Strange goings on with my banking
Discussion
I'm with Natwest, and normally everything is very good, however today was a little confusing. I'd been sent some money my dad owed me, which came through a little later than expected (his bank's problem, not mine), and today finally decided to make the switch to a Mac, with student discounts and Apple Care it came to around £900, which my mum was unsure would go through with my bank card, as certain ones will have an £x limit for transactions. No problems at all though, all paid up and I left. Stopped off at work on the way home to buy a drink, didn't quite have enough change on me so reluctantly used my card, drinks were on offer and I bought a chocolate bar as well, came to around £1.70; again went through no problems whatsoever. That was around 2-3pm today.
In the last hour or so things have gotten confusing. I know there's plenty of money in my bank account despite the new laptop, and I popped into Morrisons to do a proper shop, seeing as I now had the time and there was no food in the flat. Came to around £25, I was using one of those god awful self checkout machines, and it declined my card. Just thought it must be a glitch, as I have previously worked at a Morrisons and the card machines did go a bit wrong sometimes. But I tried 2 more times and it still declined, so I went outside to double check at the cashpoint, still plenty in there even though it had taken out the money for my laptop. So withdrew the cash and went to pay. Got back to the flat, and I'd left my phone here, so I checked it and there was a missed call from +448453560020, a number which I do not recognise, so I googled it and there are a number of forums with people saying they've had calls from the same number, and they claim to be the Natwest Fraud Department, but there is no mention of this phone number on the Natwest website. So presumably it's a scam number, others have said Natwest have told them its not their fraud department at all, but people are claiming that the person calling knows a few of their personal details.
Hmm that was weird, as I was typing the same number phoned again, I answered it and it was a recorded message "this is the Natwest Fraud department with a call for (change of voice to a Microsoft Sam-esque one) "Mr Daniel Bird" (change to recorded message again) Please press any button on your keypad to continue" so I hung up, this is consistent with what people on forums are saying.
Two things I'm confused about:
1. if it is a scam, how do they know your details?
2. if it is a scam, then how can it be a coincidence that my card was declined at the shop just hours after buying my new laptop?
I think my nearest branch are open tomorrow morning so I'll pop down and check with them, but just wondered if the infinite wisdom of PH could make me feel a bit less confused?
In the last hour or so things have gotten confusing. I know there's plenty of money in my bank account despite the new laptop, and I popped into Morrisons to do a proper shop, seeing as I now had the time and there was no food in the flat. Came to around £25, I was using one of those god awful self checkout machines, and it declined my card. Just thought it must be a glitch, as I have previously worked at a Morrisons and the card machines did go a bit wrong sometimes. But I tried 2 more times and it still declined, so I went outside to double check at the cashpoint, still plenty in there even though it had taken out the money for my laptop. So withdrew the cash and went to pay. Got back to the flat, and I'd left my phone here, so I checked it and there was a missed call from +448453560020, a number which I do not recognise, so I googled it and there are a number of forums with people saying they've had calls from the same number, and they claim to be the Natwest Fraud Department, but there is no mention of this phone number on the Natwest website. So presumably it's a scam number, others have said Natwest have told them its not their fraud department at all, but people are claiming that the person calling knows a few of their personal details.
Hmm that was weird, as I was typing the same number phoned again, I answered it and it was a recorded message "this is the Natwest Fraud department with a call for (change of voice to a Microsoft Sam-esque one) "Mr Daniel Bird" (change to recorded message again) Please press any button on your keypad to continue" so I hung up, this is consistent with what people on forums are saying.
Two things I'm confused about:
1. if it is a scam, how do they know your details?
2. if it is a scam, then how can it be a coincidence that my card was declined at the shop just hours after buying my new laptop?
I think my nearest branch are open tomorrow morning so I'll pop down and check with them, but just wondered if the infinite wisdom of PH could make me feel a bit less confused?
Urban Sports said:
Lost you at gotten
In simple terms, fraudulent phone call claiming to be Natwest's fraud team asking me to ring press a button to continue, no doubt putting me onto a premium rate thing, have ignored this, but my card was declined when doing the weekly shop. All seems too much of a coincidence to meIt will be their fraud department, I had the same thing with them. It's rubbish that they ring using a new number. Just ring their telephone banking service and speak to a real person just to be sure and they will unblock it in 15 mins. They will have flagged the series of transactions as suspicious.
I'm pretty sure when I was dealing with a fraud department I got that automated message too. It does feel unusual doen't it, but it turned out to be legit. The fact you spent £900 on a laptop will be an anomily from your normal spending habits, and probably something scammers buy when they have cloned/stolen cards. It may have rung up as a possible scam at their fraud department because of this, and they're trying to get in contact with you.
Very similar automated system with Santander. Press 1 for a legitimate transaction etc. They use automated systems to spot unusual use of cards and the big purchase must have flagged something up. Cash point would still have worked so they didn't cut you off from your money completely and it also requires your pin code which a merchant (shop) transaction may not have.
Sounds to me like you card has popped up on their fraud system with a high value unusual transaction. It is likely that the automated call is legit.
To be safe, you could ring the normal contact centre number and they will either sort out or put you through to someone who can help.
S
eta - should have read the other replies first!
To be safe, you could ring the normal contact centre number and they will either sort out or put you through to someone who can help.
S
eta - should have read the other replies first!
Ok, turns out it was legitimate, they knew who I was from my mobile number as it's linked to my account, went through all of the transactions since Thursday night, which took a while because I had quite a few trips to the shop over the weekend (work there, so pre work munch, lunch break, cigs, and after work dinner for 3 days solid) then he mentioned the Apple Store one as being the one that flagged it up, told him it was genuine and now I have my card back. Thing is, popped out of work at lunchtime, went to get cigarette money out and it spat the card back at me, saying "cannot be completed at this time, please ring card issuer". All sorted now though, cheers to all for the advice, was just a little confused when some people on other forums were claiming the people may not be genuine.
Good to hear it was sorted. When this happened to me I declined to enter my details and rang them myself instead. I wish they would just give you a message along the lines of "This is a message for X, please ring Natwest ASAP on our normal number" rather than asking for details and putting you through to someone. The current approach just encourages fraud.
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