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Loan ID Fraud?

sHAYM4N
sHAYM4N Posts: 40 Forumite
Bit of a strange one this, relating to Provident Personal & The Cooperative Bank

Before going on holiday last month I noticed a debit on my account to Provident Personal for £20 - a name I knew nothing about. Being in a bit of a rush, to pack & whatnot I decided it would wait until I returned home to query it. Possibly thought it could have been car insurance or something that had changed hands - but the amount was not something I recognised.

Coming back, I noticed that another debit had gone out the following month to Provident, and also a debit of £200 from my account.

Have spent a week on the phone to co-op trying to trace what has gone on - to be told it is a 'genuine processing error' finally today they have refunded the £200 + £15 award fee for the inconvenience (An operator had apparently put the wrong sort code in? Really aren't there safeguards for typos?!)

Anyway the Provident standing order - they have said is a seperate issue - it must have been setup by myself, and they have confirmed I was online that day, and it had to be setup using the card reader (which I lost nearly two years ago).

There's a reference number with the standing order (Provident apparently only deal with loans, and I have not taken one with them) so they are looking into it atm.

The bank have also said that when this one expires there is another setup for payments of £58?!

I occasionally have checked my bank whilst at work (won't be doing that again) so am worried that this idiot (me) forgot to log off or something. They've given me the date & time it was setup (2 months ago) and I really can't remember where or what I was doing on that date/time - other than looking at my roster (I finished at work at 14:00, standing order setup at 20:55). I do remember sometime prior to that trying to setup a standing order to my girlfriends account - but couldn't without the card reader. Sort codes account numbers are completely different, and the date is not one I would have chosen - so don't think it was a typo or something at my end.

Could I have been paying for someone elses loan? Could someone have set one up against my name? Could they trace it if so? No payments from Provident have gone into my account. Has someone cloned my card? Have I lost my memory?

I haven't cancelled the standing order atm because if it is fraudulent I want to keep the details there to be traced (isn't due for another 2 weeks anyway).

More than a little worrying, anyone had anything similar, or any advice? Feel like I'm going crazy!

Comments

  • provident are basically doorstep lenders,they lend you £100 then collect £10 a week off you for years(soon as you pay one loan off they sell you another),so assuming its the same provident its abit baffling
  • sHAYM4N
    sHAYM4N Posts: 40 Forumite
    edited 12 July 2012 at 6:43PM
    Definately strange, bank just rang up again - to check I had sorted everything out with the previous problem.

    Confirmed that they have no notes on the standing order, so it must have been setup at my end.

    Suggested that I contact Provident and demand to speak to their fraud department. Only thing I can think of, is if I left myself logged in at work that day? Only other ways I access my banking is through my phone (which is always on me) or my PC at home - which no-one else can access.

    Looking online, stranger still, as you say they are doorstep lenders, and people have struggled to even get a sortcode or account number off of them - so how have I, for a loan I know nothing about?

    Surely the money has gone somewhere? To pay off someones debt and they can trace that? Also wouldn't the account number & sortcode have to be correct or it would be returned? So it couldn't be a typo anywhere.

    If it is tied to someone elses account, would they disclose who? Would it be a police matter, or would it not be a crime because I had left myself logged in?

    Stranger still co-ops online banking system has an extremely short time out period, so if something dodgy was done at work, it would have had to be done very quickly. It normally times out within a couple of minutes of inactivity :mad:

    The bank said it could be cancelled, but I'm going to leave it active for the minute in case it helps trace the route. I've got a couple of weeks until it is due again by the looks of it.

    They are also quite a local company, so bound to have a few loans issued around these parts. Something is amiss
  • redpete
    redpete Posts: 4,705 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    Depending on how the IT is setup at your company it is possible that someone could have intercepted the messages between your PC and the Internet when you logged on to the bank site.
    loose does not rhyme with choose but lose does and is the word you meant to write.
  • sHAYM4N
    sHAYM4N Posts: 40 Forumite
    redpete wrote: »
    Depending on how the IT is setup at your company it is possible that someone could have intercepted the messages between your PC and the Internet when you logged on to the bank site.

    Yep, was beginning to think that - also would account for the time difference between logging in at work and the transaction being done in the evening - if they've got the keystrokes, guess they could do it anytime!

    Still a good chance it's a bank messup, or something more innocent - but if I get a name I'll be looking for it.

    I wouldn't normally use work PC's for that, but I work in a security control room, so locally I'm covered by who can access the room and a big dome camera above my head but like you say over the network could be an issue.

    Guess I've done all I can and shall wait and see..
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