Bank account frozen

strawb_shortcake

About 6 weeks ago, my Daughter's 2 bank accounts were hacked. 
During this, they were able to access both accounts and money was transferred all into one. Unfortunately she was quite sucked in and it was only when they asked her to create an overdraft she realised something was amiss.
She called her bank and before long her money was back in her account and then quickly frozen.
The money in her account is from her student loan, and the only money she has as she doesn't currently work.
She hasn't had any payments recently from friends or family.
How long is likely before she gets her money back? Can they keep it?

Ty

Emmia

strawb_shortcake said:

About 6 weeks ago, my Daughter's 2 bank accounts were hacked. 
During this, they were able to access both accounts and money was transferred all into one. Unfortunately she was quite sucked in and it was only when they asked her to create an overdraft she realised something was amiss.
She called her bank and before long her money was back in her account and then quickly frozen.
The money in her account is from her student loan, and the only money she has as she doesn't currently work.
She hasn't had any payments recently from friends or family.
How long is likely before she gets her money back? Can they keep it?

Ty

How were both of your daughters accounts hacked - my reading of your post is that she may have unwittingly enabled the hack - how was she "sucked in"? Looking after money for someone?

mta999

could you provide more detail as to how they were 'hacked' as it is not that easy to 'hack' a bank account. Thank.you

strawb_shortcake

She had a payment taken then a phone call by someone purporting to be the bank, I suspect she may have provided authorisation codes initially.

I should probably add that I don't know the right terminology for these things. It sounded similar to the attempt I had to access my bank account, an odd text that looked like it was from the bank regarding a dubious payment, then a call to stop the fraud. This is where I stopped the call, unfortunately my Daughter continued, she told me she didn't share the numbers but she had showed me the texts - I had thought she was to embarrassed to admit she'd shared these possibly. But as I understood it they attempted to transfer the money to a "safe" account.

I've asked if she'd received money from a friend, she said no and that about 12 months ago 2 friends had transferred smaller sums to pay for tickets that she'd bought.

She can demonstrate that her money came purely from her student loan.

All her bank have said is that they are investigating how her account was accessed. 

I've said even if she doesn't tell me the truth she needs to with the bank and hope she has done so. 

I and her would just like to know if she'll get her money back and timescales.

eskbanker

strawb_shortcake said:

She called her bank and before long her money was back in her account and then quickly frozen.

[...]

How long is likely before she gets her money back? Can they keep it?

Just to be clear, all of the money that had been transferred elsewhere was refunded to her account but that's subsequently been frozen, so her question is when she can get access to it?

strawb_shortcake said:

She had a payment taken then a phone call by someone purporting to be the bank, I suspect she may have provided authorisation codes initially.

[...]

All her bank have said is that they are investigating how her account was accessed. 

I've said even if she doesn't tell me the truth she needs to with the bank and hope she has done so. 

I and her would just like to know if she'll get her money back and timescales.

It is quite tricky to ascertain from that exactly what happened but all she can really do is wait while the bank's investigation is completed - if it's being processed as an APP (authorised push payment, i.e. one she made, on behalf of fraudsters) scam claim, rather than the account actually being accessed directly by fraudsters, then it ought to have been resolved within five business days, or if further information was needed then the backstop is 35 business days, so if her claim was made six weeks ago then this is approaching....

Who does she bank with and what's known about the account(s) to which money was transferred?

MattMattMattUK

I agree with the other posters that this sounds like APP fraud, but I suspect the reason for the delay is your daughter told the bank she never gave the fraudsters the codes.

If she had been upfront about her mistake it would have got sorted in a few days under the APP fraud scheme, however as she has told them she did not give the fraudsters the codes the bank needs to investigate how the fraudsters obtained the codes which allowed them to transfer the money. That investigation will take as long as it takes and the bank may be less than pleased when they discover she has not been totally honest with then. She will just have to wait this one out, but it would also be wise for her to tell the bank what actually happened, not the attempting to save face version of the story. 

strawb_shortcake

eskbanker said:

strawb_shortcake said:

She called her bank and before long her money was back in her account and then quickly frozen.

[...]

How long is likely before she gets her money back? Can they keep it?

Just to be clear, all of the money that had been transferred elsewhere was refunded to her account but that's subsequently been frozen, so her question is when she can get access to it?

strawb_shortcake said:

She had a payment taken then a phone call by someone purporting to be the bank, I suspect she may have provided authorisation codes initially.

[...]

All her bank have said is that they are investigating how her account was accessed. 

I've said even if she doesn't tell me the truth she needs to with the bank and hope she has done so. 

I and her would just like to know if she'll get her money back and timescales.

It is quite tricky to ascertain from that exactly what happened but all she can really do is wait while the bank's investigation is completed - if it's being processed as an APP (authorised push payment, i.e. one she made, on behalf of fraudsters) scam claim, rather than the account actually being accessed directly by fraudsters, then it ought to have been resolved within five business days, or if further information was needed then the backstop is 35 business days, so if her claim was made six weeks ago then this is approaching....

Who does she bank with and what's known about the account(s) to which money was transferred?

That is correct, I'm not sure what bank it was attempted to transfer too, this was held as a pending payment and then was showing back in her account (Starling) a few days later, then frozen

strawb_shortcake

MattMattMattUK said:

I agree with the other posters that this sounds like APP fraud, but I suspect the reason for the delay is your daughter told the bank she never gave the fraudsters the codes.

If she had been upfront about her mistake it would have got sorted in a few days under the APP fraud scheme, however as she has told them she did not give the fraudsters the codes the bank needs to investigate how the fraudsters obtained the codes which allowed them to transfer the money. That investigation will take as long as it takes and the bank may be less than pleased when they discover she has not been totally honest with then. She will just have to wait this one out, but it would also be wise for her to tell the bank what actually happened, not the attempting to save face version of the story. 

Thank you, this is my gut feeling of what happened, I have tried to suggest that she needs to tell the truth regardless, but we'll see.

Hopefully this is a lesson learned early