Fraudulent banking transactions: Tell the FSA Consumer Panel your views

puddy

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?

Yes,, 2 withdrawals, one of £100 and the other of £150 from a current account connected to a mortgage. We do not use the current acount.
When was this?
19th April 2010
What was your bank's response when you raised this with them?
I initially thought it couldnt be anything other than a banking error, however was informed that these withdrawals were correct. I asked for all cards connected to the account to be cancelled. I assume they were but we were then sent new cards, I had specifically requested that we have no cards for this account as we do not use it. I was informed we cannot close the account as its part of the mortgage conditions.
I was sent a withdrawal dispute form. I was informed it was my card that had been used to withdraw the money. I answered all the questions on the form in respect of my card.
The bank (Barclays) responsed that they concluded I had been negligent with my card in some way and would not refund the money.
We appealed. I felt at the time that this could be a phantom withdrawal or that new card and pin for me had been sent out without me knowing and someone had got hold of this, we asked where and when any cards were sent. This is a joint account, I had asked that all correspondance be to both of us, however, the bank has consistently written to only one of us at a time. They also continue to send statements in my name only for some reason.
On the appeal, the bank reviewed our information, but felt it needed to apologise to us for incorrect information it had provided. They confirmed it was not my card that the withrawals used, it was my partners card. However, the concluded that due to the responses on the dispute form I completed, it was clear that cardS were received for 'us' and therefore my partner had been negligent with his, therefore no fraud had occured.
They confirmed in the letter that my partner's card and pin was sent to my old address. However, he has never lived at nor claimed to live at my address. By the time they sent the cards and pins, I had moved out because of the delay in processing the mortgage. I received my card and pin because I had a redirection for me. His would have been collected by whoever was at the address after me. We had assumed that any account connected with the mortgage would have been opened when the mortgage started. The mortgage didnt start until 3 weeks after the pins and cards were sent.
With this information, clearly we stated that my partner had not received his card nd we critcised their assumption for this based on a form I completed for my card only. We specified that they had sent his card to an address he didnt live at and had never claimed to live at and were therefore concerned about their breach of security in this matter. We were sure that they would realise their mistake and reach the same conclusion, that whoever got hold of the card and pin used it.
We appealed. This came back to say, that they upheld the previous decision because 'a fraudster would not wait 12 months to use a card because they would not know how long the card was active for', and also concluded that because there were no unsuccessful pin attempts, it was unlikely that someone could guess the correct pin!
We now realise that the person reviewing the appeal could not have read the letter properly. They dont seem to realise that the fraudster would not have to guess the pin, they were provided with it. They also didnt answer the concern about his items being sent to the wrong address. We have taken it to the ombudsman and now wait for their response.
Did your bank refund the money taken?

no
If you did get your money back how long did it take?

Was the bank helpful in its response?
see above, not at all. No acknowledgement of the concerns raised about sending the card to the wrong address. No acknowledgement of the fact that this account is part of the mortgage conditions. It is likely therefore that when someone is applying for a mortgage, they have a particular date to move out. No where in the key facts or elsewhere does it say when the account will be opened or whether there are cards/chequebooks/pins etc attached to it and therefore we are unsure when or how this account was to be opened. We had no interest in the account, it was unwanted but had to be taken out because we had the mortgage with them. We are told we cannot close this account.
In addition as in their first response, we were informed it was my card used to withdraw the money, then later they confirmed it was my partners. they used information pertaining to my card and my responses to consider my partner had been negligent with his card!
They are not able to tell us where the withdrawals have taken place, they say they only have 'High Street' as one of the addresses for the cash point. They say they are not able to gain information that the totals tally for the day of the withdrawals (I had previously thought that it migh be a cashpoint error), they say they are not able to show us CCTV footage of the withdrawals in question.



What could, or should it have done better?
initially told us whose card was used to withdraw the money, understood that because they sent the card to the wrong address, they have been negligent with his details leading to the fraud

jobmoca

I tried to withdraw some money from an atm on my debit card in June 2010 at which point my card was refused. Later that day, on phoning the bank (Cahoot), it transpired that they had blocked my card as they suspected it had been used fraudulently for two transactions. They went through my recent transactions with me and sure enough there were two transactions, one of £270 (timberland.co.uk) and one of £5 (national express) which I knew I had not made. They told me that the transactions had been authorised and I had to wait for the money to be taken and then contact Cahoot in order for them to send me out a form to start the process of investigating the transaction. My card was also cancelled and a replacement sent (the disadvantage of using an online bank is that this can be rather annoying if you need money!) Eventually, the £270 was never taken but the £5 was and there was another transaction for £30 (o2) which appeared, which again I did not make. So, the forms arrived and I claimed for the £35. On receiving the form, Cahoot put the money back into my account it probably took two weeks in all for this to occur from ringing them) while investigating and today I received an email saying they/Visa had investigated and it turned out to be fraud and the case was resolved in my favour.

A few comments from me on this. Why didn't they phone me or at least email me to say my card had been blocked and was suspected of being used fraudulently rather than have the embarassment of being denied money at the cash machine? As a customer, surely they need to inform me if they are going to stop me accessing my own money? Further, after the initial phone call, I was a bit confused as to why I had to wait for the monies to be taken before the investigation process could begin. I do understand (as happened) that the money may not be taken but it feels a little frustrating just waiting for someone else to take your money. I did ring up again to clarify this as it was not explained at all in the initial phone call and the cahoot agent treated me with contempt making me feel like I was being unreasonable for asking as to how the process worked and why it worked the way it did. This needs to be clearer. Also, I don't quite understand how a third transaction (for the £30) took place before my card was blocked as I was not informed about this when I rang up when I went through all my recent transactions prior to them blocking the card.

John_Pierpoint

Welcome to MSE.
Forget drugs & smuggling & house breaking; fraud is now the world's largest crime.
My experience is here:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/332339

runu23

bamboozler wrote: »

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.

hey there,
what had exactly happend to you, iv got over 18000 stolen from my barclays through telephone banking and dnt kno if they gonna refund me they keep saying they are ivestigatin. i dnt under stand how they investigat if it was through telephone banking, what was ur situation?