ID Theft - Bank account opened
Discussion
Oh joy, got home today to find someone has opened a bank account in my name.
Interestingly, the account is one where a 'reasonable' sum of money has to be paid in each month, though it had an agreed overdraft of a few k, maybe they were after that, or were planning to use the account to commit further fraud.
Called them up - I have to go into a branch tomorrow with the letter, and proof of ID to sort it out, though they have logged some notes against it.
I had to persuade them to give me some details - the initial answer was 'we cannot discuss it' ...
The account has my name, but as far as I know, not my middle name of initial.
My date of birth was correct
My address was correct
My place of work was not correct, but, is a 'business' close to where I live, a couple of miles away.
So , possible that whoever had done this could be local to me ...
This evening I have :
Registered with cifas
I have checked credit searches with Noodle - nothing amiss I can see. As I took out and searched for insurance recently there are some searches from a couple of weeks back, but these seem valid so all seems ok there.
Apart from going into the bank, anything else I need to do ???
Thanks in advance,
M
Interestingly, the account is one where a 'reasonable' sum of money has to be paid in each month, though it had an agreed overdraft of a few k, maybe they were after that, or were planning to use the account to commit further fraud.
Called them up - I have to go into a branch tomorrow with the letter, and proof of ID to sort it out, though they have logged some notes against it.
I had to persuade them to give me some details - the initial answer was 'we cannot discuss it' ...
The account has my name, but as far as I know, not my middle name of initial.
My date of birth was correct
My address was correct
My place of work was not correct, but, is a 'business' close to where I live, a couple of miles away.
So , possible that whoever had done this could be local to me ...
This evening I have :
Registered with cifas
I have checked credit searches with Noodle - nothing amiss I can see. As I took out and searched for insurance recently there are some searches from a couple of weeks back, but these seem valid so all seems ok there.
Apart from going into the bank, anything else I need to do ???
Thanks in advance,
M
rayny said:
Worth a look here ?
https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/
Tried that, they seemed no option for 'Bank account opened' so I took the closet.https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/
After several questions, because no money has been lost they are not interested ...
This really pisses me off. "Nothing can be done as no crime has been committed"
Well, whoever opened it hasn't done so for a laugh have they?
Where my wife works, some unscrupulous gents of unknown origin have been sending emails to their customers telling them to pay the invoices to a different bank account. They (my wifes company) got wind of it and informed the bank in question, giving them details of the account being fraudulently used.
The bank were not interested in even putting the account under observation and instead kept telling them to change their email passwords (already done).
The whole thing with banks is just shocking. You would think on things like this they would put a hold on any money leaving the suspect account until the customer contacted them to enquire why.
Hope you have more luck than this with the bank - the worry for me is would they try again with a different bank?
Well, whoever opened it hasn't done so for a laugh have they?
Where my wife works, some unscrupulous gents of unknown origin have been sending emails to their customers telling them to pay the invoices to a different bank account. They (my wifes company) got wind of it and informed the bank in question, giving them details of the account being fraudulently used.
The bank were not interested in even putting the account under observation and instead kept telling them to change their email passwords (already done).
The whole thing with banks is just shocking. You would think on things like this they would put a hold on any money leaving the suspect account until the customer contacted them to enquire why.
Hope you have more luck than this with the bank - the worry for me is would they try again with a different bank?
covboy said:
Out of interest how did you find out ?
I received a welcome letter in the post.It has the account number and a few details, and interestingly a form that needs to be signed and returned.
I suspect a bank card and PIN will turn up in a few days.
I'm wondering (live in a flat with mailboxes on the wall) if whoever this was was hoping to intercept the letter but was unable to ...
mph999 said:
<snip>
I'm wondering (live in a flat with mailboxes on the wall) if whoever this was was hoping to intercept the letter but was unable to ...
That's probably exactly what they were hoping for.I'm wondering (live in a flat with mailboxes on the wall) if whoever this was was hoping to intercept the letter but was unable to ...
I saw an article on BBC1 a while back, where fraudsters were actually going around and attaching external mailboxes to peoples houses, in an effort to intercept post in the way you describe.
mph999 said:
What I can't figure out his how this is useful to anyone, as in did they think I wouldn't notice and not get it closed....
set an account up can be used for loads of stuff, payday loans, loans etc. Probably get a few k easy maybe 10k. Money laundering payments, gumtree/ebay scams..Mandate fraud would be another use (like what was happening to my wife's work) if they get the account set up and get online banking details (intercepting the letters in the same way) they con people into transferring payments into that account, which they immediately empty into other accounts and so on, or withdraw from cash machines depending upon how ambitious they are.
So, an update.
Went into the bank today and got it closed, helpfully I knew the member of staff so I got a few details I might not have otherwise got, like their phone number ...
The phone is real, as they will have needed the number to set up internet banking, probably PAYG, but I'll pass it onto the police.
The account was created online.
The card was sent to my address, it was either stolen from here or intercepted on route, as they have it and it's activated.
They tried to pay money in, it was blocked as I have an account with a sub division of the bank and their systems had in fact flagged something was wrong.
The tried to pay money in in Golders Green , I'm in West Berks ...
It doesn't appear they have any of my details other than name, address and DOB as all the other details they provided were wrong.
This was the 3rd false account they had dealt with in that branch alone today.
Went into the bank today and got it closed, helpfully I knew the member of staff so I got a few details I might not have otherwise got, like their phone number ...
The phone is real, as they will have needed the number to set up internet banking, probably PAYG, but I'll pass it onto the police.
The account was created online.
The card was sent to my address, it was either stolen from here or intercepted on route, as they have it and it's activated.
They tried to pay money in, it was blocked as I have an account with a sub division of the bank and their systems had in fact flagged something was wrong.
The tried to pay money in in Golders Green , I'm in West Berks ...
It doesn't appear they have any of my details other than name, address and DOB as all the other details they provided were wrong.
This was the 3rd false account they had dealt with in that branch alone today.
Edited by mph999 on Thursday 29th March 23:05
Edited by mph999 on Friday 30th March 00:07
Banks are very reluctant to give any details out to the victims of fraud.
I had some fraud on one of my cards last year - flights and a holiday booked totalling around £5k. They had the name and location of the people that had taken the holiday, but refused to tell me because of 'data protection' rules - despite this being on my card. The money was all refunded, but I'd quite fancied trying to find who these people were because nobody else will bother.
I had some fraud on one of my cards last year - flights and a holiday booked totalling around £5k. They had the name and location of the people that had taken the holiday, but refused to tell me because of 'data protection' rules - despite this being on my card. The money was all refunded, but I'd quite fancied trying to find who these people were because nobody else will bother.
Mojooo said:
another poster on here had his mail stolen and eventually police arrested the person and found loads of ID fraud stuff in his house.
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
Nicking mail is a far worse crime for a posty than one might imagine iirc. The post office have their own internal team who look into it. I bet you there are multiple addresses on one round being done or at the local sorting office being done over.
Do you know your postie? are they new'ish? are they what you might call an honest type? It would certainly be my first port of call.
https://www.royalmail.com/report-a-crime
Do you know your postie? are they new'ish? are they what you might call an honest type? It would certainly be my first port of call.
https://www.royalmail.com/report-a-crime
from my own experience, I'd be amazed if it were the postie. When I called the Royal Mail to explain what I thought was going on, they were insanely efficient and described in detail how they'd investigate it and what to expect.
I may be wrong, but I get the impression the RM would see to it that a postie stealing would come off way worse than your average punter.
I may be wrong, but I get the impression the RM would see to it that a postie stealing would come off way worse than your average punter.
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