Lloyds Fraud Team - I keep getting picked on!!

colsten

sharifah wrote: »

Hi there,

First time writing in the forum - normally a lurker. Just want to find out if anybody else has suffered the same problem as me.

My story - I'm a freelance civil engineer and run my own Ltd Co. I pay myself a small salary each month, and take dividends from the business, large chunks 2/3 times a year. No mortgage, no debts, operate the Martin Lewis style of a few high interest current accounts.

Last week, I transferred £20k of dividend into my Club Lloyds. Decided not to open an ISA and opened a BoS Vantage, a Tesco current acct and a Nationwide FlexDirect acct. Went into my Lloyds account via internet and transferred £5K to my new BoS Vantage; the transfer was stopped online and I was told to contact the Fraud team. Took 67minutes to get through, was asked a load of stupid questions and the transfer was then allowed by Lloyds. I told them that I had more money to transfer and if they did that to me again, I would close my account and tell everyone how s**t they are.

Today I tried to transfer £3K into my new Tesco account and again was halted online, had to call up their fraud team and worst still, was told to go into branch tomorrow with my passport to verify myself. In the meantime they have suspended my online access.

Anybody else out there have been treated like this? Will this continue forever with Lloyds if I stayed with them? Anyone know the reasons why this sort of thing happens?

I will defo be closing my account with them! Time-wasters!:mad::mad:

OP, your experience is not dissimilar to checking in for a flight at an airport. You have to endure a range of annoying/embarrassing questions and checks before they even let you into the departure lounge. Whilst most of us are not terrorists, it takes just one madman (or woman) to blow up innocent people, and it would be unforgivable for our border agencies not to make stringent checks to prevent terrorist attacks. Madmen don't have "terrorist" stamped on their forehead, thus each of us has to undergo checks all of us would rather we didn't. On balance, though, we'd all like to arrive alive the other end, so we just endure the controls.

Similar applies to money. Neither you nor I nor the vast majority of people want to buy kalashnikovs or heroin or other drugs with their cash, but a few people do, and they need to be stopped. We all have to undergo some more stringent security checks because of the few bad bones that pose a massive threat to our society. You should be proud if you have nothing to hide, and just answer the questions you get asked, however annoying it might be that we are being bullied by terrorists, drug and weapon dealers, and other large scale criminals.

KJSmith

sharifah wrote: »

Anyone know the reasons why this sort of thing happens?

Their automated fraud detection systems have reason to believe that somebody other than you may be accessing your internet banking to make these transfers.
Consider your situation - a recent payment into your Club Lloyds account, now lots of new payees are being setup. That's what fraudsters do with compromised internet banking login details in order to launder money.

They ask you questions on the phone in order to confirm if it was actually you who was making the payment. You would be referred to visit a branch with Photo ID if the fraud team were unable to identify you 'enough' over the phone or they had reason to believe you're not who you say you are.

As for the earlier suggestion that your payment was stopped because it was an internal LBG transfer to a BOS Vantage account and there might be a crackdown on rate tarts. Complete rubbish - this is not fraud and is not the remit of the Internet Banking fraud team. If LBG had a problem with your BOS Vantage accounts they might issue you notice to close your accounts or simply amend their terms and conditions.

sharifah

colsten wrote: »

OP, your experience is not dissimilar to checking in for a flight at an airport. You have to endure a range of annoying/embarrassing questions and checks before they even let you into the departure lounge. Whilst most of us are not terrorists, it takes just one madman (or woman) to blow up innocent people, and it would be unforgivable for our border agencies not to make stringent checks to prevent terrorist attacks. Madmen don't have "terrorist" stamped on their forehead, thus each of us has to undergo checks all of us would rather we didn't. On balance, though, we'd all like to arrive alive the other end, so we just endure the controls.

Similar applies to money. Neither you nor I nor the vast majority of people want to buy kalashnikovs or heroin or other drugs with their cash, but a few people do, and they need to be stopped. We all have to undergo some more stringent security checks because of the few bad bones that pose a massive threat to our society. You should be proud if you have nothing to hide, and just answer the questions you get asked, however annoying it might be that we are being bullied by terrorists, drug and weapon dealers, and other large scale criminals.

Hmm....interesting point....now you've made me think...could this be because I have an arabic surname? Despite not being middle-eastern...

Jsscmm

So, the bank sees a higher than recently normal incoming payment, followed by multiple outgoing payments to places which haven't had transfers before. If that doesn't set off alarm bells, exactly what should?

Personally whenever I open a new saving / current account I always do a small transfer to it, followed by a smaller transfer back, then move the larger cash amount. Not sure if that helps but I've not yet had to have a chat with fraud departments.

GingerBob_3

meer53 wrote: »

Banks aren't really bothered if you threaten to close your account. It certainly wont prevent any more fraud checks.

You forgot to prefix your remarks with "Being the bunch of bas****s that they are, ...."

meer53

GingerBob wrote: »

You forgot to prefix your remarks with "Being the bunch of bas****s that they are, ...."

I always leave those comments to you.

gunsandbanjos

sharifah wrote: »

Hmm....interesting point....now you've made me think...could this be because I have an arabic surname? Despite not being middle-eastern...

No. Not allowed to use race as part of a profile.

GingerBob_3

gunsandbanjos wrote: »

No. Not allowed to use race as part of a profile.

Why not? I'm guessing they do it all the time anyway.

gunsandbanjos

GingerBob wrote: »

Why not? I'm guessing they do it all the time anyway.

For very obvious reasons!! And no they don't, or we certainly dont. I can't speak for everyone obviously.

sharifah

Many thanks to everyone who replied - just to let you know what happened.....

I went into branch with my passport; the smiley very apologetic young man who greeted me at branch had the right temperament..so I didn't have the heart to rip into him. It took him 15 minutes to get through to Fraud Operations and he verified to them that I was who I said I was. Declared his staff number and following the phonecall he assured me that all was well. I still didn't get a reason as to why my transactions were halted by the Fraud team.

Two days later, I logged online and discovered that my access was still blocked despite being told that all was well! Had to call the Fraud Operations again, and they told me to go into branch again! And that was when I absolutely lost it. Told them that I needed access NOW to pay bills! AND they'd better NOT make me go into branch for a second time! I was read a script, answered more questions, and access was then given back to me. I was asked three times whether I still wanted to make a £3K transfer. I'm still perplexed as to why they were behaving like this despite the proof that I had provided to them. And £3K is not a lot of money in the overall scheme of things!

To cut a long story short, I've now switched to Santander - should be done by Friday - fingers crossed.

I give my money to a bank to hold - I expect to be able to do things with my money freely. In this case, I was halted a few times and I received a lot of grief with no reason provided, or explanation, nor an apology. That's not what I expect from a banking service.