Bank advising of Suspected identity theft - Involve CIFAS?

RobertinHerts

HSBC bank, which I've never had an account with, sent me a letter to say they believe that six weeks earlier someone had tried to impersonate me to open a bank account with them.

Clearly the impersonator was not very skilled as although they did get my name, address and date of birth correct they gave a false employer name. They could have found the correct employer name in a couple of seconds had they bothered, unless of course they didn't want to use the genuine employer name for some reason.

The bank are asking me to confirm in writing that it was not me and that I authorise them to put a warning on the CIFAS database. I presume this is what CIFAS calls 'Protective registration'.

Given that 6 weeks had elapsed before they bothered to write to me this sounds like closing the the stable door a little bit after the miscreant has bolted.

And given the inconvenience which CIFAS admits it would cause for the next two years, acceptance of their generous offer does not seem like a good move.

Thanks in advance for any relevent experience / comments.

Robert

jonesMUFCforever

I think you are misguided here - if they have tried once they could do so again.
Having someone look at your applications is not a bad thing - how many times will you apply for stuff in that time?

chris_m

I have a CIFAS victim marker on my files after Barclaycard "kindly" allowed someone other than me to change my address - helpfully they emailed me to confirm that "they'd actioned my request", at which point I told them that if their security is that lousy they might as well close the account because I'll never do business with them again.

Having just retired I decided to play the multiple bank accounts game to maximise the interest I can get so in the last three weeks I've opened accounts with Santander, TSB and Nationwide - only the latter has actually contacted me to make sure that it was really me who applied, specifically because of that marker. Still, I suppose that one out of three being careful is better than none out of three

RobertinHerts

chris_m wrote: »

I have a CIFAS victim marker on my files ...

... in the last three weeks I've opened accounts with Santander, TSB and Nationwide - only the latter has actually contacted me to make sure that it was really me who applied, specifically because of that marker. Still, I suppose that one out of three being careful is better than none out of three

CIFAS says: The service works by prompting Cifas members to carry out extra checks to prove your identity to prevent further fraud.

Assuming they are all members of CIFAS what 'extra checks' do you think they carried out? I anticpated they'd be asking for more documents proving name and address, etc. Perhaps requiring to see your driving licence / passport, etc.

chris_m

RobertinHerts wrote: »

CIFAS says: The service works by prompting Cifas members to carry out extra checks to prove your identity to prevent further fraud.
Assuming they are all members of CIFAS what 'extra checks' do you think they carried out? I anticpated they'd be asking for more documents proving name and address, etc. Perhaps requiring to see your driving licence / passport, etc.

Santander didn't ask for anything, TSB asked me to take ID to a branch, Nationwide did too at the end of the online application but when I got to a branch with it the girl looked at my application file and said it wasn't necessary after all.

gunsandbanjos

chris_m wrote: »

Santander didn't ask for anything, TSB asked me to take ID to a branch, Nationwide did too at the end of the online application but when I got to a branch with it the girl looked at my application file and said it wasn't necessary after all.

So TSB did make sure it was you too, surely that shows due diligence?

chris_m

gunsandbanjos wrote: »

So TSB did make sure it was you too, surely that shows due diligence?

True, hadn't thought of it that way - more that only Nationwide had their fraud department call specifically because of the marker.

burnoutbabe

I had this with TSB a year ago, someone managed to open an account and it was spotted by me when I got a welcome letter.

And then had another letter from TSB recently telling me another fraudster had tried and they had spotted it and intercepted it. But it was me! I had every question 100% correct!