Bank fraud, how to stop it happening?

danowat

This is the second instance of someone fraudulently access my bank account and withdrawing money, how can I stop it occuring again?.

First time was at christmas, someone had (somehow) managed to pay themselves £3000 from my bank account via paypal, my bank refunded me, but never really told me how it happened.

Fast forward to yesterday, and I had a letter from the bank saying a cheque that I supposedly paid in (I didn't) had been returned unpaid, worried, I check my bank account and was completely shocked at what I saw.....

Someone had transfered the best part of £7000 from my account into my joint account, and then proceeded to withdraw it, over the counter hundreds of miles away from me, over the space of two days, they were also paying in money and cheques aswell as withdrawing, meaning I ended up about £5000 a drift, again, the bank were very good at refunding me, but I am now seriously paranoid about it happening again.

My bank are telling me that my accounts are "seriously comprimised" and I may have to open new accounts.

I have no idea how they became comprimised, I am spot on with security, computers always clean, passwords strong, bank correspondence shredded etc etc, I am just at a loss as how this happened, the bank are asking ME how I think it happened, I've got no idea.

Just looking for anyone who has experianced this level of fraud in such a short amount of time, and how to go about stopping it happening in the future

pmduk

All I can suggest is that you make a point of checking your accounts online very regularly at least every couple of days (I'd do it daily). Starting from scratch with new accounts, cards, passwords etc sounds a good idea to me.

If you have a direct debit from paypal to your bank account do you really need it?