Scammers, even clever people are getting conned out of serious money.

[Mad Doug Biker]

I was talking to someone I know yesterday and the subject of scams came up.

Apparently she has a neighbour (who, actually, sounds like he has other issues anyway) who will believe everything he is told in these things.

Apparently the latest one was that he'd won 'the lottery on the internet'... Despite the fact that he doesn't have it/use it.

Let me repeat that

'The Lottery On The Internet'. 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

She told me that he had once driven to Aviemore to collect a prize in a competition that didn't even exist (he was adamant he'd entered).

He also apparently had inherited money from a hitherto unknown family member in China, but it was being dealt with with a firm in London. No amount of dissuasion would sway him and he payed out whatever the 'fee' was... And then surprise surprise, received nothing.
China alone would have set alarm bells ringing with me! 😆

These are old fashioned scams, yes, but seemingly he is always getting into such a flap over everything and nobody can help him.

 

[Tenkaykev]

A strange coincidence though - I've never had one previously. It's almost as if they have the info about the account maturing (which could happen in any one of 365 days).

Nationwide security is badly flawed. I received an email asking for my feedback on my experience with customer services when I contacted them on the previous day. I hadn't contacted them so immediately phoned Nationwide and expressed my concerns. They reassured me that all was ok with my accounts. I checked my account the following day and saw that £2k was transferred from my Credit Card as a balance transfer. The credit card sits in a drawer at home as an emergency back up. When I notified them they reversed the transaction but after making an official complaint they have been stonewalling me and refusing to andwer questions as to how the person was able to initiate the transfer and pass security. The last email from them was to the effect that that information wouldn't be disclosed as it was part of their in house fraud detection system and they would not be communicating any further with me.
It will be going the Ombudsman but I would be very wary indeed about Nationwide and its in house security protocols as they are either flawed, or it was an internal error that they are not owning up to.

 

[classic33]

Nationwide security is badly flawed. I received an email asking for my feedback on my experience with customer services when I contacted them on the previous day. I hadn't contacted them so immediately phoned Nationwide and expressed my concerns. They reassured me that all was ok with my accounts. I checked my account the following day and saw that £2k was transferred from my Credit Card as a balance transfer. The credit card sits in a drawer at home as an emergency back up. When I notified them they reversed the transaction but after making an official complaint they have been stonewalling me and refusing to andwer questions as to how the person was able to initiate the transfer and pass security. The last email from them was to the effect that that information wouldn't be disclosed as it was part of their in house fraud detection system and they would not be communicating any further with me.
It will be going the Ombudsman but I would be very wary indeed about Nationwide and its in house security protocols as they are either flawed, or it was an internal error that they are not owning up to.

Ask for a copy of the actions on your account as it shows on their system.
Every time the account is accessed, there's a "fingerprint" left, which identifies the person who accessed it, on their systems. Wouldn't' surprise me if the person who accessed the account and did the transfer were one and the same.

 

[Tenkaykev]

Ask for a copy of the actions on your account as it shows on their system.
Every time the account is accessed, there's a "fingerprint" left, which identifies the person who accessed it, on their systems. Wouldn't' surprise me if the person who accessed the account and did the transfer were one and the same.

That's what they refuse to tell me citing their fraud systems confidentiality. What they don't realise is that a family member works at one of the major banks at quite a high level. She worked for a while in a senior role in that banks fraud department and said that what Nationwide has told me doesn't ring true. The various banks fraud departments tend to cooperate and alert each other when a new vulnerability appears, the family member has discussed what happened with former colleagues at another major bank and they are equally sceptical about the non response of Nationwide.

 

[classic33]

That's what they refuse to tell me citing their fraud systems confidentiality. What they don't realise is that a family member works at one of the major banks at quite a high level. She worked for a while in a senior role in that banks fraud department and said that what Nationwide has told me doesn't ring true. The various banks fraud departments tend to cooperate and alert each other when a new vulnerability appears, the family member has discussed what happened with former colleagues at another major bank and they are equally sceptical about the non response of Nationwide.

