Credit Card Fraud

[bad company]

For the third time in my life I’ve been a victim of fraud. A few weeks ago I checked my Lloyds Avios credit card statement and saw several transactions I didn’t recognise, all priced in US$. No problem, Lloyds refunded the money then I read this:-

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/personal-banking/credit...

This morning I received the email below which looks like the scammers know who’s accounts they compromised and want another go:-


Good Morning

I regret I am unable to locate your account with the information you provided.

Could you please resubmit your email, providing your full surname, post code and the last 4 digits of your account number.

PLEASE NOTE: When replying, please include your initials, full surname, your post code and the last 4 digits of your card number. To help protect your identity and stay safe online, please do not send any further information regarding your identity by e-mail. Alternatively you can send in your query by post to Lloyds Banking group Plc, Pitreavie Credit Card Operations, BX1 1LT.

Yours sincerely

Customer Service Officer, Disputes Team | Card Operations | Customer Support Operations | Lloyds Banking Group
E-Mail: [e-mail]


Lloyds Banking Group plc. Registered Office: The Mound, Edinburgh EH1 1YZ. Registered in Scotland no. SC95000. Telephone: [phone]. Lloyds Bank plc. Registered Office: 25 Gresham Street, London EC2V 7HN. Registered in England and Wales no. 2065. Telephone [phone]. Bank of Scotland plc. Registered Office: The Mound, Edinburgh EH1 1YZ. Registered in Scotland no. SC327000. Telephone: [phone]. Cheltenham & Gloucester plc. Registered Office: Barnett Way, Gloucester GL4 3RL. Registered in England and Wales 2299428. Telephone: [phone]
Lloyds Bank plc, Bank of Scotland plc are authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential Regulation Authority.

Cheltenham & Gloucester plc is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

Halifax is a division of Bank of Scotland plc. Cheltenham & Gloucester Savings is a division of Lloyds Bank plc.

HBOS plc. Registered Office: The Mound, Edinburgh EH1 1YZ. Registered in Scotland no. SC218813.

This e-mail (including any attachments) is private and confidential and may contain privileged material. If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender and delete it (including any attachments) immediately. You must not copy, distribute, disclose or use any of the information in it or any attachments. Telephone calls may be monitored or recorded.

Edited by barracuda.mod on Wednesday 22 November 21:23

[bad company]

Not sure what you mean by ‘message headers’ but the email apparently arrived from - [e-mail].

I was immediately wary as it said it was from $Lloyds Disputes. Lloyds would never include the $ sign. I’m a bit concerned that this is either a coincidence or they know that I do have an ongoing dispute with the bank, also why did it sail through the Yahoo spam filters?

[bad company]

OddCat said:

I'm betting the email is genuine. It looks like Lloyds are responding to an email sent to them by the OP from which they have been unable to identify him....

Question is, what did the OPs original email to Lloyd's say and to what email address did he send it ?

I didn’t send an email to Lloyds and the email account this arrived at is not the one I use for banking. Also on checking Lloyds website they always name their customer in genuine emails so it would be addressed Dear Mr Bad Company.

The frightening thing is that this scam email is very good, to the point that you and others really thought it was genuine.

[bad company]

bhstewie said:

From what you've just added (haven't been in contact with the bank, them not having that email address) then of course it's almost certainly a scam.

I have a couple of people where I work who routinely forward me the real emails that their banks and utility providers send them because they're convinced they're scams.

Headers are the "proof" if there are no links or anything else in the message body that you can quickly hover over and check.

The banks do daft things and the scammers are getting better.

Just to clarify, I have been in contact with my bank regarding disputed credit card payments but by telephone, I never sent them an email.

[bad company]

bhstewie said:

I'm taking what you said at face value i.e. if the email has come to badcompany@somewhere and the bank have never been aware of that address then it's a scam, simple as that because they couldn't know of that address.

From your OP it sounded as if there had been some communication where you were expecting something from the bank - on that basis and going solely from the email text you've posted I wouldn't rule it out - until you clarified they don't have that email address and never have had it.

