Payment received in error

Terry_Towelling

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

OP Whatever you do do not send the money back through a request from the 'loan' company.
Let the bank return it for you - no need to complain just chill as long as the bank know the money is not yours it will all work out in the end.

Vortigern wrote: »

No. There is no need to speak to the loan company. The OP has no business with them and they won't talk to him.

Do not under any circumstances attempt to return the money yourself. If you return it to the wrong party it will be your responsibility.

As suggested, the OP needs to inform their own bank, in writing, of the payment received in error. Then just wait for the loan company to claim it back through their own bank. Their bank will deal with the OP's bank.

Just to drag things back. I agree wholeheartedly with what you are saying here. However, dealing with the bank has met with intransigence. Does OP really want to cede control over this issue to an organisation that acts like this?

There are three possible outcomes here.

1. Genuine Loan applicant shouts and it all gets sorted out.
2. Genuine Loan applicant doesn't shout (can't imagine why not but...) nothing gets sorted and pretty soon loan company is going to collect the first monthly repayment from OPs bank account. Now getting very messy.
3. Fraudulent loan app. Scammer will call OP posing as bank. Will take OP through security - 3 digits from telephone banking code, date of birth etc. Will tell OP they've failed security. Go through it again with different questions - mother's maiden name, postcode, different digits from pass code etc. This time security will pass.

The scam has two ways of playing out now.

Scammer may say we will sort it out for you and use OPs phished details to log in and take money. Loan company starts to take monthly repayments from OPs account - messy.

Scammer may ask OP to send money back but to keep, say, £250 to cover inconvenience etc. They provide different banking details for the payment citing these to be their remittance account rather than the original disbursement account. Loan company again starts to collect monthly repayments - more mess.

With the scam scenarios, the scammer is also the loan applicant. If they are really ruthless, they will also ask the loan company where their loan cash is. Loan company will try to reclaim it from OP but it's already gone. Very messy.

If it were me, I'd like to keep control of the repayment process. OP needs to bang heads together (bank, loan company) and return the payment if the bank doesn't act very quickly.

Whatever you do, OP check your account regularly for signs of a direct debit being set up to take loan repayments.

EachPenny

Terry_Towelling wrote: »

Just to drag things back. I agree wholeheartedly with what you are saying here. However, dealing with the bank has met with intransigence. Does OP really want to cede control over this issue to an organisation that acts like this?

Yes, because that 'control' is not the OP's in the first place. Their responsibility is to alert their bank to the money wrongly being in their account, and taking reasonable steps to ensure the bank have understood and act upon that information.

Any other course of action makes the OP responsible for the safety of someone else's money, which nobody should sensibly do.

To illustrate this with a real-World example, if you found £14,000 laying in the street would you (a) get to the nearest police station asap and hand it over or (b) spend an hour on the street approaching random strangers asking if the £14,000 cash you are holding might be theirs?

Terry_Towelling wrote: »

3. Fraudulent loan app. Scammer will call OP posing as bank. Will take OP through security - 3 digits from telephone banking code, date of birth etc. Will tell OP they've failed security. Go through it again with different questions - mother's maiden name, postcode, different digits from pass code etc. This time security will pass.

The OP has been alerted to the risk of fraud. Hopefully they will be on their guard for such phone calls.

Terry_Towelling wrote: »

If it were me, I'd like to keep control of the repayment process. OP needs to bang heads together (bank, loan company) and return the payment if the bank doesn't act very quickly.

Both of which would be a mistake, the latter one a very big mistake.

People are over complicating this with their schemes and scams. The OP's bank is responsible for ensuring the safe return of this money to the rightful owner. End of.

Chino

EachPenny wrote: »

As above, the only things you need to do are:-
1) Change your online banking security.
2) Bang on at your bank (not the loan company) to remove this wrongly credited money from your account and send it back to wherever they want.

