Credit Card Fraud

[bad company]

Red Devil said:

That's all very well, but given I wasnt even aware at the time that the opening post had been amended how was I supposed to know I was committing a 'repeat of the offence'?
Indeed I'm not convinced it had been. Even if I'm wrong about that, it is quite unrealisitic imo to expect members, every time they post to a thread, to check each OP to find out whether a mod has edited it!

No good checking with the op. He hadn’t noticed it had been edited until a couple of days ago.

[bugmenot]

Red Devil said:

That's all very well, but given I wasnt even aware at the time that the opening post had been amended how was I supposed to know I was committing a 'repeat of the offence'?
Indeed I'm not convinced it had been. Even if I'm wrong about that, it is quite unrealisitic imo to expect members, every time they post to a thread, to check each OP to find out whether a mod has edited it!

You weren't committing a repeat offence. The opening post was edited at the same time as when your post was removed.

It was actually your post that fell foul of the naming and shaming rules. You caused the opening post to be edited and the subsequent removal of other posts.

May I suggest that we keep discussions about forum moderation out of this thread. As you know you (and so others are aware too) you can email [e-mail] for such queries.

Edited by bugmenot on Monday 27th November 16:19

[gavsdavs]

gavsdavs said:

This isn't always reliable it seems. One one of the cases of fraud I've recently suffered, I received sms messages from Barclays saying "congratulations on updating your phone number". Went to the branch to see what this means, and the mobile phone number on my account had indeed been changed and mine was no longer there.

It's rather worrying as I still don't feel secure at Barclays (where I have my mortgage and some sizeable savings), as they've facilitated the creation of 3 accounts over 2 seperate occasions (a month apart) by fraudulent actors. I'm not convinced it's at an end yet.

Edited by gavsdavs on Tuesday 21st November 10:16

Little update from me. If you care about security - don't bank with Barclays. A 5 figure sum was taken from an account of mine over the last few days. I hope they can give me some explanation. Not going into more detail, it's ongoing.

[gavsdavs]

OddCat said:

I doubt that Barclays systems differ much from any other large bank.

Whether you are talking about ATM withdrawals (would require a cloned cars and PIN so doubtful especially given the amount you are talking about) or unauthorised electronic payments out of your account (would require account hijack so again doubtful) or fraudulent third party payments (eg Paypal) or weird card payments (most likely ?) I'm sure Barclays will take it seriously if it is clearly fraudulent. You need to give them a chance although you appear to have entered "blame the bank" mode quite quickly here.

I use to work for a bank many years ago. We had a woman come in raving about money having been taken out of her account through the cashpoint machine. It wasn't her. We were a disgrace etc etc. What she didn't realise was that we filmed the cashpoint lobby area 24/7. So we got out the tape, got to the exact point in time where the withdrawal was made and, alakazzamy, there was her husband bold as brass making a withdrawal.......

I'm talking about 2 seperate transfers (using the online account, I assume) of a few thousand pounds, in the last week. Not card cloning. I haven't had a valid card for the account since the last one expired in 2016 and they forgot to issue me with a replacement. The one i have never left the house.

I've also worked for a number of retail and Investment banks, Barclays (Capital) included, and I'm aware of the importance that they place internally on fraud management and "reputational risk".

The reason I've entered 'blame the bank' mode is because this saga has been going on for 2 months now, during which time a fraudulent party has opened a current account and 2 seperate savings accounts in my name, had a debit card and pin issued, replaced my mobile phone number with a different phone number (twice), all while I've been in touch with the bank on a weekly basis to find out why they never explain their last f*ck up to me. They just close complaints cases without saying a word. They have the cheek to say "we can't talk to you about this, it's not you who did it", despite it all being done on my accounts.

They also don't do what they say they will do, contradict each other. (I say, I was told "X". responder says "ahh you've been misinformed". That's happened a lot)

Each time i call them I'm told I haven't successfully authenticated with them and I have to go to branch with 2 forms of ID, which I do.

I turn up weekly, with passport, driving license and all my previous Barclays post, and they refuse the re-issue of cards and PINs. Yet a fraudulent actor who probably knows my mothers maiden name can get access to my accounts online (I assume it's online, don't know yet), and can siphon out 5 figure sums ?

Equifax will have played a part, probably the leak of my mothers maiden name. I'm pretty sure that we have a postal thief (post box door forced open, other cases within the property and nearby), but Barclays systems are rigid and weak.

I'm sure Barclays are really no better or worse than any other high street bank (I haven't had the displeasure of finding that out). I can only tell you what's happening now.

[bad company]

gavsdavs said:

I'm talking about 2 seperate transfers (using the online account, I assume) of a few thousand pounds, in the last week. Not card cloning. I haven't had a valid card for the account since the last one expired in 2016 and they forgot to issue me with a replacement. The one i have never left the house.

I've also worked for a number of retail and Investment banks, Barclays (Capital) included, and I'm aware of the importance that they place internally on fraud management and "reputational risk".

