Fraudulent banking transactions: Tell the FSA Consumer Panel your views

e0jones

I'd noticed several odd small transactions (T-mobile and O2, and i only had a contract with O2), rang the bank up and we went through my statement - in just a few minutes we'd found them all.
In the next few days i had a couple of signs to form (simple signature and date) and my money was back in just a couple more days.
Very very happy with Smile.co.uk for their swift help and reponse.

They also once rang me to inform me there was a large transaction attempted overseas (after i'd returned from Thailand) and that because they knew i was back in the UK they'd cancelled my card and were sending me a new one.
Again - very happy with smile.co.uk for all their help

frif88

In January 2008 i had over £400 taken from my Nationwide current account in one transaction for 'kitchen appliances'. It put me into unagreed overdraft which was why I noticed as I had a separate student account for the overdraft facility.
Staff in branch were very helpful although asking the obvious 'are you sure it wasn't you?' I had to keep reiterating that I was a student and had no need for £400 worth of kitchen stuff!
I filled out several forms and the card was cancelled immediately. I think I received a new one within a week. The money was back in my account approx 2-3 weeks later although in the mean time I had been charged for being overdrawn. One letter to them resolved this, however, I did have to write another at the end of Feb to get that months overdraft charge refunded.
Overall they were very helpful but i think the money could have been refunded more quickly, I was lucky that I could cope without it for a few weeks!

Killmark

Was a customer of Woolwich before they were taken over by Barclays so all in all had been banking with them for 20 years and in that time never written out a cheque. In February 2009 I had my cheque book stolen. I reported this to the bank immediately. However after this a cheque was cleared. As soon as the I noticed the missing funds, which had taken me into an unathorised overdraft I again went to the nearest branch and reported the transaction as fraudulent, spent 2hrs in the branch and was assured I would get the funds back, charges reversed and a copy of the cheque, I insisted I did not want a replacement cheque book. I was told it could take 6-8 weeks to be sorted by the fraud team so I waited.

After 3 months had no response from the fraud team, a new cheque book had arrived and Barclays were still applying charges, I went back to the branch however they refused to give me any information unless I had a current passport with me (old passport had expired in meantime) as ID, regardless of all my other documentation.

A month later when I finally had my new passport I went back to the branch to find that no records of my report of fraudulent transaction, or the loss of my cheque book, I complained about this as as they had sent me a replacement cheque book.

After getting nowhere with Fraud who didnt seem interested or the branch referring me to the phones I went through the banks complaints procedures documenting dates and information given to and provided by staff in the branches as well as my telephone conversations. I was told we're looking into it and will respond within a month.

By the beginning August I still had no response as to why this had happened, what they were going to do to rectify this and how long it would take, however no the Debt Managment team was now calling me as to when I would pay the money I now owed in charges.

I also discovered that letters sent from fraud and debt management were going to my previous address rather than my current one, I was told by the branches this was due to not all the systems being in sync, yet they had the letters stored on the system clearly showing a different address.

By the end of August my account was refunded, however when I requested they close my account and reopen it they refused as now I didn't meet they're lending critera (Barclays showing now as a default on my credit report) so ended up with a basic bank account.

They didnt amend my credit reports until October, so all in all the whole process took 9 months and I never recieved either an apology for the time involved or a explanation for how this had occurred in the first place.

skabunny

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?
• When was this?
• What was your bank's response when you raised this with them?
• Did your bank refund the money taken?
• If you did get your money back how long did it take?
• Was the bank helpful in its response?
• What could, or should it have done better?

I had someone take a total of about £650 out of my Lloyds bank account in 2007. It was an account I didn't use very ofton so I really don't know how it could have happened. I checked my balance at a cash machine and went in when I realised there was money missing. The staff member just sat me down and gave me a telephone to call their fraud helpline. It was all very casual - they just varified with me which transactions weren't mine and told me that all money would be back in my account within 5 working days (in fact it was there the next day). The card had been cloned and used for money exchanges in India so it was fairly obvious I hadn't made them. I just had to sign and send back a statement to say I wasn't responsible. All in all pretty good - lucky I checked my bank that day tho! The only thing that could have done better was at least to have conveyed the feeling they were going to try and track down the culprit, they just gave the impression that it was all to common.

As an asside though this card was registered with CPP card protection plan previously and I had recently cancelled it due to a massive hike in price (from £30 for 3 years to over £80 for no extra service whatsoever). When I was cancelling it the woman on the phone tried to use scare tactics and hard sell to get me to keep it. Telling me that banks would not refund transactions unless forced to by them! These types of insurers are rip off merchants, they don't do anything you can't easily do yourself!

Seven_Piglets

I have had my debit card cloned twice now. My Bank (NatWest) use an automated telephone call to tell you and wonder why I did not respond. It says it is NatWest and asks you to confirm you are the person they are attempting to get hold of. It then asks you to enter (over the telephone keypad) your date of birth, Card number, etc. I did not do this as it felt unsafe and I did not know if it really was NatWest. We are always being told to make sure we are talking to the right place after all. It does not at any time say (in the time I listened) that there is any problem. I tried to use my card the next day and needless to say it was declined. I rang the Bank and they seemed to feel it was perfectly acceptable to use an automated system.I suggested a real person should make the call particularly where people like myself were wary of giving such information. Other than that, they were fine. I had the money credited in about 2 weeks and a new card within 48 hours. However, it could have been very embarrassing as it was a business debit card that I use to buy cars with! At least I was only buying fuel when it was declined.

