£25k fraudulently taken from my bank account

SonOf

A fairly high proportion of money being withdrawn actually turns out to be friends or family members.   The same IP address can suggest that it was done on the same network (e..g home or office).   Whilst many internet providers will give you a different IP address when your router resets or connection is lost, the odds of someone else getting the same IP address you had previously and committing fraud on your account is damned low.
However, it could also happen if you were both connected to the same hotspot.  e.g. if you do your online banking in Starbucks for example.  Have the bank given you the IP address so you can see if it is in the range used at home or somewhere you recognise (if its not in your home range, then it may take more investigation).

Justice13075

ryan121 said:

You need to ask O2 how the sim swap was initiated. If it was by phone make a complaint and get a copy of the recording. You also need to make a complaint to santander explaining you have been a victim of sim swap fraud. You can only go to the ombudsman after santander give you a response to your complaint.

There was a case not that long ago involving O2 where a fraudster didn't even get the security questions right over the phone and they still let a sim swap happen.

Banks rely too much on the security of phone networks which isn't usually very good. 

I would advise also in the long term looking at other banks and networks if you want to help prevent this happening again.. The new banks such as starling are better at preventing people gaining access to your account. Also for example giffgaff don't allow a sim swap unless you authorise with a code via text or email.

Hi, I cannot find anywhere where it tells you that you need to send a code to authorise a sim swap

BrendanKilk

SonOf said:

A fairly high proportion of money being withdrawn actually turns out to be friends or family members.   The same IP address can suggest that it was done on the same network (e..g home or office).   Whilst many internet providers will give you a different IP address when your router resets or connection is lost, the odds of someone else getting the same IP address you had previously and committing fraud on your account is damned low.
However, it could also happen if you were both connected to the same hotspot.  e.g. if you do your online banking in Starbucks for example.  Have the bank given you the IP address so you can see if it is in the range used at home or somewhere you recognise (if its not in your home range, then it may take more investigation).

Thanks for the comment. A friend/family making the transactions doesn’t align with my SIM card getting swapped 15mins before the first transaction? I’ve issued subject access requests for everything. It’s going to take a long time to receive the info. 

Another point to note, I’ve got the email correspondence from transfer of where the money went out of the transferwise account. Definitely not friends or family...

plus the fact that my bank login details don’t exist anywhere except in my head.....

It has to be high tech cyber crime I think 

Uxb1

I did an O2 sim swap about 8  months ago
I was swapping from an old phone using a full size sim to a new phone using a nano sim.
O2 sent me a blank sim on my request - I recall I had to confirm my address matched the one their records and they sent me a text to the phone first to make sure it was me with a code to tell them back - this was all done via web-chat
Upon receipt a day or so later I started the sim swap process via their website and then they again sent me a text to my phone which clearly stated what was happening along with a code that I had to enter up immediately on the website before it was accepted.
After that my old phone went dead pretty well immediately and then my new phone with a new sim card in in it started up OK a short time later

blakemansarah

This is so horrible

born_again

blakemansarah said:

This is so horrible

And well published scam.

silvermum

born_again said:

blakemansarah said:

This is so horrible

And well published scam.

Is it a well known scam? I'd never heard of it until now.
What does a person need to do to protect themselves against this? (I'm not clear how this has happened...)

badger09

silvermum said:

born_again said:

blakemansarah said:

This is so horrible

And well published scam.

Is it a well known scam? I'd never heard of it until now.
What does a person need to do to protect themselves against this? (I'm not clear how this has happened...)

Been going on for years but seems to be gaining traction & covered on consumer websites, TV progs etc. Just search Sim swap fraud.
This is an explanation
https://us.norton.com/internetsecurity-mobile-sim-swap-fraud.html

Yorkshire_Pud

Seems like every action has been duplicated. Parallel explanations of the same actions.

OP did change sim, did set up a new transferwise account in his name and did authorise payment from the same IP address as previously used legitimately!

So did alleged criminal but fraudulently this time, changed sim, opened transferwise account, same ip address.
Bit like saying I’ve been scammed by myself. Someone (me) did all this to myself?

BrownTrout

Yorkshire_Pud said:

Seems like every action has been duplicated. Parallel explanations of the same actions.

OP did change sim, did set up a new transferwise account in his name and did authorise payment from the same IP address as previously used legitimately!

So did alleged criminal but fraudulently this time, changed sim, opened transferwise account, same ip address.
Bit like saying I’ve been scammed by myself. Someone (me) did all this to myself?

Sounds spot on to me