Bank Account Access Blocked

lmb123456

Hello, 
I am wondering if any body can help, my friend became a victim of fraud and the fraudsters transferred money to my account in the hope that I would then transfer it on to them (by giving me a new sort code/ account number) that they claimed was hers. Luckily I had my wits about me that day and noticed that the account details were different to those that I have saved.
I moved the money that was deposited to me into my savings account as I was concerned the fraudsters may have gained access to my current account whilst I was on the phone to them.  
I have since transferred the money back to my friend however Barclays have removed all access to my account whilst it is 'under investigation', this has been the case for the last 10 days.  I have no access to my bank accounts, cannot pay bills etc and it is really starting to affect me.  I have tried to send through evidence of the transactions made, I have phone conversation records and whatsapp messages where my friend confirms she has received the money back.
Subsequently, Barclays have since taken a large sum of my personal savings from my account in order to 'retrieve' what they believe is money from the fraudsters.  I am really at a loss, my savings are gone and to the best of my knowledge I am not sure when I will get them back.
I am losing sleep over this and today have not been able to pay bills because Barclays have taken all of my money.  Has anyone been in this situation? What can I do? 

eskbanker

Many have been in similar situations, where banks have frozen access to accounts because of suspicious activity, but there isn't anything you can do other than providing them with the information they ask you for, which they'll factor into their investigation.  They aren't allowed to discuss the progress of the investigation or predict how long it'll take so, frustrating as it undoubtedly is, you just need to wait.

Once the dust settles, ensure that you keep funds in more than one bank to protect against something similar causing such havoc in future....

Armorica

I'm a bit confused though. Where did the funds come from if she's the victim. 
Did the fraudsters transfer from her to you; in which case, you sending them back to her would have been passing them back into the hands of the fraudsters?
Where did the money in your personal savings come from? (Accumulated earnings - which you can prove, or 'gifts' from friends?)

yksi

The friend had their internet banking hacked and they sent the friend's money to lmb123456, and they then contacted her and said oopsie, we made a mistake, please send it "back", but gave a false return account, in order to get hold of the money while covering their tracks on where it came from. (Or the friend was fooled into doing it themselves.)  lmb123456 said hold on, this looks suspicious, my friend has been hoodwinked, I don't want to get hoodwinked too, so I'd best empty my account in case the fraudsters can somehow hack me. Barclays - correctly, I might add - said hey, this looks like very suspicious and shady behaviour with people moving large sums of money about. The reason it was a correct assumption on Barclays' account is because this is exactly what was happening, there was fraud involved, and it was probably an attempt at money-laundering if it wasn't outright theft.

Sadly the money and account has been frozen while the investigation takes place.

I hope it's resolved fast for you, lmb123456. In the meantime this is a lesson for everyone reading this. If shady stuff is happening, or you think something fishy is going on, Google the phone number for your bank and call them to get advice - never use a phone number sent to you in a text message or an email and never move money in or out of your account to protect it, since a bank would not ask you to do this.

Thrugelmir

lmb123456 said:

my friend became a victim of fraud and the fraudsters transferred money to my account in the hope that I would then transfer it on to them (by giving me a new sort code/ account number) that they claimed was hers. Luckily I had my wits about me that day and noticed that the account details were different to those that I have saved.

Are you sure your friend didn't transfer the money themselves?  How did the fraudsters manage to contact you and provide new account details to forward the money onto?  Why did you send the money back to your friend? Why has Barclays removed money from your account when they can see the transfer was reversed? 

Sieves have fewer holes. 

Eco_Miser

yksi said:

 never move money in or out of your account to protect it, since a bank would not ask you to do this.

Definitely never move money on the instructions of a text, email, PM, or phone call, but if you think there's something fishy going on you could move your money from that account to a pre-existing account that you set up with another bank, in the normal course of collecting sign-up bonuses and promotional interest rates or diversifying your banking.

Make double certain you haven't got a key logger or Team Viewer etc. running before you do.