Bank account fraud warning!

[werdnal]

Having received a letter from my bank on Friday stating I was overdrawn, I rang to find out what they were on about. To my horror, someone has emptied my bank account.

They immediately put me through to their Fraud Dept, who went through a few transactions, and when they got to the Easyjet ticket, foreign currency and travel insurance, the alarm bells became deafening. Thankfully, as all these have taken place overseas, its easy to prove they were not legitimate transactions, and the money is being replaced - around £1500 in total. I got my statement through this morning - all 8 pages of it and very grim reading.

The first dodgy transaction was listed as "WP Stagecoach Serv" and only for £1.50, and then refunded the following day. Had I seen this at the time I may have queried but as I'd already been refunded, I'd have probably let it go. However, this is just a "fishing trip" to see if the account is live, before they let rip with the full blown withdrawals!

So be warned, if you should get a withdrawal from your account entitled "WP Stagecoach" raise it immediately with your bank, and request they stop your debit card before it goes too far!

[barquar]

Thats very scary we all keep hearing about this type off goings on.We all take care to look after our security but they still manage to gain entry into our acounts. It is so scary.
your lucky they sorted it out for you.
Barquar

[NickCantle]

Sounds like a nightmare.

Many thanks for informing us pal, I'll keep an eye out

Nick

[Monkster]

That's awful Werdnal, what a horrible shock!
How long was it between them doing the first 'WP Stagecoach ' transaction and then all the big ones?
I just wouldn't have thought much of a £1.50 debit at all, especially as it was refunded and therefore wouldn't have questioned it .......but I will now!!!
Thanks for the warning and I'm glad you got yours sorted out .
Suzanne

[hank]

Be extra careful with your old bank and credit card statements. If you haven't got a shredder, then tear them up into tiny pieces.

[Paul mabbott]

... or compost them!
Even better is to go for electronic banking which doesn't produce much paperwork, allows you to keep a regular eye on your account, and gets you a better rate of interest!

I'm told that serious criminals can get enough information from cash-machine receipts to get them on the way to emptying your account. So, if you get a receipt when you withdraw cash (and why do you need one really?) then take it home with you - don't throw it on the floor like (or leave it on the machine) so many people seem to do ...

Originally Posted by hank

Be extra careful with your old bank and credit card statements. If you haven't got a shredder, then tear them up into tiny pieces.

[stripee]

I agree with Paul M. I bank on-line, and shred credit card statementsthat come by post, but I don't get sent paper current account statements at all. When buying stuff and using the card in shops keep the receipt and shred, or tear up. Have a strong long password for the internet and changed from time to time. Trouble then is remembering them without writing them down!
Some ATMs have false fronts attached to them scanning details, and some shops have dodgy equipment too put there by criminals. I hope banks will continue to refund any money that is lost without making current accout charges for all customers to cover it.
I always tear off names and addresses and customer info before re-cycling anything as well as there's sometimes quite alot of info on a letter from banks and customer invoices.

[DING]

I'm really careful with ALL my paperwork and everything is shredded but last year I was the victim of credit card fraud. The first amount was for a pound to Christian Aid which I didn't notice. There was a gap of a week and then my card was hit for an alarming number of transactions (amounting to thousands) including gambling and not so nice sites. When I reported it, I was told the Christian Aid one is used very often to 'test' whether the card is active. When I said how careful I was with my banking stuff they said somone had probably just got lucky with numbers (whatever that means). I was really unnerved by the whole thing particularly as a few weeks later my son had a similar thing happen (at a different address). I suspect it is very common.

[JeffH]

I was almost a victim last year but thankfully my bank stopped the first dubious transaction (an attempted cash withdrawal in Thailand!) and rang me on my mobile on a Saturday morning to check whether or not I had lost my debit card.

I hadn't but there's been a spate of card cloning in this area - allegedly at 3 local petrol stations - and it seems my card was copied. The bank cancelled it immediately and sent me a replacement. I was quite impressed at their efficiency in spotting and stopping the attempted fraud.

Since then I don't use my card at petrol stations (I pay cash) and I only withdraw cash from machines within bank branches.

Jeff

[galanthus]

my other half checked his banking online as usual a few months ago and noticed he was over a thousand pounds overdrawn. He queried this on the phone , (took hours ), and was eventually told the money had not left the account, however, they had to honour the spend and that would take around 4 days They wouldn't cancel the transaction!! Eventually found the money was used to purchase over 1000 pounds of foreign currency in aldershot somewhere. We're very careful, shredding everything etc, however, where there's a will there's a way unfortunately.

