Orange, DD, Bank, Fraud, Police? Where to go Please.

PasturesNew

GDB2222 wrote: »

Oh, and buy a shredder. We keep one in the kitchen and one in my office.

We've got one - and it's used religiously.

Any identity theft must have been done by intercepting mail at a guess.

Have to see what the little man on the phone says in a minute.

MamaMoo_2

The bank should immediately reverse the transactions.

See here http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/ombudsman-news/27/27-directdebit-guarantee.htm

fluffnutter

The Direct Debit guarantee makes the banks responsible for any errors that the collecting company might make. If your friend/relative has trouble getting the money back, make sure you remind Barclays of this fact. They can't wash their hands of the matter and blame Orange.

PasturesNew

What a palava.

I phoned the number and got an Indian-speaking man, who couldn't understand when I said the word "fraud", it wasn't the Fraud Dept at all. He said he'd give me the number - and I rang - he'd given me the credit card fraudline. Got them to transfer me as it's not a credit card.... got put through to Debit card fraud.

SRSLY peeved by this point. All I know is "there is no card on/used on this account, it's a current account". Spoke to the first English-accented person, who said we need to go to the Branch to deal with it.

So going off to the branch in 10 minutes.

Hintza

If the card has never been used then it will not be an online transaction that gave the person the details of the account so that leaves:-

1. Error
2. Bank Staff (unlikely I would have thought)
3. Family or friend

When the beggars got into my bank account I found Barclays very good (and I haven't been to my branch since 1990) allsorted out over the phone and with one form to fill in.

PasturesNew

OK. Update.

Bank confirmed the DD was cancelled when we first reported the DD.
Bank confirmed they have started to investigate it - case is not closed - and at some unidentifiable point in the future we'd get the money back.
Bank suggested we go to the Orange shop, to find out if the phone's in our name. If identity fraud has happened, then it'd be down to us to contact the police.
Bank said that they'll investigate it, pay the money back if relevant - and that's the end of it so far as they're concerned.

So, off to the Orange shop (although I didn't think we had one) - and it turns out we don.t

Nearest actual Orange shop is a 40 mile round trip. The man in the phone shop said it's best sorted out over the phone, not by going into a shop - but that over the phone they'd not tell us anything as we don't know the phone number of the account the DD is paying.

So .... how do we ascertain if identity fraud has taken place?

PZH

PasturesNew wrote: »

So .... how do we ascertain if identity fraud has taken place?

You might possibly find out when they try to take the next DD payment and find that it has been cancelled - keep an eye on the account to make sure that another DD is not set up. (Can you view it online ?)

You could always write to Orange, quote the DD reference number and explain what has happened to see if they can shed any light on it. If it is fraud then they might be interested as well as someone may be using their service and not paying.


But, if the DD was set up in error (like I say, it might have been a simple case of a wrong digit from a legit customer) then they may not be able to give you any details (confidentiality and all that...)

GDB2222

PasturesNew wrote: »

OK. Update.

Bank confirmed the DD was cancelled when we first reported the DD.
Bank confirmed they have started to investigate it - case is not closed - and at some unidentifiable point in the future we'd get the money back.
Bank suggested we go to the Orange shop, to find out if the phone's in our name. If identity fraud has happened, then it'd be down to us to contact the police.
Bank said that they'll investigate it, pay the money back if relevant - and that's the end of it so far as they're concerned.

So, off to the Orange shop (although I didn't think we had one) - and it turns out we don.t

Nearest actual Orange shop is a 40 mile round trip. The man in the phone shop said it's best sorted out over the phone, not by going into a shop - but that over the phone they'd not tell us anything as we don't know the phone number of the account the DD is paying.

So .... how do we ascertain if identity fraud has taken place?

You have two choices:
1. Forget it, just make sure the bank refunds you and no more DDs are set up, or
2. Involve the Police and let them deal with Orange

I'd go for option 1. Also, get the bank to change the account number.

maninthestreet

It's the bank that has to report an alleged offence such as this to the police, not the account holder.

PasturesNew

maninthestreet wrote: »

It's the bank that has to report an alleged offence such as this to the police, not the account holder.

I specifically and clearly asked this question at the bank - and was told "No, that's for you to do".

I got the distinct impression that the woman at the bank thought that we were the ones doing the fraud/trying to cancel a legit DD. After the visit the account holder said that's the impression they'd also got when they first reported it.

So the bank are really quite dismissive/snooty about it - and probably think we're doing some scam.

She absolutely said it is US that would have to involve the police.