Debit card fraud - How to respond to Proceeds of Crime Act Questionnaire

g_fella

Hi all (long time no post, but I know you guys and gals will help me out)... I'll try and keep this short.

Was recently a victim of debit card fraud. Quick and short details of what happened and my stupidity follow. I dont need to be reminded about how stupid I was, but I do want to make sure I respond to the bank in the most appropriate manner for my case, and that involves answering 2 poorly constructed questions on their questionnaire.

Details of what happened...
Bought a new mobile in a Vodafone high street store.
Returned home, left phone at home syncing and went out.
Returned home a second time to see missed phone calls from Vodafone Customer Services (yes it was them as I have their number in my contact lists).
Hadnt spoken to them, but then received another call. The caller knew my name, and that I'd been in town that morning to buy the phone. They said there had been problems with address to card detail verification and asked me to confirm my card details.
Stupidly I gave them (but in my defence it all sounded plausible and I knew Vodafone had also been trying to call me).

Later it dawned on me that I may have just been a victim of fraud, and sure enough when I logged into my online banking a few hours later there had been a number of transaction (£700odd in total) that I knew i hadn’t made. All transactions had been done online, including setting up direct debits in my name and ordering phones for delivery to a different address to mine. I obviously didn’t give them my PIN (I was stupid, but not that stupid) so no cash withdrawals were made.

Phoned the bank straight away, reported it, cancelled and destroyed card etc., and have been dealing with closing various phone accounts created in my name since. Have also reported to Police via Action Fraud. Thankfully all gone quiet, and nothing else untoward has happened since that day.

Bank has refunded my money etc., and now sent me a "Proceeds of Crime Act Questionnaire" as they do.

Only 2 real questions on it, but I reckon both are poorly constructed and almost seem worded to try and catch me out into implicating myself in the fraud (well that's what it feels like).

The questions are :

1) Could anyone have or had access to either your debit card details or debit card? If yes please give details.

Well clearly someone did... the person that defrauded me! But if I say yes, am I implicating myself in the crime. I was duped. I didn’t give them out to be defrauded on purpose. Should they have had the details ... no. Did i give them knowing I was going to be defrauded ... no. And it says 'anyone'. Well every time I buy something, the person has access to my card details ? It's a poor question in my opinion.

2) Are you aware of anyone who may have either benefited from or be the culprit of this fraud?

Again... yes... the criminal that used my details. I can’t name them, but it says 'aware of anyone', not "do you know the identity of anyone".

Maybe I’m being too picky or too nervous. But I want to make sure I answer these correctly, and don’t want to implicate myself in this such that the bank decide to take back the money they have refunded due to technicalities in my answers. I also don’t want to be facetious in my answers by pointing out to them that their questions probably ought to be more specific and not open to interpretation (in my opinion anyway).

Any thoughts MSE'ers ?

chattychappy

1) Nobody that I know of had access to my debit card/debit card details except for the fraudster who obtained them, it seems, by deception. I believed them to be connected with a merchant with whom I transacted business earlier in the day as they were aware of the details of this transaction. To my knowledge they did not obtain the PIN/passwords etc.

2) No.

g_fella

Thanks for the speedy response. But just to confirm... your response to Q1 would be Yes, and then include your words in the details section ?

It's the perfect response by the way.... I reckon I will use it word for word.

zerog

Does it ask for a Yes or No answer? If not, then I would just answer with prose as above.

g6jns_2

g_fella wrote: »

Hi all (long time no post, but I know you guys and gals will help me out)... I'll try and keep this short.

Was recently a victim of debit card fraud. Quick and short details of what happened and my stupidity follow. I dont need to be reminded about how stupid I was, but I do want to make sure I respond to the bank in the most appropriate manner for my case, and that involves answering 2 poorly constructed questions on their questionnaire.

Details of what happened...
Bought a new mobile in a Vodafone high street store.
Returned home, left phone at home syncing and went out.
Returned home a second time to see missed phone calls from Vodafone Customer Services (yes it was them as I have their number in my contact lists).
Hadnt spoken to them, but then received another call. The caller knew my name, and that I'd been in town that morning to buy the phone. They said there had been problems with address to card detail verification and asked me to confirm my card details.
Stupidly I gave them (but in my defence it all sounded plausible and I knew Vodafone had also been trying to call me).