[Kayleigh]

Originally Posted by werdnal

Having received a letter from my bank on Friday stating I was overdrawn, I rang to find out what they were on about. To my horror, someone has emptied my bank account.

They immediately put me through to their Fraud Dept, who went through a few transactions, and when they got to the Easyjet ticket, foreign currency and travel insurance, the alarm bells became deafening. Thankfully, as all these have taken place overseas, its easy to prove they were not legitimate transactions, and the money is being replaced - around £1500 in total. I got my statement through this morning - all 8 pages of it and very grim reading.

The first dodgy transaction was listed as "WP Stagecoach Serv" and only for £1.50, and then refunded the following day. Had I seen this at the time I may have queried but as I'd already been refunded, I'd have probably let it go. However, this is just a "fishing trip" to see if the account is live, before they let rip with the full blown withdrawals!

So be warned, if you should get a withdrawal from your account entitled "WP Stagecoach" raise it immediately with your bank, and request they stop your debit card before it goes too far!

Werdnal, this is just awful what happened to you..You are not one of the thousands of people who had their family allowance records (bank details) lost are you like me..

[big bill]

Same happened to me after I closed my credit card account paid off in full and closed Dec last year card acncelled along with direct debit received letter from company saying debit had been cancelled and asking to maker payment to new balance on card of £645.00 for a balance transfer from an argos card now in hands of fraud dept luckily not being held responsible no matter how secure you are they still seem to get at it somehow

[shei111]

Yes same thing happened to my husband last year , he checked the bank by on line banking to find that a £10.00 withdrawal had been used on a betting site on line within 5 hours he had lost £470.00 from his account , the bank did re imburse him but only after they did all the checks necessary to check he hadnt done it himself. They did tell him this would probaly take up to 2 weeks to complete, as this was his business account it was very hard when they put a stop on his account. But as I said they did re imburse him . He feel sure it was at a petrol station that he had used a few days before.

[jennyb]

We had the same problem but it was picked up by the bank and they asked us about the dodgy transactions. They start small and yes, I seem to recall one of them was WP Stagecoach. There were also some small amounts for music downloads before a bigger one for Vodafone.

My husband also had a mobile phone contract taken out in his name. Ten pounds were used on it before we received the invoice and queried it.

There really is some scum in this world

Jenny

[Geoff F]

Beware of e mails or phone calls from 'your bank' telling you that there has been an attempted fraud and asking you to confirm your bank details. Fradulent Pay Pal requests for your account details are common; I even received one written in French.

The problem is that everytime you give someone your details to make a purchase you are at risk; especially with mail order credit card payments. It only takes one dodgy member of staff to copy the details and sell them on to someone abroad where they can be used with little chance of being caught.

It happened to me a couple of years ago. Nearly £1000 was used to buy computer equipment from Denmark which was delivered to an address in Norway. Eventually I persuaded the card company that I had never been to either country. The company didn't change my card so 6 months later it happened again in America for $300. Same as some of you have said, first a very small amount then more. After a bit of telephoning to the card company they became aware of my opinions on the subject and changed the card.

After the first fraud I was able to work out the only purchase where the details could have been stolen, a genuine mail order company but probably a questionable employee. I told my card company but they just weren't interested.

[Dan Salter]

The best deterrant i find is simple?...become a mature student like myself!...my bank has something like £4.37 in it most days which is too small to withdraw from a cash machine! ha ha....being skint is the most worry free life (in terms of bank fraud, scams, identification fraud).

[Boddie]

Its all too common that fraudulent credit card transactions are for airplane tickets and I wonder how folk get away with it as surely they ask for the travellers name and this in turn can be allied to their passport when they travel?

Anybody have an explanation for this?

[Tobyh]

I noticed a huge increase in "phishing" E-Mails recently - day after day of E-mails trying to get me to go to a website to confirm my credentials otherwise my account would be closed etc. In the end I killed off that E-mail address. I reported them but didn't get much response. Thankfully being in IT myself I found it fairly easy to spot and check these mails - some of them were scarily authentic looking.

Best way to avert these is for YOU to contact your bank, don't use any links or numbers within any mails, they just arent safe.

Unlucky to those that got stung but thankfully the banks do seem to be on the consumers side when they do get caught out by scammers.

PS - I also recently had my Credit Card company contact me to re-issue another card. They wouldn't give me full details but sounds like somewhere I had used the card may have been copying the details etc. A good pro-active response from the bank.

[jennyb]

Originally Posted by Tobyh

PS - I also recently had my Credit Card company contact me to re-issue another card. They wouldn't give me full details but sounds like somewhere I had used the card may have been copying the details etc. A good pro-active response from the bank.

