TSB Scam

Observer2022

Hi Moneysavers,
I was hoping for some advice about a scam my partner fell victim to.
He was called by a fraudster claiming to be from TSB and advised him that money had been moved from his account, that they were sending him a new bank card etc, they asked him to verify his information, he was driving home and panicked about losing the money.
The number came up as TSB on his phone. A week later when his card was stopped and he called the bank, only to find out the previous call was the fraud taking place. He then went through the process of explaining all to the bank, it took 3 hours that day.
Money was moved from his ISA and purchases made via Google Pay. A very low level payment was made on his card with Argos, which correlates with a fraudulent text message saying a purchase of £999.99 was made with his card (part of the scam). 
My partner then spent the best part of two weeks trying to get to the bottom of all this, suffice exhausting and frustrating him in equal measure.
My partner is a bit analogue. He doesn't do online banking and only uses the telephone banking service and gets monthly statements by paper. So did not see any of this spending.
TSB kept insisting that he must have given someone a one time passcode, which at the time my partner did not think he had given, nor really understood the process as rarely makes online purchases outside of Amazon. As they closed his case, he had to keep going into a branch with ID to talk about his case, as TSB refused to talk to him over the phone. This cost him several afternoons away from work because his nearest branches hours were 09:00 - 16:30 and closed for lunch! He teaches, so unable to just get away.
A complaint was raised with the branch and via my partner on the TSB website. In between this complaint being made and their response, when my partner purchased his car insurance, low and behold he got a one time passcode and preceding it was indeed a code on the date he was called by the scammer.
He does not remember giving this code but it sits exactly in the timeline of the calls and texts he got that day, so one can only assume he must of in the panic given to the fraudster.
The bank have refunded him the ISA amount and state that the money was moved prior to him being called, so have advised he was targeted and it wasn't random. However they are not refunding the Google Pay spending due to the one time passcode. This was in the region of £790.
Now that we know he did receive the code, what I want to ask is, is it worth it telling the bank? They shut his case down immediately and we had to raise a complaint to get any answers. He has been a customer for over 40 years with an exemplary history. We feel that it's probably a waste of time pursuing it any further, as within the panic of the scam, whilst driving home from work, he has given the one time passcode away. A lot of time has been expended to get a compensatory sum of £30 for all the time it took to get a decent reply from the bank. 
TSB had a data breach in 2016, this is the only way I can deduce his details have been acquired as he does not bank online.
I think it is worth pursuing the complaint further but my partner feels it is a waste of time. This is not an insignificant amount of money for my partner to lose. 
Could I please ask advice of this forum?

anotheruser

"been a customer for X years" means nothing these days.
You are a number in a processing plant.

Unless you have millions in your account, you're replacable and won't be missed if you move elsewhere.

phillw

Observer2022 said:

TSB had a data breach in 2016, this is the only way I can deduce his details have been acquired as he does not bank online.

It doesn't matter that he doesn't bank online. Does he use a debit card anywhere?

[Deleted User]

He can obviously take this to the Financial Ombudsmen scheme but it will take a few months.

Fraudsters can get info from various sources including bin raiding and it could even be on an earlier call.

Jami74

Observer2022 said:

He was called by a fraudster claiming to be from TSB and advised him that money had been moved from his account, that they were sending him a new bank card etc, they asked him to verify his information, he was driving home and panicked about losing the money.

Now that we know he did receive the code, what I want to ask is, is it worth it telling the bank? They shut his case down immediately and we had to raise a complaint to get any answers. He has been a customer for over 40 years with an exemplary history. We feel that it's probably a waste of time pursuing it any further, as within the panic of the scam, whilst driving home from work, he has given the one time passcode away. 

OP, if you come back and read this: TSB know they sent him a onetime passcode and they know in order for the transaction to go through your partner would have had to have entered it himself or given it to the fraudsters. That's the point of them, someone can't spend your money without your knowledge because you'll get a code on your phone that you have to enter. Did the passcode have any sort of warning with it? I've looked at passcodes I've received from different banks and they state things like:

'If anyone calls to ask for your passcode, hang up.' (Halifax)
'Do not share this with anyone else. Didn't ask for this? Call us right away' (TescoBank)
'Do not share this code with anyone' (Paypal)
'Never share this passcode with anyone. Please call us if this wasn't you' (SainsBank)
'Never share this code with anyone, only a fraudster would ask for it' (Nationwide)
'NEVER REVEAL THIS CODE TO ANYONE. Contact us if you didn't request it' (RBS)

I like the Nationwide one best because it mentions the word fraudster. If there wasn't a warning with it maybe your partner could complain that he didn't realise he shouldn't share it with anyone.

For anyone else: Do not answer your phone when driving! If you have to answer the phone and you are too busy or distracted to give the call your full attention then say 'I can't talk right now, I will call back'. 

Edited to add: Sorry OP that this happened. I know it is mortifying when it happens, fraudsters are very convincing.

dggar

For anyone else: Do not answer your phone when driving! 

I was under the impression it is no longer legal use a phone to communicate while driving.

soulsaver

dggar said:

For anyone else: Do not answer your phone when driving! 

