Bank details compromised, indemnity refused.

Rheon

Somebody set up an unauthorized Direct Debit using my bank details earlier this year. Three payments were taken before I noticed and reported it to my bank and cancelled the DD. The payee, DVLA, refuses to refund me and refer me to my bank. My bank also refuses to refund me and refers me to the DVLA. I am stuck in the middle and at the mercy of fraudsters! I feel helpless and vulnerable. Can anyone offer any advice?

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth

How did someone randomly get your details correct?

That aside, not keeping a check on your account balance and status does not do any favours, and your bank rightly refuses to return the DD. It is up to you to cancel this. If you have no knowledge, then log on and delete the DD. Mind you, if you have set up DD to pay your car tax, be aware, that you could invalidate your car tax if you don’t keep up payments on this, and they, I recall, could be backdated to the last date the DD was successful. 

Sandtree

Why is your bank refusing to refund the monies under the Direct Debit Guarantee?

I'd log a complaint with your bank with a view to escalating it to the FOS if you don't like their Final Response (or you don't get one in 8 weeks).

Manxman_in_exile

When you say "Somebody", do you mean that you don't know who has done this?  (I presume this "Somebody" has set up a DD on your bank account to pay their road tax - or something?  And your bank won't refund it?).

Rheon

That's right. Somebody, presumably a hacker or a fraudster, set up a DD with my details to pay their own bill. I asked DVLA whether it could be an honest error on their part but they say that's impossible.

Rheon

The registration number attached to the DD was for a vehicle unknown to me. Not my car! Not my DD! Bank says it probably won't happen again. Great! Most reassuring!

waamo

Try sending a Subject Access Request to the DVLA asking for all the information they have on you including the details of all vehicles you have paid VED on.

It may offer some illuminating information.

Rheon

Thank you. I'll give it a try.

waamo

If that doesn't reveal anything apply to them to tell you the details of the registered keeper. They charge a fee for this. It's a whopping £2.50. That might reveal something interesting.

You will need to fill out form V888 and give a good reason although you do appear to have one. The form can be found here https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/853889/v888-request-by-an-individual-for-information-about-a-vehicle.pdf

davidmcn

It seems a strange sort of fraud (assuming it was fraud rather than just a mistake of some sort) given how easy it is to trace the "perpetrator".

DoaM

I suspect that the "perpetrator" made a mistake and their bank account details are quite similar to the OP ... perhaps they transposed two numbers without realising. The first they'll realise is when DVLA contact them about the DD for their tax having been stopped.

By the same token, they should also check their bank statements and should have noticed the lack of DD / payment to DVLA. Or perhaps they did and thought they'd got away with it?