Help Needed with RBS Fraud

yorkie1980

Hi all,
Hope this is the right forum for this, if not please advise....

Basically I'm at my wits end, here's my story:

In February 2005, I was the victim of a fraudulent transaction [withdrawing £540 cash over the counter using my mothers maiden name] from my Royal Bank of Scotland current account by someone posing as me.

This was logged with the Police [Crime Ref No & Unique Ref No] and Royal Bank of Scotland at the time and despite almost three years of correspondence, visits to my branch, numerous photocopies of my passport, drivers license, signatures etc. and false promises, Royal Bank of Scotland have yet to resolve the issue.

During this two year period, charges have been amassing on this account, and despite RBS staff telling me for the last three years "don't worry, all these charges will be refunded", I’ve recently been advised that they won’t.

Because of these charges, I have also received continuous defaults on my credit rating – again, I was assured these would be reversed once the case was resolved. I’ve also had regular letters from solicitors and debt collectors.

I am now finding it impossible to get a mortgage or credit card.

My main frustration at present is that RBS won’t resolve the case, and confirm that it wasn’t me who withdrew the money. As a result of this resolution, I would expect RBS to refund all the charges applied to my account, and remove all the defaults from my credit score.

Fortunately, I have kept a record of all correspondence and actions since this began, and am happy to forward it to anybody interested in helping me.

I do not know where to turn to for advice. I would like to take legal action to get this resolved immediately, but fear I may not have a strong enough case against RBS.

I am hoping – using the information above and the accompanying correspondence - someone will be able to advise whether I have a strong enough case to launch legal action, and if so, where do I start?

I'm unable to post the attachments and they'd take up loads of room if I was to copy and paste them, so hopefully if anyone's interested in helping I can send them it,

thanks for taking the time to read this, and I look forward to getting some advice

yorkie1980

missile

How did they pose as you, using a stolen cash card or what?

Write a letter headed "CUSTOMER COMPLAINT". I guess you may already have done this(?) but you did not say. If not you need to exhaust RBS complaints procedure before you can register your complaint with the ombudsman see www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk

yorkie1980

Hi Missile,
Thanks for your reply.

All RBS would tell me is that they "answered my security question" to withdraw the cash. The police informed me that the perpetrators targetted new members of staff or Saturday PT staff with limited experience. I didn't have my card stolen [although it may have been cloned without my knowledge].

I will revisit their complaints procedure, but have spent three years now being passed from call centres, cross departments, to my local branch and back again.

To be honest I'm exhausted with the whole thing and think that legal action (or the threat of) is the only way they'll ever do something about it. But I don't want to make an empty threat, I'd like to be in a position/have the confidence to actually go through with it.

CLAPTON

I think you best bet is to write to their complaints department clearly saying that you want the matter resolved and your credit file corrected within 40 days. If they fail to do this you will make a formal compaint to the Banking Obudsman about the frozen a/c and a complaint ot the Information Commissioner about the false information of your credit record.

olly300

Yorkie1980 as missile stated you need to exhausted RBS complaints procedure and you should do this in writing sending your letters via recorded delivery. If you don't use recorded delivery RBS may claim they haven't received your letters. I've had RBS claim in the past they haven't received my letters so couldn't do the actions I wanted until I started senting them all via recorded delivery. (I don't bank with them anymore due to the misinformation some of their staff give out.)

Also state in the letter you will be refering the case to the financial ombudsman if the issue is not resolved.

If RBS don't answer your letter in 8 weeks or you have exhausted the complaints procedure in writing then you can complain to the financial ombudsman.

As RBS will be paying a fee for any investigation the financial ombudsman conducts and will have a complaint logged against them they are likely to sort the issue out.

BTW complaints to the financial ombudsman have a 6 month time limit so if you have complained over 6 months ago but have not received a "final" reply then complain in writing asap.

yorkie1980

Many Thanks for the advice,
I will revisit their complaints procedure and make sure I exhaust that, as advised.
Really useful to get peace of mind and some advice, so thanks again

Yorkie1980

yorkie1980

Sorry to be a pain again, but I wonder if anyone could have the time to have a quick read through the letter I've drafted? Would be useful to identify any glaring errors or mistakes.... Thanks in advance

Dear Sir/Madam,


In February 2005, I was the victim of a fraudulent transaction from my Royal Bank of Scotland current account by someone posing as me

This was logged with the Police and Royal Bank of Scotland at the time and despite almost three years of correspondence, visits to my branch and false promises, Royal Bank of Scotland have yet to resolve the issue.