The reason I've entered 'blame the bank' mode is because this saga has been going on for 2 months now, during which time a fraudulent party has opened a current account and 2 seperate savings accounts in my name, had a debit card and pin issued, replaced my mobile phone number with a different phone number (twice), all while I've been in touch with the bank on a weekly basis to find out why they never explain their last f*ck up to me. They just close complaints cases without saying a word. They have the cheek to say "we can't talk to you about this, it's not you who did it", despite it all being done on my accounts.

They also don't do what they say they will do, contradict each other. (I say, I was told "X". responder says "ahh you've been misinformed". That's happened a lot)

Each time i call them I'm told I haven't successfully authenticated with them and I have to go to branch with 2 forms of ID, which I do.

I turn up weekly, with passport, driving license and all my previous Barclays post, and they refuse the re-issue of cards and PINs. Yet a fraudulent actor who probably knows my mothers maiden name can get access to my accounts online (I assume it's online, don't know yet), and can siphon out 5 figure sums ?

Equifax will have played a part, probably the leak of my mothers maiden name. I'm pretty sure that we have a postal thief (post box door forced open, other cases within the property and nearby), but Barclays systems are rigid and weak.

I'm sure Barclays are really no better or worse than any other high street bank (I haven't had the displeasure of finding that out). I can only tell you what's happening now.

I feel for you. I’m sure you’ll get it sorted but in the meantime what a pain in the rectum.

Do keep us posted. I bet your bank’s systems are no better or worse than the others.

[essayer]

As soon as you get messed about like this, forget customer services, start the formal complaints process. Get a named contact and do everything by email. If no satisfactory conclusion, go to the ombudsman

[gavsdavs]

essayer said:

As soon as you get messed about like this, forget customer services, start the formal complaints process. Get a named contact and do everything by email. If no satisfactory conclusion, go to the ombudsman

I wrote a letter and posted it last tuesday. Barclays only provide a freepost address for complaints to be sent to (with no postcode). You can't send recorded/signed-for post to a freepost address. (I am tempted to think that's intentional right now).

I have been unable to conduct anything with them by email. It's impossible to get the full name of anyone in customer services or fraud. The mortgage and branch people are a little more co-operative.

I asked yesterday whether the girl could see a record on my file of my complaint letter (which should have arrived last week). As a result, I'm not reassured at all by Barclays ability to organise drinkup in a brewery.

I have the original complaint letter, and an additional complaint letter # 2 to hand to them today.

I would like to give them a chance to redeem their f*ckups, but this may well need to go to the ombudsman, or even twitter, which I suspect scares Barclays even more.

[bad company]

gavsdavs said:

I wrote a letter and posted it last tuesday. Barclays only provide a freepost address for complaints to be sent to (with no postcode). You can't send recorded/signed-for post to a freepost address. (I am tempted to think that's intentional right now).

I have been unable to conduct anything with them by email. It's impossible to get the full name of anyone in customer services or fraud. The mortgage and branch people are a little more co-operative.

I asked yesterday whether the girl could see a record on my file of my complaint letter (which should have arrived last week). As a result, I'm not reassured at all by Barclays ability to organise drinkup in a brewery.

I have the original complaint letter, and an additional complaint letter # 2 to hand to them today.

I would like to give them a chance to redeem their f*ckups, but this may well need to go to the ombudsman, or even twitter, which I suspect scares Barclays even more.

When I had a problem with Lloyds I spent ages on the phone to customer service before my issue was registered as a complaint. When it was a registered complaint everything changed. I got a direct line to the named manager dealing with the matter and he was very helpful indeed. Presumably Barclays has a similar process.

[gavsdavs]

bad company said:

When I had a problem with Lloyds I spent ages on the phone to customer service before my issue was registered as a complaint. When it was a registered complaint everything changed. I got a direct line to the named manager dealing with the matter and he was very helpful indeed. Presumably Barclays has a similar process.

I refer you to my first mail this morning.

I have opened a couple of cases, in branch, via a customer services person, against the fraud department. The first resulted in a letter saying "we've dealt with your query and reported your name to CIFAS", but didn't tell me anything about what had happened, how it had happened, whether any accounts were opened (they were) or closed (they weren't).
That was them on a good day.

The 2nd time was when I was with a customer services person in branch and I had been informed that 2 savings accounts had been opened in my name (i had not requested these). I demanded these be closed immediately and I lodged a complaint to again, find out how these had been requested and why Barclays had not demanded presence in bank with 2 forms of ID. There was no reply to this complaint, it just got closed with "we dont' generally provide answers on fraud cases".

I've just received a text message from them saying "thanks for letting us know your new mobile number". Yesterday evening, my actual phone number was put back in place on my account (to replace the one the fraudulent party had put there).

Either their automated SMSing machine has an 18 hour delay (this is most likely but they REALLY need to fix it), or someone's in the account again today.

Friendly advice to all, get out of Barclays if you can.

[FiF]

Significant update yesterday to my own fraud problem mentioned earlier in the thread. Bank still not covering itself in glory, latest missive demands a reply within 7 days of date on letter or they will close the investigation, and presumably recharge me. They took 5 of the 7 days to get it to me, just another example of creating hurdles.

