Fraudulent banking transactions: Tell the FSA Consumer Panel your views

clairelitt

Last year we had £400 taken from our account via an online retailer. Our account is with Alliance and Leicester. They immediately looked into it and refunded the money. We were very pleased.

They could not however tell us at the time whether it was my card or my partners name that had been used (joint account) and had to wait until it was sorted to find out. They also were unable to tell us whether verified by visa had been used, although as far as I can remember the company that had been purchased from said we would have needed the verified by visa password.

Hope that helps.
Claire

ALF_2

Had a fraudulent transaction drawn on my credit card in June 2009. Barclaycard identified it as fraud initially and cancelled my card. Didn't tell me that my direct debit wouldn't work with new card, so was charged with late payment.
I was also charged a cash advance fee and interest. After phoning and asking them to investigate the fraud for the 2nd time. I was then charged 3 sets of interest and a returned payment fee. After I complained I was credited some of the charges but then was charged another interest fee.
By September I had still not been refunded the original fraudulent amount and some of the charges (I really wonder how they were doing their calculations) so I phoned to enquire and was told they hadn't started to investigate yet. Sent me another form to fill in.
Eventually got fraud amount credited to card. I had lost all confidence in them by this stage and decided to close my account.
They did this but did not sent me the amount owing. After numerous letters and phone calls I still did not recieve the money or any correspondence from them.
Eventually went to the Financial Services Ombudsman and made a complaint. The FSO investigated and suddenly Barclarycard decided to contact me and offered to send me the money.
I receieve the money fraudulently taken from my card in June 2009 in March 2010.

rb10

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

Yes, from a Halifax account.

When was this?

May 2009.

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

I didn't have to raise it with them; they phoned me the instant that the transaction took place (i.e. less than 30 seconds later).

They informed me that there was a transaction that they believed might be fraudulent, and could I confirm whether that was the case or not. It was fraudulent.

Did your bank refund the money taken?

Yes

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

About five minutes.

Was the bank helpful in its response?

Yes, certainly couldn't have asked for more. They stopped the card straight away, I received a new one two days later. As the transaction was done over the internet I didn't need a new PIN. No forms, no hassle, and I never actually saw the money missing from my account - they just removed all trace of it.

What could, or should it have done better?

I certainly couldn't ask for any more than what they did. The whole process, from the fraud taking place, to it having been removed from my account, took no more than five minutes.

collingbone614

I had a problem with my debit card about eighteen months ago. I was checking my online bank statements, which I do frequently, and saw that there was a strange series of small transactions - between £30 - £50 - for things like flowers (Interflora), mobile phone credit and other miscellaneous things on the other side of the country. The transactions had appeared very, very quickly and there was many of them.

I cancelled the card right away. Natwest were extremely helpful to me and their fraud investigation department were polite and kept me up-to-date frequently by text (which is a good channel of communication for me because I can't answer my personal phone at work). They refunded the £800 very quickly, about two weeks later, and I never heard anything further. When I spoke with Natwest they said that - for some odd reason - flowers are popular with the fraudsters; mobile phone credit is also favoured.

I am absolutely convinced that this fraud occurred after phoning Orange to top up my mobile. The call went through to an Indian call centre and there was just something that felt totally wrong about giving my details to someone on the other side of the world. I regret not trusting my instincts and just hanging up. I believe that the chap must have given my credit card details to his friends in England. I rang Orange to complain but never heard back. I promptly left and will be certain to use a more secure method of topping up in future. I always considered myself pretty savvy around avoiding fraud and keeping my details private but this showed that the criminal scum can find their ways.

collingbone614

Toe-Jam wrote: »

Why do all these people keep such huge amounts of money in a current account.? Put it in your savings account thats not linked to a card and it will be safe. Transfer it across as and when you need it.

If you have an overdraft facility they munch into that. Yes, I know, get rid of the overdraft. Sometimes you have to learn the hard way

Electricblue

Yes, this has happened to me. It was about 5 years ago, and I went into a city branch of Nationwide to withdraw some cash from ATM prior to a holiday, was refused, got a mini statement, saw two large transactions - £350, and £400 approximately - which I knew nothing about. So went to enquiries desk, where they told me that they were cheque payments, and questioned me about where my cheque book was. I told her it was at home - never take it out with me. Then I remembered that I do keep a tally of cheques I have written out in my handbag, including the cheque numbers. The Nationwide employee was then able to see that the cheque numbers of the fraudulently-used cheques were from a completely different sequence to the one I was currently using. At that point she took seriously my claim that the transactions were not made by me, and involved a senior manager. They asked me to report the fraud to the police, then give Nationwide the crime reference number. They also increased my overdraft facility so that I could take out the cash I needed for my 5 days holiday, and said that I would not be charged for the interest, etc this caused. I did what Nationwide asked, and their fraud team rang me a few days later to ask whether I recognised the names of the individuals that the cheques had been payable to, which I did not. It turned out that a new cheque book (which I had not requested) had been intercepted in the post. I felt that Nationwide dealt with me and issue well, because I was able to prove that the transactions were not mine on the spot.

This has not been my only experience of attempted cheque fraud: it has also occurred on my John Lewis account, again through cheques that I had not requested being intercepted in the post. In this case, John Lewis were suspicious because did not follow my usual pattern of using the account, so telephoned me, and were able to stop the cheques going through. A further attempt was made a few months later to present John Lewis cheques fraudulently, and again John Lewis telephoned me. At this point, they also decided to change my account number.

