savings account emptied

mavis378

Hi, my father recently went to the cash point to withdraw some money to find that his savings account had been emptied, the only person that had access to his card and pin was him, nobody else and there was over £1000 in the account, its not a debit card just a normal cash card for a savings account, he went into the branch and explained evrything to them and has also reported this to the police believing that the bank and the police will look into this and realise that he has been a victim of theft. he has now recieved a letter from Abbey National to say that it is down to him to keep his pin secret and that they are not going to look into the situation any further and he is liable for the loss. Is there anything he can do, could this have been a cloned card as the money was withdrawn from the account from cashmachines. Sorry if this doesn't make too much sense. Thanks in advance for your help.

Mandark

Hi Mavis. Welcome to the world of the defrauded!!! The first thing your father has to ask is where were the withdrawals made from. If they were at the other end of the country or abroad then he can easily show that he did not make the withdrawals and it's unlikely that his carelessness caused the problem. He'll also have to state very firmly that no-one had access to his card and PIN.

I can't believe Abbey sent a poxy letter like that. How do they know how secure his card and pin was with no proper investigation? They obviously believe it was cloned or that he was careless so it's technically not their problem. Before the current wave of fraud, banks were much more helpful. But they introduced these rubbish systems that have cost some people and nearly myself thousands! Anyway, rant over!

Don't worry, you can win this one. Oh and when it's sorted, he should close his account with them. Useless lot!

mavis378

Hi, thanks for your advice, i only have experience of online credit card fraud when my husband had his credit card used after he used it to pay for a takeaway. But with this i believe the card was cloned but i dont know how as it was never away from him, but if it has been cloned is there no way to claim the money back.

oldfella

you should only loose out if he is to blame, like lending someone his card. Get a copy of the banking code, read the sections on debit/credit card fraud, and write to Abbey to complain quoting the relevant sections from the code.