Debit Card Fraud

debtfreeby2013

Evening all,

So I got my student loan today which is very exciting as it is one of the only times I go above my overdraft, haha (naughty I know). Anyway, I checked my account at about 8am and had £2300 available, an hour later this had decreased to £1729. I phoned the bank and they said there are debit card payments earmarked for £517 (I knew about £112 of the pending payments). I then checked my account at about 9.30pm and there was a total of £405 still earmarked. I decided to fiddle with my budgeting sheet so looked on my acc for the total amount of certain outgoings and another £552 had left my account.

Anyway, long story short, I phoned my bank and they have said that I have to wait for the transactions to clear before I can dispute the payment (kinda make sense I suppose) but I'm currently £957 worse off.

Does anyone else have any experience of this kind of thing? Roughly how long will it take, after reported, to have the money returned? I have to pay my rent next week and need to pay a minimum of £850 (bond and 1 month rent) but preferably need £2550 to pay for everything. I just don't know what to do and feel physically sick that someone has done this to me.

There's a report from about 10 days ago online on my local news website thing which said that there have been skimming devices found at 2 banks near to one where I withdrew £30 on Friday night so I'm starting to think that this is how they got my details so I phoned the 101 service to make them aware that there's possibly another skimming device. If that was the case I just don't think I will ever trust taking cash out at a cash machine again.

timbo58

Took 2 weeks for natwest to sort mine out, right pain in the !!!.
Had to sign a legal statement declaring this that and t'other as fraud and a few little things ok.

Cash machines ok: swipe your hand over the slots 1st: amazing how effective this can be when plastic skimmers fall off!
Look for hidden mini cameras or !!!!! lurking about.

Don't use small independent garages either (mine was done in a small garage in Bristol).

MoneySaverLog

debtfreeby2013 wrote: »

There's a report from about 10 days ago online on my local news website thing which said that there have been skimming devices found at 2 banks near to one where I withdrew £30 on Friday night so I'm starting to think that this is how they got my details so I phoned the 101 service to make them aware that there's possibly another skimming device. If that was the case I just don't think I will ever trust taking cash out at a cash machine again.

Most likely, I don't like cash machines, especially outside ones full stop. Partly for this reason, another for thinking it's going to short change me and no one around in order to complain when or if it does. Then there is the hassle of getting the bank to believe me if it were to happen.

debtfreeby2013

Thanks both.
Timbo - do they really fall off that easily? Maybe I'll have to try that.
Moneysaverlog - I am with you on that one but I'm not the most organised person in the world so it's usually at night when I'm getting cash out. Lol. I'm going to try to get cash out at post offices and cashback places (like asda) from now on. This is really not a nice feeling.

debtfreeby2013

Turns out that the 2 payments were to wonga.com :( and before anyone asks, no I didn't take out a loan with them and forget about it. The payments were made into someone else's bank account but using my card details for the repayment. Good news is though that the bank are paying it back into my account tomorrow.

MoneySaverLog

You're not the first person to report such fraud. This has happened before I seem to remember reading. :-(

debtfreeby2013

MoneySaverLog wrote: »

You're not the first person to report such fraud. This has happened before I seem to remember reading. :-(

I did a quick Google search and these forums were first to come up. Makes pretty depressing reading but I'm not the only one by any stretch and it is almost exclusively wonga.

pqrdef

It's time this was stopped. They don't need to skim your card and catch your pin to make payments to Wonga. They only need the same information you give out when shopping online.

MoneySaverLog

Why they cannot insist that their customers pay back the money from the same account that is used for payment is beyond me. It leaves Wonger in a position that they are open to fraud like this.

I suppose they can afford it though with the extortionate interest rates they charge.

debtfreeby2013

I know what you mean but I was talking to my brother about it and pointed out that I use my parents credit card quite often (with their permission of course) to pay for things in my name, for example, hotels because I abused my credit card so would rather not have the temptation and I'm glad that that's possible.
Maybe though, wonga should start taking the money back from the bank account by direct debit or standing order and maybe use card details as a back up to avoid this type of fraud. Is there any feasible reason why not?

Also, if my card wasn't skimmed how did they get my card details? I'm very particular with only using my card on trusted sites (post office, tesco, amazon etc) or pay via PayPal.