Money not refunded by bank after I was mugged

35har1old

SoftCell68 said:

I was a victim of a savage beating where I had my watch and phone stolen. I was forced to give my passcode to open the phone at the risk of being stabbed. 
I was finally able to get away and drive home, where ambulance & police were notified. I was taken to A&E. 
After leaving hospital the next day, I was made aware that the thieves had got into my banking app & at 12:19am transferred £5500 from my account. At 12:39am they transferred £4000 and finally at 03:54am they transferred a further £1200. Making a total of 10,700.00 All three transactions to different banks!
Obviously as I was in hospital I was unable to report this immediately but did so as soon as I noticed when released from A&E where I was receiving treatment for a fractured eye socket.
It is now 21st of February and I am still waiting to hear back from my bank (The Co Operative) regarding refunding my money.
I am obviously concerned that the only security checks to these large withdrawals in the early hours may have been a text message to ask me to confirm if this was me. Obviously as they had my phone they would have simply replied yes.
Is it not obvious that the bank should have prevented these withdrawals as they were obviously suspicious? The police have later informed me that the accounts that my money was sent to are  involved in scams & what appears to be organised crime,
Am I going to get my money back? Will I only be getting it back after appealing to the FSA?
Currently I have to wait for the bank to get back to me & the stress is unbearable.
Any help?

SoftCell68 said:

Firstly let me assure you that I am an innocent victim of a crime here. The police have told me that there was an identical attack a week or so before at the same spot. I certainly wasn't 'flaunting my watch as you say and resent the implication that a victim is at fault for an attack.
There were not 3 separate banking apps, read my statement, I said that my money was transferred to 3 separate accounts fraudulently at 3 separate times. I was able to get home (about a 20 min drive and reported the crime. It was only after leaving hospital the next day was I able to call the bank who confirmed these withdrawals.
Let me remind you that my attackers were threatening to "slice me" and after being beaten up already I had no reason to think they weren't serious.
I would challenge anyone in the same situation where they thought they could lose their life to not give the passcode to their phone in these circumstances.
This still does not mean it was ok for my bank to not pick up on 3 large withdrawals without the flimsiest of checks. Previously when making a large withdrawal I have been told to call the bank before it could be authorised for instance.
My bank have not even called me to ask me any questions they may have. I have been treated very shoddily by them and this is only adding to my stress levels at this time.

You gave them the pass code to the phone but how did they get the bank app code and the secure folder if android 

SoftCell68

Even if my banking app had a different passcode, they were not letting me go without gaining entry to it. I was kneeling down with one guy standing over me and another with my phone , they threatened to slice me. It was dark and I already had limited vision through one eye which subsequently was shown to have a fractured eye socket. Are you seriously suggesting that one shouldn't reveal their passcode in circumstances like this and therefore risk being stabbed to death? I find some of the comments on here a tad unrealistic. Perhaps when considering if I was irresponsible in giving my passcode to my phone you might put yourself in my position. The police said I did the right thing and in no way should I have risked my life by adamantly refusing to reveal it. Thanks for some of the comments on here but some others seem to be from the victim blaming camp which is not only inappropriate, it is wrong.

Stargunner

SoftCell68 said:

They didn't let me go until approx 12:30am. I was just glad to be able to get away, How I drove home I'll never know. Adrenalin I suppose. Got home approx 1am when police and ambulance were called by my partner

You said thst the first banking transaction was done at 12.19am. As you didn't get away from the muggers until 12.30am, were you not aware of them making the first transaction in front of you. 

Most network providers allow you to report a stolen phone 24 hours a day and they could have put a block on your sim card.

boingy

Folks, please can we stop giving the guy the third degree here. Just walk a mile in his shoes.

eskbanker

SoftCell68 said:

Am I going to get my money back? Will I only be getting it back after appealing to the FSA?
Currently I have to wait for the bank to get back to me & the stress is unbearable.
Any help?

It's perhaps unwelcome, but not entirely surprising, that posters will offer thoughts on your question of whether or not you'll get your money back, which inevitably entail considering the matter in the round, including how it'll be seen by the bank - that doesn't actually mean victim-blaming as such, but just looking at it from other perspectives.  Obviously you'd prefer to hear that you'll definitely get the money back (and personally I think that's reasonably likely) but realistically all you can do is wait for the bank's response.

SoftCell68

Stargunner said:

SoftCell68 said:

They didn't let me go until approx 12:30am. I was just glad to be able to get away, How I drove home I'll never know. Adrenalin I suppose. Got home approx 1am when police and ambulance were called by my partner

You said thst the first banking transaction was done at 12.19am. As you didn't get away from the muggers until 12.30am, were you not aware of them making the first transaction in front of you. 

Most network providers allow you to report a stolen phone 24 hours a day and they could have put a block on your sim card.

I was sat kneeling down, with one guy stood over me while the other guy was on my phone. When I was allowed to go they placed my car keys under a tree some distance away and told me to wait 10 mins before getting it until they had gone. I then managed to drive home where my first thought was to my bleeding eye. Police and ambulance crews attended shortly afterwards and I weas taken to A&E where I stayed for approx 12hours before being transferred to a different hospital for my eye to be looked at. Please tell me what you would have done differently because I'd be interested to know. Perhaps you would have refused to give your passcode, and while you lay bleeding after they left at least you'd be secure in the knowledge your money was ok. I mean really.

Sea_Shell

Scary stuff.

It sounds like even if you had two different codes, one for the phone and one for the banking app, they've demanded both from you. 

They only let you go once they had access?

Is that what happened?

☹️

SoftCell68

Sea_Shell said:

Scary stuff.

It sounds like even if you had two different codes, one for the phone and one for the banking app, they've demanded both from you. 

They only let you go once they had access?

Is that what happened?

☹️

Exactly that.

DullGreyGuy

We weren't there, and on a selfish level, very glad I wasn't too! As such we can only go by what has been said, don't take "holes"/"gaps" to mean the story isn't be believed or its being challenged its just information that you haven't provided to those responding on here.

So you said you gave them your phones PIN, which is totally understandable. Its then not clear how they got into your banking app... maybe you used the same PIN for both, maybe they unlocked your phone saw your banking apps and asked you the PIN for that, maybe they just asked you the PIN for whatever banking apps are on the phone. We don't know as you didnt say. Similarly its not sounding like a scenario where someone is there with a pen and paper recording these things... on my phone there are 15 different banking apps which each have different PINs or passwords, again no idea how many are on yours. 


The thing about posts here, and on most forums, is that people not only try to directly answer the persons question but also potentially provide advice to other readers who may be unfortunate to find themselves in a similar situation hence there are discussions on what can be done to prevent a similar loss. If someone will remember in the future? Depends on the person. Whilst we were unlucky that the wife's phone was recently stolen we were lucky it was a simple pickpocket so a quick text to me via her watch and the phone was locked up and a brick within 5 minutes of it happening. 

sausage_time

SoftCell68 said:

danny13579 said:

SoftCell68 said:

Holes in my story? Please enlighten me? 

I am not wasting anymore time here with this. The only opinion that matters now is that of the police and the bank investigators. Once again, I wish you a speedy recovery. Over and out. 

Thought not. Thanks again to those on here with their positive contributions. I will update if and when I have some news.

Please do let us know the outcome @SoftCell68.  Don't take any apparent criticism personally - reading through I was also puzzled how they got into the phone and also the banking app (until your post 10).  Hope you make a speedy recovery and you see a complete refund soon.   Sounds an awful business, and there are likely lessons for us all.