TSB account - Identity Fraud

jabu94

At the end of August or very early in September someone opened a TSB account in my name. The account was opened with an address of a house that we had sold at the end of February. I had set up Royal Mail forwarding and the debit card and new account details were forwarded by Royal Mail to my new address - fortunately, otherwise I would never have known about the fraudulent account! I was abroad at the time and was sent details of the card and account via WhatsApp. I have never had any dealings with TSB.

I immediately tried to contact TSB bank's fraud department and was unable to get through to anyone who could assist me. I tried logging onto the account online and via the TSB app, to use the Chat function, but was unsuccessful  as they appeared to have already been set up by the fraudster. I googled the name of the person who had signed the covering letter, looking for an email address and copied her into a mail to TSB explaining the situation and asking for help. She responded to my mail advising that the issue would be dealt with. Within a day or so I received an email from the TSB fraud department saying that the account had been closed and shortly thereafter I received a final statement for the account at my UK address showing that no funds had passed through the account.

The account was opened at the Chatham branch of TSB, though I presume this was done online. The account was opened in my name but oddly all lowercase letters were used - no caps at the beginning of my names. The address was however all uppercase letters, leading me to assume that the fraudster was not an educated westerner. I had recently used my UK drivers license with the old address, and possibly my passport, to hire a car in South Africa and in Australia, but in general am very wary of sharing my personal details.

I'm left with a few queries.

1) Why TSB Chatham branch?

2) A debit card account doesn't give access to funds unless they are deposited - what would be the point of opening such an account in someone else's name?

3) The TSB fraud department was obviously satisfied that it was actually a fraudulent account without any further contact with me - does this mean that UK banks online account opening criteria are inadequate?

I'd love to hear of any similar experiences or comments that my lead me to a better understanding of what went on here.

eskbanker

jabu94 said:

The account was opened in my name but oddly all lowercase letters were used - no caps at the beginning of my names. The address was however all uppercase letters, leading me to assume that the fraudster was not an educated westerner.

That's quite a leap, but doesn't really make any difference anyway.

jabu94 said:

A debit card account doesn't give access to funds unless they are deposited - what would be the point of opening such an account in someone else's name?

Money-laundering, or other such fraudulent activity.

jabu94 said:

The TSB fraud department was obviously satisfied that it was actually a fraudulent account without any further contact with me - does this mean that UK banks online account opening criteria are inadequate?

It doesn't signify anything about UK banks in general but would appear to suggest that it was possible for a fraudster to find a way through TSB's checks - you can ask TSB for more details of what happened, but to be honest it's extremely unlikely that they'd provide any, especially when it effectively demonstrates a security weakness.

Worth checking all of your credit files to verify that no other accounts have been opened in your name....

pramsay13

1) That's the closest or the one that registers online accounts.
2) They could get an overdraft and empty it or use it to apply for a credit card or loan.
3) I'm sure TSB were able to do their own checks which backed up your version of events. It's a bit of a stretch to posit that UK banks online account opening criteria are inadequate from your limited experience. I'm sure they will add it to their own list and in time may change criteria. The difficulty they have is that they want to make the account opening process as easy and painless as possible for genuine customers while still fighting fraud, so it's a fine line.

penners324

If you moved 7 months ago why haven't you you updated your details on your driving license? 

That's an offence as well

molerat

1) Why TSB Chatham branch?

All my TSB accounts are registered at my local branch even though I have never been near it, all opened on line.  But I believe you can choose any branch as "home branch" during the opening process.

DullGreyGuy

1) You'd need to look through the TSB opening process in if they offer you a branch, if they auto-assign one etc. 

2) Either get an overdraft and empty that or use it for money laundering or scamming others. Those emails saying they need help moving monies that they'll deposit you £30,000 and you transfer £28,000 to another account for them and keep the £2k for your troubles... tend to use this sort of account to receive the funds.

3) It means checks aren't perfect but there will always be a balancing act between ensuring the customer is who they say they are and ease of access. Clearly people can help themselves with ensuring addresses are up to date, not giving all their personal information out on social media etc etc.

Ultimately there is probably a reason why some people are never victims of fraud and other people are hit 10+ times. 


As to capitals etc showing it's not a westerner... totally disagree. For a start I am surprised TSB's systems aren't changing the cases to be correct. I'd say it's more likely either a sloppy typer or it's a case of copying and pasting and just leaving the case as whatever it was.

I know when I fill in forms online I dont bother capitalising anything, sometimes the computer will auto correct but not always. When I do capitalise, like in an email or such, then half the time I manage to capitalise the first and second letter of my name which again sometimes the computer will correct and other times not. 

GeoffTF

DullGreyGuy said:

When I do capitalise, like in an email or such, then half the time I manage to capitalise the first and second letter of my name which again sometimes the computer will correct and other times not. 

Emails are not case sensitive:

https://www.brevo.com/blog/are-emails-case-sensitive

They are usually written all in lower case.

eskbanker

GeoffTF said:

DullGreyGuy said:

When I do capitalise, like in an email or such, then half the time I manage to capitalise the first and second letter of my name which again sometimes the computer will correct and other times not. 

Emails are not case sensitive:

https://www.brevo.com/blog/are-emails-case-sensitive

They are usually written all in lower case.

You're referring specifically to email addresses there, rather than the broader subject of writing in emails....

DullGreyGuy

GeoffTF said:

DullGreyGuy said:

When I do capitalise, like in an email or such, then half the time I manage to capitalise the first and second letter of my name which again sometimes the computer will correct and other times not. 

Emails are not case sensitive:

https://www.brevo.com/blog/are-emails-case-sensitive

They are usually written all in lower case.

email addresses aren't, though it can look odd with randomised capitalisation. 

I was talking about writing an email, as in the contents of an email, which I would typically sign off as:

Kind regards

Dull Guy

But bad typing means it comes out as...

Kind regards

DUll Guy 

Nothing can be inferred from this about my country of origin, just my keyboard skills. 

GeoffTF

Yes, I should have wrote "email addresses".

jabu94

penners324 said:

If you moved 7 months ago why haven't you you updated your details on your driving license? 

That's an offence as well

I amended the address but didn't have actual possession of the new license as I was travelling. The car hire was only about 6 weeks after the move