Fraudulent attempts to set up standring orders

emv

Lat year my business account was frozen twice because of fraudulent attempts to set up standing orders - one was set up but not activated until a few months ago so we lost quite a bit of money that we had to fight to have refunded (and eventually did). Today I received a letter telling me that an attempt to set up a standing order on my account had failed. It included a copy of the mandate and was another fradulent attempt. The standing order wasn't set up but my question is should I be doing something about this? Is is a criminal offence, should I be telling the police? Presumably someone can trace the recipient's account details?

Em

Aquamania

emv wrote: »

Lat year my business account was frozen twice because of fraudulent attempts to set up standing orders - one was set up but not activated until a few months ago so we lost quite a bit of money that we had to fight to have refunded (and eventually did). Today I received a letter telling me that an attempt to set up a standing order on my account had failed. It included a copy of the mandate and was another fradulent attempt. The standing order wasn't set up but my question is should I be doing something about this? Is is a criminal offence, should I be telling the police? Presumably someone can trace the recipient's account details?

Em

Do you really mean a standing order? (as opposed to a direct debit?)

The reason I ask is that mandates usually refer to direct debits and when you set up a standing order it is active (although it may suggest 1st payment is made in a few months time, but why would a fraudster do that?)

Anyway, in regards to standing orders.
How are the standing orders being set up?
e.g. via internet or telephone banking? If so, I suggest you change your password as a minimum
If by post or in branch, ask what identification procedures the bank is using to accept the application. They may even consider putting a note on your account about taking extra care over checking before manually setting up standing orders as you have been affected in the past by such fraudulent activity. (It won't necessarily stop it occurring again, but it might help prevent it)

Are all the standing orders being set up in favour of a specific person/account?
All standing orders will specify the account details (sort code & account number) and usually specifies the name of the recipient ( although I'm don't think this is cross checked, rather just used as a reference as to who you are paying)

I can confirm that fraud is a criminal activity.
You should speak to your bank and take advice from them, particularly with regards to also informing the police (although if the bank agrees it is fraud, they may well have already have the police involved)
Yes, there are ways and means of the authorities identifying who owns a specific bank account if they need to find out.

Edit:
If you really mean a direct debit mandate, then I'm afraid anyone who knows your bank account and sort code (and operates the DD scheme) can set up a DD mandate on your account.

However, you would be fully protected by the terms of the Direct Debit Guarantee where your bank would be required to repay you immediately on request any amounts taken from your account without correct authorisation.

You should of course inform the bank of any unathorised deductions, or even if you notice a mandate on your account which you have not approved.

It appears you have been doing this, and the bank are on the on alert if they have already prevented a DD mandate being set up on your account.

Ultimately, if someone continually abuses the DD scheme, their sponsor can prevent them using the scheme. The DD scheme essentially runs on trust and the sponsors are particularly careful to ensure such trust is not lost as it would lead to the complete downfall of the scheme.

Mistral001

The answer is in your question I suggest. i.e. you mention "fraudulent attempts". Fraud certainly is a crime. I assume attempted fraud is a crime as well, but I could be wrong.

emv

These are all standing orders, last year's were set up by people completing a paper form & taking it into a branch. This one was a form sent in to the Business Banking Centre. This one was rejected, possibly because of previous issues but the bank didn't get the police involved at all last time. The account t names seem different, this one says IBM UK.

firefox1956

To give you any help people need to know what is being set up.
A Standing Order OR a Direct Debit.
Please confirm which it is.

Crystallady

If the standing orders are being set up via paper mandates these would need to be signed in accordance with your business account signing arrangements. If they are not signed correctly then the bank must refund you any monies paid out as they have paid monies against incorrect/forged signature(s).

emv

They're all Standing Orders and no, none of them are signed correctly & we have eventually been refunded any monies paid. Though this has taken several months in one case and has resulted in our account being frozen twice for over a week.


What I'm more worried about is whether we/the bank/the police should be doing anything else, e.g. to investigate who's responsible.