£20,000 gone in fraudulent transactions from my Abbey account....

Debt_Free_Chick

This Blog sounds similar to your situation. It gives 0845 606 6313 as the number for the fraud department and 01908 349 979 as the number for Visa disputes. And the email address for the CEO is on the link, too

molley

Al_Mac wrote: »

Your getting confused by two different posters;)

So I am .thats what I get for reading too quickly . :mad:

peterbaker

Ha! Thanks Al Mac! Weird how easily the brain (well ours anyway!) gets fooled by speed-reading something like this.

Anyway, so we are agreed now? Back on track then ... I say SOCK it to 'em!

Sagaris

Sorry - think I've hijacked a thread! Just wanted to point out to the OP that Abbey are slower than a snail in a coma when it comes to sorting out errors!
Here's my thread:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=503722
And sincere apologies for clouding the OP's issue.

ukdutypaid

silvermum wrote: »

Over £20,000 (yes, that's right, £20K) has been paid out of my Abbey current account over the last few days to what look like foreign payees.

My card has not been lost or stolen, so my data must have been skimmed.

That's not a card transaction then?
I know it's a business account but if it were on your card, then that's one almighty limit you've got on a business account card there!

So other than internal banking fraud, very, very unlikely, it sounds like somebody's got hold of your internet banking details and set payments up, or your phone security details and authorised payments on the phone....
Other than that it's forged documents sent to the branch, least likely.

You're in for a right nightmare if it's a case of either of the former....
Prove it wasn't you? That's computer forensics time.... Originating IP of the requesting machine...
Certainly my experience of online business accounts is that they are machine specific, tied to the mac address or a downloaded certificatate.

So that's closer to home (your were away you say, who had access to your machine, if it's machine specific?), or the payments have been authorised by phone.

I hope to god you've reset all your online/phone security...
Other than that and this is 20K you're talking about, who else has nominated authority, to transact?

MarcoM

peterbaker wrote: »

My stance you will notice is diametrically opposed to that of Debt-Free-Chick who perhaps prefers the patient, systematic, slowly-slowly-catchee-monkey approach which I know from experience can work better in situations where you are partly to blame for your own predicament. In your case you have done absolutely nothing to deserve the problem, have you?

I am with you on this one.
British Reserve does not work with Abbey. There are so many threads on here related to this bank. They all make mistakes but it would appear that Abbey Bank do not wish to make things right.
We don't know what situation the OP is in. She may have wanted to complete a house purchase tomorrow, we don't know. She may have wanted to buy a car, not having that money means she cannot do such things.

If I was in the OP's position, I would have:

a) Rung the media
b) Got a solicitors letter stating that the money is urgently needed to run a business and that if the bank do not deal properly with the issue, court action may be taken. A headed letter with a sol firm logo would help a bit me thinks. A county court may view things differently compared to a laid back Fombudsman...

All IMHO.

nealallen

Found this number: 01908 342961 that's Abbeys Financial Crime operations number.

notatroll

Just one advice – keep a record of all correspondence/names/dates/times etc. in case of FO dispute.

Abbey’s disputes team is one of the worst along with former Morgan Stanley’s (now Goldfish).

Do not mean to scare you but when large-ish scale fraud happens some greedy merchants are prepared to give their best shot in order to keep your money, especially if some sort of services where bought.

I had 100% clear fraudulent transactions through with Morgan Stanley (betting in India, online shopping in the USA – some happening after I have alerted them) unusually excessive and separated only by a few days and ended up with one stubborn merchant (one of eight fraudulent ones) which insisted that transaction was genuine and kept disputing it so they refunded money and charged them back in a month time then after my further complaint refunded again and charged again – it took in total eight months and FO intervention to sort it out, and even then Morgan Stanley’s b*stards delayed sending my cheque (account was closed obviously) by three weeks justifying it that the person who has to sign it is unavailable.

Funny thing is that my wife’s Morgan Stanley account has also been hit within a few months - giving some credibility to the famous case of their employees selling customer’s cards details. I mean I am so careful that even remove last three digits from the back of a card with an alcohol spirit (you can still see the markings closely enough but cannot photograph). Now you see why they have changed their name to Goldfish. Maybe Abbey is to follow?

silvermum

ukdutypaid wrote: »

That's not a card transaction then?
I know it's a business account but if it were on your card, then that's one almighty limit you've got on a business account card there!

So other than internal banking fraud, very, very unlikely, it sounds like somebody's got hold of your internet banking details and set payments up, or your phone security details and authorised payments on the phone....
Other than that it's forged documents sent to the branch, least likely.

No, apparently the transactions are 'POS' which means it's possible someone has skimmed magnetic strip data e.g. during a shop transaction and then used it for purchases overseas (where PIN no. is not required currently.) My card has not been out of my possession.

There hasn't been an online breach, and nobody else has online access except me.

It was a whole series of transactions under about £1500, so presumably they were just below any single transaction limits.


Yes - Good thinking about getting solicitor on board - I have an appointment first thing on Monday!

MarcoM

silvermum wrote: »

No, apparently the transactions are 'POS' which means it's possible someone has skimmed magnetic strip data e.g. during a shop transaction and then used it for purchases overseas (where PIN no. is not required currently.) My card has not been out of my possession.

There hasn't been an online breach, and nobody else has online access except me.

It was a whole series of transactions under about £1500, so presumably they were just below any single transaction limits.


Yes - Good thinking about getting solicitor on board - I have an appointment first thing on Monday!

did they tell you for sure that the card was skimmed?
have they ruled out the chance of a mistake with their infamous system?

there are threads on here indicating that abbey have sent cards to old addresses, now if that is not compromising customer details then i don't know what is...