Fraud

Both_Feet_on_Terra_Firma

Hi all looking for same advice for my daughter yesterday she arrived home to a letter from her bank re a credit card account being opened in her name luckily the bank had taken immediate action and have flagged her account today a letter has arrived re a new bank account with another bank that she has apparently opened she is calling them now to inform them it is not her . I have advised her to get her credit files to check there is nothing else but what else should she do we have never been in this situation before Thank You

[Deleted User]

Keeping an eye on her files is the main thing, but she should also have a think about where the applications might be being made from.

If it continues, she could add a CIFAS marker which will tell lenders that additional checks need to be carried out. It will slow down her own applications, but may be the lesser of two evils.

Both_Feet_on_Terra_Firma

how do we do a Cifa's marker?

[Deleted User]

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

Ben8282

Before you go rushing off adding cifas markers and checking credit reports, pause and have a little think about exactly what has occurred.

A credit card account has been opened with your daughter's bank. She has received correspondence at the correct home address.
A bank account has been opened with another bank. Correspondence has been received at the correct home address.
In such a case how could any of this be of benefit to a fraudster if everything (new credit card, new debit card, pin numbers etc) are being sent to your daughter at her correct address and the correspondence is being received an not intercepted?

Both_Feet_on_Terra_Firma

She lives alone in a small block 6 flats in total on a very small new estate with the post box outside the main door they are individual locked boxes all we can assume is that someone maybe has had their hand in the box but who knows They applied for a new credit card the one and only one she has and they have asked to start a new account with a bank she has never used her bank did say they would put a marker on her account to keep a watch for unusual activity the worry is that she will eventually be looking for another mortgage to move on up the ladder so we want to nip this in the bud x

robatwork

4/5 on says a resident up to no good
3/1 says one of the posties
10/1 family
100/1 bar

Ben8282

robatwork wrote: »

4/5 on says a resident up to no good
3/1 says one of the posties
10/1 family
100/1 bar

We are of coursed faced with the question of how the fraudster managed to obtain sufficient information to be able to open a credit card account with her existing bank and open a new account with another bank.
Opening a credit card account requires an application even with an existing bank. The existing bank would have been in a better position than most to spot any inconsistancies or errors in the appliction. As there has been no mention of missing items of post, how did the fraudster obtain all the necessary information. Even if some post had gone missing, how did the fraudster know ALL of the necessary information?
The same would apply to the bank account unless it was some sort of savings account which did not require a credit check.
Then we come to the question of why the post was not intercepted if that was the fraudsters intent. After all, after going to all the trouble of obtaining all the necessary informatipon which would not have been easy, they then fail in the most important part of the attempted fraud and allow the daughter to become aware of what has happened.

MEM62

Ben8282 wrote: »

We are of coursed faced with the question of how the fraudster managed to obtain sufficient information to be able to open a credit card account with her existing bank and open a new account with another bank.

You will probably never know. Even if the banks own investigation reveals further facts they are unlikely to be relayed to you. I appreciate that this can be a difficult thing to let go of and you will search for answers even if that is futile. The unfortunate fact is that, in many cases, the culprit is someone close.

System

Ben8282 wrote: »

Before you go rushing off adding cifas markers and checking credit reports, pause and have a little think about exactly what has occurred.

A credit card account has been opened with your daughter's bank. She has received correspondence at the correct home address.
A bank account has been opened with another bank. Correspondence has been received at the correct home address.
In such a case how could any of this be of benefit to a fraudster if everything (new credit card, new debit card, pin numbers etc) are being sent to your daughter at her correct address and the correspondence is being received an not intercepted?

They wouldn't be able to send it to a different address that easily, so the most common type is current address fraud via false impersonation where they would attempt to intercept the card/pin

Both_Feet_on_Terra_Firma wrote: »

how do we do a Cifa's marker?

I wouldn't bother doing this just yet, you'll be wasting your money, she should suply her correct details to the credit card and bank companies they will add the the valid details to CIFAS for you under a CAT 2 marker (Victim of Impersonation) this will last a year, I would then advise on contacting CIFAS and paying for a CAT 0 (Protective Registration) no point in you paying for something that you're already going to get.

Ben8282 wrote: »

We are of coursed faced with the question of how the fraudster managed to obtain sufficient information to be able to open a credit card account with her existing bank and open a new account with another bank.
Opening a credit card account requires an application even with an existing bank. The existing bank would have been in a better position than most to spot any inconsistancies or errors in the appliction. As there has been no mention of missing items of post, how did the fraudster obtain all the necessary information. Even if some post had gone missing, how did the fraudster know ALL of the necessary information?
The same would apply to the bank account unless it was some sort of savings account which did not require a credit check.
Then we come to the question of why the post was not intercepted if that was the fraudsters intent. After all, after going to all the trouble of obtaining all the necessary informatipon which would not have been easy, they then fail in the most important part of the attempted fraud and allow the daughter to become aware of what has happened.

It's easy to apply for a credit card and the checks aren't that great, all you really need is address, name, dob and bank account,(the bank account being the hardest to obtain) in this instant I'd hazard a guess that they most likely wanted to do a money transfer so setup a new bank account to do this, again not that hard and all fairly common.