John_Pierpoint

Barclays are not getting good reports on here. but the FSA's own statistics should have already told them that - you have to get into the dodgy sum prime USA lenders to find a higher level of justified complaints.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2204561

My experience of trying to get the right information out of Barclays for a savings account is here. No explanation of the money that appeared to have gone missing; just hand written cheques to replace it.

Full saga of fraud on an EGG credit card here (Citibank ?)

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/332339

I think the message that comes across is that we the customers would like to help but we get the impression that the fraudsters are winning against the complacent/over worked banks.

rojanich

• Have you had someone take money from your bank account without your knowledge?
• Yes
• When was this?
• 2 weeks ago
  What was your bank's response when you raised this with them?
• They phoned me and after we'd done some mutual identity checking they talked me through the most recent transactions on my account. One was fraudulent, only £6 something but it was definitely not mine ! They took my word immediately and arranged to cancel my account and send a new card. New card arrived a week later with a helpful letter telling me what transactions (direct debit type of things) would be transferred and which wouldn't.
• Did your bank refund the money taken?
• Yes, immediately
• If you did get your money back how long did it take?
• Immediately.
  Was the bank helpful in its response?
• Proactively spotted the transaction - can't get better ! And the Fraud guy who phoned tried both my registered phone numbers to get hold of me and couldn't have been more helpful.
• What could, or should it have done better?
• A full week was a bit of a long time to be without my 'flexible friend' (remember them !?) but I can't really complain because they spotted the problem immediately, refunded immediately and this isn't the first time. My husband had a similar thing about 18 months ago when Tesco Fraud contacted him; and that transaction was €1,000 approx. Can't remember who administers Tesco Credit Card but we like 'em !
  :T

cherrynicola

Last September, my mortgage provider, Northern Rock, took an unauthorised direct debit (made in error) of around £880 from my HSBC bank account, which put me over my overdraft limit. I complained to Northern Rock, who admitted their mistake straight away, and re-funded the money after about a week.

However, by this time, HSBC had issued a £30 fine. I 'phoned HSBC to explain the situation, asking them to waive the fine, believing I was covered under the direct debit guarantee scheme. HSBC said it wasn't their problem, and if I wanted the money back, it was down to Northern Rock.

I rang Northern Rock, and after protracted negotiations, was under the impression I had negotiated a refund of my £30 fine. The next week I received a letter stating I would not be getting a refund as I had no proof of the fine. I rang Northern Rock back to check what proof they needed (and why they hadn't asked for it in the first place) and they asked for a copy of my bank statement which I posted off. A week later I received a letter stating I would not be getting a refund as I did not have sufficient proof of the fine. I rang Northern Rock back just about ready to blow, and they told me I needed a notice of the fine from the bank, sent recorded delivery. That finally did the trick, and the £30 was finally refunded in January...

... only for me to get a letter from HSBC the next month to say that they would be charging me £25 for renewing my overdraft facility (the first time ever). In checking out the small-print, I figured out that this was all because the unauthorised DD had put me over my over-draft limit, triggering this extra fee. So I rang HSBC to challenge them and demand that the charge be dropped. They eventually agreed to put a note on my file that the charges be waived as 'a gesture of goodwill' (grrr) but insisted that this could only be done retrospectively, and that the charges would be applied at some point over the next few months - and only then could I ring back to have them taken off. They refused to tell me whether anything had been added to any credit reference files about me as a result of this episode, which has particularly angered me.

So all in all, £55 worth of fees, two recorded-delivery letters and seven lengthy phone-calls (at my expense), all because of an unauthorised direct debit (which has never been contested as unauthorised). I have not even attempted to claim back the interest that was charged on my account for that week.

Banks need to be more reasonable about their fees (that seems to me to be a lot for a one-off unauthorised overdraft of less than a week, when they are already earning interest at 19%!!). They need to honour the direct debit guarantee, or else what is the point in it? The wording of the direct debit guarantee should be altered to explicitly include fees and fines incurred as a result of errors made. They should be prepared to tell you if they have made an entry on your credit history and why, or at the very least remove such an entry if it is obvious they have made it in error.

nt2ntjo

My 18yr old son sold a lap top that he had won on a TV show on e-bay. Offers where entered, and the winning bid reached approx £700. The winning bidder made contact, funds where put into my son’s Lloyds bank account - deal done.

A few days latter my son told me he had not received his new bank card so we went into the local Lloyds bank where we asked had it been posted. We were ushered to a side room and after 1hr told my sons account was to be closed as they believed the money (from e-bay), had been deposited, was from fraudulent funds. The staff member would not listen to our true explanation and we were left with no bank account as he his account was closed!!!!!!!!!!!

A cheque was for the balance of his account and we collected this the next day -again they would not listen to our explanation. My son was about to start Uni. as we all know with out a bank account life does not exist or in fact you can not function. We report it to the police and to e-bay. Lloyds still would not converse and explain.

We managed to open an account with Barclays, and to this day we have no explanation for my innocent son. Me and my husband have been with Lloyds for a combined 66yrs!!! Valued customers????????????? We have fortunately have had healthy bank balances recently, and had my “local personal account manager” phoning to help us spend on other Lloyds products – I don’t think so - if only they were more helpful when we needed answers last year. FSA please note – ordinary loyal customers get treated a like this daily, and we feel powerless.

Nt2ntjo