Lynda_E

Earlier this year I had a number of payments, totalling hundreds of pounds, taken from my A & L account by companies in the U S using my debit card. I reported to A & L immediately I realised.
They were unhelpful to say the least, claiming that I MUST have given my agreement and refused to acknowledge that they were fraudulent. I wrote a letter of complaint and sent it special delivery which they claimed they never received until I proved it using the special delivery tracking system. In return they sent me a form to complete for every transaction which was fraudulent, six in total.

They kept insisting that I had to speak to the company who had taken the payments from my account - how could I do that when I didnt have any idea what I was supposed to have bought? or who the companies were. It was a nightmare, I was treated like I was the one commiting the fraud rather than trying to protect my hard earned money.

Eventually A & L gave me the names of the companies who had taken the payments and their US phone numbers, so then I had to call each company to ask for a refund. On each call I was left holding for 25 mins in a queueing system and on each occasion I spoke to the same woman (I was supposed to be calling 3 different companies) who said she would cancel the order, she would not tell me what I had ordered and refused to refund payments.

It was only after numerous calls to A & L rude, unhelpful, obstructive 'customer services team' that I threatened them with the banking ombudsman that they suddenly refunded the payments within 24 hours.

I was so disgusted with their unhelpful and accusational attitude that I closed my account and moved to another bank.

whosforachat

American Express claimed my partner had cashed a £200 cheque on my account with her card. We did not believe this to be correct so we queried it. Sure enough Amex were unable to provide any authorising signature (this was before the days when Amex used chip and PIN). However, they still refused to reverse the charge and then started calling me, threatening to damage my credit rating if I did not pay them the £200. I felt forced to pay them, but then complained to the FSA.

The FSA came back with a reply that looked like it had been written by Amex (seriously). It even described the failure to produce any authorising signature as nothing more than "unfortunate". I am appealing further and will take the case to the small claims court if necessary.

Be aware that the FSA is not completely independent of the banks and credit card companies. I am not sure of their motivation for failing to conduct a proper investigation into my case; it may be simply that they cannot be bothered to do their job properly and felt it would be easier to fight me than Amex.

Pembroke

Had a couple of fraudulent transactions on my Abbey / Santander account end of 2009. When I told them in writing they had me fill in a form and refunded the money. They also cancelled and issued a new card, offered me a separate account, with just a card no cheque book for use on line and even refunded bank charges where the money that was taken had made me overdrawn.

debra.campbell

i logged onto my online abbey account last year and it said i was in the red.I rang Abbey and i didnt need a password they just asked me what my balance was and a recent activity on my account.They informed me someone had rung up and requested £850 and had it transferred into their account of which they did successfully.i never give my personal details out to anyone,even my hubby doesnt know them.I asked them where my money had gone,but thet said they werent allowed to say.They blocked my account and debit card and gave me a £1000 overdraft to cover my direct debits and said they would be in contact.After about 4 weeks i hadnt heard anything so i contacted them.i still didnt need a password and they asked me the exact same security questions.They asked me to ring back in a weeks time because i needed to transfer my direct debits to a new account.A few days later i received a letter saying that they hadnt been able to contact me and they couldnt give me a new account until i spoke to them.i rang them and asked for the person whose name was on the letter to be told"oh thats no one its just a name we put on the letter".The person assured me that my new account would be dealt with,they had a backlog of work and all my direct debits would be than switched.Ten days later,i had heard nothing.I rang them again,same security questions! I was told the person who was dealing with my account wasnt there at that moment in time but promised me she would get her to ring me that afternoon.She didnt.I rang the next day and it was established there had been no progess with my account since my first call.it took another 10 days before they finally gave me a new account number and switched all of my direct debits.It was a shambles from the word go and i believe it was down to abbeys poor security that my account was used in a fraudulent manner.I did apply for a new account with Nat West during this time because i had no faith in Abbey,but they were as bad, i applied over the phone and they sent me a letter telling me to take my passport and other id into the branch.The assistant photocopied them but whilst i was there i informed her that when they sent me the confirmation letter they had spelt my name wrong.She said "it doesnt matter ill amend it". She did and sent the details to head office.Two weeks later i got a letter sayin i needed to repeat the whole process because my name was spelt wrong! Needless to say i am reluctantly still with abbey.They are all as incompetant as each other.I could go on,i also had big problems with money invested in the Post Office.No wonder the economy is in such a state when we have to rely on these people to deal with our money!!!!

nick140560

I had an account that was accessed fraudulently so Barclays suggested they'd open a new account for me and would transfer all existing DD's and SO's. I used the new account successfully but unknown to me an income source hadn't been notified by them of the change so each month the payee tried to deposit into my old account. Barclays accepted the credit but redirected it so I never knew the potential problem as it always appeared in my new account. After 12 months Barclays (stupidly) assigned the old account number and sort code to another customer so guess what - the income successfully made it into the old account to the benefit of the 'new' (?) customer. I didn't spot it for about 6 months. Barclays refused to help saying I should contact the payee so they could make the claim. I spent hours and hours and hours beign redirected, not getting responses, being fobbed off and everything you can imagine without success. I kept going higher in Barclays heirarchy and I got nowhere - every single person I spoke to failed to do what they promised and when I phoned back to get their response - guess what - they were always unavailable for as many reason as you can think up. Even custonmer services - who said they would help - went cold after a while. It was almost like there was an internal fraud happening that they wanted to cover up. After about 5 weeks of absolute frustration I told Barclays I'd gone to the police to report my belief that a Barclays employee had defrauded me and they were covering up. Within 30 minutes I got a phone call from Barclay's legal dept saying the money had been credited to my account. I got closed my account as soon as I could open a new one with another bank and will never use Barclays again.