Family member using my Bank account to buy X-box games - Refuses to stop. What can i do?

brewerdave

To all those suggesting "close the account" ,the OP can't - as said in the first post ,the account is already overdrawn and no means of paying off !!

Eco_Miser

born_again said:

penners324 said:

Screenshot the reply and send it to his mother and her you want her to pay you back.

Plus freeze the card. And get your bank to stop paying Xbox. It is fraud.

Report the matter to the police as well

It's not fraud as OP agreed to it in the 1st place.

The victim agrees to APP fraud, and that is definitely fraud.

The OP agreed to the first payment, that is not fraud. They did not agree to the subsequent payments, so that very well may be fraud.

Ergates

Eco_Miser said:

born_again said:

penners324 said:

Screenshot the reply and send it to his mother and her you want her to pay you back.

Plus freeze the card. And get your bank to stop paying Xbox. It is fraud.

Report the matter to the police as well

It's not fraud as OP agreed to it in the 1st place.

The victim agrees to APP fraud, and that is definitely fraud.

The OP agreed to the first payment, that is not fraud. They did not agree to the subsequent payments, so that very well may be fraud.

They did agree to subsequent payments - the understanding was the the nephew would pay them back for any payments made.  This agreement was (presumably) withdrawn when the nephew refused to pay back some payments.   Only the last payment was taken after this happened.

Even if this final payment was considered fraud (which I don't think likely) it probably wouldn't get reimbursed as it seems a pretty clear case of gross negligence.

Eco_Miser

Ergates said:

Eco_Miser said:

born_again said:

penners324 said:

Screenshot the reply and send it to his mother and her you want her to pay you back.

Plus freeze the card. And get your bank to stop paying Xbox. It is fraud.

Report the matter to the police as well

It's not fraud as OP agreed to it in the 1st place.

The victim agrees to APP fraud, and that is definitely fraud.

The OP agreed to the first payment, that is not fraud. They did not agree to the subsequent payments, so that very well may be fraud.

They did agree to subsequent payments - the understanding was the the nephew would pay them back for any payments made.  This agreement was (presumably) withdrawn when the nephew refused to pay back some payments.   Only the last payment was taken after this happened.

Even if this final payment was considered fraud (which I don't think likely) it probably wouldn't get reimbursed as it seems a pretty clear case of gross negligence.

Yes, definitely grossly negligent. I had missed how long this had been going on before the nephew stopped repaying.

HillStreetBlues

Eco_Miser said:

born_again said:

penners324 said:

Screenshot the reply and send it to his mother and her you want her to pay you back.

Plus freeze the card. And get your bank to stop paying Xbox. It is fraud.

Report the matter to the police as well

It's not fraud as OP agreed to it in the 1st place.

The victim agrees to APP fraud, and that is definitely fraud.

The OP agreed to the first payment, that is not fraud. They did not agree to the subsequent payments, so that very well may be fraud.

I would say It's not fraud, it would be theft as there has been no misrepresentation.

sheramber

Eco_Miser said:

born_again said:

penners324 said:

Screenshot the reply and send it to his mother and her you want her to pay you back.

Plus freeze the card. And get your bank to stop paying Xbox. It is fraud.

Report the matter to the police as well

It's not fraud as OP agreed to it in the 1st place.

The victim agrees to APP fraud, and that is definitely fraud.

The OP agreed to the first payment, that is not fraud. They did not agree to the subsequent payments, so that very well may be fraud.

It is against the bank rules to give your card details to someone else. 

GreenScepter

In addition to getting a new card with new details, I'd contact Xbox directly (assuming the purchases were directly from Xbox/Microsoft and not some third party, in which case contact them instead) and see if they can help. A similar situation happened to us where a family member let someone use their card for approved purchases at first, but then non approved purchases were made later. And if I remember correctly, they managed to get some of the money back. Do not accept any excuses such as "well you gave him the card details so it's ok". Would they expect you to continue making payments forever even if you don't want to or even if it's literally not possible?

If I understand correctly, he was paying you monthly for the subscription from the sounds of it, but then suddenly made much more expensive purchases, possibly for an annual subscription or maybe even something else like games. So clearly he broke his agreement. It's shocking Halifax say nothing can be done, when reporting a card as lost/stolen is an easy (albeit, inconvenient for you) way to stop it by getting a new card with new details. Since their refusal to take action lead to another payment coming out, and has put you into financial difficulties, you should absolutely make a complaint with Halifax.

Section62

GreenScepter said:

...

It's shocking Halifax say nothing can be done, when reporting a card as lost/stolen is an easy (albeit, inconvenient for you) way to stop it by getting a new card with new details. Since their refusal to take action lead to another payment coming out, and has put you into financial difficulties, you should absolutely make a complaint with Halifax.

Reporting a card lost/stolen when it hasn't been could be treated as fraud.

In the OP's position I'd be cautious about making a complaint to Halifax as, ultimately, giving the card details to a relative to use may well be a breach of the terms and conditions.  Trying to make this the fault of Halifax potentially risks them investigating more carefully, and perhaps feeling that the OP's use of the account isn't what they want their customers to be doing (e.g. in terms of risk).

GreenScepter

Section62 said:

GreenScepter said:

...

It's shocking Halifax say nothing can be done, when reporting a card as lost/stolen is an easy (albeit, inconvenient for you) way to stop it by getting a new card with new details. Since their refusal to take action lead to another payment coming out, and has put you into financial difficulties, you should absolutely make a complaint with Halifax.

Reporting a card lost/stolen when it hasn't been could be treated as fraud.

In the OP's position I'd be cautious about making a complaint to Halifax as, ultimately, giving the card details to a relative to use may well be a breach of the terms and conditions.  Trying to make this the fault of Halifax potentially risks them investigating more carefully, and perhaps feeling that the OP's use of the account isn't what they want their customers to be doing (e.g. in terms of risk).

The actual card might not be lost/stolen, but it's details are compromised. The OP needs a way to stop the payments ASAP, and surely this would be the fastest way to do it?

As for complaints, I get how the way the OP acted might be in breach of the terms of the card, the OP has, unfortunately, acted a bit foolish. But what's done is done, and they're trying to right the wrongs. It's not Halifax's fault it happened in the first place, but they have allowed the situation to get worse.

Edit: I should add, when this happened to our family, the bank had zero issues sending out a new card, even though the details were shared with someone else like in this scenario. It was also Xbox purchases that happened as well.

masonic

born_again said:

As this is a CPA & not a fixed term contract. OP needs to tell Halifax to block any further payments. It does not matter that he authorised them in the 1st place.
If they fail to act on this, then a complaint is in order. FOS will take a very strong view if it gets that far, as it is a breach of the Payment Services Directive.

This. I'd be tempted to progress a complaint on the basis of the initial response by Halifax that it was powerless to stop the ongoing abuse of a CPA. In my view they should be held liable for all payments made after that phonecall.

All in all, it's cost nearly £200 to find out who these people really are. I'm reminded of the phrase "if you lend a friend £10 and never see them again, it was probably worth it".