identity fraud????

flabbyfish

Posting on behalf of a friend.

Friend a while ago got his wallet stolen. A Person went into friends bank with his DL(which was in the wallet) , said he had lost his card to the cashier , and got money out of the account.
Police were informed, but nothing happened.

Fast forward to now
Person has went into same bank with a forged Passport (same name etc, different picture) and said again he lost card and cleaned the bank out, not a huge sum in the grand scheme of things, but young person doesn't earn much, so a lot for them.

Police have been called, awaiting what they are to do.

Friend is young so not too good on what they should be doing.
I have never had anything like it so a bit clueless as well .

Anyone,

DomRavioli

Youth doesn't equate to stupidity. Surely your friend would have gone to the bank to report it stolen, and reported to the police when it was stolen?

flabbyfish

I think 1st time it was. I think the person went into bank after that, I'm not certain as I cant remember the conversation as it wasn't that important then.
This time, there has not been any theft of the card, card is in possession of friend.

tea_lover

Why don't you just wait and see what the police say. Very bizarre first post.

Kayalana99

DomRavioli wrote: »

Youth doesn't equate to stupidity. Surely your friend would have gone to the bank to report it stolen, and reported to the police when it was stolen?

No it's the stupidity of the cashier (or smartness of the person who has the wallet)

Don't you see they have an ID and have used that to get money out without the card?

It makes sense.

tea_lover wrote: »

Why don't you just wait and see what the police say. Very bizarre first post.

Guessing since it's happened twice now and they weren't very helpful the first time.

InsideInsurance

You need to register the complaint with the bank

The police basically dont deal with these kinds of cases initially, they let the bank's fraud department do the investigations and are passed the files if the bank feel there is a case to answer and enough evidence for anyone to be identified.

It obviously begs the question why if this happened once no account password or other flag was placed on the account to prevent it happening "again" (assuming it ever happened but well give the OP the benefit of the doubt)

NinjaSavingKat

Police don't deal with identity/money fraud. Needs to be reported to the bank first. Their internal fraud department have to investigate and ensure your friend is not lying and withdrew the money himself. If they deem a fraudulent transaction has taken place (through CCTV footage / speaking to cashier etc to ensure other ID was taken perhaps) they then have access to, and will contact the police fraud squad - that's how it's done in London. Not sure where you are though.

itsanne

I would have thought that if the "lost" DL then allowed the culprit to acquire a passport under false pretenses it's a police matter, though it's difficult to believe that's quite what happened. It doesn't seem to be easy to falsely get a passport.

If your friend alerted the bank when his wallet was stolen, the bank should reimburse him for the money taken that time. If the money has been taken fraudulently he should get it back this time too. Edited to add: All this needs to be addressed via the bank.

It looks like there is more to this story.

InsideInsurance

itsanne wrote: »

I would have thought that if the "lost" DL then allowed the culprit to acquire a passport under false pretenses it's a police matter, though it's difficult to believe that's quite what happened. It doesn't seem to be easy to falsely get a passport.

The OP said it was a forged passport not a genuine one gained under false pretenses. Of cause how they know this is questionable.

securityguy

"I would have thought that if the "lost" DL then allowed the culprit to acquire a passport under false pretense"

You need a great deal more than a driving license to obtain a passport.

But I'm extremely sceptical about this whole story. A bank that hands over money on the basis of a driving license? Seriously? Has anyone, ever, found a bank that will do that? What did they do, search their records for an account and sort code to match the name on the driving license? Then they presumably found that there was a recently stolen card on the account.

And if they did do that, why haven't they immediately refunded the OP's friend and apologised profusely prior to the inevitable hammering by the Banking Ombudsman?

And then, this having happened and the OP's friend's account being marked as a clear fraud risk, allowed the same thing to happen with a "forged passport"? Seriously? Aside from the fact that forging a UK passport is quite difficult and bank cashiers are trained to make better checks than the man in the street because of money laundering requirements, and that changing the photograph is particularly tricky, we're to believe that (a) banks hand over money on the strength of a passport even on accounts marked as having been the previous target of ID theft and (b) someone who's gone to the expense and risk of obtaining a forged passport (something which it's a criminal offence to be do much more than be in the same room as) uses this for the mundane purpose of getting a few quid out of someone's account?

The story's either nonsense or edited to the point of becoming nonsense. "I walked into a bank with X's driving license and they gave me the money in X's account, even though the photograph didn't match"? Really?

As presented, the bank will refund all the OP's friend's money and beg forgiveness, as they've breached absolutely every banking code of practice and legal issue imaginable. But I don't for a second believe the story.

flabbyfish

Hi
Thanks for reply's, the post is genuine. The person is not making it up, I don't think there is more to the story, I know the person very well.

When they went in , the bank told them about the passport, once he indicated about the money being withdrawn. so do not know if it is forged or a completely new one in his name with a different photo.

I have said to them , that they either need to change banks or get a phone call each time it is accessed in store.

Security guy.....You can access your account with id, I have done it many a time when lost my card, normally there is a few security q's as well. For all we know they asked these q's and they were answered as we do not yet know who is doing it. Wallet was stolen in work, if that makes a difference....and where are you getting the photo licence from?

Thanks for the reply's