Conning the elderly with scams

zagfles

Regardless of anything else, if your mother didn't authorise the amount they charged then the bank must refund, irrelavent whether the bank can or can't get the money back off the retailer, that's their problem.

If she authorised £600 and they charged £1690 then the worst case is that the £600 payment goes through and has to be reclaimed by other means.

Write to the bank telling them that the £1690 payment was unauthorised. The bank then must put it into dispute and seek proof it was authorised. If they can't prove it, eg by getting evidence off the retailer, the money will be refunded.

NorfolkNman

Yeah we said that the next day when we went to HSBC in Town. But apparently its harder to dispute a debit card. Seems its easy to make a fake refund slip too!

zagfles

NorfolkNman wrote: »

Yeah we said that the next day when we went to HSBC in Town. But apparently its harder to dispute a debit card. Seems its easy to make a fake refund slip too!

Unauthorised transactions are the same. CC's give some extra protection, but the fact remains unauthorised transactions must be refunded, whether debit or credit card.

Banks usually attempt to fob you off, and staff are often clueless, but just write to them as above, state the amount charged was not authorised, demand a refund, and say you'll go to the financial ombudsman if you don't get it.

NorfolkNman

Yeah that sounds interessting. The people in the branch are great, but the call centres will not put you through, and fob you off in an Indian accent! Eventually it was transferred to Leeds (i am in norfolk!) and the guy said its under "complex case management" and they should contact with 48 hours, (tomorrow 5pm) I have written a complaint to HSBC over the poor handling of this, and nobody knowing what you are talking about. Its like a circle going round n round all the time!

zagfles

Have a look at this thread - different situation but same rule about unauthorised transactions applies: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4827803

NorfolkNman

Thats very interesting to read! With me just putting a fraud report in to Norfolk Police would it still be wise to write HSBC a similar letter of complaint, or wait a little while for the Police to kick in?

zagfles

NorfolkNman wrote: »

Thats very interesting to read! With me just putting a fraud report in to Norfolk Police would it still be wise to write HSBC a similar letter of complaint, or wait a little while for the Police to kick in?

May be worth waiting till you hear from the police and take their advice. If you don't get anywhere then write to the bank quoting the BCOBS rule, and least then you should get most of the money back, at least.

NorfolkNman

Got it! At least that buys me some time to research the rules and regs. Once again i thank every one of you who have helped!

NorfolkNman

Just a quick thank you, to everyone who has given advice to me yesterday, Elder abuse are now investigating and will get back within 2 days. Financial Ombudsman Service is now investigating and will get back to us, so fingers crossed!

Scrootum

What was the actual offence?
Being expensive is not illegal, otherwise most "designer" brands would be out of business.