Anyway replied by return and sent off special delivery, but more interestingly I now have name, address, email and ip address of the perpetrator.

Suggestions involving frozen sausages etc will be ignored.

But it opens the question, how can a bank approve a transaction on a card with beneficiary having a completely different name and address to that on the card. Seems delinquent to me.

[captain_cynic]

MonTheF1sh said:

I often wondered how the hit rates on these emails were worth all the effort scammers go to, but reading this thread has answered that for me.

I've worked in several large organisations with email security. You'd be surprised how often someone (sometimes with a PHD) hits a link in an email allegedly sent by [e-mail]. We've tried educating people, but it keeps happening (and it's not just older workers either). The worst ones are from compromised internal accounts, no-one even thinks about checking to see if their legit, even if the tech support email is from Frank in accounting.

In the real world, the hit rate would be one in tens of thousands... but that's enough to make it profitable as you can send thousands of spam emails for a few pennies of total investment and operating costs.

The best thing you can do is learn what system your bank uses to communicate with you. My bank either sends official communications by post or the secure messaging system inside the web portal. The best thing UK banks can do is use and enforce a 2nd factor authentication system (RSA tokens, one time SMS codes and the like). Sure it will upset some people, but the benefits will be worth it when Gullible Gary's savings aren't wiped out for the 3rd time this month because the people he gave his username and password to don't have access to his phone.

Edited by captain_cynic on Thursday 30th November 14:04

[gavsdavs]

bad company said:

I feel for you. I’m sure you’ll get it sorted but in the meantime what a pain in the rectum.

Do keep us posted. I bet your bank’s systems are no better or worse than the others.

Barclays have agreed that the payments from my account were fraudulent. They've refunded me the money and re-activated my account so i can finally access it.

Interestingly, i can see the payments made by the fraudster to a named natwest account in Jersey, and the name is associated with a companies house record for a company incorporated in an address a few miles from me. The postal theft is still potentially the attack that was effective (though I don't yet know what channel was used -i.e. branch/telephone/online).

I do hope Barclays are pursuing the recipient of these transfers for answers.

[gavsdavs]

Update to my story.

I eventually got the complaint letter(s) into the hands of a Barclays customer relations person who recognised how many times Barclays dropped the ball, in terms of communicating to me, permitting a fraudulent actor to access my account without any ID and not paying any attention to the fact that they put my name on cifas to alert financial companies to this kid of problem.

The £10k was refunded, and some compensation was offered, negotiated and accepted. Whether my Barclays account is secure is question for the future.

Seperately I had a useful, in-depth conversation with a guy at Equifax whilst trying to find out if they leaked any of my information. It turns out they had not, but the guy i dealt with was good enough to set me up with a 30 day trial use of their service which revealed.....someone also applied for a credit card at Lloyds/HBOS (not sure which yet) in November. I thought that was worrying, but assumed it hadn't led anywhere because i access my lloyds account often and nothing weird had happened.

Until this week, when i got a letter from Lloyds saying "here are some new internet banking terms of service - we tried to email this to you and it bounced" (or words to that effect). Odd, I thought - i've been with Lloyds for a long time and they've always known my email address which has not changed.

I log in to my Lloyds account online, look at my profile, and what do you know, the email address on my account is not mine, nor an address that I have ever had. I'm immediately on the phone to them - "what this address ?" "when did it change ?" "what caused it to be changed?". Initially they can't tell me, just that it's like that. This is escalated into a complaint for Lloyds to investigate.

Today - i'm contacted by Lloyds and told "yeah, a credit card was applied for in your name, and because all the other information on the application looked like you, we took the email address supplied as gospel because we thought it was you. We've done nothing wrong". (for the record, I didn't apply for a credit card).

It's possible to change pieces of information on Lloyds accounts by making applications for credit cards.

So this time it's Lloyds who get reported to the ombudsman.

Be careful out there folks.

[Red Devil]

It seems to be the season for Barclays. Earlier this week a statement dropped through my letterbox.
It was from Barclaycard with a purchase from an establishment I have never been a customer of.
I knew it was dodgy because I haven't used that card number for anything in the last 5 years.
The actual current card is in a locked drawer still in the envelope in which it was sent to me!

Go figure.

Straight on the phone to them querying it. Stop put on the card.
Currently waiting for Barclaycard to provide an explanation how the it can have happened.
Not holding my breath though...

[FiF]

Further to my own issues, updating info with the police and the bank led them both to advise me to contact PayPal who handled the payments by the vendor in question. This is despite my PayPal account having no card nor account attached, and never having been used in the 12 years I have had the account, long story not relevant.

Police advised me of some very pointed questions to ask PayPal. They had no answers, except to say they were absolutely certain these transactions were nothing to do with me, and it appears some bar steward has opened a false PayPal account, with my card details and billing address, but PP account registered to a completely different name and address. How can that be allowed to happen? Makes the claims of multi level security sound very holliw.

Investigations continue, not by me, appears the miscreant may be a black belt kick boxer.