Credit Card Fraud - Cards Taken Out In My Name

Shahbaaz

Hi all,

I'm writing on behalf of a friend who has recently discovered credit cards being sent to her house which she has no knowledge about and has not requested.

She had a suspicion that it was one of her siblings responsible for this and after having searched his room, she discovered more credit cards that were taken out in her name with statements showing large transactions and also gambling receipts.

She has been trying to call the banks/providers to attempt to close these down immediately but what we don't understand is that the first name on all these accounts is spelt incorectly and also how can these accounts be opened without her permission or confirming the identity?

She is also unable to now check her credit score, she has never had a credit card of her own, never had any financial difficulty, never had any debts or even been in overdraft!

Please can we have some advise as to how we can resolve this.

[Deleted User]

She needs - or should - to report them to Action Fraud. They've been opened without her permission because they're fraudulent accounts.

Why can she not check her credit files (not scores)? What message is she getting? Is she checking all three?

18cc

Well it doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to find out who's been doing it if she has found other cards and receipts in her siblings room

eskbanker

18cc wrote: »

Well it doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to find out who's been doing it if she has found other cards and receipts in her siblings room

Hence OP not asking about who did it (self-evident) but how it happened and what to do next....

T-G-C

How it happened:

Their sibling, who would know all the information required on an application form, has applied for various card lenders and were accepted. Most lenders now use electronic checks without needing manual ID or documents and unfortunately, is not difficult to hide from the person. By using an email address in the person's name, which the lender cannot check is genuine for obvious reasons and by intercepting the post for the cards and/or other correspondence from the lender, they have pulled this off without much thinking power or alert to the victim, especially when not checking their credit file.

What to do next:

The person should confiscate all the card(s) from the sibling and make them aware of their knowledge about what has been going on. Check the balance on each card as the rightful account holder but do not immediately alert them of fraud. If some or all of the cards have a neutral balance, close them without a reason with the lender - this is simple when there is no balance and will go into the closed accounts section of their credit file - end of story and give the sibling a good scolding and that next time you will involve the authorities. I will get into more detail in the next paragraph as to why you should consider carefully on whether to alert the lender in this case...

If there is a balance on some or all of the cards, demand either immediate or incremental repayment from the sibling in exchange for not reporting it to the police / Action Fraud - including them paying any interest on the balance during their repayment period. Even if they decide not to report it, still propose this ultimatum to the victim, to help make them realize how serious the situation is. It is not as simple as simply prosecuting the person; as being such a close family member to the fraudster, the sister may feel highly emotional and a mixture of other sentimental things when the police come to the house and arrest the boy, with a criminal record at the end of it. This can ruin their future in many industries for employment and opportunities abroad. The sister should make an informed decision on whether to report it or not, especially when there could be underlying financial or mental issues with the person in question, as I doubt this was purely out of malicious conduct, it rarely is in these types of cases.

If the person cannot afford repayment on those cards and has a low or zero income, consider paying the card(s) off directly and then arrange repayment for the amount with the sibling informally when they start working or receive benefits, or whichever comes first. If they already work or receive benefits, then this would be more straightforward to arrange without involving the police or the lender's fraud squad, which will ultimately lead to the police getting involved, as the lender will want their stolen money back.

To sum it up there are two options:

1. Report all of the card(s) as opened fraudulently. Allow the lender to investigate with their own fraud team but also make an independent report to Action Fraud about this. If there are balance(s) on the card(s), then the victim is not responsible and the person behind it, the brother, will be in serious trouble with the law when arrested for the offence, prosecuted by the lender, meaning no control from the sister, as it is their money that has been stolen, not hers.

2. Make a simple closure on any card(s) which have a £0.00 balance and let it sit in the closed accounts section. This will have little to no impact on further ability to obtain credit, if the card was never used or anything negative reported to it. If there are any card(s) with a balance or if all the card(s) have a balance on them, either the sister pays them off in full and closes them, then makes an arrangement with the brother to pay back what they used OR keeps the card opened with the balance and lets the sibling pay off the card themselves through their income, including any interest on each statement until cleared, then close the accounts. Ensure the card(s) are confiscated to prevent further use and monitor them for further fraudulent activity. Give them a fright with calling the police even if having no intention to report them, as a punishment and deterrent for the future.

It is easy for people on here to simply ask her to report the brother to Action Fraud / the police, but at the end of the day, family is family and being a sibling, it is going to have an impact on her to see her own brother being prosecuted and having a permanent criminal record from it. The sister should try to resolve this problem without involving the authorities but if he refuses to pay any debt or co-operate in resolving the problem, he is purely malicious and abusive in his motives / conduct or it happens again in the future, then I would fully support prosecution. If this is the first time and has never happened before, then I would see this as a bad mistake and work with them to resolve it and educate them about the dangers of fraud and what could have happened to them, if it was a stranger and had involved the authorities.

Shahbaaz

Deleted_User wrote: »

She needs - or should - to report them to Action Fraud. They've been opened without her permission because they're fraudulent accounts.

Why can she not check her credit files (not scores)? What message is she getting? Is she checking all three?

She has checked with all three but they ask questions about credit cards, how many there are and when was the last time they were taken out etc, all information she is not 100% sure about.

[Deleted User]

Ask them for an alternate way to verify her identity.

davethorp

It may also be worth them signing for protective registration from CIFAS which will mean any further applications go through additional ID checks

https://www.cifas.org.uk/services/identity-protection/protective-registration

etienneg

There is a serious problem if the victim of this crime (the sister) does not immediately report the fraud: she becomes complicit in the crime. Make no mistake, there is no comfortable, middle way of dealing with this. Either she reports it and assists the credit card companies and police in pursuing the perpetrator (and thus remains innocent), or she herself accepts not only the debts on the cards but also anything else that results from the fraud (when she may well end up with difficulties obtaining credit herself in the future if not criminal proceedings against her).

