Actually, the paper did print my story, but I'm still waiting for the compensation from the bank. However I've now switched accounts.

Hello guys Just to let you know that I wrote to Anna Tims, at The Guardian; she got onto the Halifax and miraculously the problem got sorted out. The story was printed in the paper. Truncated form appears here: Anna Tims on credit card fraud at the Halifax | Money | The Guardian Halifax have written to apologise: "Mistakes were made . . blah blah" and offered £100 compensation. I'll try not to spend it all at once. Actually - come to think of it, I haven't RECEIVED it yet. Maybe THAT's been stolen from my account too.

I got my money back pronto. And I received a form letter from the Halifax today saying they were 'sorry I was dissatisfied with their service' and the Guardian were looking into my sorry tale which would be later featured on the consumer page. They also sent me a leaflet which said: Personal Complaints. Here's what we'll do. **** ALL*. *I made that up But it's amazing how efficient all banks become when newspapers step in. I'll keep you posted.

Update: The incompetence is staggering: On Aug 2nd I was sent the Crime Declaration form by the Halifax fraud dept. It said on the second page that if there were any additional frauds, I should add them on. As by then there had been at least seven more, in addition to the original 2 x £500 frauds, I printed out a copy of my recent statements with all the frauds clearly ringed. I added a letter to this explaining what was happening, and took copies before sending it all back to the Halifax Fraud dept. On 11 August I phoned the Fraud Department, hoping that my fraud claim had been received and processed. This time I spoke to Nick who said the claim hadn’t been received. His exact words were: “We haven’t received it” followed by a stonewall silence. I had no idea what to do and while I’d kept a copy, noted that it said at the bottom that if Halifax hadn’t received it within 14 days the claim could be cancelled. What was I meant to do? Nick said I could re-send it or fax it and “they only put the threat in to make the customer get a move on.” Sadly no such system exists for Halifax staff. He was spectacularly unhelpful, monosyllabic, and refused to help. Five minutes later in a state of despair I rang Halifax again (not the fraud dept, the call centre) and spoke to Claire. I asked if there was any chance if my fraud claim had ended up in the wrong file and with a little judicious searching she said that it had been. Because I had included a letter and a printout of my account with all the fraudulent transactions ringed, along with my fraud claim, it had been filed in the ‘complaint file’ instead. In a few minutes Claire found that my fraud claim HAD in fact been received and put through on the system. I had this conversation literally five minutes after speaking to Nick who told me that the fraud claim had NOT been received so either he couldn’t be bothered to click a few numbers or he was lying in order to deliberately cause me distress. Claire also said that there was another card in circulation ending in a 00 which had ‘now been cancelled’. ANOTHER CARD?!!!! What? Why had nobody told me this! As far as I was aware I had a card ending in 3601 which had been used in the original fraud and had been cancelled on 24 July, and then I was sent another card ending 3608 which I now use. I had never received a card ending in 00. Had it been sent out to me and intercepted somehow? Claire put a note on my account,(whoo hoo!) and was about to put me through to the Fraud dept but it was then 5pm and as fraud never takes place after 5pm (or indeed at the weekend; they’re closed then too!) she couldn’t. On 12 August I phoned the Fraud department again to find out whether they had my Crime Declaration form (as Claire said) or not, (as Nick said) This time I spoke to Andrew. He told me that they had received my Crime Declaration Form, but it had been put in the ‘complaint’ queue instead of the ‘fraud’ queue. I asked: “Could you move it to the fraud queue instead?”. Andrew then said that the only frauds they had marked down were the two £500 frauds to Mint Classic. We had a conversation that went as follows: Me: But what about the list of other frauds? I sent you a list with them all circled. There have been at least TEN other frauds on my account since 24th July. Andrew: Yes but the only ones on the crime declaration form are the two £500 Mint Classic Frauds. Me: But it says clearly on the Crime Declaration form that if there are any other frauds, to add them. Which I have. Andrew: I’m sorry. I’m going to have to send you another Crime Declaration Form. So here I am on 12 August right back at square one. I’ve had no explanation AT ALL as to why this happened, or why there seem to be two cards floating about with my name. My direct debits have been thrown into chaos. What is so horrible is my having to chase around like a headless (and broke) chicken, and hit a brick wall of silence. There are three questions which have never been answered. 1. Why in my fraud form is the account holder name listed as Ms Jane P******* while the cardholder’s name is listed as Ms L C P******? This LC P****** is another person 2. What is this mysterious debit card ending in 00 which I never received? 3. Why if it clearly states on the fraud claim form that if there are any extra frauds, to add them on, and I did, they are then ignored? And then I have to go through the entire process AGAIN. I've written to the Halifax, the Ombudsman, the Times, the Guardian . . . I'm in despair frankly.