During this three year period, charges have been amassing on this account, and despite a number of different Royal Bank of Scotland staff assuring me over the last three years that all these charges will be refunded, I’ve recently been advised that they won’t.

Because of these charges, I have also received continuous defaults on my credit rating – again, I was assured these would be reversed once the case was resolved. I’ve also had regular letters from solicitors and debt collectors.

Fortunately, I have kept a record of all correspondence and actions since this began, and attached for your information a timeline and appendices.

Over the last three years I have spent many hours of my personal time and money on telephone calls, visits to my branch and letter writing in an attempt to resolve this case. I have constantly been misinformed and ill-advised by Royal Bank of Scotland staff and feel that I have spent enough of my time chasing this matter.

Having taken professional advice, I now request that you resolve this matter within 40 days of the date of this letter – this resolution includes refunding the charges applied and correcting my credit file.

In resolving the case, I expect the following issues to be answered or addressed:

1) Who obtained access to my RBS bank account and security details? And why haven’t RBS done anything to solve fraudulent activity on a customers account?
2) Savings Account [AC: 1xxxxxxx] was closed. This was done without my authorisation, knowledge or request. I was only informed of this when told by RBS employee Emma Gunner on the 20th August 2007. Which member of RBS staff closed this account and why wasn’t I consulted or notified at the time?
3) The account is in default status, meaning my credit report is being severely damaged by this. This must be corrected by Royal Bank of Scotland.
4) The latest letter shows that I have incurred over £500 worth of charges since the fraudulent activity took place. This must be corrected by Royal Bank of Scotland.
5) Why did RBS in York resolve this whole case with CMS (as I was informed 20/08/07) and why wasn’t I consulted or informed? Which member of RBS staff took this decision and implemented it?


Failure to resolve this case to my satisfaction by Monday 7th January 2008 will result in me referring this to the Financial Ombudsman Service on the 8th January 2008. Furthermore, I shall also be filing a complaint with the Information Commissioner about the false information you have placed on my credit report.

Please be aware that any complaint to the Financial Ombudsman and Information Commissioner will be accompanied by a full costing of my time and effort in chasing Royal Bank of Scotland to resolve this case.

I have sent a copy of this letter to the Customer Relations Manager [Recorded Delivery], Fiona Hassall, York Branch Manager [by hand], and Christopher Pinnion & Co Solicitors [by post] - whom you have assigned to collect this ‘debt’ on your behalf.



Yours sincerely,

olly300

I've sent you a pm. In your letter state how many documents you have actually attached, number them and state the number of documents you have attached in case the other company tries to claim they have "misplaced" them. (This has happened to me before.)

BTW The information commissioner doesn't actually do very much for the person complaining. All they do is cause hassle for the firm you are complaining about by either sending a letter asking about the company's breaches, or if the company has been really bad conducting an investigation then fining them. (They do conduct proper investigations but not in most cases.)

However once you have a non-compliance letter from the Information Commissioner if you then take the firm to the small claims or any other court and show this as part of your defence documents the judge is very highly likely to award against the other party.

yorkie1980

That's great, thanks olly300

missile

I would suggest your letter is overlong. Stick to the point>

Customer Relations Manager
The Royal Bank of Scotland
Freepost
PO Box 1727
Edinburgh
EH12 9JN

Subject : CUSTOMER COMPLAINT
Dear Sirs,
Account No ....... Sort Code ..........
Money was removed from my account by fraud on ......, it was reported to the Police. It would appear your employee did not carry security checks per RBOS procedure. I have incurred further loss through bank charges. I request the money stolen £.... and costs incurred £..... is refunded immediately. My credit record has been damaged as a direct consequence and I request that you take the necessary action to correct same.

I have complained to my branch on a number of occasions and unless I receive a satisfactory response within 14 days, I shall be obliged to refer my complaint to the financial ombudsman.

Your sincerely,
...................

For Your Info > http://www.rbs.co.uk/global/h/contact-us/personal-banking/complain.ashx

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Primrose

I think Missile's draft letter is very concise and summarises well your problem. The only issue is that much of the time, such letters are simply ignored. The only other suggestion I can make is that both the Telegraph Saturday's Money Section and the Sunday Times's Money supplement both have individuals who take up various individual's financial complaints with the organisations concerned when they have had no satisfactory outcome and both of them do seem to have very good track records of stirring things up and getting problems resolved. If a further direct letters has no result, one of these alternatives might be worth trying.