Their "fraud system confidentiality" has nothing to do with them wanting to keep an eye on who has accessed your account on their side.
Plenty of innocent reasons you'll probably not consider, an employee who has accessed the account after you've phoned them to confirm something, order a replacement card or even just checking the account is fully verified.

Used to be one of the "backroom bods" keeping an eye on accounts. Sorting any issues out, when possible.

 

[Tenkaykev]

Their "fraud system confidentiality" has nothing to do with them wanting to keep an eye on who has accessed your account on their side.
Plenty of innocent reasons you'll probably not consider, an employee who has accessed the account after you've phoned them to confirm something, order a replacement card or even just checking the account is fully verified.

Used to be one of the "backroom bods" keeping an eye on accounts. Sorting any issues out, when possible.

They weren't keeping an eye on my account. I contacted them with my concerns after receiving their " customer satisfaction follow up email " I specifically asked had there been any activity on my account and was assured that there had not been. Their final response was to admit that this should have been flagged as it was a " significant indicator of potential fraud " and apologised for " falling below our usual standards".
I can't say much more on a public forum, there was a lot more detail in their reply than what I have posted here, and I appreciate that you were a " backroom bod " but as I said, the family member has worked in fraud and security at quite a high level, and still has contacts to her old team and indeed to fraud teams at other major banks who are of the opinion that something is amiss with their response.
Hopefully this incident will have caused the tightening up of internal processes, I'm interested to see what the Financial Ombudsman makes of it.

 

[presta]

Nationwide security is badly flawed. I received an email asking for my feedback on my experience with customer services when I contacted them on the previous day. I hadn't contacted them so immediately phoned Nationwide and expressed my concerns. They reassured me that all was ok with my accounts. I checked my account the following day and saw that £2k was transferred from my Credit Card as a balance transfer. The credit card sits in a drawer at home as an emergency back up. When I notified them they reversed the transaction but after making an official complaint they have been stonewalling me and refusing to andwer questions as to how the person was able to initiate the transfer and pass security. The last email from them was to the effect that that information wouldn't be disclosed as it was part of their in house fraud detection system and they would not be communicating any further with me.
It will be going the Ombudsman but I would be very wary indeed about Nationwide and its in house security protocols as they are either flawed, or it was an internal error that they are not owning up to.

The only time I've been had by a banking scam it was a Nationwide employee lying to me.

I was about to open a savings account at my local branch, but rang the helpline with a query first. I forget what the question was, but the guy on the phone said "Why are you opening it in branch, I can do that for you over the phone". He went on to explain that the interest rate was dropping at 8pm that day, and that by the time the cheque was cleared I'd get the lower rate if I didn't do it over the phone. As it was £40-50k, I said I thought there was a limit to the maximum debit card transfer, and he told me that there wasn't, and that he'd already done several that day.

So I agreed, he attempted to transfer the money, and it got blocked...
"No problem, I'll transfer it in two lumps" he said
"Wait! What if the second one doesn't go through, can you put the first one back?"
"Yes, no problem"

So, reluctantly, I agreed again, and sure enough the second got blocked, and he then told me that he can't put the first one back until it's cleared with the bank, so I'm now in the situation where I've lost the higher interest rate anyway because I have to wait for the refund.

A couple phone calls later, and I found that you get the interest rate that prevails when you hand over the cheque, not the one when it clears, and that Lloyds have a £30k/day limit on debit card transfers.

I opened the account when I got the transfer refunded, then wrote to the Nationwide, and after they checked the recording of the call, I got the account and interest rate backdated to when it would have been, had I not had the incident on the phone.

 

[albion]

Similar to the prior ones I mentioned though this time the 'free money' barcode read 'Scam Me!" rather than Scan Me.

After all, it was Nigel Farage they AI used this time so maybe the typo was done with some sense of the humour reverse logic.
Youtube, the king of scam videos.