Update: Today,I checked my account again to discover there were yet MORE fraudulent transactions and when I phoned up again, learned there were more pending! The person I spoke to told me that I had shedloads of transactions about to go through on my account. We worked through all of them and they amounted to nearly a thousand quid. This on top of the £1000 that had already disappeared. The fraudster must have thought Christmas had come when the card I phoned up to cancel still worked. And then she said that the card that had been used was my OLD CARD that I had phoned up to cancel, the day I discovered the first fraud had taken place. This was on 24 July. I had reported it immediately and cut the card into tiny pieces. And yet this card number was being quoted back at me. I asked her how if I'd cancelled the card, it could have kept on working. She had no answer for that. Because this is the heart of the problem. I cancelled my old card on 24 July ONE DAY after discovering the initial fraud of 2 x £1000 and everyone I’ve spoken to since then assures me the card was cancelled. I also cut it up into very small pieces. But how could it have been cancelled if it kept on working? Transactions kept on coming through over a week later. And they keep on a' coming. Nobody could spend that much money on one day. Could it be that the card simply hadn't been cancelled at all? Somebody at Halifax f***ed up big time? Will I ever find out? Will I hell.

Thanks Yourbank Yes, the phishing email probably was a coincidence. My deep seated irritation is because originally a tiny sum was taken from my account as a donation to Christian Aid and I've since learned that fraudsters often do that to check the validity of a card before plundering it further. I didn't actually know that - I do now! But when I spent a tiny sum of money on iTunes, Virgin credit card phoned me up the next day to check if that sum spent was me. And yes I know that credit cards are often quicker off the draw than banks. It's also the fact that it's happened twice in one week for f*** sake and it's me doing all the chasing and question asking and being passed back and forth among the call centre staff. Is there a big sign above their desks saying: DO NOT ADMIT LIABILITY - EVAH ? Anyway - thanks for the comments and advice. Will keep y'all posted. x

Thank you for that. Your experience sounds terrible. It's this wall of silence and total lack of accountability that has me punching walls. I've written to Which, to the Guardian consumer website, and to R4's You and Yours. Oh and the Halifax 'customer relations' dept (ha bloody ha)