1. There is no need for the OP to do this - there is no suggestion that the OP's account has been compromised.
2. The OP has already advised their bank of the wrongly-credited money. The ball is now in the bank's court to pursue this matter. In due time the intended recipient of the money will question why they haven't received the money and eventually the loan company will realise its mistake and contact its bank which may or may not take up the matter with the OP's bank.

EachPenny

Chino wrote: »

1. There is no need for the OP to do this - there is no suggestion that the OP's account has been compromised.

The OP doesn't know whether or not their account has been compromised, the first they know might be when/if a fraudster extracts £14k from it (plus any of the OP's own money).

Personally I'd change my details before that can happen, rather than wait until I have confirmation.

Chino wrote: »

2. The OP has already advised their bank of the wrongly-credited money. The ball is now in the bank's court to pursue this matter. In due time the intended recipient of the money will question why they haven't received the money and eventually the loan company will realise its mistake and contact its bank which may or may not take up the matter with the OP's bank.

The OP seems to think the bank are not taking this seriously and may be taking no further action. It is up to the OP of course, but I'd want to make sure it was in writing and clearly understood by the bank that the money was not mine and I had no involvement in it getting there.

AnotherJoe

EachPenny wrote: »

The OP doesn't know whether or not their account has been compromised, the first they know might be when/if a fraudster extracts £14k from it (plus any of the OP's own money).

Personally I'd change my details before that can happen, rather than wait until I have confirmation.

If the OP's bank account had been "compromised" this must be the first scam whereby the scammers, instead of removing all the money in it*, start by depositing £14k instead.


* (which they would be at liberty to do if its been compromised, thats what it means)

Vortigern

Terry_Towelling wrote: »

I agree wholeheartedly with what you are saying here.

So why repeat the poor advice you gave?

Terry_Towelling wrote:

There are three possible outcomes here.

There's another possible scenario in which the fraudster claims to represent the loan company and asks the OP, by phone or by email, to return the cash to sort code nnnnnn account nnnnnnnn, an account under the control of the fraudster. This is why we are saying don't attempt to return the cash. Leave it to the banks concerned.

Terry_Towelling wrote:

Whatever you do, OP check your account regularly for signs of a direct debit being set up to take loan repayments.

This is sensible advice, and then invoking the Direct Debit Guarantee will stop things getting "messy" and get the loan company talking to the bank.

robatwork

EachPenny wrote: »

I'm not going to get into a protracted argument with Samsung_Note2 -

Quite right. This is the forum for to the point advice. The protracted argument forum is down the corridor --->

AnotherJoe

OP let us know how it works out please

Terry_Towelling

Vortigern wrote: »

So why repeat the poor advice you gave?

There's another possible scenario in which the fraudster claims to represent the loan company and asks the OP, by phone or by email, to return the cash to sort code nnnnnn account nnnnnnnn, an account under the control of the fraudster. This is why we are saying don't attempt to return the cash. Leave it to the banks concerned.

This is sensible advice, and then invoking the Direct Debit Guarantee will stop things getting "messy" and get the loan company talking to the bank.

Wasn't giving advice, was making a suggestion that letting go of control to organisations that show no interest is not safe. Was trying to highlight possible scenarios that might crop up. You've simply repeated one of those scenarios with the words, 'loan company' instead of 'bank'. This is the danger when you cede control - you have no idea who is coming back to you unless you have started the conversation.

Wasn't suggesting returning cash to any account other than the one from which it originated. If a person can't manage to correctly type 14 digits in a situation this important, there is no hope for us. OP seemed to think that returning the cash would be a risk if the loan company couldn't reconcile it and he'd be £14K out of pocket - it isn't and he wouldn't.

OP has got nowhere following the perceived wisdom - don't you think it is time to get on and do something proactive?

Vortigern

Terry_Towelling wrote: »

OP has got nowhere following the perceived wisdom - don't you think it is time to get on and do something proactive?

I would do nothing more proactive than make a formal written complaint to my own bank as suggested by xylophone.

xylophone wrote: »

Don't faff around any longer - leave the money where it is and make a formal written complaint to the bank.