Later it dawned on me that I may have just been a victim of fraud, and sure enough when I logged into my online banking a few hours later there had been a number of transaction (£700odd in total) that I knew i hadn’t made. All transactions had been done online, including setting up direct debits in my name and ordering phones for delivery to a different address to mine. I obviously didn’t give them my PIN (I was stupid, but not that stupid) so no cash withdrawals were made.

Phoned the bank straight away, reported it, cancelled and destroyed card etc., and have been dealing with closing various phone accounts created in my name since. Have also reported to Police via Action Fraud. Thankfully all gone quiet, and nothing else untoward has happened since that day.

Bank has refunded my money etc., and now sent me a "Proceeds of Crime Act Questionnaire" as they do.

Only 2 real questions on it, but I reckon both are poorly constructed and almost seem worded to try and catch me out into implicating myself in the fraud (well that's what it feels like).

The questions are :

1) Could anyone have or had access to either your debit card details or debit card? If yes please give details.

Well clearly someone did... the person that defrauded me! But if I say yes, am I implicating myself in the crime. I was duped. I didn’t give them out to be defrauded on purpose. Should they have had the details ... no. Did i give them knowing I was going to be defrauded ... no. And it says 'anyone'. Well every time I buy something, the person has access to my card details ? It's a poor question in my opinion.

2) Are you aware of anyone who may have either benefited from or be the culprit of this fraud?

Again... yes... the criminal that used my details. I can’t name them, but it says 'aware of anyone', not "do you know the identity of anyone".

Maybe I’m being too picky or too nervous. But I want to make sure I answer these correctly, and don’t want to implicate myself in this such that the bank decide to take back the money they have refunded due to technicalities in my answers. I also don’t want to be facetious in my answers by pointing out to them that their questions probably ought to be more specific and not open to interpretation (in my opinion anyway).

Any thoughts MSE'ers ?

You have just admitted on a public forum that you gave the details. Telling porkies to your bank is never a good idea.

Marktheshark

You gave your bank card details to a caller on a phone ?

Hmm think you will have to be lucky here.

HappyMJ

Do a credit check on yourself. Someone set up two mobile account years ago using my details. One was removed and one was not...it took 6 years for it too fall off my credit report and was eventually written off once the debt was sold to a debt collector. I was writing letters every few months trying to get it off. They accepted it was fraud and assured me it would be removed but couldn't figure out I was talking about the second account which was not removed. I had a note on my credit file so it didn't affect my credit.

g_fella

zerog wrote: »

Does it ask for a Yes or No answer? If not, then I would just answer with prose as above.

It asks for Yes/No answers on both questions. If I reply Yes, then I have to provide details.

g6jns wrote: »

You have just admitted on a public forum that you gave the details. Telling porkies to your bank is never a good idea.

Which bit of my post makes you think I am trying to tell porkies?

I've already explained exactly what happened to the bank when I reported the fraud to them on the phone. I have no intention of changing my story. I'm just trying to fill the form in correctly and accurately. The reason I am asking is that the questions are poorly constructed and I was just after an opinion on how I should respond.

g6jns_2

g_fella wrote: »

It asks for Yes/No answers on both questions. If I reply Yes, then I have to provide details.



Which bit of my post makes you think I am trying to tell porkies?

I've already explained exactly what happened to the bank when I reported the fraud to them on the phone. I have no intention of changing my story. I'm just trying to fill the form in correctly and accurately. The reason I am asking is that the questions are poorly constructed and I was just after an opinion on how I should respond.

I was saying that you should tell truth. The truth is that you did give your card details.

g_fella

Of course. Wouldnt have done anything else. Will be responding on the letter tonight with a Yes to question 1 with as many details as the 2 lines on the form will allow me to write, and a No to question 2.

g_fella

I should add that the guy who duped me... also duped my bank and Vodafone. The criminal had added another phone number to my account, forwarded calls from my telephone number to this other number, and suspended my phone. The bank told me when I called them to report the fraud that they had called me earlier in the day to query one of the transactions. The crim had convinced the bank they were me and they'd allowed the transaction to go through. All this happened in a few hours.

Whoever it was had heard a lot of my details when in the store, or (heaven forbid) was a member of staff in the store.

Obviously leason learnt, and now dont trust anyone that calls me. Even my Mum has to give a pass code to speak to me now.