This keeps on getting worse and worse! For a second time in ONE WEEK my account has been plundered. On Monday 28 July I found an email from [email protected] thanking me for changing my password which I had not done. And the same email said it had been sent at 13.33 when in fact I was looking at it, at 12.30. I forwarded this email to [email protected]. This may have been a phishing but it was very unusual. It didn’t tell me my account was about to explode or I had to sign on immediately. In the light of the recent fraud I was a bit disturbed. I phoned the Halifax again and was put through to Sam at online security who told me it ‘was possible my account had been fraudulently accessed again’. How, why or when he couldn’t tell me. I was then passed BACK to the regular staff who also couldn’t explain why I had received an email thanking me for changing my password. I asked for my account to be flagged up at this point in the light of the recent fraud. I logged on to my online account again. Although no money had been taken, I changed my password anyway. In the meantime I received a new card. And a fraud form. I also discovered that the Consumer Helpline no they gave me was only open Monday to Friday as we all know, fraud never happens at the weekend. And then on 1st August, after arranging an overdraft with the Fraud department of £1000 – (the same amount that had been fraudulently removed from my account) I was puzzled to hear that although I had about £200 in my account I was unable to take out any more money. Again, I phoned the Halifax to discover that I had GONE OVER the £1000 overdraft! Because once more my account had been plundered and I had several Direct Debits waiting to come out of my account – NONE of which I knew anything about! And weird amounts like £70.09 to Autoglass and £43.15 to Tmobile. I had just been sent a claim form for the previous £1000, and while filling it in I noticed it said: CARHOLDERS NAME: Ms L C XXX My name is XXXX X XXX and it always has been. Where did the C come from? Could my account have been mixed up with another account? Naturally nobody at the Halifax could tell me anything. I asked to be put through to a senior manager and was kept on the phone hanging about for 20 minutes. I then spoke to Sophia at the Fraud department who was very helpful, but she denied that there is a XXXXX XXXX. But this latest pattern of expenditure was not consistent with fraud. I think they transferrred someone else’s debits to my card, but nobody was prepared to admit it. I mean £70.09?? I had my new card in my possession for a few days before the second amount of money was stolen. During that time, I took one sum of money out – I didn’t use it in a restaurant or shop at all. So how could that new card be cloned? I think what happened was someone at the Halifax forgot to cancel my first card. AND they accidently transferred someone else’s debits to my account; someone called LC XXX But nobody is prepared to answer my questions. Oddly enough – a few days previously I had bought a few tracks for my iPod on my credit card for £2.89. The NEXT DAY I had a call from Virgin credit card asking me if I had made that transaction. I was very impressed. Why couldn’t Halifax do this? Since they also are well aware that a tiny sum of money taken from your account often precludes a major fraud? The worst thing about this is that I’m constantly dealing with people who have no power. I’ve asked to speak to the manager and I get put on hold for 20 minutes before being cut off. It’s me that has to chase, ask questions and constantly ask what is going on to staff who are very nice but have no power whatsoever and cannot or will not give me a straight answer. Like why wasn’t my account flagged after I had money stolen the first time and then I receive an odd email? I’ve been with the Halifax for 20 years and if someone had bothered to contact me and explain what had happened – tell me the truth, I would probably have calmed down, and kept my account. Mistakes happen and fraud happens. That is not the issue. The issue is my having to chase around like a headless (and broke) chicken, and hit a brick wall of silence from Halifax staff.

Thank you for that. It all seems to depend on who you get when you phone up! Some of the people at the call centre are reluctant to help you at all while others are much more flexible.

I'd be interested in hearing them. And yes, it's really ridiculous that the hotline is shut over the weekend. One of the things that really bugged me was having to wait for the Fraud Department to get back to me before I could arrange an extension on my authorised overdraft. Because once my account had been plundered I was way way over it but the person who took my call couldn't just arrange an overdraft there and then. What are you supposed to do if you have loads of direct debits in the time between you making the call and the Fraud Dept getting back to you? "No we won't charge you" quoth the person on the helpline. Oh yeah? I'm not holding my breath!

Thanks for that. I've just talked to the Halifax again and got through to a more helpful person. He said that someone 'a bit stupid' had used my debit card to pay off their credit card! Hence the Mint Classic. And yes, you're right - he also said that fraudsters do often make a small donation to a charity in order to check the validity of the card. I'll get the money back but apparently the Fraud dept are very busy this time of year. If it's any help to anyone the customer fraud hotline is: 0845 604 5494

Hello everyone I'm a newbie here but I've been cloned and my Halifax account plundered and I wondered if it's happened to anyone else. I'll be as succinct as possible. This morning I checked my online Halifax account to see that two sums of £500 had been removed using a Mint Classic card (which I don't have and have never had) and the money had been taken out in Southend, where I've never been. So £1000 in cash - gone. Phoned the Halifax and explained what had happened and cancelled my card. And also that as £1000 had gone I was now well over my overdraft limit. I would have to wait until the Fraud Department contacted me and then they would arrange an extension of my overdraft. But I might have to wait 5 - 7 days for them to contact me! She couldn't arrange an extension of my overdraft there and then for some reason. How had the fraudster gotten hold of my details? Because along with the £1000 in cash removed, I had apparently set up a Standing Order for Christian Aid. Which again, I've never done. All I can think is that as someone who gives regularly to charity, the fraudsters got my name from a list somewhere. And what - opened an account in my name with a Mint classic card? And then walked into a branch of the Halifax in Southend and took out cash. For the last week, all I've purchased is some online groceries at Tesco and taken out money twice. Both times the ATM machine didn't have anyone standing nearby and the machine had not been tampered with. I cannot imagine how anybody got hold of my PIN. And no - it's not an obvious Date of Birth PIN no. Has this type of fraud happened to anyone on this forum? I'm aware that it's not a huge sum but it's upsetting and Halifax are not (surprise surprise) being very forthcoming. Thanks in advance for your help.