please help have lost £3000

homealone_2

i invested £1000 many moons ago in a tracker isa while working for a building society as seemed good idea at time, then set up £50 a month s/o to go into it monthly. it was originally intended as some money for my kids if i were to die. did not even get details about withdrawals/access etc as had no intention of touching it. after posting on here recently while contemplating about cashing it and few scattered shares to pay credit card bill i decided to ring them and check its value. must admit did not look that closely at six monthly investment statements. ANYWAY enough background so i rang to ask how much they were worth and was told £2125 i was bit disappointed as was sure had paid lots more than that in over the years and she said well yes it has gone down alot but bear in mind you did make a £3000 withdrawal in april 2005. horrified i screamed oh no i didnt. she said i definitely had and that the cheque was cashed a matter of days later! firstly i had no idea that i had anywhere near that amount in there and secondly had no knowledge of even being able to withdraw some whenever, as such. he persisted i had had the cheque and i persisted i hadnt,. he said he would organise a copy of the cheque to "refresh my memory" as it was put really sarcastically and it was suggested i contacted my bank to get them to look for that amount deposited into my account as the copy cheque would take at least six weeks and they were convinced once i had done this i would remember having received the money. i only have accounts at nationwide and never have that kind of money floating around in my bank accounts but by now i was even doubting myself, she sounded so sure. i rang my bank and they went back as far as jan 2005 and confirmed it hadnt been deposited. i got back to melon where tracker was and they repeated the same thing and after a long arguement they finally agreed to send me a copy of the letter i was supposed to have sent requesting this money. two weeks of waiting and now the story takes on a really scay theme the letter arrived this morning. and my god i cant believe it, the signature certainly looks like mine but the wording was not any i would have used. i called them and said even though the signatures looked similar i did not write the letter of request. still sounding like they didnt believe a word they said same thing i woud have to wait until copy of cheque arrives to see where it has gone....... i am absolutely terrified i have had this money stolen and wont be able to prove it. none of it makes sense how did they get my account number? how did they get my signature and how if the cheque was made payable to me was someone else able to cash it??? i cant see how it could have happened and have exhauseted every possible scenario. i cant blame them for not beleving me as the whole thing looks unbelieveable. it cant have been stolen intransit as how did whoever stole it arrange it to be drawn in first place. all day i have been going out of mind. the only thing strange is that the signature was that used when i first got married and loads of letters were sent out to companies to inform them of marriage on personally designed addressed paper like you can set up on word and that was what was used. the only thing that i can imagine is that someone in the bank scanned my self addressed letter with sig on as it was and then typed request on it, they then intercepted cheque and using my id on orriginal application were able to open an account somewhere to cash it. but i know that all sounds so elaboaret and over the top that they and anyone else will think i see too many detective stories. but nothing else fits. what if cheque arrives and somehow has me as payee. was so sure this letter would clear up mistake that they used wrong account number or soething but there it all is in black and white. am so so so sorry for rambling on but i cant sleep eat or think staight, all i know is that i did not write that letter or cash any cheque. what on earth is going to happen and will i have a breakdown before it gets resolved. as i will then need to prove whatever account it went into was not mine. banks dont have fraud go on to this elaborate state but if not where is my money????????

Xbigman

First of all, don't panic. You have not seen the cheque yet and don't know just what has happened. Until you do it is not worth losing sleep over. The good news is that the original check and paperwork exists. Do you have your bank statements from that time?

How could this have happened? Well the easy answer is that it could be done in any one of a thousand ways. To prove anything you would need the original documents and expert investigation. Your first step is to get the copy of the cheque, the second is to report this as fraud to the police. Then officially report this as fraud to the building society in writing, recorded delivery. And don't take no for an answer from any of them.
Regards


X

Market_Oracle

Is the return postal address on the letter the same as yours ?

If so , who did you have staying over around that time ?

and, please break up your post into paragraphs, its difficult to read

Hmmmm

if the address is not yours, perhaps it was an inside job at the institution ?

K9cuddles

I haven't read all your post but I work in a claims area where we have areas for potential fraud.

1) Get a copy of the paperwork (if any) saying you wanted the £3k (that should have you sig on) with all details of where it was cashed (the should be able to see this!) and where the correspondance was sent.
2) Get a crime number from the police - this will mean that the company will have to investiage.

Good luck!

johnmoney05

Market_Oracle wrote:

Is the return postal address on the letter the same as yours ?

If so , who did you have staying over around that time ?

and, please break up your post into paragraphs, its difficult to read

Hmmmm

if the address is not yours, perhaps it was an inside job at the institution ?

I agreed with MO post. The cheque should have been sent to your home address. If not, then must be inside job.

Cannon_Fodder

The other party's Bank MUST know the Sort Code and Account Number of the place where the cheque was cashed, when you have that information maybe its location will make the local/inside aspect clearer.

Good luck...

si1503

Xbigman wrote:

To prove anything you would need the original documents and expert investigation. Your first step is to get the copy of the cheque, the second is to report this as fraud to the police. Then officially report this as fraud to the building society in writing, recorded delivery. And don't take no for an answer from any of them.

Agreed!

Good Luck to the original poster.

homealone_2

Market_Oracle wrote:

Is the return postal address on the letter the same as yours ?

If so , who did you have staying over around that time ?

and, please break up your post into paragraphs, its difficult to read

Hmmmm

if the address is not yours, perhaps it was an inside job at the institution ?

yes, the letter heading looked the same as mine and no, i did not have anyone staying over at the time. even if i had someone staying how would they have been able to predice they would be able to get to the cheque before me?

Ian_W

The important thing here, IMO, is to established the Bank/BS and account number the cheque was paid into. The copy of the cheque isn't going to tell you anything you don't know, it'll by made out to you for £3K - end of story.

The "smoking gun" is the account it was cleared through, if it's one at the same BS as your investment was with and you've never had one there it could point to internal fraud. It's rare but it does happen.

Even if it's not with that BS it could still be internal but it's not that easy these days to open an account at any other Bank or BS without ID docs. I'm sorry to say this but you may also have to consider people close to you - if it isn't an internal job then someone with access to your post and able to get at your ID docs is really the only other real possibility I can think of.

It's not clear who you've dealt with at the BS up to now but I assume it's someone who administers these trackers. I would contact them again and ask to speak to their security/fraud dept, I'd do that before reporting it to the police but do the latter if you get no joy from them.

BoL.

jamesd

Wait until you find out where the money went before you report it as fraud. It's possible that you might not want to report it once you have more information.

Scully's_Girl

homealone, please ensure you keep us up to date on what transpires. We want to stay with you through this