New rules for reporting card, cheque and online banking fraud

MSE_Martin

Posted 3 April 2007

What's this about?

If you have been unfortunate enough to be the victim of card, cheque or online banking fraud, as of April 07 there are new procedures in England, Wales and Northern Ireland (not Scotland) on who you should report the fraud to.

What should I do if it's happened to me?

Your bank or financial institution is now the first point of contact, not the police as it has been in the past. It is then up to the financial institution involved to pass details on to the police, hopefully making the process easier for consumers and speeding up the whole investigation.

Where another crime has been committed with the fraud, for example you have had your wallet stolen, you still need to contact the police about this, as well as your bank.

Further reading

This is a good move for consumers but of course it’s even better to protect yourself from fraud in the first place. See my article on Free Identity Fraud Help for details on Capital One's Free Identity Theft Assistance and this useful guide to preventing fraud by APACS, the trade association for payment services.

Martin

JeffMinter

Great news but a bit late for me. Claiming back the money in a few days before April was no problem - fill in a form agreeing that if the police needed me I'll help, and soon enough I got it all back. What really bugs me is the total lack of information to the customer - who did it, how did it happen? Things they need to know, not only for peace of mind but to prevent such measures from happening again.

30ramjet80

I had some money taken out of my account. A series of 6 small sums, one after the other, to unknown and unusually-named organisations. The bank refunded it, fine. But they never informed me how this came about. Could it have been deliberate fraud? In which case why was the account not emptied? Could it have been a problem with the banking computer system? I shall probably never know, but would very much like to.

clovis_2

I've been speaking to my bank today.

Apparently someone was withdrawing money from an atm using my card and pin, it got flagged up cos it was in Canada. One transaction got through abou 130 pound the others have been rejected so far. They said that some might slip through so I need to keep a check. I'm just concerned that maybe other transactions have gone through before, so I need to check back, trouble is it's a joint acccount so that makes it a little more complicated with checking.

I had to agree they could forward details to the police and now I have to fill in some forms and return the card, and hopefully the money will be refunded.

dwynnehugh

The main worry that I have on this new system is that the bank are very UNLIKELY to call police in the event of a normal fraud on the basis that "you don't wash your dirty linen in public". On that basis much less fraud will be reported and some smart politician will jump on this new system to crow "just how much crime has decreased under this (whatever) Government"

dwynnehugh

The above is my first post, great info from Martin, may have found me £4000 that I had overpaid on my mortgage before we redeemed it. Many thanks

baldbettyblue

I found out that someone bought flights from Easyjet using my card without my knowlege. The lack of money in my account stopped my mortgage being paid. I have already informed my bank, filled in a statement they sent me, but now I need to now when the money will be refunded. Does anybody know how long this wretched process takes before I get the money refunded, its been 3week so far.

topherjohnc

dwynnehugh wrote: »

The main worry that I have on this new system is that the bank are very UNLIKELY to call police in the event of a normal fraud on the basis that "you don't wash your dirty linen in public". On that basis much less fraud will be reported and some smart politician will jump on this new system to crow "just how much crime has decreased under this (whatever) Government"

I'm wondering if the following is another reason which may make it less likely the bank will contact the police? Due to the conditions imposed on the merchant (i.e. supplier of service or goods) for obtaining payment via credit cards the bank automatically recovers from the merchant the payment it refunds to the customer's account. So its the merchant who ends up out of pocket, not the bank or the card user. I believe this is designed, as it should be, to put the onus on the merchant to ensure his customer's transactions are secure.

denny250

just about 18 months ago i noticed 5 small purchases on a woolwich debit card my wife and i dont use
one had a telephone number as the purchase record and the money returned i at first thought it was a banking error (woolwich are prone to errors regularly) i called the bank and was told it wasnt an error then i called the police who said it wasnt up to me to report it as i wasnt the victim of the crime as the bank would be paying me the money back they were the victim

within a week the bank had repaid all the money i also called the number of the shop that they thief tried to purchase from they helped and told me that it seemed like a suspicious sale which is why they didnt allow the purchase to go through they also gave me the delivery address which was in london the police said they wouldnt even try to go round to that house because it would just be a fake address with someone waiting outside for the delivery as nigerian and eastern europeon gangs opperated in that way
i said why dont they pretend to be delivering it to which they said they were not allowed to



the other purchases were from asda home entertainment (who told me the thief had all my details inc the security number on the card) national coaches who wouldnt help quoting the data protection act (it was my data grrrrrrr)
and ryanair the thief hadnt used the ticket purchased and the police didnt even follow that lead up

In the end the police told me that the bank didnt want to make a fuss about this as there have been cases of call center staff selling peoples details and they didnt want that publicised (the woolwich call center was in clacton essex)
so nothing was done :mad::mad::mad:

kitty123

Hi,
This is interesting. I have posted a thread about an ebay scam that happened to me last night. I have literally spent hours on the phone to my bank and the fraudster's bank and they both categorically deny ANY responsibility for any of this. They were so unhelpful. Luckily I reported it to the police as well and an officer is coming round to take a statement from me tomorrow and there has been some investigation into the scammer already.

Should I write to my banks and complain that they should have been more helpful??

James

HI Martin, I hope you read replies to your own posts.

I was wondering if you'd include www.freeidprotection.co.uk under Free Identiy Fraud Help. Simply because this is the only proactive system available which may generate FREE indications and Warnings of attacks on YOUR Credit File.

Furthermore it works with ALL lenders, and not just those who subscribe to various organisations.

The East of Scotland Fraud Forum seen fit to publish this:

Click here.

They system is acknowledged by Equifax and supported by Robert Goodwill MP.


It's the simplest method of detrring application fraud while offering subscribers the best possible protection. The only down side is that applications made using this system may take a little longer as they have to be manually processed. A small price to pay for added security and a minor inconvenience which the financial industry could easily overcome.

Consumers have a choice if they wish to use the system or not. Crooks don't have a choice.