Yes I was expecting something from the bank and at first I didn’t notice that the email had arrived at a different email address than the one the bank has.

[bad company]

Gavia said:

Inreceived a text message that joined the chain of text messages from Barclays on my iPhone suggesting fraud on my account and urging me to ring them on a number on the text.

Very convincing and Barclays couldn’t have cared less when I rang them. Disappointed with their response

The text message showing in full is the fraudulent one, the redacted ones are genuine tests from
Barclays.

Many people will fall for this IMO.

Scary, I wonder how they managed to get their message to join the genuine ones?

The best advice is never to call the number in the message, only call the number on your debit or credit card.

[bad company]

OddCat said:

Edited to add....it won't surprise me at all to find that the OP did email Lloyds from the same email address and the response from Lloyd's is genuine (in that they only have that address to which to respond and the alternative is that they don't respond to the clients email at all.....

Edited by OddCat on Sunday 19th November 11:41

It would surprise me. As I posted earlier in the thread all my communications with the bank regarding the fraud have been on the telephone.

[bad company]

OddCat said:

bad company said:

It would surprise me. As I posted earlier in the thread all my communications with the bank regarding the fraud have been on the telephone.

Is there any chance you put tatemail address on your Lloyd's Avios card application ?

Yes I suppose that is possible although I don’t recall doing so. I signed into Lloyd’s bank yesterday and confirmed that they have a different email address showing for me.

[bad company]

OddCat said:

Surely the OP has contacted Lloyds by now to confirm the validity of the email ?

Bad Company, where are youuuuuuuuuu...............????

What I have done is send the email to - [e-mail] but they haven't yet responded. I also sent it to of-london.pnn.police.uk

I have a letter from the bank regarding the fraud / complaint arrived today, there was no mention of the email.

I need to speak with the bank again early next week regarding this and will ask them but I'm sure it's a scam email.

[bad company]

bugmenot said:

bad company said:

What I have done is send the email to - [e-mail] but they haven't yet responded.

And they won't do since it's an automated inbox.

bad company said:

I have a letter from the bank regarding the fraud / complaint arrived today, there was no mention of the email.

I need to speak with the bank again early next week regarding this and will ask them but I'm sure it's a scam email.

They may be unaware since the email wasn't sent from the fraud or complaints teams. Why not ask the disputes team?

Have you tried getting through to the disputes team? Since the collapse of Monarch Air it’s even more difficult. I do have a call arranged with a manager in the complaints team next week, I have his direct dial number for the call.

[bad company]

UPDATE - but not much of one I’m afraid.

I had a conversation with the manager dealing with my complaint at Lloyds. He didn’t know if the email was a scam or not. The email header looks right but he didn’t understand why anybody at the bank would send an email like that without the account holders name.

I’m going to leave the message unanswered but if any PH person would like me to add their name, postcode and last digits of their bank card I will reply with that info.

[bad company]

Red Devil said:

Given the OP has already been in contact and they have refunded him, I find it very hard to believe Lloyds don't know who he is and what his account details are.
I still say that e-mail is either as dodgy as £2 note or, if it is genuine, the author is not complying with the bank's stated policy on communications.
If so, then it should be a matter of concern for its account holders.

I’m inclined to agree with you. As you say Lloyds have refunded the money taken fraudulently and ALL of my contact with them has been over the telephone. I haven’t sent them any emails and the only one received was the subject of this thread.

[bad company]

Did anybody find out why Red Devil and Oddcat’s posts were deleted?

[bad company]

OddCat said:

All mine said was "maybe you could ask the Manager to contact xxxxxxxxx in the xxxxxxxxx department and ask him" (i used the name if the Lloyds kid and the dept. Ame as per your original email). Just that one line. The email i got fronm PH said:


I don't appear to have been banned though. Which is nice. Must be because I used the kids name. Has also been deleted from Bad Companies original post (although not the whole post).

Got it. Yes they have removed the name of manager at Lloyds who apparently sent me the email. It may have been good if a moderator had posted something on the thread to explain why this had happened.

[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.

[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.

[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.