ISA account Fraud!

sm82

I recently transferred my ISA account from HSBC to Halifax. All fine and dandy. i then get a call from Halifax fraud division about a month after I'd transferred the funds to say that someone had tried to clear my ISA of its funds over the phone. Now I only set up an online banking security with them. I'd not set up a telephone banking security etc. They had got suspisious of the request and blocked it. I was informed that the account would be froze, and the telephone security they (the fraudsters) set up would be wiped. My ISA would be transferred to a new account. :j. I went into branch with ID to prove who I was, and they confirmed all this to me in person as well.

This left me thinking that everything was ok, but I was puzzled as to how they could fake me when I hadn't lost anything/details etc. I hadn't had a break in, and no viruses/trojans on my computer. They only thing I could think of was that some post had gone astray with my details (account numbers at least) on it.

Anyway I thought no more of it. I access the ISA today to check, and find that almost £4.5K has been transferred out of my account over the last 3 days! I immediately got on the phone to halifax, noting this, and was told that

1)The freeze hadn't occured (i.e, whilst there was a note on the account to put one in place, it hadn't occured.)
2) They had managed to do the transfers over several hours, to 6 different people but fraud division hadn't picked up on it"!
3) If the telephone banking had been stopped, how could they have accessed the account?
4)The transfer to a new account was only recommended, not enacted!.

They promised to investigate, that the fraud division would be in contact within 5 days, and that the funds would be reimbursed to my account in the same timescale.

Needless to say I'm livid! :mad:

I'd like advice as to my rights regarding the refunds, and how I should proceed if things don't go quickly.

ALIBOBSY

My auntie had issues with Halifax and ID fraud. She is in her 70's and rarely uses the PC and does not have any credit at all-no mortgage, loans,credit cards nothing. But quite a bit in savings. the only accounts she had with Halifax were savings accounts.

She then out of the blue had a letter congratulating her on her new loan and confirming the payments due out of her new current account with them!!

Numpties had allowed a new current account and a £10k loan based on application using her details with an amended date of birth (I am not joking here). Obviously she complained. The closed both accounts and all was sorted (so she thought) and she was told CCTV of the person who came in to open the accounts was passed to the police.

6 months later they did it again-just a 6k loan this time.

After more faffing about it was sorted, but auntie had lost all faith in them so she closed and cleared all accounts with them. NO id problems since. Perhaps they have issues with their call centres??? Or some kind of leak in security.

Mind you all banks have fraud issues, just some deal with the fallout better than others.
Push them all the time until you get both the money back and any lost interest.

Ali x

coolesticeking

With Today's Technology it's getting easier than ever to do this, and most people understand that it does leave you vulnerable.

I think what is more annoying here is that after the first attempt that all these promises were made and that notes were put onto the account, but when they did finally clear the account it none of these notes were looked at, so what is the point of having notes if no one takes notice or actions these!

I would say the Halifax has not taken the security of your money seriously and would be writing a letter of complaint pronto!

I hope you get your money back ASAP!!

RussJK

Do they send letters for the online banking, or just email? You'd want to know who your email is with, and how good the password is.

Basic checks for malware:
http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam-download.php
http://www.surfright.nl/en/shop/hitmanpro
http://www.superantispyware.com/sasportable.php
http://support.kaspersky.com/downloads/utils/tdsskiller.exe
http://public.avast.com/~gmerek/aswMBR.htm

The above will find the majority of the most common infections. A quick scan with Malwarebytes can take as little as 3 minutes (or quite long on some computers), and all the rest are very fast except for SAS.

Feel free to post a Hijackthislog if you want someone to take a look at it:
http://www.trendmicro.com/ftp/products/hijackthis/beta/HijackThis.exe
Save to desktop, Run as Admin, run Scan and Save log, don't Fix anything, and paste the log that comes up in notepad. This won't breach your privacy or security, except that some entries might contain your windows login name (you can simply alter it in notepad, e.g. press CTRL H and replace 'yourname' with 'RoyGBiv')

pmduk

The Bank are clearly at fault and should replace your money immediately. I'd also make a formal complaint in writing, if necessary escalating the complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

sm82

Update - After discussing this in branch, and raising it with the fraud division. I have the money back in my account (phew!). However, I was told that I would be receiving a call from them within 2 hours. I have not received this, so I will be going back in branch tomorrow to complain, plus to request the address details of the head office, chief exec and head of the fraud division.
I will be writing to ask
a) why repeated "freezes" on the account weren't applied
b) why they let money out the account without consulting me when they knew that it was under suspected fraud
c) why they didn't call when they said they would
d) requesting an apology (from chief exec/head of division)
e) requesting an immediate transfer to another ISA account

f) all of the above otherwise will be supplying details to police for fraud investigation ( this is a bluff, but normally works!)

Lokolo

You don't ask for much do you?

Go through the complaint procedure, going to the Chief Executive is frankly pathetic, it's not their job. Halifax have a complaints department. Wait to see what they say before threatening them.

hello2007

Lokolo wrote: »

You don't ask for much do you?

Go through the complaint procedure, going to the Chief Executive is frankly pathetic, it's not their job. Halifax have a complaints department. Wait to see what they say before threatening them.

Make a complaint to Halifax and make it clear to them you are going to refer your complaint on to the Finanicial Ombudsman Service. Hailfax will be charged a fee for the investigation which is 500 pounds and they will want to avoid this and will offer you some money. However halifax complaints payments start from 25 pounds they are not going to pay you very much money.

2sides2everystory

Lokolo wrote: »

You don't ask for much do you?

Go through the complaint procedure, going to the Chief Executive is frankly pathetic, it's not their job. Halifax have a complaints department. Wait to see what they say before threatening them.

Where do people get these ideas? It's a bank. Banks are bad. Fraud is rife. Mis-selling is rife. CEOs need to change it from the top down. Excusing them is pathetic.

Lokolo

2sides2everystory wrote: »

Where do people get these ideas? It's a bank. Banks are bad. Fraud is rife. Mis-selling is rife. CEOs need to change it from the top down. Excusing them is pathetic.

A CEO isn't going to change everything in the bank because one person had fraud on their account are they?

I know if I was the CEO the email would go straight in the recycle bin.

2sides2everystory

I think decisions about what might happen around a CEO's mailbox might be a step above your paygrade, Lokolo.