused me of letting someone else use my card and/or of giving the perpetrator my pin number. I pointed out that the transactions appeared on my account at the time I was on a ferry in the middle of the North Sea on my way back from Holland.

In order to sort the matter I drove 15 miles to another branch and started to make a loud fuss. The counter clerk took notice and recorded everything that had happened and promised me a refund - "which would take four days". I had to create, rather loudly again, in order to obtain some co-operation and get the money repaid quicker, which with reluctance on the part of the bank, did happen the following day. The clerk then cancelled my card and arranged for a new one to be issued. After complaining that I had made several abortive phone calls to their central phone system without any luck - and that I had been involved in the expense of driving to two branches, I received compensation for these costs from the bank along with the interest that they charged my account for being £2500 overdrawn for the time that it took to refund the money.

The attitude of the bank was basically that I had authorised the money. That I objected to and they only took notice after I started to complain in a loud way in one of their branches. To improve their service they should have phone numbers for their branches and managers who stay for more than 18 months. Lloyds customer service needs improving.

malima

Hi,
Sorry if this is posted in the wrong place, but i got this e-mail this morning from HSBC, and i don't even bank with them, looks dodgy?

Dear valued HSBC member:

Due to the VAST Increase on online fraud.
OUR ONLINE SECURITY TEAM HAS HAS DEVELOPED a NEW SECURITY SYSTEM
WHICH IS LINKED WITH YOUR REGISTERED TELEPHONE NUMBERS WITH US.
once registered for this service our automated system will automatically
call your registered numbers with us when u attempt to log on, or to make online PAYMENTs.

THIS IS TO VERIFY YOUR IDENTITY. TO ENABLE YOU TO ENROLL FOR THIS SERVICE OUR ONLINE SECURITY TEAM HAS TRASIENTLY SUSPENDED YOUR ONLINE ACCESS.

TO ENROLL AND RESTORE ACCESS TO YOUR ONLINE BANKING CICK ON THE LINK BELOW.

. To update your HSBC records click on the following link:
http://www.update.hsbc.co.uk /signon?LOB=CONS&screenid =Sign_on

Thank You.

edie1978

I first found out there was fraudulent activity on my credit card when Smile, my bank, contacted me. Their automatic systems had flagged up the transactions as being potentially fraudulent, as indeed they were - to the tune of roughly £1000. It seemed that someone had cloned my credit card details somehow without my knowing and gone on an online shopping spree. Smile assured me that the fraudulent activity would be removed from my credit card and I would not be expected to pay any related charges, but that I would need to sign something that they would post to me to verify that these were fraudulent transactions. I waited a couple of weeks; I received my credit card bill, with the fraudulent activity still on it, but also with a charge for exceeding my agreed credit limit. Eventually after several emails the fraudulent transactions were removed, but the exceeding credit limit charge left on; after further emails this too was removed. I eventually received the paperwork, signed and returned it, and the matter is now resolved. Overall I'm happy with Smile's action on this - if they hadn't picked up on the fraudulent activity I might not have until I received my bill - but they could have dealt with removing the activity from my account more quickly, and automatically removed the related charges.

LondonDiva

· Have you had someone take money from your bank account without your knowledge? - My elderly mother has

· When was this? 2008 & 2009

· What was your bank's response when you raised this with them?

They were both fraudulent purchases on Amazon.co.uk with the same card details. On both occasions, Halifax and Amazon were uninterested and alleged that she had made the purchases herself. On the second occasion she was out of the country, but the bank and Amazon insisted that she had made the purchases.

The bank’s fraud line insisted that she go to the branch, the head office refused to talk to the branch and both Amazon and Halifax insisted that she go to the police before they would do anything.

When I asked them to verify the email address and address the purchases had been sent to, they refused due to data protection. When I asked how they could refuse this given that my mother had apparently made the purchase, they said they didn’t have to explain.

It was only when I kicked up a fuss and started sending emails to the directors / CEO that anybody bothered to respond from the bank. Then all they did was refund the money. Halifax refused to tell me if the account was compromised, if my mother needed a new card or information or if it was the same email and physical address used the last time the fraud occurred.

I contacted them again to ask for an update and Halifax said – well, the money’s come back what more do you need? When I insisted, they said there would be criminal action taken, but 10 or so months on, despite promises and signing statements, they have not updated us about the outcome of the fraud.

· Did your bank refund the money taken? Eventually refunded by Amazon not the bank, and only after I sent an email or two a day to everyone on the board.

· If you did get your money back how long did it take? About a week

· Was the bank helpful in its response? Denied any responsibility for the matter, insisted that it was up to the customer & retailer to sort out the fraud and that the FSA would not help because this was not in their remit. I contacted the police who said this should be dealt with by the bank.

Was passed from pillar to post by the bank and different staff said different things depending on their mood.

· What could, or should it have done better? The FSA should publicise the banks’ reasonable responsibilities in these situations so that customers can have clear expectations of service and response times to measure the service received by.

Halifax were deliberately obstructive and my mother went between the branch and call centre about 6 times before I found out about the latest fraud. She told me the last time it had been so bad that she had stopped chasing for the money to be refunded because the bank insisted she must have ordered online without realising it.

There is an expectation that the police or and take such matters seriously and it’s depressing and unacceptable to find all organisations involved washing their hands of their customers, because some unknown person will eventually deal with it.