Bank fraud - can anyone help me make sense of this....?

colsten

I think you are right - it's a dreadfully difficult judgment to make whether going to the Police will make matters worse, or whether she can get out of the mess with just this horrendous loss of savings. She must feel devastated as it is. However, if her name can be linked to criminal activity, Police will find her sooner or later, and will ask why she (and her parents?) didn't come to them proactively. If she tells them now, she might get some sort of a protected witness status / mitigating circumstances. If she waits, and Police find out she knew (e.g. from date of closure of the bank account and phone contracts), there won't be much sympathy for her. Or for you.

I have said what I can say to this. I am out of this thread now.

Hasbeen

JohnRinson said:

The lost money - and lasting threat of the banks tracking this down and black-marking her / criminal investigation etc at a later date - hopefully being enough of a lesson for this never to happen again. 

Sorry, but from your posts, this is the second time she has been involved in "situations". So it has actually happened again?
She is an adult and decides what is right or wrong? She sadly appears naively to decide things wrongly.

Bank account stripped, mobile phones. Debt etc. I fear the more you are involved the more you will find out.

As a parent I understand your desire to help, I do not know her circumstances, but perhaps is a POA if applicable required?

Hopefully this will end and no criminal activities will come back to your daughter.

Sadly we can only help and protect our children so far.  Hope all works out well.

mab3000

MalMonroe said:

How on earth is that helpful? You'll just lead the OP to having a heart attack. His daughter was an innocent vulnerable victim, stop all the nonsense about her being prosecuted and having a fraud marker on her bank account. OP asked for help, not condemnation! 

I’m sorry but I disagree. I am just telling it as it is. 

The OP posted this in their original post;

 He has approached her some time later offering her a chance to "make some money" by giving him access to her bank account. She says several of her other friends have done this and paid money to this guy, who has then paid the money back a few days later, plus extra. She says she knows no detail of how or why it works, just that she "knows others" that have done it and who have earned money this way. 

The fraudster approached the OP’s daughter with a chance to “make some money,” Their daughter chose to accept this offer, wether they believed it to be legitimate or not, they didn’t think about the consequences of doing it. I think the phrase ‘if something seems to good to be true it probably isn’t’ comes into play here. I’m afraid pleading they did not realise what they were doing probably wouldn’t get them very far if it ever did go down the prosecution route. 

What has happened to the OP’s daughter is a horrible experience and something that is happening far too often, especially with the younger generation. And I hope they and their daughter manage to sort the situation out with little impact to them. However, I do stand by what I said in my original reply to this post. 

JohnRinson

I agree with all these comments - there's no doubt she's at fault and needs to take responsibility for what she's allowed to happen. And if the police get involved and she gets in trouble, she needs to take whatever punishment comes her way. There will be other victims involved in the chain here too. I think on a scale from being 100% aware of what was happening and knowingly complicit in criminal gang activity, down to being a completely unwitting innocent victim, she's towards the latter end of the scale, but by no means all the way at it. She knew something was wrong and chose to do it anyway - even if she didn't know the full scale and detail. She's paid a heavy price losing years' worth of savings and all the other trouble that's gone along with it, which may well not be the last of it. If criminal charges / investigations happen, she'll have to accept the consequences but, on balance, I think actively inviting that at this stage is un-necessary and a line can be drawn under it now. 

Roger.Wilco

JohnRinson said:

... a line can be drawn under it now. 

I think another poster has also suggested this?  Is to get your daughter to obtain her credit reports from Experian/Equifax etc...

You have rights to request one free report a year and all credit rating/monitoring companies do have links on their websites to request this. MSE also has a link to get credit reports somewhere on this site. I think all of the credit rating/monitoring companies also have a deal of sign-up and have one month free - before they start charging.  So as different financial institutions use one or more of the main three credit rating/monitoring companies - it might be worth signing up for all three for the first month and then deciding whether to cancel the subscription or keep one or more active for the near future.

