Santander trying to steal £14,200 from me

gb12345

Azelphur wrote: »

On the bright side, I spoke to the Santander fraud department after filing a complaint with the financial ombudsman and they are seeming to be far more reasonable now. They have requested proof of the trade, which I have sent, I am awaiting a call back from them which may well resolve this issue

It's not ideal for your current financial situation, but co-operating with them is the best thing as it will speed up their investigation. Unfortunately, they are legally required to act on even the slightest possibility that an account is being used for money laundering.

My only worry about the whole bitcoin trading business would be that you do not know who you are buying from or selling to, so while you are legitimate, you could well be buying bitcoins that are the proceeds of crime or selling them to someone who is paying with the proceeds of crime and in affect unknowingly laundering the criminals money for them.

zzzLazyDaisy

Azelphur wrote: »

unfortunately the situation still stands that Santander have taken every penny I have

No they haven't. They have frozen your account, as they are required to do if money laundering is suspected. They haven't actually taken anything.

The reason they have to freeze your account is that *if* the current transaction appears to be in breach of the money laundering regs, then earlier transactions will also be investigated. Money laundering is a criminal offence and where there are grounds to suspect this, the banks have to follow certain procedures by law.

Azelphur

gb12345 wrote: »

It's not ideal for your current financial situation, but co-operating with them is the best thing as it will speed up their investigation. Unfortunately, they are legally required to act on even the slightest possibility that an account is being used for money laundering.

My only worry about the whole bitcoin trading business would be that you do not know who you are buying from or selling to, so while you are legitimate, you could well be buying bitcoins that are the proceeds of crime or selling them to someone who is paying with the proceeds of crime and in affect unknowingly laundering the criminals money for them.

Same can be said for almost any business/transaction.

zzzLazyDaisy wrote: »

No they haven't. They have frozen your account, as they are required to do if money laundering is suspected. They haven't actually taken anything.

The reason they have to freeze your account is that *if* the current transaction appears to be in breach of the money laundering regs, then earlier transactions will also be investigated. Money laundering is a criminal offence and where there are grounds to suspect this, the banks have to follow certain procedures by law.

Understandable, but as I say up until this point they have been entirely unreasonable in dealing with the situation, telling me to provide them with evidence that cannot exist, and threatening to call the police and have me removed from the branch, it's only because I got the financial ombudsman in that they are acting somewhat reasonably now.

meer53

So what happened in the branch for them to threaten to call the Police ? Sounds as though you haven't done yourself any favours here.

molerat

It may be worth you starting the ball rolling to open accounts with another bank as I reckon Santander will be sending you the "closing your accounts" letter pretty soon.

Azelphur

meer53 wrote: »

So what happened in the branch for them to threaten to call the Police ? Sounds as though you haven't done yourself any favours here.

We were admittedly pretty irate with them, they were telling us that I had to get a signed letter from the scammer saying that he legitimately sent the funds, which is obviously ridiculous, and they refused to give me any options or any way to get my money, any time scales, their response to me pointing out that they will make me homeless was "ok", other customers were overhearing, so they kicked us out.

molerat wrote: »

It may be worth you starting the ball rolling to open accounts with another bank as I reckon Santander will be sending you the "closing your accounts" letter pretty soon.

Already got a business account ready to go with Lloyds, all I want is my money and to get away from Santander.

opinions4u

Azelphur wrote: »

Understandable, but as I say up until this point they have been entirely unreasonable in dealing with the situation, telling me to provide them with evidence that cannot exist, and threatening to call the police and have me removed from the branch, it's only because I got the financial ombudsman in that they are acting somewhat reasonably now.

Their hands are somewhat tied if it is money laundering. They can't tip you off and they have to buy time.

Personally I don't think it is ML. I think it's a fraud matter. Again, they won't just say "oh, we believe you over the other fella" without something else stacking up.

I understand your frustration. It's just one of those very annoying things.

The FOS will make no difference around how this pans out. They won't o anything until eight weeks is up ad will then take months themselves.

Azelphur

opinions4u wrote: »

Their hands are somewhat tied if it is money laundering. They can't tip you off and they have to buy time.

Personally I don't think it is ML. I think it's a fraud matter. Again, they won't just say "oh, we believe you over the other fella" without something else stacking up.

I understand your frustration. It's just one of those very annoying things.

The FOS will make no difference around how this pans out. They won't o anything until eight weeks is up ad will then take months themselves.

The difference in the banks behaviour since I got the FOS onboard has been drastic, so if anything it had the effect of making the bank behave sensibly. They assure me now that they will call me before 5pm today to have the issue resolved, will wait and see.

Azelphur

5pm rolled by with no call, I called them back and they told me nobody looked at the evidence I sent (even though a previous person said they were looking at it) and that they will not do anything till Tuesday.

I demanded they put me through to a manager and managed to get an agreement that I'd be allowed to go to the branch tomorrow morning to collect the funds that are not associated with the fraudulent transaction, so in theory tomorrow I should at least have money to buy food with. \o/

matttye

Can you afford to seek legal advice? I know you probably won't be able to pay anything upfront but a lawyer might sympathise and agree to act without any money on account.