Barclays Fraud / GDPR breach

HiggiHiggins

born_again said:

Did they provide evidence that the payments were yours?

Can you name who the payments were to?

No not a single piece of evidence on any single txn. The letter above was the single page extent of the investigation and “outcome letter” that doesn’t give their outcome 

merchants were: lentali.shop(Azerbaijan), budpay(Nigeria), bud infrastructure (Kenya ), hugant(Azerbaijan), ESSOLO BOK000096(Rwanda), payota(Nigeria), palorex(Azerbaijan), danol group(Nigeria), durable mtm(Nigeria),  primeclick safaris(Nigeria),  omer*ropitastore(mexico), and about 10 others

HiggiHiggins

Hi Born Again

whats my best course of action with this. Do I get a claim in with the ombudsman  as soon as possible to get that in motion.
Reading up on it this process isn’t quick so in the avoidance of any further delay do I get that started or should I still try and make any headway with them direct.

My slight worry being that having stated their position on the dispute cases and they likely aren’t going to entertain any query over this. They have provided an outcome letter to my exec complaint, reopened the complaint after I responded and then provided a response to that (which I’ve responded to and await any response from them on it) both letters direct me to ombudsman so is it likely that they are going to take any complaint on any of this or not. 

Unless there’s something specific I should be addressing in terms of having done something procedurally wrong? Thanks 

born_again

If they have said your complaint has been rejected, then you can go to FOS. Which is what it sounds like.


TBH, if they are saying retailer has provided your details, then you should have received a copy to back up their claim. 

HiggiHiggins

born_again said:

If they have said your complaint has been rejected, then you can go to FOS. Which is what it sounds like.


TBH, if they are saying retailer has provided your details, then you should have received a copy to back up their claim. 

This is where I’m in the dark with it. The first complaint letter to which I replied with my concerns, they replied to saying “we have reopened your complaint”

I’ve replied to this but whether they want to reply is a guess. Both their responses offered compensation, first one £250, second one a £54 goodwill gesture for a missed transaction they didn’t investigate, in addition to the £250.

in terms of the retailer having provided my details, they haven’t said this or said anything to do with any of the retailers. The letter from them is below, that’s it. 

phillw

born_again said:
From banks end they can see how the transactions are made so someone saying They have their card & no one knows the PIN, but are claiming that these are fraud. Clearly a Chip & Pin requires card & pin. Same with contactless transactions requiring card. So you can see the banks point of view.

No. I would fight any transaction if they used this excuse.

There are both active chip and pin & contactless fraud exploits being used in the wild. They got rid of signatures to make it harder to prove fraud, while implementing systems that allowed fraud while claiming fraud was impossible.

They will try to get you to admit that you sometimes leave your wallet unattended at work etc, but you should be clear that it's always kept on your person and nobody has ever been given access to them. 

They may ask you then how you think the fraud could have been committed, last time I said "my details must have been compromised by one of your staff or agents working on your behalf".


I would contact them again and ask them about the status of the complaint, if they don't appear to be taking it seriously then ask them for a deadlock letter to take to the ombudsman. A deadlock letter ends the 8 week waiting period, as there is no point in making you wait 8 weeks when neither you nor they are going to change their minds. However asking for it, might actually change their mind.

I'd complain about the way the letter is written as it doesn't actually say anything.

1. We've completed our investigation.
2. We've been investigating some transactions.
3. This is what we used to come to our decision.
4. Give back the money.

They seem to have missed out saying that the transactions weren't fraudulent.

HiggiHiggins

They may ask you then how you think the fraud could have been committed, last time I said "my details must have been compromised by one of your staff or agents working on your behalf".

no they haven’t asked me a thing on it since the initial report in September and even then I wasn’t asked when they took details.

I would contact them again and ask them about the status of the complaint, if they don't appear to be taking it seriously then ask them for a deadlock letter to take to the ombudsman. A deadlock letter ends the 8 week waiting period, as there is no point in making you wait 8 weeks when neither you nor they are going to change their minds. However asking for it, might actually change their mind.

The complaint has already surpassed the 8 week point significantly now. Raised formally on 6 October, escalated to exec on 26 October, 8 weeks from the initial report was 1st December. The correspondence was still ongoing with the exec team until the last last letter they sent 30 December. So they didn’t even adhere to their own complaints policy

I'd complain about the way the letter is written as it doesn't actually say anything.

1. We've completed our investigation.
2. We've been investigating some transactions.
3. This is what we used to come to our decision.
4. Give back the money.

They seem to have missed out saying that the transactions weren't fraudulent.