I suggest this only because the Mobile Phone contracts were a surprise.  So what other credit agreements are in place against your daughter's name? - given that her bank details have been given to an unscrupulous individual or group.

The credit reports will allow your daughter to get a good handle on how many previous & current credit agreements your daughter is currently responsible for.  You can then go through them one-by-one.  The reports will also show any CIFAS markers active against your daughter.

For example my Equifax credit report shows the following past and present credit agreement information:

• Mobile phone plans
• Credit cards / Store cards
• Bank Current Accounts
• Mortgage
• Personal Loans
• Utilities
  

The credit report also shows what searches have been made against your daughter's name in the last month.  This would be an early warning that the unscrupulous individual or group may be trying to use her details to setup new credit agreements or bank accounts.  It will at least provide a "heads-up" of what may be coming down the pipeline to allow your daughter to contest any of these agreements if they appear (she will have to contest each separately - but it may provide an early warning).

A few things to appreciate - the "credit rating" these companies provide mean nothing - as banks will use their own.  After my situation - I'm using the credit reports / monitoring as an early warning by checking what credit searches are done against my name each month.  Though, understand that if your daughter has ever used comparethemarket or other such website or had car insurance etc... - there may be random searches from time-to-time.

eskbanker

Roger.Wilco said:
You have rights to request one free report a year and all credit rating/monitoring companies do have links on their websites to request this. MSE also has a link to get credit reports somewhere on this site. I think all of the credit rating/monitoring companies also have a deal of sign-up and have one month free - before they start charging.  So as different financial institutions use one or more of the main three credit rating/monitoring companies - it might be worth signing up for all three for the first month and then deciding whether to cancel the subscription or keep one or more active for the near future.

There's no need to play the subscription trials game anymore, you can check your files for nothing: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/loans/check-free-credit-report/

It used to be that the only way you could check your score for free was to sign up to 30-day free trials of these services, and then cancel before the time's up so you don't get charged. Yet, now, you can check your report on all three agencies for free every month

born_again

Rhubarb_Shed said:

Your daughter is clearly a victim in this, but as to whether she has committed an offence herself would IMO depend on if she knew, or could have been reasonably expected to know, that her account would be used for illegal activity.  We may all do naive/stupid things occasionally, which with common sense we shouldn't have, but it doesn't necessarily make us criminals.

That will make no difference. 
Claiming she knew nothing does not cut it as far as any banks goes. A mule is just another part of the chain in the crime.
As has already been posted. If bank gets a whiff of this, then she is in deep trouble banking wise.
Or it could be a simple scam to get the cash from her account. Is she the type of person that is easily led on by so called friends? Who will have known she had a fair amount of cash?

Get the account closed (stops any further access) and a new one opened.
It is a very expensive lesson. If she tries the fraud claim at bank, it will backfire once she is questioned. And they will get the truth out of her.

[Deleted User]

You've had some good advice so excuse me for repeating some but he's what you and your daughter needs to do:

1. Go the police and explain the entire situation, it's a gamble if they will treat her as a victim or an accomplice but it will look better if she went there on her own accord because if the police do get involved it's likely they will turn up at your door, ask questions and treat her as an accomplice. They will definitely ask why you didn't go to the police about it if they turn up at your door and you play the victim.

 2. If you haven't already, definitely  close the bank account and savings account that were used by the fraudster so it lowers the chance of the bank finding out and placing a CIFAS marker on her. Open a new bank account with a different bank. Also make sure it's a different banking group, for example if her account was with Halifax don't go and open one with Lloyds. Make sure the new bank is completely untied to the old one. 

 3. Cancel the mobile phone contract, whatever the penalty, the penalty is worth it.

4. Get a CIFAS protective registration in her name, the fraudster knows all of your daughters details and might have pictures of her ID, so they could open stuff in her name. This registration stops that from happening. 

5. Get ready to have a solicitor or lawyer in case the police treat her as an accomplice and come after her. 


Just putting my twopence worth in

DCFC79

Any news OP ?