Wonga fraud

startlight

Ok so I'm not too sure which subject to post this in..

But basically a few days ago I noticed £10 had come out my bank account and it wasn't showing up on my online statement as to what it was straight away.. The next morning I checked my account on my iphone app and noticed my balance had gone down another £10 and it still didnt say what it was. Next day later I checked online and it both showed up as WONGA. Called up barclays saying there's two transactions come out of my account to wonga yet I've never had a loan from them not anyone else or any dealings with them whatsoever! And the person on the other line said to me they can't do anything about it as wonga isn't a fraudulent company and that I would have to contact wonga myself and sort it out. (Surely he's wrong?!)

Anyway, I contacted wonga straight away and they gave me another number for their fraud department but stated I would have to wait until Monday to call as that department only opens Monday to Friday. I called up yesterday after waiting and waiting and calling back, I finally got through to someone. I told him what happened, he asked for my name and address and then informed me that infact there is an account open in my name. I informed him it wasn't opened by me and must be fraud and he said he would have to open a fraud case... And then the phone cut off!! Tried calling back many times after, left a message on there which states they will call back within the next hour but nothing.

I've been trying to call all morning today but no luck! Left another message but I'm sure I won't get a call back.

I'd like some advice as to what my next steps should be? I will definitely contact Barclays again!


Thanks in advance.

fermi

---> What should I do about a payment from of my account that I didn't authorise?

ValHaller

Basically Barclays should own the matter. If you say you have never authorised Wonga to take from your account, it is up to Barclays to prove to you that you did and up to Wonga to prove it for Barclays.

Don't take nonsense from them, it is all the same if it is a mistake or fraud. Saying Wonga is not a fraudulent company is an insultingly irrelevant fob off. Instruct Barclays to charge the money back and put the charges into dispute.

spacey2012

You need to contact your banks own fraud team, this involves getting past the dumb goon that answers the phone.
Your mindset needs to be set very firmly !
Someone taking money out of your bank = you are a Victim
Someone taking money from Wonga = Wonga are a victim.
Be very very careful, do not let Wonga make you the victim, they will hound you for money.
If someone has defrauded Wonga, thats Wongas Problem, make this very clear from day one and stick to it.
With your bank insist you are reporting a very serious unauthorised fraudulent transaction, demand log numbers of the incident and demand they take immediate action to cut off the unauthorised portal.
You will need to insist if this is not done immediately you will close the account at once and move everything elsewhere.
I have been here, the only action that worked was to close the account immediately and move banks.
The people who had been defrauded, A loan company, I refused to be the victim and told them tough, your the victim, tighten your security, a few threats and huffs and puffs, I served a notice of intended action for harassment upon them and never heard from them again.

startlight

Thank you all for replying! I decided to give up trying to contact wonga myself and called barclays. After around half an hour I managed to get it through their head that I've had nothing to do with wonga nor any other loan companies! They said they will refund me within next 24 hours!

Louiseoc

name and shame Wonga on their facebook page, I find this usually gets things moving!

Brains64

ValHaller wrote: »

Basically Barclays should own the matter. If you say you have never authorised Wonga to take from your account, it is up to Barclays to prove to you that you did and up to Wonga to prove it for Barclays.

Don't take nonsense from them, it is all the same if it is a mistake or fraud. Saying Wonga is not a fraudulent company is an insultingly irrelevant fob off. Instruct Barclays to charge the money back and put the charges into dispute.

You're quite right, it's not the point at all whether Wonga are a fraudulent company or not, they're actually not but it doesn't matter, the whole point Barclays should be addressing immediately as you say is the fact that their customer the OP has had money taken off of their account without authorization, can't believe Barclays were being like that about something so serious:shocked:.

goldmercury

I've got a website about experiences with wonga and have heard quite a few people in similar positions as the OP. Quickquid are also a name i've heard being mentioned.

Get in touch with your bank and get the payments reversed. This seems to becoming a more and more frequent scam. I'm guessing that someone has used your details to open up a wonga loan in your name.

CKhalvashi

Brains64 wrote: »

You're quite right, it's not the point at all whether Wonga are a fraudulent company or not, they're actually not but it doesn't matter, the whole point Barclays should be addressing immediately as you say is the fact that their customer the OP has had money taken off of their account without authorization, can't believe Barclays were being like that about something so serious:shocked:.

Barclays are one of the worst for giving information like this, which is exactly the same reason I bank with just about everyone but them and Santander.

If a company shows on Companies House, it's not fraudulent. If it doesn't, it could be a sole trader, it could be an international company, there are many possible scenarios of legitimate business that banks may not know about.

Ask to speak with Debit card fraud, get the CPA stopped, then formally complain re this member of staff. Keep records of your phone calls to both Barclays and Wonga, claim these back, and ask for 20p per minute for your time, plus any reasonable expenses.

CK

dalesrider

startlight wrote: »

I've had nothing to do with wonga nor any other loan companies! They said they will refund me within next 24 hours!

I hope that they have stopped and replaced your debit/credit card that the payments were taken by.

Wonga fraud i very much on the up. Ever since they were on TV bragging about how good their systems were at weeding out the fraudsters....
Clearly they are not that good, or they just do not care.

BTW. 24 hours for a refund is not in line with the PSD (payment services directive) which states you must be refunded straight away, and any charges or interest (think offset mortgage) are replaced.

The fact they asked you to contact Wonga after you said you had nothing to do with them could land them with a nasty fine if you raise a complaint :rotfl:

startlight

I do suspect that Barclays knew something was wrong with my last debit card. Because my old debit card was only issued December 2011 and wasn't due to expire until 2014 and towards end of November/start of December just gone they had contacted me saying they are sending me a new debit card to prevent fraud which I thought was a bit strange sending me a new card out of the blue?

And on the phone today the Barclays person said those funds were something to do with my old card and said he is going to cancel my old card - which surely that should have already been cancelled seeing as I already had a new one for just under a month?

dalesrider wrote: »

BTW. 24 hours for a refund is not in line with the PSD (payment services directive) which states you must be refunded straight away, and any charges or interest (think offset mortgage) are replaced.

The fact they asked you to contact Wonga after you said you had nothing to do with them could land them with a nasty fine if you raise a complaint :rotfl:

Luckily the funds were back in my account after around 3 hours! I am thinking about writing up a long complaint letter to Barclays when I find time because that first phone call I had with them was unacceptable!