I highlighted the fact the letter was not acceptable and the only comment being “The letter of 7 December does confirm the reasons for a decision” which I don’t disagree with however “a decision” isn’t “the decision”. Also no case reference numbers listed it relates to, transactions or anything relevant at all and it’s unsigned.

4. It’s also “give back the money we never told you we were giving you, let alone tell you it’s temporary, the same money that when you queried with the exec complaints team by email you were advised was a refund from the fraud team who he was in direct contact with. When you queried it he said any payments not refunded were still being looked into and so in addition to never being told about the payment, you were not told it was temporary and in fact a full refund from us”

As I say I don’t actually know what transactions have been looked at and what the outcome of each was, and why similar payments on the same day to the same merchant were fraud and what the difference in payments was. 

Thank you for the reply 

phillw

Years ago, I did have a similar(ish) experience where their investigation came to an incorrect conclusion. However it was in the days of carbon copies and it was easy to argue that it wasn't me who had made the transaction.

But I phoned the bank up and said "I'd like to discuss the fraud in the name of Mr (redacted)" and they put me through to someone who started talking to me. They mentioned something about someone being found with the card, which I questioned and they said "You're not from the police?".

So their system sent out a letter telling me that I was liable, when the card expiry on the carbon copy didn't match the card they had issued me with and they knew that my card had been cloned as the police had contacted them to inform them and they only admitted it to me because they mistook me for the police.

HiggiHiggins

Thanks phill

ive written asking for a deadlock letter in full and final response as it’s unclear if this has been provided as yet. 

I’ve accepted their “goodwill gesture” for the payment the missed and so didn’t investigate. I logged the payment initially and their incompetence led to it being missed off 5 cases raised by them. I’m supposed to be grateful for this gesture caused by their own failings and all their own mistakes. I’ve pointed out the many failing in the fraud teams investigations over 4 months resulting in cases being assigned the wrong paperwork, investigated when they shouldn’t, not investigated when they should, being unable to just tell me disclaimers were missing to progress these months ago, sending a refund telling me it’s permanent, then recalling it as temporary, sending the outcome letter which doesn’t give an outcome or any reference to any case and not providing any evidence in support of any transactions decision and finally missing the transaction (goodwill gesture) which had I not raised they would have missed leaving me financially impacted. 

Incidentally I did write 7 days back accepting this payment but it’s not been returned as requested to the account and there’s been no comment on this.

This is the fraud team whom he advises has followed their processes. I’m not convinced. In terms of the £250 compensation they have offered for what they described “communication not being of a high standard and some delay” this is a massive understatement. I haven’t accepted this as I’m not sure where i would stand if I did. I find it quite an insult if I’m honest and out of principle I’d sooner it go to charity. 

HiggiHiggins

I would contact them again and ask them about the status of the complaint, if they don't appear to be taking it seriously then ask them for a deadlock letter to take to the ombudsman. A deadlock letter ends the 8 week waiting period, as there is no point in making you wait 8 weeks when neither you nor they are going to change their minds. However asking for it, might actually change their mind.

So I sent quite a direct but polite email this morning to the exec team expressing just how appalling the whole thing is. 

I raised the key points that hadn’t been addressed. The lack of evidence and info around the fraud cases, length it’s gone on, the refund that they then reclaimed  and the fact I’m unclear to the status of the complaint. Asked for a full and final deadlock letter.

Within 3 hours I’d got a response which they say

“I’m truly sorry you’ve had cause to contact XX again as your issue remains unresolved and you’re unhappy with the response we’ve provided. As such, I’ve arranged for your complaint to be reopened. Rest assured your concerns are being taken very seriously and have been passed to our dedicated Executive Complaints Team for investigation. We will ensure a thorough review of the circumstances you outline is undertaken and will arrange for you to be contacted as soon as possible”

3rd time it’s been officially reopened and no further forward than day one. Taken till this point to take concern’s seriously, and then it’s been passed onto the exec team who’s had this complaint 11 weeks and reopened it 3 times already? This is on top of the 4 weeks prior that the complaint was with standard complaints team. 

I hope the thorough review is better than the last ones they have done in 11 weeks! or maybe it wasn’t a thorough review before.

born_again

HiggiHiggins said:

Incidentally I did write 7 days back accepting this payment but it’s not been returned as requested to the account and there’s been no comment on this.

To give you some idea on using post.
letter arrives at bank, is scanned onto system, is then sent to be indexed to the correct department. (often wrong when not a official reply letter with banks codes on) 
It will then be placed in a work queue for someone to work.
No mail is simply opened & sent to a department for someone to look at.

As to you complaint. For someone to look at it, it will take time. No matter who is dealing with it. They will have to start from your 1st reporting of the fraud, listen to calls etc, refer to notes & people involved, review old complaint.