I was under the impression it is no longer legal use a phone to communicate while driving.

Got a link?

Zanderman

dggar said:

I was under the impression it is no longer legal use a phone to communicate while driving.

Your impression is incorrect.

It is, and has been for a very long time, illegal to use a hand-held device to phone whilst driving.

But it is, and always has been, perfectly legal to use a hands-free device (i.e. a phone with bluetooth headset or wired in cradle/speaker and mike etc) to phone whilst driving.

Details, if you want them, are here: https://www.gov.uk/using-mobile-phones-when-driving-the-law

Being legal doesn't, of course, make it sensible. I worked for an outfit that gave everyone hands-free phone cradles for their cars.  But they were still a distraction. And there were shunts etc whilst using them. So an edict went out from on high that we needn't use use them if we found them distracting. So a lot of us just stopped using them. Just because we could take a call didn't mean it was a good idea to.

The legal guidance (see the link) says much the same thing, just after the bit about hands-free: "You must stay in full control of your vehicle at all times. The police can stop you if they think you’re not in control because you’re distracted and you can be prosecuted."

Getting back to the thread topic - the OP's partner was, by implication (otherwise why mention the driving) in the OPs post, not able to do the call justice whilst driving and presumably vice versa. Again stressing that just because one can take a call whilst driving doesn't mean it's a good idea.

born_again

Observer2022 said:

Hi Moneysavers,
I was hoping for some advice about a scam my partner fell victim to.
He was called by a fraudster claiming to be from TSB and advised him that money had been moved from his account, that they were sending him a new bank card etc, they asked him to verify his information, he was driving home and panicked about losing the money.
The number came up as TSB on his phone. A week later when his card was stopped and he called the bank, only to find out the previous call was the fraud taking place. He then went through the process of explaining all to the bank, it took 3 hours that day.
Money was moved from his ISA and purchases made via Google Pay. A very low level payment was made on his card with Argos, which correlates with a fraudulent text message saying a purchase of £999.99 was made with his card (part of the scam). 
My partner then spent the best part of two weeks trying to get to the bottom of all this, suffice exhausting and frustrating him in equal measure.
My partner is a bit analogue. He doesn't do online banking and only uses the telephone banking service and gets monthly statements by paper. So did not see any of this spending.
TSB kept insisting that he must have given someone a one time passcode, which at the time my partner did not think he had given, nor really understood the process as rarely makes online purchases outside of Amazon. As they closed his case, he had to keep going into a branch with ID to talk about his case, as TSB refused to talk to him over the phone. This cost him several afternoons away from work because his nearest branches hours were 09:00 - 16:30 and closed for lunch! He teaches, so unable to just get away.
A complaint was raised with the branch and via my partner on the TSB website. In between this complaint being made and their response, when my partner purchased his car insurance, low and behold he got a one time passcode and preceding it was indeed a code on the date he was called by the scammer.
He does not remember giving this code but it sits exactly in the timeline of the calls and texts he got that day, so one can only assume he must of in the panic given to the fraudster.
The bank have refunded him the ISA amount and state that the money was moved prior to him being called, so have advised he was targeted and it wasn't random. However they are not refunding the Google Pay spending due to the one time passcode. This was in the region of £790.
Now that we know he did receive the code, what I want to ask is, is it worth it telling the bank? They shut his case down immediately and we had to raise a complaint to get any answers. He has been a customer for over 40 years with an exemplary history. We feel that it's probably a waste of time pursuing it any further, as within the panic of the scam, whilst driving home from work, he has given the one time passcode away. A lot of time has been expended to get a compensatory sum of £30 for all the time it took to get a decent reply from the bank. 
TSB had a data breach in 2016, this is the only way I can deduce his details have been acquired as he does not bank online.
I think it is worth pursuing the complaint further but my partner feels it is a waste of time. This is not an insignificant amount of money for my partner to lose. 
Could I please ask advice of this forum?

So how did someone move the money, if it was before the call. Or was this what the OP moved? That means they had either had access to online, APP, Phone or in branch to do that. If it was not the OP.

If they had that access then they had no need to use the card.

No offence to the OP
But how many times do people need to be told WE NEVER ASK YOU TO MOVE MONEY 🤷‍♂️

robatwork

Don't quite get how the OP's partner gave out a texted one-time passcode to the fraudster while he was driving. It beggars belief that he wouldn't remember stopping, looking at this phone and telling the caller. Perhaps he didn't stop?

phillw

born_again said:
So how did someone move the money, if it was before the call. Or was this what the OP moved? That means they had either had access to online, APP, Phone or in branch to do that. If it was not the OP.

If they had that access then they had no need to use the card.

No offence to the OP
But how many times do people need to be told WE NEVER ASK YOU TO MOVE MONEY 🤷‍♂️

My understanding is that the fraudsters phoned them and said someone had tried to take money out of their account, at which point they transferred the money to the fraudsters for safe keeping.

I'm not convinced that any money was actually taken before the phone call, despite what they say that TSB told them.


"He does not remember giving this code"

More likely, he does not want to admit to giving this code.

It's possible that his phone is infected with some kind of malware, though I would have expected it to have deleted the one time code after it had used it.