Adverse loading on fraud database

Eco_Miser

APAlison12 said:

Thank you I know know it was stupid not to check the risks incredibly stupid as a high achieving student but he was shocked when he saw the letter about what had caused it saying ‘they said there was no risk they said it was legal and risk free’.  They think these ‘influencers’ promoting it are famous and can be trusted.  I seriously failed to protect him as he is legally in so many ways a child.  

Thanks for coming back to us. For the benefit of anyone finding this story, a reminder that if any advert or influencer says something is legal, or something is risk-free, it almost certainly is not, and is in fact a scam, or worse, an inducement to commit fraud.

colsten

APAlison12 said:

Finally got CIFAS report and yes some of you were right my son who works hard attended church regularly before lockdown does not own any flash items has responded to adverts by an influencer on Instagram to make money.  People will think he’s either stupid or ignorant or didn’t care about the risks!!   He tells me there are ‘famous’ people advertising a way to make money that’s legal!!!!   He replied to one of the adverts and was contacted on Snapchat.  My son who I thought was honest and open with me opened an Monzo account online still 16 at the time and over the period of about a month received 4 payments totalling £1200 which he paid back out to accounts given to him.  He was told it would not affect his own bank and he would receive money for doing this but never told how much.  He never actually received any money for doing this.  His Monzo account was closed and he was told don’t worry that it was ok by the person on Snapchat.   I received a message from an unknown person in january on Facebook asking if I was related to my son. My son didn’t know this person and I didn’t reply.  I think they were trying to gain information regarding my maiden name or about my sons family as the some questions had not been answered correctly about the account to the bank.  My son was genuinely shocked when his Metro account was closed and thought he would be able to open an account at another bank which he did but was closed a day later.  He now has a CIFAS fraud marker against his name which I expect will stay there for 6 years.  I have tried to bring him up well but obviously not well enough and not spoken to him about financial risks.  His life at only just 17 is now ruined.  Unable to get a bank account, he will be unable to go to university cause he will have no account for a student loan. Unable to get a decent job cause no account to pay his wages into and certainly unable to work in finance. Some may think well that’s what he gets for trying to get easy money as there’s no such thing and he was stupid if he believed these influencers saying otherwise.  I know that this is money laundering and supports criminals in a whole range of activities and that my son was stupid for not thinking about or maybe not caring about the effects of money laundering but he’s certainly going to pay the price for this and so may other members of the family with the fraud linked to our home address.  

Thanks for sharing this update.

colsten

Deleted_User said:

You can still open bank accounts with CIFAS, there are a couple that are fee paying but will still allow you to do it. 

I doubt that any bank will give you an account with a first party fraud marker. All you can get is prepaid accounts, some of which have sort code and account numbers like a bank account. There is no FSCS protection, and they don't help you build your credit file. But they can help you ticking over until you are 'clean' again. Pockit is one of them. I would, however, expect that these accounts will also be closed subito if money laundering is detected.