The banks are pretty much on the ball. It happened with both my business credit card and my husbands personal credit card and on both occasions it was the bank that noticed. They cancelled both cards immediately.

Jenny

[Ukwildlifeo]

Originally Posted by Dan Salter

The best deterrant i find is simple?...become a mature student like myself!...my bank has something like £4.37 in it most days which is too small to withdraw from a cash machine! ha ha....being skint is the most worry free life (in terms of bank fraud, scams, identification fraud).

As dan said, being poor has its advantages

[ron1863]

I was also a victim of fcredit card fraud several years ago.
When my ex wife and I split up, I moved out and my new visa card was delivered to my old address. Needless to say she went out and withdrew almost £3000 over a period of a few months, as she knew the pin. I had no idea she was doing this as the statements etc. were being delivered to my old address.
I only found out because my brother is a postman and he brought over my mail one day, telling me to go to the post office and get my mail redirected to my new address. When I opened the visa statement I almost collapsed as I never use the card unless really needed and usually kept it in a drawer. I checked the card and found it had expired some months previous.
I phoned Visa and explained that I had never used the new card as I hadn't received it. They told me to phone the police and report it as they could do nothing without a police incident number. I eventually had to sit in the police stations video room going over old videos from the banks in the town picking out the person who withdrew the money from the account at the times on the invoice, needless to say the culprit was my ex wife.
Vise reimbursed the money, thank god but I didn't have the heart to charge my ex wife, which the police wanted me to do but it would probably meant the end of her career.

[Dan Salter]

Joking aside about being skint (which is true) when i did have the odd quid and even now im hopefully very on the ball! Everything post wise, envelopes, statements etc goes through the shredder (well the "address" part which i tear out and shred and then compost, while all other paper goes in the recycling bin)
I have learnt to distrust almost any emails regarding any kind of account...i NEVER respond to any emails from ebay or paypal in my hotmail account...only those that pop up AFTER signing into ebay or paypal and through the ebay or paypal message system are genuine.

I delete or click "report phishing scam" daily on emails regarding so called rich foreigners needing to deposit money...ebay queiries, paypal "someone is fraudulantly using your account and it has been closed down for safety reasons...please click here to re activate...which is in itself a scam as the next step is to add your log in details and passoword! no no no.

I dont fall for mobile phone deals...better tarrifs etc who then ask for your bank details over the phone....no no no...

I think the safest option is to keep what money you do have in tins under your bed ha ha....but...even this has its dangers as some poor old man had tens of thousands stashed under his bed for so long they all became useless and worthless as the notes had changed or been replaced by newer currency! how gutted exactly?

Dan

[SparklySarah]

Well, the ads at the top of the page are certainly appropiate: "Is your account secure?"
It really irritates me when people find the need to do this. Common methods:

• ATM's fixed with readers and cameras
• Copying cards when transactions are made, either manually or by machine
• Obvious one, stealing the card
• And the shocking ammount of details the banks throw out in the rubbish

This last one is the worst. The fact that the banks put letters and statments out in the rubbish that is left to be collected on the streets! Seems very irrisponsible. There was a huge uproar when this was found out.

It's one of the reasons why i'm not too keen on the ID cards. Yes, ID's are a good idea, but the ammount of information they're planning to put on it scarey. It seems to be your entire life!! :| That is an area ripe for frauding and cloning. Think they need to review what they're going to put on them.

There you go, an 18 year old's view! And yes Dan, being skint does help!

Sarah

[Paul mabbott]

Originally Posted by Tobyh

I noticed a huge increase in "phishing" E-Mails recently - day after day of E-mails trying to get me to go to a website to confirm my credentials otherwise my account would be closed etc. In the end I killed off that E-mail address. I reported them but didn't get much response. Thankfully being in IT myself I found it fairly easy to spot and check these mails - some of them were scarily authentic looking.
...........

Yes, I get at least one a day asking me to contact banks I've never had accounts with. My banks/building societies do stress the fact that they will never contact me for information by e-mail or 'phone to ask for personal details. I suspect that this is general practice. We're talking about internet phishing but shouldn't forget that the same thing applies to telephone conversations. Never give anyone personal details over the 'phone unless you ran them!

Not sure that changing accounts does that much good - these things are automated so they'll eventually get to your account anyway! An important thing is not to respond to these in any way - some people do mail back to query the message: that gives them (the phishers) the information that there is someone at that e-address and they can then have another go in another way .... or at the very least, sell your address to spammers ....