** Fraudulent disputed withdrawal * need advice now

angel81

jed1 wrote: »

Just one thing about this strikes me as a bit odd. I have not read every single reply so i don't know if someone else has raised this but here goes -

If this current account was not wanted, not asked for & not even used then how the heck was there enough money in it to withdraw £500?

Overdraft?

jed1_2

I guess that is a possibility. Eitherway i have a feeling the OP's argument will not be upheld. They seem to keep going back to how they didn't want, ask for, or use the account but none of that is really relevant because the fact remains they knew they had the account & did not maintain it or close it.

Unfortunately you can't absolve yourself of all responsibility for fraud on an account just because you didn't ask for or want the account so i think OP needs to stop going down that route because it will not change anything now. Hindsight is a wonderful thing but you should just close accounts that are redundant to your needs.

It is afterall the duty of the customer to notify banks of any change of address & this was not done which seems to have been the cause of all this. I think the best they can do is continue contesting the claim of negligence, the bank needs to prove that's the case anyway. Having said this could not notifying an address change be construed as negligence or not doing everything possible to prevent the fraud?

puddy

it was 250 withdrawn, the 2 withdrawals came to that amount

it apparently is a current account and the overdraft facility is a proportion of the mortgage outstanding so theres lots in there.

puddy

jed1 wrote: »

I guess that is a possibility. Eitherway i have a feeling the OP's argument will not be upheld. They seem to keep going back to how they didn't want, ask for, or use the account but none of that is really relevant because the fact remains they knew they had the account & did not maintain it or close it.

Unfortunately you can't absolve yourself of all responsibility for fraud on an account just because you didn't ask for or want the account so i think OP needs to stop going down that route because it will not change anything now. Hindsight is a wonderful thing but you should just close accounts that are redundant to your needs.

It is afterall the duty of the customer to notify banks of any change of address & this was not done which seems to have been the cause of all this. I think the best they can do is continue contesting the claim of negligence, the bank needs to prove that's the case anyway. Having said this could not notifying an address change be construed as negligence or not doing everything possible to prevent the fraud?

the account cant be closed, they have confirmed that. we have checked in the key facts that an account is set up alongside it, it makes no mention of how this account functions (ie whether it has cards, cheque books etc). the mortgage didnt start until 12th june, so there would be no expectation from us that any associated account would be opened any earlier than that. barclays state that they sent his card and pin on 22nd and 28th may! at this point, we were still arguing with barclays about whether they could release funds for us (they were saying they couldnt, the mortgage wasnt complete etc etc) so now we're not even sure why it was opened when it did. but you're right, it was our account nonetheless

his address was not changed, there was no address change to report.

puddy

an update - we wrote to the FOS and we wrote to the chairman of Barclays.

got a phone call today from the chairmans office, he is on holiday but the person who deals with complaints sent to him, has dealt with our issue. He has apologised and refunded the money back into the account. but i did not get the impression that he comprehended the full issue, that being the information given to us about whose card was used to make the withdrawals and the breach of security by sending my partners card to the wrong address. he merely accepted that as my partner had never received the card, he cant be liable for monies withdrawn on it. anyway, we will wait to see what comes in writing from him as he said he would write to us.

so we still have a complaint via the ombudsman, do we keep it? i have asked for compensation for the stress and time spent on this

the other issue is that for some reason, the statements for that account come in my name, yet this is a joint account. i could go off and spend thousands on it, and my partner would never know if i did not choose to tell him, surely that cant be right?

Evilm

puddy wrote: »

so we still have a complaint via the ombudsman, do we keep it? i have asked for compensation for the stress and time spent on this

the other issue is that for some reason, the statements for that account come in my name, yet this is a joint account. i could go off and spend thousands on it, and my partner would never know if i did not choose to tell him, surely that cant be right?

I would keep the complaint in - I think there are at least still three things to be sorted here:

1) that you mention that it is a joint account but statements are only in your name - this is incorrect and needs addressing.

2) That you haven't mentioned you've had confirmation that your partners card, that he didn't receive, has been cancelled so this can never happen again.

3) I would also see if you can get the Overdraft removed, or even downgrade the account to a "basic" account so that nothing can happen on that account without you putting money in it.

I would also be asking why they are insisting this account stays open even though it is empty and you have no intention of using it - That requirement seems very odd to me.

puddy

thats right, in addition, we really havent had any confirmation that they acknowledge their error of sending his card to an address that was never his and that he never claimed was his

i do suspect that they like the account to be kept because they either
- want to have on their records that they have more customers with current accounts than they do, sort of confirming their place in the market

- so that there is always a chance that someone 'needs' to borrow money quickly, using their overdraft and makign their mortgage last longer