Some people may be tempted to think I'm exaggerating here, but don't forget the law is not just about being in the right but being able to show this if necessary.

It's quite right, of course, that family members have responsibilities to each other. In this case, the brother had a responsibility to his sister not to perpetrate a crime against her and land her in these difficulties. There is no reason now why she should feel she cannot report the crime. That doesn't mean she can't continue to love her brother and to help him facing up to this. She should not be drawn into his deceit by some well-meaning but misguided sense of obligation. Remember always: she is the victim.

Nebulous2

T-G-C wrote: »

To sum it up there are two options:

1. Report all of the card(s) as opened fraudulently. Allow the lender to investigate with their own fraud team but also make an independent report to Action Fraud about this. If there are balance(s) on the card(s), then the victim is not responsible and the person behind it, the brother, will be in serious trouble with the law when arrested for the offence, prosecuted by the lender, meaning no control from the sister, as it is their money that has been stolen, not hers.

2. Make a simple closure on any card(s) which have a £0.00 balance and let it sit in the closed accounts section. This will have little to no impact on further ability to obtain credit, if the card was never used or anything negative reported to it. If there are any card(s) with a balance or if all the card(s) have a balance on them, either the sister pays them off in full and closes them, then makes an arrangement with the brother to pay back what they used OR keeps the card opened with the balance and lets the sibling pay off the card themselves through their income, including any interest on each statement until cleared, then close the accounts. Ensure the card(s) are confiscated to prevent further use and monitor them for further fraudulent activity. Give them a fright with calling the police even if having no intention to report them, as a punishment and deterrent for the future.

It is easy for people on here to simply ask her to report the brother to Action Fraud / the police, but at the end of the day, family is family and being a sibling, it is going to have an impact on her to see her own brother being prosecuted and having a permanent criminal record from it. The sister should try to resolve this problem without involving the authorities but if he refuses to pay any debt or co-operate in resolving the problem, he is purely malicious and abusive in his motives / conduct or it happens again in the future, then I would fully support prosecution. If this is the first time and has never happened before, then I would see this as a bad mistake and work with them to resolve it and educate them about the dangers of fraud and what could have happened to them, if it was a stranger and had involved the authorities.

I think this is spectacularly bad advice. The OP has already stated there are large transactions and gambling debts. That isn't a hole he is going to dig himself out of readily.

You are suggesting his sister becomes complicit in his fraud.

Therein lies possible charges, a National Hunter registration, getting all their bank accounts closed and spending the next 10 years unable to get wages paid or have a contract mobile phone, nevermind a car or mortgage.

T-G-C

etienneg wrote: »

There is a serious problem if the victim of this crime (the sister) does not immediately report the fraud: she becomes complicit in the crime. Make no mistake, there is no comfortable, middle way of dealing with this. Either she reports it and assists the credit card companies and police in pursuing the perpetrator (and thus remains innocent), or she herself accepts not only the debts on the cards but also anything else that results from the fraud (when she may well end up with difficulties obtaining credit herself in the future if not criminal proceedings against her).

Some people may be tempted to think I'm exaggerating here, but don't forget the law is not just about being in the right but being able to show this if necessary.

It's quite right, of course, that family members have responsibilities to each other. In this case, the brother had a responsibility to his sister not to perpetrate a crime against her and land her in these difficulties. There is no reason now why she should feel she cannot report the crime. That doesn't mean she can't continue to love her brother and to help him facing up to this. She should not be drawn into his deceit by some well-meaning but misguided sense of obligation. Remember always: she is the victim.

You have to remember that they live in the same house together and are most likely still under parental influence as well, unless the brother simply lives with her for an otherwise specified reason.

It might sound simple to prosecute him, but then comes the family part; will her parents disown her over it? Will the brother never speak to her again? Will the police even be able to prove he committed fraud under the same roof as the victim? All of these factors come into play.

I suggested she close anything that doesn't have a balance and the ones that do, unless all of them do, is ask the brother to clear them or clear them herself and arrange a repayment plan with him. If he is willing to do this and is apologetic for his misdemeanor, then I cannot see the need for external authorities to get involved. If he is abusive when confronted, not apologetic, refuses to repay the debt to her or does it again in the future, then involve the authorities and prosecute him. There is always a second chance, but never a third. A lot families run as tight units and something like this can blow a massive hole in it. The police is not the only route to go down, if it can be dealt with in-house and he realizes the damage and wants to reverse it, then it is fair to give him an opportunity, being such a close relation to the victim. If it were a stranger or a rouge family member who definitely did it cold and calculated, then obviously prosecute in all such cases.

The chances are, the police won't even get involved. Not all cases reported to Action Fraud are taken on. When you go to the police station to report card fraud, they tell you to go online and report it, that is how bothered they are. The small-fry cases like this are of little interest to them on an ever-reducing police budget.

Unless the cards have been abused already and submitted bad markers to her credit file, simply paying the debt off from them will not prevent her from obtaining credit. Criminal proceedings will not occur if the situation is dealt with in-house and the lender is not informed of it. As long as the debt is paid, even if it is over a long period of time, the lender does not need to know. They issued the card without extra checks, so there is no suspicion on there side of fraud, so unless someone tells them, there is nothing for them to act on.