Loan Fraud

8teen88

Hello everyone, this is my first post and I'm not sure if this is the correct thread.

I have been lurking on MSE forums for years and it has been vital for me in the last few years with saving money and reclaiming PPI.

I thought I would ask the forum for some help or advice.

My girlfriend has recently been a victim of fraud and has had a loan taken out on a card she hasn't used in a while. The money went into that card and vanished 2 days later (to pay a Barclays credit card bill I was told). We went to the BoS and where told that they did not see this as fraud. But they have passed it onto their Customer Relations department.

I have contacted the ActionFraud team and I have given them all the details. They say its clearly fraud and the bank are wrong.

Has anyone had this problem or know anyone who has had this problem? Has anyone had any dealings with the Bank of Scotland/Halifax Customer Relations? Do they work in the best interests of the bank or the customer? Will I have to pay the loan back?

Any feedback would be excellent as we really cannot afford to pay this back.

Kindest regards

8teen88

Tixy

Hi

By card do you mean a bank account with debit card? Is she still in possession of the card?

Who was the loan taken out with?
When did your gf spot the loan money borrowed appearing in her account?
How was the money paid out of the account to a card bill? By card payment? a dd set up or what?

Has the loan company now tried to take out a repayment towards the loan? and has that bounced?

8teen88

Yes it was a Cashcard account with the Bank of Scotland, thats where the loan is from too.

She still has the card yes, but the interesting thing is the bank told her that the card was reported lost and she was issued another card.

This has apparently been done via online banking. Which she only accessed once in January of this year and gave up on it on a computer thats still in her house.

The first loan payment was supposed to be taken out on the 7th of September but I made them cancel the DD payment.

Tixy

So someone had access to her bank of scotland online banking and applied for a loan using online banking and had the loan paid in to her bank of scotland bank account?

Presumably then they either used her online banking to make a faster payment to a barclaycard account or used the replacement debit card to phone up and pay the barclaycard account?

If the person also had access to the replacement card that was sent out then I guess they likely also had access to her post?

As the payment was made from her account has she tried contacting barclaycard to find out where the payment went and whose credit card it paid off?

8teen88

We have no idea how the got into her accounts... I don't think this person has access to her post.

The bank couldn't tell us anything they said they haven't got the right to say who's name was on the Barclaycard account, where the person accessed her online banking that Customer Relations would be able to tell us all of this.

The new card came to my girlfriends house so she has he new card but never requested it. They didn't really need the card to make the transfer online.. which confuses me as you need to receive a phone call before you make a transfer.

I don't know how they have done this but it boggles my mind as if it can happen to her it can happen to anyone if it requires no signature to get a loan now.

Crystallady

If this has all been done through online banking and your girlfriend has only accessed it once in January, where does she keep her online log on details and password?.
Looks like someone has managed to get their hands on these and used them to apply for the loan and do the transfer. If the details are still safe you need to be asking yourselves who could have had access to them.

DCFC79

Not saying its how they got access but you might want to check the PC doesn't have any nasties on it so do an anti virus scan, techie board is what you need.

8teen88

I have called up a company that handles online payments who appeared on her bank statement and they have used the same card to buy a !!!!!! subscription... but I managed to get it refunded and cancelled.

My only conclusion is that it must a virus in her computer... but it hasn't been switched on in months... How do you buy something online when you need the long card number?

Dabooka

It may have been an internal issue with the bank; earlier in the year mine called me regarding suspicious activity on my current account; someone had been trying to buy £5k worth of watches using my debit card (good luck with that...).

Once all the security stuff was sorted and I denied the offending transactions and no more would need to be done from my part. They weren't even interested in where my details had been pilfered from as they have had a few similar cases that the internal security team were reviewing. A new card issued and no more was heard.

However, skimming numbers from a contact centre or wherever is somewhat different to applying for a loan and transferring the money to pay off a card, which as pointed out leaves an easily traceable (and one would assume reversible) transaction. Thieves and hackers aren't typically daft, I wonder if it actually went to a pre-paid card or something (if Barclaycard do them I don't know)?

8teen88

Thanks for the reply.

I've heard of this before and this sounds like the most obvious way it's happened. There must be a name on this Barclays account, unless my worst fears are correct and someone has stolen my gfs identity To open a Barclays account in her name too...

I've not heard anything else from the bank so far but I will keep everyone posted on how it's going, because if this can happen to her it can happen to anyone.

Dabooka wrote: »

It may have been an internal issue with the bank; earlier in the year mine called me regarding suspicious activity on my current account; someone had been trying to buy £5k worth of watches using my debit card (good luck with that...).

Once all the security stuff was sorted and I denied the offending transactions and no more would need to be done from my part. They weren't even interested in where my details had been pilfered from as they have had a few similar cases that the internal security team were reviewing. A new card issued and no more was heard.

However, skimming numbers from a contact centre or wherever is somewhat different to applying for a loan and transferring the money to pay off a card, which as pointed out leaves an easily traceable (and one would assume reversible) transaction. Thieves and hackers aren't typically daft, I wonder if it actually went to a pre-paid card or something (if Barclaycard do them I don't know)?

8teen88

UPDATE.

I contacted the Financial Ombundisman shortly after Halifax/ Bank Of Scotland refused to believe that it was fraud, the FO have also stated that they cannot help any further.

The craziest part of the whole saga is that not the BOS or the Financial Ombundisman can get Barclays to tell them where the money went!?!?!

What will happen if she refuses to
Pay back the loan? Has this ever happened to anyone else? Would Citizens Advice be able to help?
Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.