Bank fraud

[Drago]

I lost £300 on my Halifax account. Some geezer had spent it on online gambling sites in Canada. Those nice people at Halifax even charged me for the overseas transaction fee.

Rang them up, they sent me a form to fill out, sent it back, within a few days was refunded in full. Very painless. About a year later a local petrol station was busted (police terminology that) for card skimming, and that's where I reckon they got my details.

 

[classic33]

And some banks don't help themselves either
We were the victims of a scam some years ago and we absolutely knew where the scam started, which company at least...we tried to urge the bank to investigate....and we're curtly told 'we can't talk to you regarding this matter'
'But it's my bank account and I know where the problem started...are you not interested in finding out ?'
'It's your account but our money...we can't talk to you'

I suppose on a technicality they were right...but I took great pleasure in telling them....you get exactly what you deserve then.

You should have withdrawn their money from your account, leaving your own money untouched, if that were the case.

 

[NickNick]

I lost £300 on my Halifax account. Some geezer had spent it on online gambling sites in Canada. Those nice people at Halifax even charged me for the overseas transaction fee.

Rang them up, they sent me a form to fill out, sent it back, within a few days was refunded in full. Very painless. About a year later a local petrol station was busted (police terminology that) for card skimming, and that's where I reckon they got my details.

Petrol stations seem to be quite common perpetrators of card skimming/cloning, there's been a couple of them in Brum caught out.

 

[presta]

Back in the 1980s during the phantom withdrawal era, someone I knew had an unauthorised withdrawal on his card. It was in London even though his card had been with him in Essex at the time, so he reported it to the card company. They just fobbed him of with the usual "our machines don't make mistakes" etc., so he said:

"In that case, you're accusing me of fraud, so I suggest to call Sgt. Bloggs at the local station and report it"
"Oh, you have previous experience of the police then do you sir?"
"Yes, I'm a policeman"
"Oh.....er.....well, in that case there is something we can do. The magnetic strip contains a record of your transactions, if you cut it off and leave it with us we can have it analysed"

The upshot was that there was a gang of forgers working in card headquarters at Southend manufacturing cloned cards.

 

[colly]

Pretty much everyone you speak to has had some kind of fraud or attempted fraud on their account

It makes you realise just how much of it is going on 24/7 all over the world. It also brings home just how insecure banking transactions are. Given they should be able to afford the very best security systems available it isn't very reassuring.

Having just said that.......So far at least I've not been scammed.

I have had one or two things get ballsed up with bank transfers and while ive not been out of pocket the bank didnt really offer a full explanation as to quite what went wrong or who would be responsible.

 

[classic33]

Pretty much everyone you speak to has had some kind of fraud or attempted fraud on their account

It makes you realise just how much of it is going on 24/7 all over the world. It also brings home just how insecure banking transactions are. Given they should be able to afford the very best security systems available it isn't very reassuring.

Having just said that.......So far at least I've not been scammed.

I have had one or two things get ballsed up with bank transfers and while ive not been out of pocket the bank didnt really offer a full explanation as to quite what went wrong or who would be responsible.

They'll not explain how their systems work to a customer.

Despite the amount of computerisation, there's still a fair amount of human error involved.

 

[Drago]

I'm not an expert myself, but I know a bloke who was a senior programmer fro Santander. As I understand it from him, the basic system that governs transactions is ancient, dates from the late seventies. Its been layered up, had odds and sods tacked on, and individual banks slap their own pretty front ends on it, but the underlying system is virtually antique. This is why it falls down now and gain, and bank X's customers can't use a cash point for 24 hours, or why 500,000 people with their wages paid by bank Y suddenly don't receive them. Its absolutely creaking.

 

[classic33]

I'm not an expert myself, but I know a bloke who was a senior programmer fro Santander. As I understand it from him, the basic system that governs transactions is ancient, dates from the late seventies. Its been layered up, had odds and sods tacked on, and individual banks slap their own pretty front ends on it, but the underlying system is virtually antique. This is why it falls down now and gain, and bank X's customers can't use a cash point for 24 hours, or why 500,000 people with their wages paid by bank Y suddenly don't receive them. Its absolutely creaking.

It fails more than you think. That's why the human element can't be removed.

 

[PaulSB]

Pretty much everyone you speak to has had some kind of fraud or attempted fraud on their account.

Really? I’m not sure about this. I don’t know anyone who has experienced this.

I’m not denying it’s a problem but I don’t feel it’s as widespread as the media would have us believe.

As an unrelated comment when I read articles in the consumer help pages I’m often struck by how gullible and easily taken in some people are.

All my accounts send a text message and email alert for transactions over £100 - often arriving before I leave the shop. Mind you it ruins Saturday afternoon when I’m home and Mrs Paulsb is out!!!

 

[Globalti]

We've discussed it on here before but older people are easily scammed for several reasons:

They still respect anybody who looks or sounds like "authority".

They are afraid to cause offence.

They were brought up at a time when most people could be trusted and trust was drummed into everybody at church.

As you age the part of the brain that controls belief and discrimination between truth and lies begins to deteriorate.

My Mum aged 87 took a call recently from somebody claiming to be from Microsoft and got as far as downloading some software onto her laptop before she had to terminate the conversation because she had an appointment. I was only by a chance remark that I realised what was happening to her and stopped her answering the phone, which rang and rang for three days as the scammer tried to get her back. Her IT specialist friend found three threats on her laptop.

 

[RoubaixCube]

I've actually had a small had to assist police by going through our CCTV at work for footage of a guy who was installing a device into our cash machines that would 'swallow' peoples cards and come back for them when that person had left to either come speak to us about the issue or walked off fuming that their card got swallowed.

Not a very nice experience. Ive had to do this on multiple occasions for the police. On the odd occasion ive had random calls from my bank asking me if I had used my card to pay for something at a shop overseas when I last used the ATM 2-3hrs ago in the UK. I think the worst case was some guy had somehow managed to get my card details and used it to buy cigarettes and alcohol at some 7-11 located in some dodgy part of the U.S.

When i go on holiday, I always try to speak to my bank and mobile phone provider to let them know that i am going overseas so they leave a note on my account so I dont get stranded in the middle of nowhere while out on holiday.

We have had a lot of tourists come to us after their cards genuinely got swallowed at work because they didnt do the same thing and theres nothing we can do about it either as its another company that looks after the ATMs and due to data protection, even the ATM engineers cant give peoples cards back even if the owner has proof of I.D.

 

[User33236]

Logged into my online banking today to find over £1,800 in transactions, and another £500 pending, against my AMEX to two companies in LA and West Hollywood that I hadn’t made. Fraud team at the bank were excellent and have cancelled card, ordered replacement and reversed/refunded all the charges.

Most likely the data has been obtained via the hacking of an online company so with be rethinking who I allow to store my information going forward.

 

[Dave7]

This is 100% genuine as this guy does not tell lies (thats serious)
Someone who had a "wide circle of friends" and had done time asked him for a lift to a block of flats in Toxteth.
My (white) friend was advised not to stay in the car so went inside with him. He was scared and had bitten off too much but.......
Doors were open and his contact seemed to know everyone.
In one flat was a guy with some sort of machine COPYING CREDIT CARDS!!!
In another was a guy weighing out white powder.
Someone else came in giving the warning.......the police will be doing a raid tomorrow morning so make sure everthing is cleared.